Junior Cycle

The new junior cycle features newly developed subjects and short courses, a focus on key skills, and new approaches to assessment and reporting.

All subjects and short courses are now being examined using the new subject specifications.

Key skills help learners develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to face the many challenges in today’s world. They also support students in learning how to learn and to take responsibility for their own learning.

Junior Cycle Key Skills

The Framework for Junior Cycle, provides the basis for post-primary schools to plan quality, inclusive and relevant education programmes with improved learning experiences for all students, including those with special educational needs.

Summary of Junior Cycle at Seamount College

Students study 10 subjects (8 core & 2 optional) plus 3 short courses.
Religious Education is one of our core subjects, studied on a non examination basis.
Students complete Classroom Based Assessments (CBAs) in their short courses, but do not sit final examinations.

Core Subjects

Students at Seamount College study the following 8 subjects for Junior Cycle as part of our core curriculum.
Note- Religious Education is a non exam subject.

(Click on the subject for more information)

Religion

Optional Subjects

In addition to our core subjects, students select two of the six subjects below to study.
(Click on the subject for more information)

Selecting Optional Subjects

Selecting two out of six optional subjects is a big decision. The presentation below from our Guidance Department may help inform your decision in this regard.

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Wellbeing

Student wellbeing and a deep rooted committment to pastoral care has been a hallmark of Seamount College for the last 100 years.
The move, as part of the new Junior Cycle, to formalise the provision of 400 hours of tuiton time over the 3 years devoted to the area of student wellbeing is a welome development.
This 400 hours incorportates the short courses in CSPE, PE & SPHE.
It also includes a school designed Wellbeing programme that is under constant review; informed by the experience of students, teachers and parents.

(Click on the links below for more information)

Assessment

All of the subjects studied are continually assessed using various methods within class and during scheduled in house examinations.

As well as this, Classroom Based Assessments (CBAs) are scheduled in 2nd and 3rd Year. Classroom Based Assessments (CBAs) are relatively new to the Irish education sphere. They provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their learning and skills in ways not possible in a pen and paper examination, for example, their verbal communication and investigation skills. CBAs will be undertaken in subjects and short courses and will be facilitated by the classroom teacher.

Each of the 9 subjects studied have a CBA in both 2nd and 3rd Year.

Each of the Short Courses studied (CSPE, PE & SPHE) have a CBA in 3rd Year.

The links below show the CBA schedules for 2nd and 3rd Years in the 2022/23 school year.

There is an Assessment Task arising out of CBA 2 which is completed in 3rd Year in advance of exams. This is usually worth 10% of the final examination grade. It is completed in class time under the supervision of the class teacher.

The Assessment Task is forwarded to the State Examinations Commission (SEC) with the final examination paper in that subject to marked by an external examiner.

The 9 subjects studied are assessed using a terminal Junior Cycle Examination in June of 3rd Year.

Having completed their three year Junior Cycle, students will be presented with a Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA). The JCPA will capture and record student achievement in a number of assessment elements undertaken during the 3 Year Cycle.

This will include; Final Examination Results, CBA Descriptors, and students’ achievements in other areas of learning.

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