Frequently Asked Questions
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These are some of the questions regularly asked by teachers and others unfamiliar with the Junior Certificate School Programme. If your question does not appear here then please e-mail it to us and we can add it to our question bank. The questions have been grouped for ease of use.
- What
resources are available to schools?
- Who looks
after the Programme?
- How many
teachers are there on a JCSP team?
- Does the
JCSP team have time to meet?
- How often
does the JCSP team meet?
- How are
meetings facilitated?
- What help do
teachers involved in the Programme get?
- Does each
subject teacher work on statements independently?
- What is
cross-curricular work?
- Who records
the students’ progress?
- Who keeps
the records?
- Where are
records kept?
- Which
students should do JCSP?
- Can a group
of students within a class do the Programme?
- How is
students’ participation in the Programme explained to
them?
- What do
students gain from being in the Programme?
- Should we
explain the learning targets in the statements to the
students?
- Is it
necessary to involve the students in tracking their own
progress?
- Can
students be helped to make the transition from primary to
secondary?
- How long
does a student need to be in the Programme before receiving a Final
Profile?
- Can a
student be profiled if they have left school?
Statements, Learning
Targets and Profiling
- What is a
statement?
- How do
the statements relate to the Junior Certificate syllabus?
- What are
learning target?
- Do all
students do the same targets at the same time?
- Is there
a set time for completing a statement?
- Is there
a maximum or a minimum number of statements that can be
chosen?
- How many
statements should students begin with?
- How do
teachers decide which statements to work on?
- What is
the best way to record student progress?
- Who
awards the statements?
- When is
a statement awarded?
- What is
profiling?
- What is
a profile meeting?
- What is
a student profile? These yellow q’s are from part 1. should
they be here?
- What is
final profiling?
- At what
stage are the statements for the Final Profile decided
upon?
What is the aim of the JCSP?
The aim of the Junior Certificate School Programme is to provide a
fresh approach to the Junior Certificate Programme for potential
early school leavers who are struggling to cope with secondary
school. It is an intervention for these students based on the
concept that all young people are capable of achieving real success
in school.
Is this an alternative to the Junior
Certificate?
No, the Junior Certificate School Programme is not an alternative
to the Junior Certificate. It is a framework that is designed to
help schools and teachers develop an imaginative approach to the
Junior Certificate course. All the students in the Programme must
be entered for the Junior Certificate examination.
What is the difference between the JCSP and the
Junior Certificate?
The Junior Certificate School Programme is a way of working within
the Junior Certificate. It is designed especially to help young
people who have had a difficult experience of school and may be
potential early leavers. Through a system of profiling a
student’s work in Junior Cycle classes, students are provided
with opportunities to engage with the curriculum and to achieve
success at school. They get an official certificate of their
achievements, validated by the Department of Education and Science,
in addition to their Junior Certificate Examination
Certificate.
Do students sit the Junior Certificate
examination?
Absolutely! The whole point of participating in the Junior
Certificate School Programme is to stay at school, experience
success in school and become more confident about sitting the
Junior Certificate Exam.
Do many students fail JCSP?
Students cannot fail JCSP. The Programme is about success.
Achievable statements are carefully chosen. Students get an
opportunity to complete a series of statements and build their own
success profile – a profile listing all the things they can
do.
What are the core subjects?
There are no core subjects as such. However, all students must be
entered in the Junior Certificate Exam in English and Maths and
they must follow a suitable course in Irish.
Do parents have a role in JCSP?
Parental involvement is encouraged and welcomed in JCSP. Schools
increase the frequency of contact with parents with emphasis on
passing on ‘good news’. Many schools hold parent days
to exhibit work done, award certificates of achievement and
generally celebrate with parents their children’s successes.
Parents are invited to become actively involved in their
children’s education by working with the school in
encouraging good attendance, punctuality and homework and by
praising progress made.
What resources are available to
schools?
Individual schools participating in JCSP receive an improved
teacher allocation. The allocation is at the rate of 0.25
whole-time teacher equivalent (WTE) per group of 45 pupils
participating in the Programme. Some of this time is used by the
co-ordinator to co-ordinate the Programme. The rest is made
available to the JCSP team of teachers to plan and evaluate their
work and to profile students. There is also a small capitation
allowance of €63.50 (previously £50) per student, paid
once during Junior Cycle.
Who looks after the Programme?
Each school has a co-ordinator for the Programme. It is the
co-ordinator’s job to look after teachers’ and
students’ needs arising from participation in the Programme.
In general they support teachers informally, with photocopying and
resources. They also arrange team meetings for planning and
evaluation. They are involved with students in a number of ways;
giving feedback on progress, organising activities and generally
being a source of encouragement. Co-ordinators also look after
parental involvement in the Programme, are a source of information
for the principal and the entire school staff and liase with the
JCSP Support Service.
How many teachers are there on a JCSP
team?
There is no set number. However it is the experience of teachers
working with JCSP students that a smaller teaching team is more
effective than a larger one. Many students go from primary school
where they had one teacher throughout the year into secondary
school where they can have a bewildering number of teachers on a
daily basis. Many schools have found that reducing the number of
teachers for JCSP students to 10, 11 or 12 has improved the school
experience for those students.
Does the JCSP team have time to
meet?
Yes. Each team meets at least once a term, but in many cases more
often than that. The teachers’ time for these meetings is
taken out of the time allocation given to schools participating in
the Programme by the Department of Education and Science.
How often does the JCSP team
meet?
Each team meets at least four times in a year: a planning meeting
in September and three profile meetings held once towards the end
of each term. However, many schools find more regular meetings of
huge benefit. Some have meetings once a month while others have a
core group of teachers timetabled to meet weekly.
How are meetings facilitated?
The co-ordinator has responsibility for facilitating meetings.
Arranging a venue, time, refreshments, preparing agendas, running
the meeting and recording action plans and minutes is all in the
remit of the co-ordinator.
What help do teachers involved in the Programme
get?
- Support in planning a suitable curriculum
- Time for meetings
- A handbook of statements
- School visits from the support service
- Resources from the support service
- In-service on topics such as: methodologies, subject areas, literacy, numeracy
Does each subject teacher work on statements
independently?
Yes and no. There are opportunities at the profile meetings during
the year to talk to the other teachers on the team about what is
going to be taught next. It is very beneficial for JCSP students
when there are any areas where teachers can usefully overlap, as
repetition and reinforcement need to be continuous.
What is cross-curricular work?
Cross-curricular work is a linking of subjects. It is an approach
to methodology which fosters learning by first-hand experience and
the active participation of students in planning, decision-making
and in evaluation. The aim of cross-curricular work is to provide
students with an active, enquiring education which is grounded in
the issues of everyday life so that they may become flexible and
adaptable members of society. There are a whole series of
cross-curricular statements that teachers can choose
from.
Who records the students’
progress?
Each teacher records the progress of their own students and finds
time to give them feedback on their performance. Some teachers work
collaboratively with students to record progress made.
Who keeps the records?
Teachers keep their own records of students’ progress through
targets and statements. At the same time each student records their
progress in each statement in their JCSP folder. The co-ordinator
has the official master record of progress. This is updated at
profile meetings held once per term.
Where are the records kept?
Teachers keep their own records. Student folders are kept in their
classroom, the co-ordinator’s room, the learning support room
or in the staffroom. The master record cards are kept by the
co-ordinator. They may be stored in the school office.
Which students should do the
JCSP?
The JCSP Programme is aimed at 12–16 year olds who are
potential early school leavers.
Can a group of students within a class do the
Programme?
Certainly. It is up to the teacher and the school to decide what
way they want to organise the students in their classes.
How is students’ participation in the
Programme explained to them?
Students are told that they are doing the Junior Certificate Course. Instead of waiting to do an exam to get a certificate after three years, they can begin to work towards their exams immediately. Teachers will take a chunk of their subject, called a statement, which ‘states’ that they can do something. This statement will be put on their certificate as soon as they have achieved the required number of learning targets.
e.g. ‘The student can apply the basic knowledge and skills necessary to produce artefacts using engineering materials.’
Students can build up their own JCSP Profile throughout Junior
Cycle by completing targets and statements with their teachers. By
the time they come to sit their exams they will realise that they
have been successful learners and will feel much more confident
about doing the Junior Certificate exam.
What do students gain from being in the
Programme?
Students get an opportunity to become more involved in their own
learning, discussing statements and meeting targets. Through
engagement with this learning process, students begin to succeed
and go on to build on this success. Throughout their time on the
Programme the JCSP team seeks out opportunities to reward and
praise students and to give them useful feedback on their
performance. In addition, the JCSP team tries to make positive
contact with the students’ families. When the students sit
their Junior Certificate exam they also get a certificate from the
Department of Education and Science and a profile listing all they
have achieved while on the Programme.
Should the learning targets in the statements
be explained to the students?
It is important that students are aware of the learning targets
that are ahead of them. It is important to emphasise that these
targets are part of the Junior Certificate examination syllabus and
that success in them is a stepping-stone to success in the Junior
Certificate examination itself.
Is it necessary to involve the students in
tracking their own progress?
JCSP teachers have found that involving students in monitoring
their own progress gives them an increased sense of control over
their own learning and leads to greater motivation in achieving
learning targets. Experienced JCSP teachers report that this
involvement is an important aspect of the delivery of the
Programme. It lets the students know how they are getting on
regularly and rewards their success with encouragement and
praise.
Can students be helped to make the transition
from primary to secondary?
Many JCSP schools now run transfer programmes for students moving
from primary to secondary school. These programmes take some of the
strangeness and fear out of moving into secondary school by
allowing the 6th class primary pupils to explore their new school,
meet some teachers, hear from 1st and 2nd years about the
highlights of the year and in some cases try a few
classes.
How long does a student need to be in the
Programme to receive a Final Profile?
A student has to complete one year working on the Programme in
order to receive a Final Profile.
Can a student be profiled if they have left
the school?
Yes, any student who has completed one full year in the Programme
is entitled to a profile and certification. However, the profile
and certification can only be awarded at the end of third year.
What is a statement?
A statement describes an area of knowledge, a concept or a skill.
It states that a student knows, understands or can do something
e.g. ‘The student can carry out a simple research project
and display the results appropriately.’ Statements are
divided up into learning targets.
How do the statements relate to the Junior
Certificate syllabus?
The subject statements reflect areas of the Junior Certificate
syllabus while explicitly stating the basic skills and knowledge
needed to succeed in the examination. The syllabus is divided into
short-term achievable goals.
What are learning targets?
Learning targets are specific short-term goals which, when
combined, lead to the successful completion of a statement. They
outline the steps to be followed and the material to be covered if
the student is to achieve competence in the more long-term goal:
the statement.
Do all students do the same learning targets
at the same time?
It varies. It depends on the class, the subject and the teaching
style of the teacher.
Is there a set time for completing a
statement?
No, not at all; some statements such as those related to projects
may be achieved in a relatively short time, while others may be
worked on over the three years.
Is there a maximum or a minimum number of
statements that can be chosen?
No, there is no set number of statements. Students can work on any
number of statements. Ideally, at any one time the total number of
statements each student is working on should be small. If these are
achieved or are going well, additional statements can then be
selected.
How many statements should teachers begin
with?
Choose a small number of statements to work towards. Only
achievable statements should be chosen. Some teachers may select
just one statement to work on.
How do teachers decide which statements to
work on?
First establish the abilities and needs of the individual or class
group and then set realistic and achievable targets. Take into
account the necessity to get a good grounding in the basic skills
and knowledge needed for progress in subject areas. Choosing
statements based on those needs will help build the Programme. It
is important that only achievable statements are chosen. Remember,
the statements chosen are not additional to the Junior Certificate
course; rather they will form a framework for planning and teaching
a syllabus.
What is the best way to record student
progress?
Many schools have developed their own version of student folders
with copies of the statement and learning targets. These are kept
in school and reviewed regularly in class so that the students can
keep track of their own progress using the three-box system to
record progress.
e.g.
Who awards the statements?
Any teacher on the JCSP team who has worked through a statement
with a student can recommend awarding that statement to the
student. The JCSP team considers the recommendation at a profile
meeting and decides on the award of the statement.
When is a statement awarded?
In general students can be awarded a statement when they are
competent in at least 80 per cent of the learning targets in the
following four areas:
- Frequency – almost always carries out task: 80 per cent plus of times
- Accuracy – accurate enough for a given purpose
- Independence – almost totally independent
- Sustainability – retains the knowledge or skill for about a month
What is profiling?
Profiling is the process of gathering positive information about
what the student has achieved and recording what the student can
do. Through profiling a student can gain recognition for subject
work completed in preparation for the Junior Certificate exam and
also for skills and abilities which they may have developed and
which may not be directly examinable in that exam. The Student
Profile Handbook contains a bank of learning targets arranged into
statements that reflect areas of the syllabi of the Junior
Certificate.
What is a profile meeting?
A profile meeting is a meeting of the JCSP teaching team. It is
usually organised by the co-ordinator with the objective of
updating the records for a particular group of students. Teachers
discuss the progress of each student to date and recommend which
students have completed enough work to be awarded
statements.
What is a student profile?
A student profile is a positive record of statements that a student
is working on or has achieved. This profile is compiled throughout
Junior Cycle.
What is final profiling?
Final profiling occurs at the end of 3rd year, just before the
Junior Certificate exam. Its purpose is to record, for the last
time, the progress made by students about to sit the exam. The team
of teachers agree on the total list of statements to be awarded to
each student. Subsequent to the Final Profile meeting the
co-ordinator sends this information to the JCSP office. Here a
presentation folder is compiled for each student which
includes:
- A certificate of participation validated by the Department of Education and Science
- A list of statements completed by that particular student
At what stage are the statements for the
Final Profile decided upon?
The final decision as to which statements are to be awarded is made
at the Final Profile meeting in the last term of third
year.
Created: January 19, 2006 11:25.
