Post-Primary Context - Senior Cycle

The Senior Cycle

Senior cycle has a particular role to play in the preparation of learners for adult life in a changing economic and social context. A broad curriculum at senior cycle that allows for a degree of specialisation for learners continues to be viewed as the best means of achieving continuity and progression from junior cycle and assisting learners to prepare for the future. Senior cycle education seeks to provide learners with a high quality learning experience to prepare them for the world of work, for further and higher education and for successful personal lives, whatever that may entail for the individual learner.

Learners in senior cycle can currently follow a two or three-year programme of study leading to the Leaving Certificate examination. In the three year programme, they can take an initial Transition Year programme and proceed to choose from a number of options for the Leaving Certificate examination. Alternatively, they can proceed directly to one of these Leaving Certificate options and take the final examination after two years. Performance in the Leaving Certificate examination is the main basis on which places in universities, institutes of technology and other further and higher education colleges are allocated.

Senior Cycle Key Skills

The ability to think critically and creatively, innovate and adapt to change, to work independently and in a team, and to be a reflective learner are prerequisites for life and for the workplace in the 21st century. In line with international trends and influenced by the Lisbon strategy and the OECD DeSeCo (Defining and Selecting Key Competencies) initiative, a framework of key skills has been developed as part of the curriculum and teaching and learning at senior cycle. In addition, these skills support the development and enhancement of the basic skills of literacy and numeracy which are crucial for learners to access the curriculum and for their future life chances. For example, skills in communication, problem-solving, accessing and selecting information to mention just a few, will contribute to literacy and numeracy mastery in all areas of the curriculum.

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The key skills framework is an integrated framework reflecting the strong interrelationships between five skills: communicating, working with others, critical and creative thinking, information processing, being personally effective.

As learners engage with each of the key skills they grow in their knowledge about learning and their skills of learning, both in general terms and in the particular context of their own learning. Therefore, as learners absorb the five key skills they also learn how to learn.

Each key skill has associated elements and learning outcomes. The elements further describe the skill, clarifying the skills that students will develop. The learning outcomes are phrased at a more behavioural level and indicate what students might show as evidence of achieving in the key skill.

Learners will encounter the key skills frequently and in an integrated way in many areas of the curriculum. As each new subject, short course and transition unit is developed, the key skills will be embedded in the learning outcomes. These learning outcomes will provide the basis for assessment as part of ongoing learning and in examinations.

For more details see Senior Cycle Key Skills Framework

Senior Cycle Review

Senior cycle education is being reviewed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). This has involved the development of new subjects and courses and the review of existing subjects.

The subjects under review at the moment emphasise how learners learn as well as what they learn. This creates opportunities to introduce new approaches to teaching, learning and assessment as well as embedding Senior Cycle key skills into subjects and courses.

The New Subjects are: Politics and Society, Computer Science, Leaving Certificate Physical Education, Senior Cycle Physical Education Framework.

Subjects which have been revised are: Economics and Agricultural Science with the first LC exam scheduled for June 2021.

Subjects currently under review are Art, Classical Studies, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Senior Cycle Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE), Gaeilge, Applied Mathematics and Foreign Languages - Arabic,

Further information is available at:

curriculumonline.ie

https://ncca.ie/media/3380/ks_framework.pdf

https://ncca.ie/media/2511/towards_learning_an_overview.pdf

ncca.ie

education.ie

Further supports for schools and teachers:

The PDST website provides with a range of supporting resources for all Senior Cycle subjects at PDST Senior Cycle Subjects

www.scoilnet.ie is the Department of Education (DE) official portal for Irish education and hosts a number of resources created and mapped to the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme syllabus for use with students in your classroom.

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