Established Options For a Wellbeing Programme
Schools have three options in relation to CSPE from September 2017. Firstly, they can continue to work with the current CSPE syllabus (1996) and provide 70 hours contact time (one 40 minute class per week) for students over the 3 years of JC. However, this curriculum must be adapted to take cognisance of the Wellbeing indicators. Alternatively, they can introduce the NCCA CSPE short course (2014)
This short course is designed for approx. 100 hours. It is important to note that where a school operates using 40 mins. classes, the short course will require at least four class periods (88 hours) across the three years of junior cycle. The remaining 12 hours can be met through other learning opportunities relating to the short course (visits in, tours out, focus mornings, etc.) Short Courses can be run over two or three years.
Schools may also design a 70-hour programme based on the specification for the short course.
If a school continues to use the traditional syllabus, they are encouraged to consider using the CBA from the CSPE Short Courses to assess students’ learning.