Welcome to our Wellbeing Department. This department incorporates the subjects of PE, CSPE and SPHE among others. There will be 400 hours of classroom based activity over the 3 years of Junior Cycle classes.
CSPE is taken at Junior Cycle. Currently we are in year two of the Department of Education's new Junior Cycle Programme, meaning our current third years will be the last cohort of students nationally who will sit the CSPE examination and complete the accompanying Action Project.
The new CSPE course is divided into three strands;Rights and Responsibilities, Global Citizenship, and Exploring Democracy. Students will undertake a Classroom Based Assessment to reflect on their learning.
Junior Cycle Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) provides a safe classroom setting where students can discuss and learn about important aspects of their lives.
Within this space, students can grow in awareness, and develop the understanding and skills they need to maintain healthy lives, make healthy choices and build caring and respectful relationships.
SPHE places a strong focus on developing the important life skills that young people need growing up in a fast changing and complex world.
Specifically, it focuses on developing the social and emotional skills of self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness and relationship skills.
Relationships and sexuality element: Here the key focus is on creating and maintaining healthy and respectful relationships. So students will discuss the signs of healthy, unhealthy and abusive relationships, how to set boundaries in relationships and show respect for the boundaries of others. They will learn about the importance of consent as an aspect of all healthy relationships and how to take care of their reproductive health. There is also a focus on responsible decision making and examining some of the pressures on young people to become sexually active.
How can we ensure that the learning is age-appropriate? In developing the curriculum, significant work goes into ensuring that learning is age-appropriate. Decisions about what to include in the curriculum are based on research and best practice, as well as extensive consultations with parents/guardians, teachers and children/young people themselves. Within the classroom, the teacher has flexibility to judge how and when topics should be taught, so that learning takes place in a way that is meeting the needs, stage of development and school context of their students.
SPHE fosters all 6 indicators of Wellbeing: Active; Responsibile; Connected; Resilient; Respected; Aware
