Rochestown Community Special School’s curriculum covers the following;
Primary Curriculum
Primary education consists of an eight year cycle: junior infants, senior infants, and first to sixth classes. The primary curriculum aims to provide a broad learning experience and encourages a rich variety of approaches to teaching and learning that cater for the different needs of individual children. The primary curriculum is designed to nurture the child in all dimensions of his or her life—spiritual, moral, cognitive, emotional, imaginative, aesthetic, social and physical. Some aspects of the primary curriculum are under review
Information on the Primary Curriculum is available at https://www.curriculumonline.ie/primary/
Junior Cycle Level 1 and 2 Learning Programmes
Junior Cycle caters for students in the first three years of their post- primary education.
The junior cycle was introduced on a phased basis between September 2014 and September 2021. It features revised subjects and short courses, a focus on key skills, and new approaches to assessment and reporting. Schools have more freedom to design junior cycle programmes that meet the learning needs of all students.
For students, the junior cycle curriculum available in their schools is a mix of subjects and short courses as well as other learning experiences. In addition to classroom-based assessments, students complete state examinations at the end of their three-year junior cycle and receive a Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement.
For information on the Junior Cycle is available at
https://www.curriculumonline.ie/junior-cycle/
The purpose of L1LPs is to assist teachers in designing learning programmes to meet the specific needs of the students with learning needs in the range identified. The guidelines have been developed with a number of schools and settings already working with this group of students.
L1LPs emphasise that learning for the students in question:
- focuses on the student’s communication, cognitive, life and functional skills as well as sensory needs that underpin all future learning
- must be meaningful and interesting for them, offering opportunities for them to build on what they can do rather than focusing on their disabilities
- is planned through a holistic approach and takes account of students’ preferred sensory and learning channels and their ways of processing information.
The engagement with schools has highlighted many of the issues and challenges
Further information on L1LPs is available at
https://www.curriculumonline.ie/junior-cycle/level-1-learning-programmes-(l1lps)/
L2LPs
The purpose of L2LPs is to assist teachers in designing learning programmes to meet the specific needs of the students with learning needs in the range identified. The guidelines have been developed with a number of schools and settings already working with this group of students.
L2LPs emphasise the following approaches to learning:
- Collaborating
- Personalising learning
- Transferring learning
- Linking learning with the wider community
- Using information & communication technology (ICT)
- Recognising progress and achievement