The general aim of teaching English at Junior Cycle is to reinforce and continue the work of the primary school in nurturing the intellectual, imaginative and emotional growth of each student by developing his/her personal proficiency in the arts and skills of language. This personal proficiency involves three dynamically interrelated elements: personal literacy, social literacy and cultural literacy. The interdependence of these elements is the essential foundation for the successful teaching of English in the Junior Cycle.
Content
Teachers are free to choose their own texts and materials to achieve the objectives of the programme, to ensure that learners are enabled to achieve the learning outcomes appropriate to the general aims of the syllabus. In their choice, teachers are expected to choose materials from a wide range of literary genres along with other print and media material. At Higher level, some acquaintance with pre-contemporary literature (pre-1900) and the study of one unit based on a Shakespeare text would normally be expected.
Teaching of language and literature should not be separate from one another. There should be a wholeness or unity to the student's language experiences, so that language learning (e.g. spelling, grammar, punctuation, and so on) should happen as a natural part of the student's encounters with the whole range of texts suggested above.
Assessment
The assessment of English for the purposes of the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA) will comprise two Classroom-Based Assessments and a Final Assessment. In addition, the secondclassroom-based assessment will have a written Assessment Task that will be marked, along with the final assessment (which is offered at Higher or Ordinary Level), by the State Examinations Commission.
Book in a Bag - Reading for Pleasure - December 2025
