Junior Cycle 2020 – 3rd Year Assessment

Junior Cycle 2020 – 3^rd Year Assessment

Firstly, on behalf of all the staff, we do hope you and your family are safe and well.

The Minister for Education and Skills announced on April 29^th that all third-year Junior Cycle students are to be awarded certificates for the completion of Junior Cycle by the Department and A School Report setting out the learning achievements of students in the Junior Cycle. Schools have been given autonomy to decide how to assess students and all students will receive a report on achievement at the end of this school year.

So, what does this mean for your son?

Following consultation with the staff of O’Connell Secondary School, it has been agreed that setting end-of-year examinations for 3^rd years online would pose logistically challenging for a number of reasons, most particularly in relation to students’ access to appropriate devices and/or broadband services.

The whole-school approach which has been adopted by the staff, and specifically teachers of 3rd-year students, as an alternative to online examinations favours grading students based on continual assessment of work completed. This approach has been approved by the Board of Management.

The assessment of students’ learning achievements in each subject which will take place at the school level will be based on the teacher’s professional knowledge of each student’s learning.

Teachers know their students and can balance a variety of factors in arriving at the most suitable form of assessment to put in place for their students. We must acknowledge here that the components of assessment will and should vary for different subjects, e.g. practical vs academic.

The school will measure students’ progress and award results using a combination of average results over the past three years.

We have opted to use a range of evidence to inform the assessment of students’ achievements across the various subject areas. These include:

• Christmas examination results;
• Summer examination results;
• Mock examination results;
• The evidence available from portfolio work, workbook assignments, project work, practical work, and theory;
• Reflective statements of learning;
• General effort and participation.

Each subject department will use a combination of the above criteria.

We are cognisant of the disrupted learning that students have experienced in recent weeks and to ensure equity, greater weighting will be given to work that was completed by students in advance of the closure of schools on March 12^th 2020.

We thank you for your understanding and patience at this challenging time for everyone.

Kind Regards

Liam Newell