Writing & Recording your Other Areas of Learning (OALs) for your Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA)
Guide for Parents
Contents
What is a JCPA?...................................................................................................................................................... 2
Sample JCPA...................................................................................................................................................... 3
What is an ‘Other Area of Learning?....................................................................................................................... 4
Examples of suitable achievements for inclusion as an OAL.................................................................................. 4
Identifying OALs for the JCPA.............................................................................................................................. 5
Junior Cycle – Key Skills and Statements of Learning................................................................................................ 5
Reflecting on the OALs....................................................................................................................................... 7
Important Points to Remember....................................................................................................................... 8
How to submit OALs?............................................................................................................................................. 8
PRIVACY NOTICE - Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement Award.................................................................................. 9
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................... 9
Process.......................................................................................................................................................... 9
Appendix A...................................................................................................................................................... 12
What is a JCPA?
Instead of receiving a certificate containing just the Junior Certificate results, your child will instead receive a Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA) AND in Ballymahon Vocational School the JCSP Statements.
This JCPA (Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement) will contain
1.The results of their JC State Exams.
Distinction, Higher Merit, Merit, Achieved, Partially Achieved, Not Graded
2.The descriptors for completed Classroom Based Assessments
Exceptional, Above Expectations, In Line with Expectations, Yet to Meet Expectations
3.Information on ‘Other Areas of Learning’ your child has undertaken during 1st, 2nd and 3rd Year in school.
Sample JCPA
What is an ‘Other Area of Learning?
The most important thing to remember is that an OAL is school related, so it happened here in the school or while your child was representing the school or attending an event as part of the school community. The DoEY states the following in its Circular Letter
“OALs records student achievement, involvement and participation across a broad range of areas of learning through in-school activities in junior cycle. Activities participated in outside of school are not allowed to be considered in the JCPA”
Examples of suitable achievements for inclusion as an OAL
•Specific awards your Child has won for sporting or cultural achievements in first, second and third year.
•Membership of School Sporting Teams (e.g. Football, Camogie, Basketball, Athletics, Soccer, Equestrian, Tennis, Class Leagues)
•Member of other (non-sporting) extra-curricular activity. (e.g. Student Council, School Library Committee, School Choir, Debating Team, Quiz Team etc.)
•Taking part in the organisation of a charity fundraising event in the school (e.g. Shoe Box Appeal, Jumper Day, Cake Sale for Elephant in the Room)
•Performing in front of classmates/schoolmates at a school musical, dramatic or dance performance (e.g. Talent Contest, Choral Festival, Quizzes, Seachtain na Gaeilge, )
•Taking part in organising or being involved in a school event (e.g. School Event, Carol Service, Open Night, school information sessions, presentations to Board of Management).
•Participated in school’s Ethos programme
•Participated in school’s Wellbeing programme: PE, SPHE, CSPE (from 2018 in 1st year)
•School leadership role (e.g. Meitheal Group, Class Prefect or Other)
•Subject Programmes including Sports Day, Reflective Days, Educational Trips•Any learning experience you feel has benefitted your child during time at Ballymahon VS e.g. friendship workshops•Assisted at parent-teacher meetings or similar.
•Initiatives undertaken in class such as a religion/history/science project, winning a cake decoration prize, completing a winning design in art, making models in science,
•Being a part of any school club.
•An active role in your CSPE project
Identifying OALs for the JCPA
Your child should aim to identify a minimum of three and a maximum of five OALs. The OAL should be written in the third person e.g.
1.Aislinn was a member of the school camogie team where she represented the school at competition level reaching the semi-finals of the All Ireland
2.Padraig was a member of the school’s positive mental health committee
3.Frankie won a class prize in the first year for his Science project
You should discuss these Other Areas of Learning (OALs) with your child & rank them in order of importance for them.
Junior Cycle – Key Skills and Statements of Learning
Reflecting on the OALs
Next you should help your child to reflect on skills they learned while completing the OALsselected.
Use the Key skills and Statements of Learning on the previous pages to help them to reflect on the skills they learned.
You should then help them to re-write her OALs to emphasise the skill they have acquired.
Skills are in blue below
•Cormac was a member of the school futsal team where he represented the school at competition level reaching County final. This experience helped him develop his ability to work in a team and how to set and achieve personal targets.
•Aislinn was a member of the school’s student council. This helped her understand how meetings are run and how to organise charity fundraisers. Furthermore this developed her problem solving skills and her ability to innovate.
•Peter won a class prize in the first year for his home economics project. This project taught him the skills of research and how to think creatively. It also taught him to bring an idea from concept to realisation.
•Ellen took part in a school choir performance and learned to work with others, express herself and build her communication skills.
•Ciara entered a project in the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition and developed her investigative, research and problem-solving skills.
•Josh was a member of the Basketball team where he committed to team training and competitions and developed his tactical competencies and skills.
•Lucy worked effectively with others in a groupaction project for CSPE to raise awareness of the homeless crisis and to promote the work of Cork Simon and the Penny Dinners
•Conor was a member of the Student Council, where he worked with others and communicated effectively in representing the voice of his class.
Important Points to Remember
•Your child will need to decide with your help on the 3-5 OALs they wants included in your JCPA.
•The OALs should focus on learning achieved (skills and knowledge) rather than on activities so the OAL needs to be linked with a Key Skill
• The typed OALs should be within the 500 character limit.
How to submit OALs?
Towards the end of3rd Year, your childwill enter their OALS into a Microsoft Form. This should be done at home but may if necessary be done in an ICT Room with the help of their teacher.
Your child will receive an email to their school email address which will have the link to the Microsoft Form relating to the OALs.
The following are the steps for your child to follow in order to access the OAL form
•Log into a computer and click on/ google Microsoft 365
•Open your Microsoft 365 School email account
•Open the email you have received called: 'OAL write-up' When you click on the link; Other Areas of Learning for the JCPA, you will see this form.
Remember it’s a minimum of 3 OALs and a maximum of 5.
If you don’t press submit it won’t save.
Privacy Notice - Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement Award
For the information of parents/guardians of students who will receive a Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA) award in 2017
Introduction
It is required by data protection law that before schools commence processing of any personal data a school must first bring a privacy notice on how the student’s personal data will be processed to the attention of parents/guardians. This privacy notice relates to those students who have undertaken Junior Cycle at Level 3 of the National Qualifications
Framework i.e. those students who have undertaken Junior Cycle State Examinations.
Process
One of the functions of the Department of Education and Youth is to provide support services to recognised schools. In recent years the Department has developed the PostPrimary Online Database (PPOD) to assist schools in recording and processing details of students enrolled in post-primary schools.
This document sets out the information in relation to how students’ personal data held on the Department’s Post-Primary Online Database (PPOD1) will be used to produce the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA). The JCPA will replace the Junior Certificate award from 2017. The JCPA will be awarded by the school to the student for the first time in late 2017. This notice relates to those students who sat Junior Cycle State Examinations (National Framework of Qualifications Level 3) in June 2017.
Please see separate Privacy Notice on general use of P-POD at
https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/Returns/Post-Primary-OnlineDatabase-P-POD-Project/Data-Protection.html
The diagram on the next page shows how the student data will be shared in order to produce a JCPA for every student.
Schools will be enabled to record additional student data, see Appendix A, on P-POD for the purpose of producing a Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA) for each of their students who completes the Junior Cycle.
This approach enables
a.schools to record on PPOD, in advance of the Junior Cycle/Certificate State examination, the subjects, short courses and Priority Learning Units (PLUs) that a student is undertaking
b.the State Examinations Commission (SEC) will provide state examinations final results electronically to the Department of Education and Skills for upload to PPOD and association of these results with each student.
c.Department of Education and Skills to provide the JCPAs electronically to schools for each student.
d.schools to complete the ‘other areas of learning’ section of the JCPA for each student and deliver the award to students. The ‘other areas of learning’ section of the JCPA allows the school to report on other learning experiences and events that the student has participated in outside the formal timetabled curriculum. The data entered at school level for ‘other areas of learning’ will not be stored on the Department’s database.
e.following production of the JCPA for each student the school will retain a copy of the full JCPA for each student.
Once JCPAs are produced the data will be anonymised by the Department of Education &
Skills and used in statistical analysis. No identifiable individual data is used by the Department and only a small number of staff within the Department of Education & Skills has access to the personal data and then solely to provide technical support to your school when it is using PPOD.
Student data as set out in Appendix A will not be shared with anyone else other than another post-primary school in which the student enrols.
Pursuant to Section 3 and Section 4 of the Data Protection Acts, you may access your personal data and request a copy of your data held on PPOD by contacting your school, or if you are a former student by contacting the Department of Education & Skills
Under data protection law you may object to the processing of your data or seek to have the data corrected
More detail on use of personal data by the Department is contained in the FAQ on P-POD available on https://www.education.ie/en/The-Department/Data-Protection/FAQ.html
The Department of Education & Skills Data Controller for PPOD is the Principal Officer in the Parents, Learners and Database Section within the Department who can be contacted by emailing p-podhelpdesk@education.gov.ie
The Data Protection Officer for the Department may be contacted by e-mailing gdpr@education.gov.ie
Appendix A
List of post-primary student personal data2 recorded by post-primary schools on PPOD for the purpose of producing the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA). The purpose for which each item is collected is explained in the FAQ for P-POD which is available on www.education.ie
Details on retention periods, legal basis for collection by the Department and the school are contained in the Fair Processing Notice for P-POD
Classroom-Based Assessments are part of the new specifications for English, Business Studies and Science.
This type of data was stored on PPOD for the first time in 2016/17
For each subject where an examination held by the State Examinations Commission was taken
•Level taken in the final examination
•Outcome of Classroom-Based Assessments 1 and 23
•Predicted medium through which final examination taken Irish/English
•Overall grade awarded by State Examinations Commission
•Annotation of result to indicate a subject was assessed except for a particular element e.g. aural is missing
For each short course taken up to a maximum of 4 short courses per student
•Code
•Title
•Level of Learning Programme - 2 or 3
•Medium Irish/English
•Outcome of Classroom- Based Assessment
In addition the following data provide by the State Examinations Commission will be printed on your JCPA
•Forename and Surname – as provided to the State Examination Commission
•Date of Birth – to aid identification whether there are more than two students with the same name
•State examination candidate number – to assist with any follow up query with State Examinations
Information on other personal data stored outside of PPOD and used by your school in producing your JCPA is available in your school’s Data Protection Policy a copy of which may be obtained from your school.
Information on the all other personal data of students collected and processed by schools using PPOD is available in the Fair Processing Note for P-POD copies of which are available at www.education.ie