Junior Certificate PE (short course)
Aim
The short course in physical education aims to develop students as knowledgeable, skilful and creative participants who are confident and competent to perform in a range of activities safely. The course aims to build students’ appreciation of the importance of health-enhancing and inclusive physical activity and a commitment to it now, and in the future.
Strand 1: Physical activity for health and wellbeing.
This strand aims to build students’ understanding of and commitment to regular health enhancing physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. Students apply their learning as they design, implement and evaluate their own physical activity programme.
Strand 2: Games.
This strand focuses on building students’ competence and confidence in two of the following games categories: divided court, invasion and striking and fielding games. Students learn how to develop a range of transferable movement skills and competencies and the ways in which these can be used within and across the different games categories.
Strand 3: Individual and team challenges.
This strand focuses on building students’ competence and confidence in two of the following physical activity areas: orienteering and team challenges, aquatics and athletics. Students are encouraged to set challenging goals for themselves individually and/or as part of a team and to reflect on the experience and progress made. In this strand, schools may choose an adventure activity other than orienteering if their location facilitates this choice.
Strand 4: Dance and gymnastics.
This strand aims to build students’ competency in and understanding of artistic and aesthetic movement, as they create and perform in a group for an audience in either gymnastics or dance.
The process of creating the dance or gymnastic movement sequence is seen as being equally important as the final performance. Each school will decide the order in which the strands are taught and, where appropriate, provide an equal time weighting for each strand to ensure a broad, balanced and developmentally appropriate programme covering all four strands of the course.
The Classroom-Based Assessment outlined below reflects the learning students undertake in this NCCA short course. The learning outcomes of this course are broadly aligned with the level indicators for Level 3 of the National Framework of Qualifications.
The PE short course has been designed for approximately 100 hours of student engagement.
Resources
- PE Hall
- Two outside courts
- Use of nearby pitches
- E Stock
- Local Community Facilities
Timetabling
- First Years (one class a week) 1 hour
- Second Years (two 1 hour classes a week)
- Third Year (two 1 hour classes a week)
- Transition Year (double class a week) 2 hours
- All Fifth Years (two 1 hour classes a week) except LCVP option
- All Sixth Years (two 1 hour classes a week) except LCVP option
Cross–Curricular Links
- The teachers in the St. Marys work as a co-operative team. Resources and ideas are shared, and help to achieve positive outcomes and shared goals within the department.
- Subject planning meetings, both formal and informal, are conducted on a regular basis to help coordinate the PE programme, timetabling and use of facilities.
- PE and Geography: Orienteering is addressed both as a curricular module (outdoor adventure activities) and as an extra-curricular activity. This PE module can be linked with map reading geographical feature identification and recognition in geography. Students learn how to set and read a map and understand important symbols and geographical features.
- There are numerous links between PE and science. In particular, the ‘Health related Fitness’ (HRF) module, where anatomy and physiology are explored in relation to physical activity and exercise; and in particular the exploration and study of heart rate, muscle structure and function, body composition, nutrition, the bodies reaction and adaptations to exercise, etc. Furthermore, elements of physics may be included when discussing biomechanical issues in sport. These topics are interlinked with aspects of the science course.
- PE and Music: When completing dance and gymnastics modules in PE there may be important links with music for instance, the recognition of rhythm and tempo. Additionally, music from different cultures and eras are often used to reflect specific performances, taking note of tempo, rhythm, timing, etc.
- PE and English: Analysing sports articles and prose related to sporting performances are often used in English comprehensions.
- PE and ICT : DVD and data projector are occasionally used to demonstrate certain aspects of the PE programme. Additionally, ICT may be used more frequently in the future to aid in aspects of self-assessment. Lessons can also take place in the computer for a wide range of activties.eg research, games.
- PE and Maths: In PE students can use math to calculate heart rates and heart rate training zones. Different forms of measurement e.g. cm, cm, m, km, miles etc. are also used along with basic score keeping
Wellbeing
Wellbeing in junior cycle is about young people feeling confident, happy, healthy and connected. This short course in PE contributes to the Wellbeing programme by providing learning experiences which support students in being better able and more motivated to include regular physical activity in their lives, thereby contributing to their overall experience of wellbeing.
Resources