St. Enda's Community School

JCSP - What is it?

The JCSP or Junior Certificate Schools Programme is an opportunity for students to get recognition for work done throughout the 3 years up to Junior Certificate.
Put simply it awards students for work done week by week, month by month, year by year. At the end of the 3 years students have a graduation ceremony where they are given official certification by the Department of Education and Science recognizing the fact that they have succeeded in certain tasks completed in preparation for their Junior Cert exams.

Students complete lists of tasks based on the curriculum. When a series of tasks are completed students are awarded the 'STATEMENT' for that subject area. This is filed and stored until 3rd year when the certificates from the Department of Education and Science are applied for.

During the 3 years students take part in many activities such as Make-a-Book, Christmas Celebration, Outdoor Pursuits, Reading and Maths Initiatives and many more.

Certificates are awarded for outstanding efforts during the 3 years and these can be kept in the student's folder or added to the back of their final folder.
Postcards are posted home in recognition of efforts made so that parents are aware of the student's progress.
Award stickers are stuck into the journal in recognition of work

The most important thing about JCSP is that students have fun while learning. Also, that they understand that preparing for the Junior Cert is a 3 year process and that everyone recognizes their good efforts along the way.

So what do student's get at the end of this process?

Students get a folder of certificates as well as a reference from the school outlining the fact that they participated in the programme.

Parents/Guardians - what do we ask of you?
We would ask parents/guardians to ask their children what activities they are doing in school. What statements they are working on. When postcards or certificates are sent home we would like you to encourage your child to work hard to achieve the next certificate.

ON December 14th the first years put on a performance for their parents in the library. The principal, Gina O'Connor and JCSP regional development officer, Jerry McCarthy welcomed the parents and congratulated the students on their hard work. The students did a reading of the poem "The night before Christmas" and sang "Snow is Falling". They were given copies of the poem to take home as prizes for their hard work and they also received JCSP certificates for their hard work. The student made decorations and pictures with their SPHE teacher and their art teacher. The Irish teachers made a Christmas tree decorated with Irish words about Christmas during Irish class. The home economics teacher made Christmas Stockings with the students. These were displayed for their parents to see. The storyteller, Pat Speight told stories for everyone and there was a party afterwards for everyone involved.