Curriculum.

The Junior Cycle Programme is followed for the first three years of a student’s secondary schooling.  The main objective of the Junior Cycle is for students to complete a broad and balanced curriculum and to develop the knowledge and skills that will enable them to proceed to Senior Cycle confident in their ability to learn.

A new Framework for Junior Cycle has made significant changes to the current Junior Cycle since September 2014. In June 2017 the first students sat the English component of the New Junior Cycle.

Since September 2019 every subject is following the New Junior Cycle Specification. Wellbeing was  introduced as a subject and this encompasses what were formerly classes in PE, SPHE and CSPE. The students receive 400 hours of Wellbeing over the course of the three year cycle. All subjects are involved as the six areas of Wellbeing are incorporated into every subject area – see the icons below. Specific events are added to the school calendar throughout the year as well as part of the hours covered.  

Students who sit their Junior Cycle in St Louis take ten academic subjects. The choices remain mostly the same each year. Students choose eleven subjects in First Year and then drop one going into Second Year. The core subjects for our 2021 intake are:

Irish, English, Maths,

Geography, History, Religion

Science, Business Studies

Wellbeing – PE, SPHE and CSPE

Students then choose  a language from the following options:

French or Spanish

They then choose two of the following four subjects:

Home Economics, Music, Technology or Visual Art

All information about the different subjects can be found in the Parents section of the website.

Responsible

Respected

Resilient

Connected

Aware

Active

Leaving Cert is a two year cycle. In St Louis Secondary School students take seven subjects for exam at Leaving Cert level.

The core subjects taken are Maths, Irish and English.

What is unique about our subject choices at Senior Level in St Louis is that our options are created by our students and not by the school. The girls chose four subjects from 14 others as they wish and the school accommodates as many choices as possible, offering the girls the most advantageous options for each of them.

The 14 options are

PE and Religion, which are non-exam subjects are taken by all and there is a timetabled period for Guidance once a week.

For students who wish to pursue a more practical course at Senior Cycle St Louis provides the LCA programme as required.

This is a two year programme like the standard Leaving Cert, but classes are capped at 14 and the emphasis is on preparing students for the world of work, and much of the work is done in the form of assignment. Each girl is assigned her own computer for the two years.

Subjects taken include English and Communications, Maths, Languages (Spanish in 5th year and Irish in 6th year), Leisure and Recreation, Childcare and Community Care, Hotel Catering and Tourism, Religion, Social Education, Vocational Preparation (including Guidance), and IT.

An essential element of the LCA programmes is work experience and the girls have the opportunity to go out for four two week work sessions. These have proven invaluable and many of the girls go on to make careers in areas they might never have chosen without that experience.