This article is from page 19 of the 2011-10-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
THE Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) programme is well co-ordinated at St Joseph’s Secondary School in Spanish Point. That’s according to the findings from a Department of Education inspection, the details of which were published last week.
The report pointed to several strengths of the programme. These include that teachers are encouraged and facilitated within the school to attend relevant continuing professional development sessions; that guidance provided in the context of programme choice is appropriate to the needs of the students and that additional educational needs of students are well supported within the programme.
“The co-ordinating structures are operating very effectively. The joint co-ordinators liaise closely with school management and the programme teaching team and they discharge their duties very effectively,” stated the inspectors.
“Students displayed very positive attitudes to their work and to learning, and this was borne out by the quality of the work they produced in their tasks and key assignments,” they added.
It stated that policy and practice in the school regarding communication with parents supports effective links with the homes of LCA students.
“Parents receive meaningful feedback regarding the progress of the students by means of the session results issued by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) in addition to which school reports are issued. Parent-teacher meetings are held annually and letters are issued if a student is at risk of not being awarded a credit due to non-attendance.
“The school newsletter provides in- formation on the progress of the programme and letters are sent to parents as the need arises to provide additional information,” stated the inspectors’ report.
According to the report, the written LCA plan is “coherent and forms a very good basis for further development”.
Two joint co-ordinators form the core programme team and meet regularly to plan, monitor and evaluate its implementation. The programme is evaluated annually in line with “good cyclical practice”, said the report. This evaluation is done by the co-or- dinators in conjunction with the team and students.
“There is evidence that the programme has benefited from evaluation and review, and it is reported by the school that morale among the students has improved, largely due to the inclusion of more suitable elective modules. These changes have been introduced in the past two years in response to the expressed interests of the students. This responsiveness to change by the LCA co-ordinators and team is a strength of the implementation of the programme in the school,” stated the report.