Secondary Junior Cycle

CSPE Short Course

Explore rights, global issues, democracy, and civic action.

  • Mapped to the NCCA curriculum
Pricing & ordering Try a sample lesson

The whole first lesson, as your class sees it. No sign-in needed.

On the board, and on their devices
Why does poverty last?
Two systems of government
Irish, European, role or process?

The same lesson opens on each student's own device, to follow in class and finish at home.

What your school gets

Everything a teacher needs to teach CSPE Short Course this year.

In class

  • 62 lessons, ready to teach Each one planned step by step, taught from the board with the same lesson open on each student's device. 23 interactive activities across the course.
  • Quizzes and assessments A short quiz with every lesson.
  • Progress and resultsWhat each student has completed, and how they did.
  • CertificatesFor portfolios, open days and reports home.
  • Try the first lesson: What We Owe Each Other

On paper

  • Teacher Resource BookThe whole course laid out for the teacher, lesson by lesson, ready to print.

The whole books come with the course, in each class's Resources.

The curriculum it covers

Every lesson is mapped to the specification. This course teaches 37 of the 37 outcomes for this class.

NCCA Junior Cycle CSPE Short Course
Rights and responsibilities 11 of 11 outcomes
Global citizenship 12 of 12 outcomes
Exploring democracy 14 of 14 outcomes
See every outcome
Curriculum Area
Outcomes
Rights and responsibilities
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11
Global citizenship
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12
Exploring democracy
3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14

Tap any outcome to read it. The coloured ones are taught in this course. The curriculum does not include official reference codes for individual learning outcomes, so we have assigned a code scheme to make it easier to identify and track coverage.

The course, module by module

62 lessons in 4 modules. The lesson marked Sample opens in full.

1 Strand 1: Rights and Responsibilities 17 lessons · about 11 hours
  1. Human Dignity, the Basis for Human Rights
  2. 1 What We Owe Each Other Sample lesson Quiz
  3. 2 When Dignity Is Denied Quiz
  4. 3 What People Need, and What They Are Owed Quiz
  5. 4 What the Numbers Say About Who Has What Quiz
  6. 5 The Same Picture Over Time Quiz
  7. Human Rights Instruments
  8. 6 People Who Changed Something Quiz
  9. 7 Building the Timeline, Part 1 Quiz
  10. 8 Building the Timeline, Part 2 Quiz
  11. 9 Inside the Convention on the Rights of the Child Quiz
  12. 10 Three Documents, Three Jobs Quiz
  13. 11 Eight Kinds of Rights Quiz
  14. 12 When Two Rights Pull Against Each Other Quiz
  15. 13 Rights Come with Responsibilities Quiz
  16. 14 Our Class Charter Quiz
  17. Our First Citizenship Action
  18. 15 Choosing Our First Action Quiz
  19. 16 Running Our First Action Quiz
  20. 17 What the First Action Taught Us Quiz
2 Strand 2: Global Citizenship 16 lessons · about 11 hours
  1. Sustainability
  2. 18 Everything You Touched Before Nine O'clock Quiz
  3. 19 What Does Development Even Mean? Quiz
  4. 20 Writing Our Own Definition Quiz
  5. 21 Our Footprint, as Data Quiz
  6. 22 Who Can Actually Do Something About It? Quiz
  7. 23 Which of Those Would Actually Work? Quiz
  8. Local and Global Development
  9. 24 One Person's Own Account Quiz
  10. 25 Why Is Anyone Poor? Quiz
  11. 26 What Development Did to Our Own Place Quiz
  12. Effecting Global Change
  13. 27 One Person, One Institution Quiz
  14. 28 Taking One Issue Apart Quiz
  15. 29 What Could We Actually Do? Quiz
  16. 30 Did That Campaign Work? Quiz
  17. Our Second Citizenship Action
  18. 31 Planning Our Global Citizenship Action Quiz
  19. 32 Running Our Second Action Quiz
  20. 33 What the Second Action Taught Us Quiz
3 Strand 3: Exploring Democracy 22 lessons · about 15 hours
  1. The Meaning of Democracy
  2. 34 Where Do You Actually Have a Say? Quiz
  3. 35 How Decisions Really Get Made Here Quiz
  4. 36 Local and National Government Quiz
  5. 37 The Words for It Quiz
  6. 38 Counting the Votes Quiz
  7. 39 The Same Ballots, Counted Another Way Quiz
  8. 40 Two Systems of Government, Side by Side Quiz
  9. 41 Is Democracy Any Good? Quiz
  10. The Law and the Citizen
  11. 42 Laws You Already Live Under Quiz
  12. 43 How a Law Is Made Quiz
  13. 44 How a Law Changes Quiz
  14. 45 Which Court, and Why Quiz
  15. 46 The Nine Grounds Quiz
  16. 47 The Nine Grounds, Applied Quiz
  17. 48 Using the Law to Change Things Quiz
  18. The Role of the Media in a Democracy
  19. 49 Where News Comes From Quiz
  20. 50 How It Persuades You Quiz
  21. 51 A Case Worth Examining Quiz
  22. 52 The Verdict on It Quiz
  23. Our Third Citizenship Action
  24. 53 Planning Our Democracy Action Quiz
  25. 54 Running Our Third Action Quiz
  26. 55 What the Third Action Taught Us Quiz
4 The Classroom-Based Assessment: The Action Record 7 lessons · about 5 hours
  1. 56 What a Strong Action Record Looks Like Quiz
  2. 57 Choosing Which Action to Record Quiz
  3. 58 Gathering What You Kept Quiz
  4. 59 Drafting the Record Quiz
  5. 60 Judging a Draft Quiz
  6. 61 Making It Better Quiz
  7. 62 Handing It in, and What the Course Gave You Quiz

What students learn

This short course examines rights and responsibilities, global issues, and democratic processes through interactive lessons on active citizenship, human dignity, sustainable development, civic participation, and media influences. It culminates in a classroom-based assessment involving action planning, implementation, and reflective multimedia records to foster informed global engagement.

By the end of the course, students can

  1. Analyse human rights frameworks, including UDHR, UNCRC, and ECHR, to identify categories and historical developments through timeline creation.
  2. Evaluate global challenges such as sustainability, poverty, and environmental impact by developing and critiquing action plans for personal and community involvement.
  3. Compare democratic systems and processes, including law-making and media influence, to assess strengths, weaknesses, and civic participation strategies.
  4. Plan, implement, and document three integrated actions across course strands, demonstrating measurable impacts on rights, global issues, and democracy.
  5. Reflect critically on personal learning and actions to articulate connections between citizenship responsibilities and broader societal change.

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