CSPE Action Project Initiative
Express Yourself! Young People Promoting Human Rights in Ireland
IHRC invites CSPE students to submit human rights images for national exhibition
Ensuring that everyone everywhere, including Ireland, can live "equal in dignity and rights" is at the heart of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Young people can play an active role in making this principle a reality and in so doing help build a culture of respect for human rights in Irish society. Education is an empowering factor and Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) aims to foster a spirit of active citizenship based on human rights; nurturing knowledge, skills and agency. The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) is inviting CSPE students to make the human rights of people in Ireland the focus of their CSPE Action Project. We are asking them to play a prominent role in promoting human rights by creating images that express what human rights in Ireland mean to them for display in their schools or community, and at Express Yourself! Young People Promoting Human Rights in Ireland, a national exhibition organised by the IHRC at the Lighthouse Cinema, Smithfield Dublin 7 from 27 February to 6 March 2013. The Express Yourself! initiative is being organised by the IHRC in collaboration with the Association of CSPE Teachers (ACT); Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU); the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST); and the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD). Aims of Express Yourself! The IHRC was established in 2000 under statute to promote and protect human rights in Ireland. A key aspect of our work is to support education that strengthens human rights as knowing about human rights is the first step towards protecting them. Express Yourself! Young People Promoting Human Rights in Ireland aims to foster in CSPE students a greater understanding of human rights, empathy with people whose human rights are not being met and encouragement to promote awareness of the importance of protecting human rights in Ireland. Producing and exhibiting human rights images developed as part of such a collaborative process as the CSPE Action Project will also give concrete expression and validation to students’ concerns about human rights and what actions we as a society need to take to secure everyone’s rights. Express Yourself! Young People Promoting Human Rights is a follow-on to Human Rights Framed by Young People Exhibition organized by the IHRC with the Law Society of Ireland in 2008 to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Express Yourself! on Human Rights Day, 10 December 2012 Every year on International Human Rights Day, 10 December, people everywhere are asked to come together to celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). As part of the Express Yourself! initiative, the IHRC is encouraging students to organise an event in their school or community to display their images and promote human rights and the enduring relevance of the UDHR more than 60 years after its adoption by the United Nations.Express Yourself! Exhibition Human Rights images produced by CSPE students will be displayed at the Express Yourself!, national exhibition at the Lighthouse Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin 7. The closing date to submit images is Wednesday, 16 January 2013. The Exhibition will officially open on 27 February 2013 and the images will be on show until 6 March. Application details are available on the IHRC’s website www.ihrc.ie/cspe Express Yourself! Resources and Support The IHRC is offering a range of supports to aid both teachers and students. 6-Step Guides for Teachers and Students to Express Yourself! Young People Promoting Human Rights in Ireland are being sent to CSPE Co-ordinators in all schools. The Guide is designed as a complement to CSPE textbooks and CSPE Action Project resources produced by other organisations. A similar guide is available for CSPE students. A section of the IHRC website is dedicated to Express Yourself! containing a range of human rights resources and information for both teachers and students. See www.ihrc.ie/cspe
For further information on Express Yourself! Young People Promoting Human Rights in Ireland, please contact Fidelma Joyce at the IHRC. Tel: 01 8589601 or email: expressyourself@ihrc.ie
Junior Cert CSPE
Lorraine
Hey guys!Lorraine here :) I'm just going to blog a little about the CSPE exam because I remember most of the paper so why not go on and on about it :PThere is such a stigma about CSPE and I think we have all at one stage cracked a few jokes about CSPE but if you actually try with it you'll be a happy person when you get your results. It's an Easy A so why not get an A?!60% percent of the exam is gone before you even go into the exam! The action project is worth that and I'm hoping I got the 60%! My class went to the Zoo for Stewardship for our Action Project and I'm not messing, it was class! Definitely a day out to remember and I still remember loads of facts from it. We were brought around for an hour and a half with a woman who told us all kinds of deadly information and then we were allowed to go around on our own for about 3 hours. For weeks after we all worked on our RAP forms and had them all completed.The actual exam? People were all like ''Ah sure this be grand!'' and some of the teachers were even cracking jokes about it :P The paper was 40% and I reckon I've passed anyway! The first question, the picture one, was photos of like the Dáil or the UN Parliament etc and you had to write the name under the pic and where it was located. I genuinely don't think I done well there cause we have never looked at them places, I obviously knew the Dail but who knows about anything else?! :)Q2 was all the short answer questions, it was mostly all about voting and the systems and stuff. Pretty easy stuff! Then we were told to pick 3 out of 4 of the next questions to do, its kinda like a reading comprehension, you get the info and you write the answers. They were based on the age card, charity shops etc. I always answer all of them.Section 3 was grand. 2 of the questions were about posters but they did have questions with them like. I chose a question about why a youth center should be in the area and I had to write a letter to a local TD on behalf of my class etc etc It was grand.I didn't leave, and I don't plan on leaving any of my exams early. There was 5 of us left at the end and I was working till the end-3pm! :)Good luck in the next few days all! Business tomorrow :O :(
Shahed
Ahhh, CSPE. Probably the easiest exam you will ever do in your life.I already had 60% of my final grade finished. For our Action Project, my class and I invited Gillian van Turnhout from the Children's Rights Alliance to speak to us about the rights of young people. It was very informative and enjoyable.The written exam itself was quite easy. Though most people seemed to have finished early, I was writing to the very last minute. I took my time at the start, so that slowed me down a little.Section 1 was probably the easiest it has ever been. There was nothing difficult about it at all. It was a great start. Section 2 again was easy. I planned on doing all the questions in that section, but I ran out of time. Here's hoping my answers are good! Section 3 was a breeze. It had a good variety of questions, nothing too difficult.Overall, it was a good paper. It was a nice break from the harder exams. Now to cram for French and History!
Jack
Well. CSPE. The hardest exam of the lot. Obvious sarcasm!There's not much I can really say about this exam. 40% of the marks were secured with my Action Project. My class invited the President to our school, so we wrote about that.The written exam covered that last handful of marks. Just 80. It was grand. Nothing hard. Nothing unpredicted. Nothing out of the blue.I finished Section 1, three questions from Section 2 and a question from Section 3 at about 1.50, so I went on and did an extra question and finished shortly after 2.00. I read over a few times, and decided to leave early. There was no point staying longer.There is not much one can say about CSPE, besides the above. At least tomorrow is Business! my best subject!
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.
JC CSPE
Roisin
C.S.P.E. was fine... it had the normal fill-in-the-blank question followed by three out of four short questions, and a long question, so that should have been fine!I have the day off tomorrow and I intend to use it to cram as much history as possible for Thursday! I have French on Thusrday too but I'm more worried about history so I'll be giving more time to that probably. It's nice to think that this time next week I'll be finished! :-)
James
After lunch today, I had my CSPE exam. There was a lot of writing to be done in the hour and a half. I feel I did well in this exam as the questions were topical and not too difficult to answer. Tomorrow, I will sit Business Studies Paper 1 and Paper 2. Talk then, James.