Welcome to Leaving Certificate Life, Community and Work. This is a full Leaving Certificate subject with real assessment stakes, and today you begin by participating in the first piece of work you will own for two years.

Every interview, every application form and every college personal statement opens with the same question: Tell me about yourself. Almost nobody answers it well. By the end of this lesson you will have a 150–200 word answer written to be said out loud — and you will know what you cut from it, and why.

Here is the map of the next two years so you know what you are building toward.

• Four strands: Strand 1.1 Understanding Myself → Strand 1.2 Progression Opportunities → Strand 2.1 Community → Strand 2.2 Workplace.
• Four Applied Learning Tasks (ALTs): Personal Statement; Career Progression Plan; Reflection on a collaborative community task; Plan responding to workplace feedback.
• Experiential cycle: Participating → Reflecting → Applying. Every lesson sits on this arc. Today you are participating.
• Assessment: Portfolio in Action is 60% (an SEC brief you answer from your portfolio in Sixth Year). Written examination is 40%. Graded Distinction, Merit, Pass, or Not Achieved.

Personal development is what this subject is actually for: not a soft option, but a two-year record of what you actually got better at. The answer you draft today is the baseline ALT 1 grows from. Later in the course, when you finalise your Personal Statement (ALT 1), you will hold this baseline up against it and see how far you moved.

Three terms you will use for the whole course. Read the middle column carefully — that is what each one means for the work you do today.

Part A — where do you stand? (about 6 minutes)

An opinion line is a scale from Disagree to Agree. For each statement, place your marker where you actually stand, hear both sides, then move it if you change your mind. Changing your mind after an argument is the point.

1. By seventeen, most of what happens to you next is already decided.
2. Schools are good at telling you who you are.

Keep one idea from the line in your head — you may use it when you draft in Part D.

Part B — set up your Digital Portfolio (about 5 minutes)

On your school cloud account, create a folder called LCW Portfolio. Inside it, create four sub-folders with these exact names (they stay fixed for both years):

• Strand 1.1 Understanding Myself
• Strand 1.2 Progression Opportunities
• Strand 2.1 Community
• Strand 2.2 Workplace

Inside Strand 1.1 Understanding Myself, create a document called Tell Me About Yourself.

Part C — weak answer, strong answer (about 4 minutes)

Read both answers below. Sam’s is a list of facts almost anyone could say. Aoife’s is specific enough that only one person could have written it.

Sam (weak):

Hi, my name is Sam. I’m in fifth year at school. I like sports and hanging out with my friends. My subjects are Irish, English, Maths, Business and Geography. I want to go to college after my Leaving Cert. I’m a hard worker and a good team player. I live near Cork and I get on well with people.

Aoife (strong):

I’m Aoife. Last October, when our Transition Year fundraiser for the local food bank nearly fell apart two days before the collection, I was the one who rang every parent on the list until we had enough drivers again. That is the kind of work I like: fixing something concrete when it goes wrong, with other people.

I’m in fifth year now. Outside school I coach under-10 camogie on Saturdays at my club, and I work four hours a week in my aunt’s florist — which is where I learnt that customers will tell you the real problem if you stop talking long enough to hear it. I’m not sure yet whether I want community work, sports development or small business. What I do know is I want a job where the day changes when a person walks in the door.

Part D — draft, cut, justify (about 12 minutes; non-negotiable exit ticket)

In your Tell Me About Yourself document, write your own answer in 150–200 words, written to be said out loud to somebody who has never met you. Then cut it. Under the final version, add two lines naming what you cut and why the cut improved it. An answer that tries to say everything says nothing. Save the document in Strand 1.1 Understanding Myself.

This is your baseline for ALT 1. You will return to it.

If your draft and two cut lines are not finished yet: use this time to finish them. That is the priority. The Tell Me About Yourself document with the cut lines is what leaves with you today.

If you are already finished: talk these through with the person beside you, or sit with them quietly.

• Share one cut you already made and the reason it improved the answer — not a fresh diagnosis of the whole draft.
• Name one sentence in Aoife’s answer that Sam’s answer could never contain. What makes it hers alone?

Optional, after class or if you still have spare minutes: add two sentences under your Tell Me About Yourself document on what specificity does that a list of facts cannot. This is not a required portfolio action in this period.