Doc on One: Live Where You Learn

This documentary is part of the Documentary On One and Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT) Partnership

Download the 'Generation X-Factor' JCT worksheet

Suitable for all students from 1st year – TY

Documentary length: 40 mins

In this documentary, students are given the opportunity to step into the world of a private boarding school, Cistercian College Roscrea. Shown through the eyes of past, current and possible future boarders, the documentary explores the inner workings of a world that otherwise only exists in books or films such as Harry Potter. Students are also asked to consider the purpose of boarding schools and questions why anyone would want to go to one; what’s wrong with community schools and whether it’s cruel on children to send them away from home so young? Find out if it’s all about points and privilege or a practical solution to educating teenage boys and giving them a better future. And, if they do have a better future; is it really worth €75,000?

The thematic unit of work uses the documentary as a primary text, as is recommended in the English Specification.

In studying the documentary, students engage with all four LITERACY skills, i.e. Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing

The oral and written assignments support development of JUNIOR CYCLE KEY SKILLS as well as a selection of LEARNING OUTCOMES from the ENGLISH SPECIFICATION.

In a carefully staged, AFL process, the unit begins with pre-listening, challenging students to tap into their prior knowledge, their thoughts and feelings about the context in the text.

The documentary, for classroom purposes has been divided into short, relevant clips and the associated activities/ worksheets will develop a variety of comprehension skills, e.g. anticipation; active-listening; discussion; post-listening and reflective/ creative activities.

Methodologies used in the teaching and learning resources encourage the student to become a critical, autonomous, self-directed and reflective learner. This is facilitated through AFL tasks which include peer and self-reflection sheets.

By the end of this unit of work, students will be ready to complete a summative assessment task, suitable for the Oral Communication Task. An outline of the CBA can be found in the specification for Junior Cycle English (October 2015) which is available on the JCT website

Throughout the unit of work, students will be guided through activities which include:
- Pre-listening creative work, imagining how they would spend €75,000
- A follow-up listening activity to compare and contrast how they would spend their money and how the narrator suggests it could be spent
- pay close attention to sound effects
- Active listening worksheets which require students to record details about a day in the life of a boarder and to the positive and aspects of life at Cistercian College.
- A script-writing activity based around the imagined scenario of an unhappy boarding school student who calls home to persuade his parents to let him come home

The unit builds up to the final, summative task; planning and delivering a persuasive talk about the merits of their school to possible students and their parents.

The summative task is preceded by scaffolding activities, followed by AfL materials including self and peers assessment activities.

Click here to visit the Junior Cycle for Teachers Website

We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Clip 1: Active Listening - the first 30 seconds. How does the narrator suggest that the money might be spent?

Clip 2: Active Listening - the first minute of the documentary. What are the first five sounds that you hear? What is their purpose and what are alternatives?

Clip 3: A Day in the Life of a Boarder. In the next 25 minutes of the documentary record information about a boarder's routine.

Clip 4: The Final Verdict - the last 14 minutes of the documentary. What are the positive and negative aspects of student life in Cistercian College?

Clip 5: Asking the Right Questions. Listen to the questions asked in the 30 second clip and decide if the questions are open or closed, and describe the tone of the questions.

Documentary description from the documentary makers:

Say you had €75,000 to spare. What would you do with it? You could buy a car or a house or go travelling around the world or just live on it. Or, if you had a spare seventy-five grand and a boy in Sixth Class, you could enrol him in a private boarding-school like Cistercian College Roscrea.

Why would anyone do that? What’s wrong with community schools? Is it cruel on children to send them away from home so young? That’s what this documentary hopes to find out.

Cistercian College Roscrea invites Sixth Class boys to stay overnight to see if they like the idea of boarding-school. So, the Documentary On One did just that: spent 24 hours in Cistercian College Roscrea.

Find out if it’s all about points and privilege or a practical solution to educating teenage boys and giving them a better future. And, if they do have a better future; is it really worth €75,000?

Cistercian College, Roscrea website

Made by: Ronan Kelly

First broadcast: June 2014

An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries.

More stories on