Transition Year
In Transition year all students take Home Economics as a module for approximately 8 weeks. During this time all students get an opportunity to try Home Economics at senior cycle. To keep within the ethos of Transition Year, this module is designed to encourage students to develop skills of research, group work and project work as well as a practical cookery element. Typical topics during this module are Healthy Eating, Interpreting Food Labels, Consumer Reports, Irish Food Industry and Small Food Business, Sustainable Food Production and current topics in areas such as food safety.
Transition Year students may also choose to take Culinary Arts as an option subject for the year. This class consists of learning to cook many different dishes such as Jams and Chutneys, Vegetarian Food, International Dishes and Seasonal recipes, for example a 
Christmas Cake. Occasionally, displays and demonstrations take place in the school where students can proudly showcase their culinary delights. Entering competitions are encouraged such as the annual Take Away My Way competition. Culinary Arts incorporates links with Chinese Studies and Chinese cookery features around the Chinese New Year. Students keep a written diary of their weekly cookery class and design a Recipe Journal which contains a personal account written by the students of their opinions of the different recipes. Food photography is an important part of the Recipe Journal also as are various displays of students work during the year e.g. Christmas Cake exhibition.
Senior Cycle
Home Economics (Social and Scientific) at Senior Cycle is an option for all students regardless of whether the student studied Home Economics at Junior Cycle. The Leaving Certificate Syllabus is very varied and has an important practical aspect to it. The Leaving Certificate exam is structured in such a way that 20% of the Leaving Certificate is allocated to practical cookery-each Leaving Cert group is issued with 6 cookery assignments which require research, planning, implementation and evaluation.
Each student records their practical work in a Coursework journal which is marked separately to a written exam. The continuous assessment element and practical skills aspect of this structure suits many students very well. In St Joseph of Cluny the majority of the practical coursework is completed in Fifth Year, allowing more time for valuable revision and practise of exam question in Sixth Year. In Sixth year, students are required to study one of three option modules. These are Social Studies, Textile Studies or Home Management. In St Joseph of Cluny, Social Studies is usually the preferred option.