About Junior Cycle Plus

Before founding Leaving Cert Plus — and, in time, Junior Cycle Plus — Aaron Keane was simply trying to make studying more effective.

As a Leaving Cert student balancing school with competing internationally in athletics, he was always looking for ways to make better use of his time. He listened to audio recordings while training and in the gym, revised flashcards on car journeys, and even recorded short video explanations of difficult topics for himself so he could revisit them whenever he needed.

Those study habits stayed with him.

While studying Medicine at university, Aaron began giving grinds — Leaving Cert at first, and Junior Cycle not long after, as younger students and their parents started asking for the same kind of help. To support students outside of lessons, he started recording videos explaining individual topics for both age groups, and organised them into simple folders that students could access whenever they wanted.

The feedback surprised him. Junior Cycle and Leaving Cert students alike preferred learning this way. They could pause, rewind and revisit explanations as often as they liked, learning at their own pace rather than trying to absorb everything in a single class.

That experience became the foundation of Leaving Cert Plus — and, eventually, Junior Cycle Plus alongside it.

Rather than creating another collection of videos, Aaron set out to build a complete learning platform—bringing together expert video lessons, concise notes, quizzes, flashcards, exam questions, audio learning and intelligent revision tools in one place to help students study more independently and more effectively. Leaving Cert Plus came first, but Junior Cycle was never far from his mind: the exact same problem existed one cycle earlier, just as real for 12–15 year olds preparing for their own state exams.

Built on a shared commitment to quality

As Leaving Cert Plus grew, one thing became clear: outstanding technology is only as good as the educational content behind it.

That shared belief led to a partnership with CJ Fallon, one of Ireland's most respected educational publishers.

Working closely with Brian Gilsenan, CEO of CJ Fallon, Leaving Cert Plus combines two complementary perspectives: Aaron's experience as a recent student and educator who understands how today's students learn, and CJ Fallon's long-standing expertise in developing trusted, high-quality educational resources.

Together, they share a simple goal: to combine the rigour and quality of traditional educational publishing with the accessibility and flexibility of a modern learning platform — and that same partnership now extends to Junior Cycle Plus too.

Junior Cycle Plus: built the same way

Leaving Cert Plus went on to reach over 25,000 students in its first year, used in every school in Ireland, helped along by our partnership with CJ Fallon. That success is exactly what made building a sister platform for Junior Cycle students the obvious next step.

Junior Cycle Plus is a product of Leaving Cert Plus — the same team, the same standard of content, and the same partnership with CJ Fallon, now built for Junior Cycle from day one.