What Is Transition Year?

Transition year is a one year programme for students aged 15/16. It provides a bridge to enable students make the transition from Junior to Senior cycle. It encourages personal and social development and recognises the need for students to grow in independence. Transition Year fosters academic achievement as students prepare for a Leaving Certificate programme, further study and adult and working life. It encourages the development of a wide range of transferable critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills.

TY News

	We Will Rock You Tue Feb 24th 2009 10:14:58
	We Will Rock You FRIDAY 27TH ,SATURDAY 28TH in the school gym.Preparations are under way for a most energetic and enjoyable production by the Transition Year Class of 2008/2009 helped by their fellow students in the orchesrta.

TYB Young Social Innovators

Fri May 16th 2008 10:50:06

Congratulations to the TYB class and their teacher Anne Keane for winning their category in the national YSI Awards held in the RDS on May 7th and 8th.Their project 'Fair Trade Chocolate - Justice Has Never Been So Sweet' raised awareness about fair trade with developing countries. €2000 was raised for a school extension in Ghana and a goat farming project was established in 6 communites, also in Ghana. The TY group investigated the availability of fair trade chocolate in the local area and took part in many events to raise awareness of fair trade including a Trad night, meeting farmers from Ghana and Belize, marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade etc.

TYA Young Social Innovators

Fri May 16th 2008 10:34:13

Congratulations to the TYA group for winning their category in the national awards held in the RDS on May 7th and 8th. Their project 'Don't Break My Heart, Drive To Stay Alive' was an expansion of last year's overall national winning project to raise road safety awareness. The project team, and teacher Deirdre Brennan, sent posters to 5000 other schools, involved the Vintners of Ireland and organised a high profile national campaign with the GAA in order to promote road safety. They also organised many other events including a very moving prayer service for those who have died on our roads.

	Road Safety Fri Feb 1st 2008 15:58:44
	The road safety project attained the national title in the YSI competition. Please enter our competition.Please visit our website www.drivefastdiefast.ie

Transition Year Activities

The following is a sample of the activites that make up our TY programme. The programme can differ from year to year as we try to make sure that our TY programme is as useful to our students as possible and continues to give them the widest possible range of experiences.

Young Social Innovators Project

The Young Social Innovators of the Year competition was established by Social Innovations Ireland to provide a framework within which young people can examine and respond to social need. Aimed at Transition Year students, the competition is designed to create a forum for progressive thinking on social issues in Ireland, by inviting students to create and develop their own projects to meet specific social needs that they have identified. The competition encourages Transition Year to use their talents, skills and bright ideas to help create a better society.

Paired Reading

Our TY students take part in a paired reading programme with students in the local primary school. The aim of this programme is to encourage the primary school students to enjoy reading and of course our TY students improve their own communication skills.

Gaisce (Presidents Award)

The President’s Award is Ireland’s National Challenge Award, a prestigious and respected individual award programme, and a challenge from the President of Ireland, to young people between 15 and 25 years of age. The award is broken down into a number of tasks which must be completed by the student - some of the activities in our TY programme are related to these tasks.

Mini-Company

In the mini-company task, students have to come up with a business idea and implement it. This involves allocating tasks and roles within the company (marketing, product design, product test, accounting etc.) and then designing, manufacturing and selling a product. At the end, a report is written which gives details of profits (which are shared between the students) and the problems they encountered and how they overcame them.

Form & Fusion

The Coca-Cola Form and Fusion Design Awards is an exiting, educational competition which invites post-primary students from all over Ireland to create wild and wonderful costumes out of recycled, waste or alternative materials.

Work Experience

Each year, our transition year students go on work experience in an area that interests them. This is a good opportunity for them to experience the world of work and learn the sort of inter-personal skills that will become vital when the leave school.

Transiton Year Trips (Local & International)

Transition years go visit activity centres as well as a tour abroad. Past destinations for the international trip have included Barcelona, Paris & New York.

Musical

One of the highlights of the school year is the TY musical. TY students are involved in all aspects of it from set design to sound & lighting and of course the cast!. Past productions have included Oklahoma, Grease, Me And My Girl & Calamity Jane. Performances take place in the school gym hall and are so popular that tickets can be hard to get!

Debating

TY students take part in various debating (in both english and irish) and public speaking competitions up to all-ireland level. These competetions provide valuable experience and self-confidence for the students involved.

School Bank

In association with AIB, our TY students run a school banking service which is made available to all students in the school.