I attended Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School and I started Transition Year at the end of August 2016 after finishing my junior cert. Transition Year (TY) is an optional school year (4th year) with the aim of getting you more involved in activities and developing life skills. TY can be very beneficial and enjoyable if you take part in what\"s going on making the most of it as you have many extra trips/outings/activities etc. We had an amazing TY coordinator who managed to make a great year for the 163 students.
Why I did TY
I had never planned to do Ty after hearing how much my brother hated it, however, my Mum and one of my friend's Mums both wanted us to do it. This is where they hatched their evil scheme. They both told us that the other one would do it if the other did it (which neither of us said) So, in the end, we both decided to do TY. The plan fell threw through a few months later when we mentioned it to each other and found out we were fooled, we were FOOLED I TELL YOU. Well, that"s the conclusion I've come to I could be very wrong but sure...... LOL, I guess.
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| The TY Class of 2016/17 |
Starting TY
Before we were given our timetables, picked our subjects, or did anything like that, we went on a team bonding trip to Cappanalea. Side Note: I remember when we got there, 3 or 4 people got sick on the bus which was.......... memorable. Cappanalea was a great trip as we did many interesting and unique team bonding activities such as guiding someone rock climbing while they were blindfolded. A few days later we were properly sorted into our base classes where I was put into 4.5.
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| My TY Hoodie |
New Friends
When I was put into 4.5 I was the only one from my friend\"s group in the class. I thought I would be on my own for most of the year at this point because of the fact that 4.4 to 4.6 didn\"t mix the classes between 4.1 to 4.3, which all of my friends were in. I sat with 2 fellas I had a few classes with over the years and another girl I never met before. Thankfully it didn\"t take long for me to adapt to this new wild habitat and then got to know the rest of their group where I still meet up with most of them today.
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| My Friend Group |
Fashion Show
As a tradition in Mounthawk, the TY's will put on an annual fashion show with a theme to raise money for different charities. Our year\"s theme was "Everything Irish". I was on stage 3 times in total as an Irish Rugby Player, modeling a suit from a shop and coupled with someone to walk down the stage in our outfits. I loved the preparation in particular like getting the suits or doing the rehearsals as everything made the show an overall success and a great boost for the TY's.
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| Our Fashion Show Ticket and DVD |
European Studies
We got to choose most of our class modules and my favorite by far was European Studies. I'm going to go more in-depth about this class in another blog as it was vast in activities and projects. But in short, we took part in debates, competitions and worked on many different projects threw out the year. The debates we were in took place in other schools or in the class preparing for competitions. We had to finish a few projects by the end of the year to qualify for the Ambassadors school's award, but I may talk about that in the European Studies blog someday.
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| The European Studies TY Class of 2016/17 |
Gaisca
The Gaisca Presidents Award is a personal development program for people between the age of 15 to 25. There are 3 awards you can get which include the Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards. In TY we could apply for the bronze award where we would have to complete 4 key challenges including Community Involvement, Personal Skill, Physical Recreation, and an Adventurous Journey. Thankfully I finished my challenges before the year ended and qualified for the Gasica Bronze Award.
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| My Gasica Bronze Award |
Trips
As part of TY, we went on many trips and hikes to keep the year interesting which were great craic and memorable. Some of my favorite trips were:
- Cappanalea
- Torc Waterfall
- Dublin Science Fest
- E.Y.P sessions in Cork (weekend stay)
- Mont Brandon
- European Studies class trip to Portmagee
- Gaisce walk Annascaul (overnight stay)
- Trip to Clare to see the Burren (overnight stay)
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| Top of Torc Mountain |
Work Experience
In TY you have to do work experience in 4 different workplaces for 4 weeks each. 4.5 had to do their work placement starting in January when we came back after Christmas. You get to choose where you want to work so I tried to choose places where I thought I would like to work
- Petmania (A pet shop where I worked with the animals and worked on the floor)
- I.T Tralee (A college where I sat in on lectures for animation)
- Horgans (A shop where I worked on the floor and in storage)
- Liscahane garden center (A garden center where I worked sorting and taking care of the plants)
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| A Little Bird at the Garden Centre |
Community Work
For 16 weeks of TY, you are required to do a few hours of community work in your area. The school finds a few places that will take us to volunteer and we can pick out of those options. Some places included nursing homes, working with people with disabilities or working in schools, my friend and I went to volunteer at St Vincent De Paul charity shop. Here we sorted the back room, mainly sorting the donated books and DVDs but we could also be seen stacking shelves. The other volunteers were lovely and overall was a great experience
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| Totally Working Hard at Community Work |
Plays
Out of the TY fund, the school had for us they would bring students to plays and shows that were going on in Tralee or other places. I saw most of them and the ones I saw were:
- Phantom of the Opera
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
- Romeo and Juliet
- Evita
- Waiting for Godot
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| The Stage for "Waiting for Godot" Before it Started and Yes That\"s a Real Man |
Fun Extras
We also had a lot of things throughout the year that kept us entertained and gave us a few old laughs
- Coasteering
- Surfing
- Ice Skating
- Irish Caili
- Sailing/Yacht/Speed Boat
- Ghost World Record Attempt
- TY Show/Awards Night
TY Overall
Overall Transition year was a great school year and was a great time in my life and it really changed my life for the better. I loved going to new places with the new friends I had made and I had a great time overall. How much you enjoy TY depends on how much you take part in the activities, so I decided that I would take part in as much as I could to get the most out of the year. Hopefully, this has brought back a few memories to others who were in my year and anyone who did TY. What I would say to anyone thinking about doing TY would be that don\"t listen to what others said about it, trust yourself and go for it!!!
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| A Few of My Friends and our TY Coordinator |
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