The aim of Transition Year (TY) in St Paul’s College is to help out students develop personal and social maturity and equipping them with some of the necessary skills needed to succeed in life.
TY acts as a bridge between junior and senior cycle. Our programme offers a wide range of activities, including work experience and social placement.
Given that the year is free from formal state examination we want our students to develop other aspects of their personality in a safe, caring, encouraging educational environment.
It has been shown and is widely agreed the TY helps with all-round development and maturity of students. We seek to give our students a rounded educational experience varying from the classic core subjects to a diverse range of modules.
We find that these contribute to the personal and social development of our students as well as equipping them with necessary life skills to succeed over the coming year.
We base our TY year around two main themes, those of maturity and ‘community’. We value our students’ contribution to our own school environment and equally so to the wider local community. Our Work experience and social placement elements add to this development of maturity and are hugely regarded by the general public.
This involves students teaching IT skills to elderly members of our community. Commenting on the programme Development Officer (Age Action Ireland) Marie Keegan comments:
“The dynamic between each tutor and learner was terrific…the school should be very proud of the impact they’ve had on these older people.”
Our various programmes and training days allow our students to gain additional qualifications outside the classic education model.
TY helps our students grow as people, improve self-confidence and develop the maturity levels required as an adult in the modern world. Many of the skills learned in TY will help our young men in the wider community and outside world. We hope that these experiences help to guide our students to better choices at Leaving Cert level and beyond.
Gaisce – The President’s Award is Ireland’s National Challenge Award for young people, the country’s most prestigious and respected individual Award programme. It is a challenge from the President of Ireland to the young people of Ireland.
In 4th year students get the opportunity to complete the Bronze Award with many students proceeding to do the Silver Award in 5th year.
Gaisce works on the basis of a personal challenge set by the young person. Each student sets their own challenge and agree it with a President’s Award Leader (PAL). They won’t be competing with other participants, as each challenge is completely individual… so the only person they will compete with is themselves. In order for the students to qualify for these awards they must complete a minimum number of weeks in the following activities
– Community involvement
– Personal Skill
– Physical Recreation
– Adventure Journey
Students carry out these tasks in a number of different organisations including St. Vincent de Paul, St. John’s Ambulance or by learning first aid, taking up a musical instrument, rugby, basketball, rowing etc.
The adventure journey is normally organised by the Gaisce Leaders and the students are required to complete all tasks on this trip. In the past students have gone to Glendalough and completed part of the Wicklow Way
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