Introduction:

The Transition Year class of 2019-2020 have settled in really well with a jam-packed schedule here at the college. They are experiencing a large number of subjects including:

• Taekwondo

• Korean

• GAA (Future Leaders)

• Art

• PE

• English

• Irish

• Modern Languages

• Mini-Company

• Development Education

• Community Care

• Agricultural Science

• Music

• Food Studies

• Environmental & Social Studies

• Photography, Science

• Politics & Society

• Computer Studies

• Maths

As you can see, our students are very busy during the week as well as having Work Experience every Wednesday. Students are undertaking a variety of Work Experience placements as well as taking block weeks with the Guards, the Department of Education and local Primary Schools. Congratulations to Aaron Farrell who has been lucky enough to win a place on the “Walk in My Shoes” programme with St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services and to Emma Lyons and Seán Kirwan have won a place on the “So you want to be a doctor?” course at St. Vincent’s University Hospital.

Taekwondo & Korean:

We are very excited to introduce Taekwondo as a subject with the Olympic Gold medallist Master Cha taking the lead and imparting his skills and knowledge on the students and maybe even developing our own Olympic champions! Ms Park returns this year to teach Korean culture, everything from how to use chopsticks properly to the traditional customs and language of her country. The students are really enjoying these programmes. 

Subject News:

In Life Skills, our students are availing of guidance counselling, guest speakers, career investigations and organising charity events. In GAA (Future Leaders) our students are being introduced to the world of online communication. They have visited Dropbox with Mr Burke and will be guests at Microsoft later in the term. The Mini-Company class were visited by Rock-Nation to offer support and guidance on their mini-company projects. In PE our students will be working towards a Sport Certificate run by the South Dublin County Council.  In English class our students are going to compete in a drama competition outside school with their remake of a Shakespearean classic. In German class students are involved in debating against other Leinster schools. In Spanish our students will undertake the esteemed DELE exam. For Development Education our students will travel to the city centre to the Irish Aid centre. Here they will learn about developing countries and visit the EPIC museum too. 

Community Care is always a favourite, students are involved in the Fast Friends programme with Cheeverstown House, a wonderful initiative developing empathy and friendships. In Music students are learning to play the ukulele as well as running our school variety show with some students also performing on the night. Students are cooking up a storm in the kitchen, giving the Sunflower restaurant a run for its money with their own version of the spicebag! The ESS class are busy promoting our new ban on single-use plastics which has been very positive so far. In Science students have received certificates in CPR training. As you can imagine this takes a lot of preparation on the students and indeed the teacher’s behalf and I would like to thank everyone for their input.   

Learning Opportunities:

We have also been very busy with various trips, guest speakers and charity events. We began with our annual trip to the East Coast Adventure Centre for our bonding trip. Students enjoyed bouldering, zip-lining, banana boating, kayaking, pier jumping, team games, a nature trail and plenty of evening fun too. Our next trip was to the National Ploughing Championships and for once the sun was shining! The Road Safety Authority will visit the students in November, we are bag packing for Down Syndrome Ireland and have been refereeing with Futsol. We attended a coffee morning for Harold’s Cross Hospice organised by the St. Jude’s Men’s Shed as well as purchasing onions, garlic and wildflower seeds for planting from the local garden centre. Garda Power will be coming in before the midterm to discuss safety and students themselves are organising committees for the following charities, Crumlin Children’s hospital, As I Am, Cycle Against Suicide and the DSPCA.

Skills Developed:

• Leadership 
• Organisational
• Planning & Coordinating 
• Cooperation
• Self-Awareness
• Safety-Awareness
• Environmental-Awareness
• Wellbeing
• IT Skills
• Musical
• Financial Management
• Self Defence
• Cookery
• Health
• Artistic
• Linguistic 

Mentor Meetings:

Students are engaging in regular meetings with a teacher mentor in order to discuss and gauge their progress in the areas of wellbeing, relationships, goal making, extra-curricular activities, time-management and academic progress. The feedback from these meetings has been very positive and promising.

We will be in touch again with an update before Christmas but if you have any queries relating to Transition Year please contact Jenna Clune here at the college. For more information and pictures please see www.stmacdaras.ie. 

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