Overview
The Transition Year Programme promotes the personal, social, vocational and educational development of students and prepares them for their role as autonomous, participative and responsible members of society (Transition Year Guidelines, 1994, Department of Education).
The Transition Year Programme is optional in Coláiste Iósaef since 2009.
It is a unique one year programme tailored to meet the needs of our students who have completed the Junior Certificate. It provides a bridge to enable them to make the transition from the more dependent type of learning associated with the Junior Certificate to the more independent learning environment associated with the Senior Cycle. It encourages personal and social development and recognises the need for students to grow in independence.
Students are offered the opportunity to:
- Study subjects in a more practical and active way
- Take part in a Personal Development programmes through sessions with a counsellor
- Receive information and attend talks on social issues such as Drugs, Depression and Suicide, as well as life skills such as Healthy Eating, Driving and IT
- Take responsibility for running Mini-Companies, thus developing a spirit of enterprise.
- Study subjects that they did not get an opportunity to engage with at Junior cycle, have taster sessions in Leaving Certificate subjects
- Become involved in Community Care Programmes that take students beyond the world of School and helps develop an awareness of social issues such as the charity work and volunteering time for local causes
- Develop new skills and try new activities such as self-defense, leadership and Zumba, enter competitions to cultivate and progress innate skills
- Engage in work experience.
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.
Message from TY Coordinator, Ms Michele Daly
During my time as Transition Year coordinator the programme has evolved to accommodate the needs, interests and varied opportunities that both students and teachers identify as areas for inclusion within the programme. No two years are the same as students help drive change and the activities on offer for their advantage. The progress for each student is individual but ultimately the more students involve themselves in TY (try new activities, subjects, competitions etc.) the greater the benefit to each student. Application forms are completed by interested students for TY and this is followed by an interview whereby students can secure their place. At the end of the year, students have a graduation ceremony where they can display their work, talents or skills learned during the year. Overall, students have matured, are informed of subject choice/requirements for coursework and are much more capable of dealing with the workload and demands of the Leaving Certificate.
What is the purpose of TY?
To promote maturity.
- Maturity in studies by making students more self-directed learners through the development of general, technical and academic skills.
- Maturity in relation to work and careers by developing work-related skills.
- Personal maturity by providing opportunities to develop communication skills, self-confidence and a sense of responsibility.
- Social maturity by developing greater ‘people’ skills and more awareness of the world outside school.
- Maturity that will help the student make a more informed choice of subject for their Leaving Certificate studies
Is TY suited to all Students?
With its emphasis on development and maturity, all young people can benefit from the programme. Transition Year, in particular, can allow for the development of an individual’s multiple intelligences-linguistic, logico-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist.
Why I Chose to do Transition Year?
There were many and varied reasons as to why the students chose to undertake the programme:
- “I wanted to explore my career options. I didn’t know what subjects to pick…I will never regret it.”
- ‘the overall spirit of TY”
- “my friends did it…to mature…the experience”
- “To learn new skills. It gives us a chance to mature. More time to pick what subjects to do for the Leaving Cert.”
- “To learn more about what I want to work as. To learn more about my interests.”
- “I needed a year to learn about my options after school… TY allows me to try new subjects”
- ‘It is really good fun…I would be fairly young doing the Leaving Cert if I didn’t do TY.”
- “ the musical is the main draw for me… I want to pursue Music in college and as a career”
