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The Transition Year Programme at The High School is
designed to provide students with the opportunity to discover their own talents, aptitudes
and abilities, and to develop skills and competencies within a broad general education.
It challenges students to accept responsibility for their own learning, to
improve their performance in many core areas, explore new subjects, develop their own
interests, and to evaluate their progress.
Transition Year gives an opportunity to develop
other skills. Apart from academic achievement, qualities such as personal organisation,
application and initiative, and the ability to participate in a team and relate well with
others, are important.
As Transition Year programmes are designed
within each school, no two programmes are the same. We believe ours offers stable
academic continuity with very exciting opportunities to branch out as well!
Photograph below: Hill walking provides one
of the challenges for Transition Year students who seek the President's Award (Gaisce).
Some key points about the nature of
Transition Year
- it is
intended to be a break point from examination stress
it is an opportunity to learn that education
is valuable for its own sake, not for examinations
-
it is a mid-teen break for students to step back, reflect,
analyse themselves, set goals for the future, plan strategies to achieve those goals
-
it presents an opportunity to increase self-confidence and
develop character further
- the
curriculum is not hidebound by the points system pressure
it allows growth and development of whole
personality
there are opportunities for the artistic,
spiritual, philosophical, aesthetic, practical and physical facets of education as well as
the academic
-
it enhances maturity, awareness, informed decision-making,
lifeskills
- it gives
an insight into adult and working life through
-
it provides exposure to different learning
environments through
-
it facilitates learning from experience
through
-
it
provides a good foundation
for the Leaving Certificate through
Work experience
Work experience is an integral part of the Transition Year Programme.
It provides an opportunity for students to experience the world of work and it is hoped
that a wide range of work will be available. Students will spend one week in the Autumn
and two weeks in the Spring in a work situation. The placements will be carefully
selected, and students will be supervised and their experience monitored. Employers will
be asked to assess the students’ progress as follows:
Punctuality, attendance
Appearance
Co-operation, integration, willingness
Completion of assigned tasks
General comments including suitability for type of
work
Students will keep a journal/diary of their experience, and there will be a
discussion of it in school afterwards.
There are detailed downloadable descriptions of all
subjects in the curriculum and of the programmes available at Junior, Transition
and Leaving stages, on our downloads
page. |
