Transition Year

Transition Year has been offered in Castleblayney College since 1986. We believe that ours is an excellent Transition Year Programme in quality, content and variety.

Aims
We are committed to offering a programme as recommended by the Department of Education and Science. Our Transition year Programme:

Promotes the personal, social, educational and vocational development of students, to prepare them for their role as autonomous, participative, and responsible members of society. (DES)
Educates for maturity with the emphasis on social awareness and social competence.
Provides experience of adult and working life.

Transition Year gives scope to our students to continue to develop in a holistic way in our school. The TY Programme is designed to help each student make the transition from a young teenager to a young adult, where students learn to take on more responsibility in their lives, particularly for their own learning. Our students learn transferable skills and qualities, which are so necessary in today’s fast changing world and which will help them in their preparation for their future careers. These include being adaptable, innovative, self-motivated, creative, using initiative, developing the skills of problem-solving, organisational skills, excellent leadership and communication skills, to name but a few! This will enable them to grow in maturity and to develop self-confidence which enables them to participate and to contribute in a positive way, as young adults to society as a whole.

Through the various subjects and modules, our Transition Year students are afforded many opportunities of learning, laying a strong foundation for their following two-year Leaving Certificate Course. Students learn to take responsibility for their own learning and to engage in the projects and tasks assigned by their teachers, with the support of their parents and guardians. Students are assessed by their teachers in transition year on an ongoing basis.

Programme content
Our course is divided approximately into 60% core subjects and 40% modular subjects. Students also have two separate weeks of Work Experience as recommended by the Department. Modular subjects give variety to the programme and give the students an opportunity to acquire new skills in a variety of subject areas.

Workshops, Speakers and Trips
Workshops, speakers and trips organised by teachers in the various subject areas include

AWARE
Build-a-bank
Castleblayney Enterprise Centre
Civil Defence
Dance workshops
DATS testing
DCU TY Careers Day
Disability Awareness
F1 Competition
First Aid Skills
Gaeltacht trip
Gaisce (the Presidents Award)
Intercultural projects (Belfast, Derry, Dublin)
Intergenerational Project (teaching computers to adults)
Junk Kouture (Fashion project)
Mentor to younger students
Microsoft Office Certified Computer Exam
Mini-Company Entrepreneur Award
Peer Education (Monaghan Education Centre)
School Show
Sports Events
Tanagh Adventure Centre
School Tour Abroad (e.g. France, Italy)
Volunteering Organisation

Transition Year Certification
Transition Year Certificates are awarded at the end of the year at three levels:
Distinction, Merit and Pass.

Individual awards are awarded in the following areas: Leadership, Initiative, Social Involvement, Information Technology, Mini-company and Sport.

For further information on TYP in general see www.ncca.ie, www.pdst.ie, www.slss.ie, www.education.ie

For students, as is said at the start of your year, ‘what you put into the year, is what you get out of it’ and for those students who put a lot of effort into their TY programme year, they will certainly find it to be a very busy year!

Ms. Kennedy

Programme Co-ordinator