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All Students are encouraged to take the Transition Year Programme
after their Junior Certificate course. This programme has
been run in St. Brigid's College since 1980 and aims to:
• Allow each student to develop life skills in a more
experience based learning environment;
• Encourage each student to take more control of her
own education;
• Enable students to choose their Leaving
Certificate options with a greater degree of confidence
and maturity.
TY
Diary 2011
Thanks to the school’s excellent links with the local
community, students are given the opportunity to take part
in work experience. The curriculum for Transition Year aims
to allow students to maintain their contact with the core
subjects for the Leaving
Certificate while also giving them the opportunity to
take on new subjects.
The students have time-tabled classes for the following subjects:
Core Subjects: English, Irish, Maths, French
Non Examination subjects: Religion, P.E., Computer Studies,
Mini Co., Career Guidance
As well as the above subjects each student gets the opportunity
to study 8 subjects from the following modules:
Module 1: Biology, Home Economics, Music
Module 2: Chemistry, Art, Geography
Module 3: History, Accounting, Business
Module 4: Physics, Home Economics, Biology, Business
The following Certificate courses are also provided:
First Aid, Safe Food Programme, Speech & Drama.
All TY students are given the opportunity of partaking in
the School Musical and the Fashion Show.
As an aid to fostering self-esteem, confidence and personal
relations many extra curricular activities are provided and
encouraged. These include courses in Genealogy, Staying Alive,
Interior Design and Dress design. Students take part in the
Gaisce
Awards, The
Claddagh Group, Leadership Skills and Personal presentation.
Dance and film workshops are provided and each student is
assessed and interviewed on an end of year portfolio.
Social and cultural trips to Colleges, Historical trips and
visits to Outdoor Pursuit Centres in France are organised.
Guest Speakers are invited to talk on career options, social
issues etc and students are encouraged to become involved
in Voluntary organisations.
Our breakfast call was at 8am the next morning and by 10am
we were starting off for the final 11 miles of our glorious
walk. The final days trek didn’t entail as much climbing
as the previous day thankfully, as it mainly took us down
gravel paths, grasslands, beaches and cliffs. After leaving
smerwick harbour behind us we soon took in a beautiful 6km
walk along stunning beaches. After a short lunch stop in Ballydavid,
our final hurdle was a 3km cliff walk before we eventually
arrived at our destination where the bus was awaiting our
arrival just after 4pm. The walk left us all with sore feet
and some with blisters but overall with a feeling of a huge
sense of achievement and this was rewarded with a stop in
McDonalds on the way home.
43 transition year students left Callan at midday on May
22nd for Dublin airport where we flew to La Fosca, Spain the
location in which we were about to spend the best week of
our life accompanied by the brave Ms Bradfield and Ms Ivers.
Our groupies Tom, Flo and Mark met us at the airport where
they took us to our gorgeous campsite. We were shortly giving
a taste for the brilliant activities that lay ahead as our
first day included a fun packed morning by the pool and an
afternoon at Palamos beach where future sailors were found
as we took to the ocean in our toppers. The day was topped
of with the first of our nightly discos where our musical
dances were re-inacted. The next day involved a trip to the
nearby town of Tossa de Mar where we managed to drag Ms Bradfield
into the warm Mediterranean ocean for a lesson in snorkelling
which was followed by some holiday shopping in the petite
town.
As we went further into the week our amazing activities included
shopping and site seeing in the beautiful city of Girona,
canoeing, kayaking, staff talent show, banana boating, sailing
catamarans, windsurfing, bar games, further shopping and lots,
lots more. But an event that became a daily activity for most
of the year was admiring the gorgeous instructors who we still
believe had to pass a good looking test to work there. We
also got the opportunity to go to Port Aventura for a day,
which entailed an early start and late finish, where the real
dare devils of the year came out as half the year boarded
the largest rollercoaster in Europe, the Dragon Khan. With
our final day came a lot of tears, but also a lot of happy
memories as we left Spain Friday night and headed back home.
The week was definitely an experience we will never forget
especially as the songs we learned are still sung and “numbers”
are still used on regular trips. Spain was a brilliant trip
to top off an amazing year!
NB
By Jacinta Murray
Friday the twelfth of September was our Transition Year
Induction Day. We all gathered in the hall first class in
a big circle. Ms. Bradfield then walked in and explained what
was ahead of us. Firstly we were to do a picture profile of
ourselves, by cutting out pictures from various magazines,
and sticking them on paper to represent our personality. We
liked this so much it went on well after eleven o’clock,
giving us little time to create our little towns. We did this
by getting into groups. All we were given was a big white
sheet and a list of facilities to be put into the town. This
task made us negotiate a lot as everybody had different ideas
for the imaginary town. Our final exercise of the day and
the most anticipated was the fashion show using recycled materials.
A group of about six, each chose one person to mode. We used
a black plastic bag, crepe paper, sellotape, string and tin
foil. It was great fun and all the designs were modelled at
the end. Overall it was a great day and gave us a taste of
what the year ahead would be like.
-Rachel Freaney
This year as part of our transition year programme
we are taking the subject of horticulture with Ms. O’
Connell. Every Wednesday bedecked in our Wellington boots
and old clothes we head out for our class. At the start of
the year we planted daffodils and hyacinths in lovely pots
to be sold at parent/teacher meetings. We sold the daffodils
at the recent parent/teacher meeting and were very successful
in making a profit. Over the past few weeks we have also been
working on our little garden patch at the front of the school.
We have filled the bed with many bulbs, which will flower
in the spring in a blaze of colour. In preparation for Christmas
we are also learning the art of flower arranging with the
aim of making lovely Christmas wreathes and table arrangements.
-Ali O’Halloran, Geraldine Doheny, Laura Quirke and
Patricia Mullally.
On Wednesday 26th November 2008 Ms. O’ Connell’s
fourth year Horticulture class did flower arrangements. Ms.
O’ Connell demonstrated how to make a Christmas Flower
arrangement. She split us into three groups and gave us a
chance to try and make our own flower arrangements. When we
were finished they all looked lovely and colourful. We all
had great fun making them.
-Aoife Power and Sinead Lannigan.
On October 15th 2008 a bus full of transition years rolled
out of St. Brigid’s under the watchful eyes of Ms. O’Connell
and Ms. Bradfield. We were headed for Dublin City University,
the Botanic Gardens and the National Aquatic Centre. On arriving
outside the famous “Helix Theatre” home of R.T.E’s
“You’re a Star”, we explored D.C.U’s
on-campus canteen and then were given a guided tour, encountering
a scary dog and some tricky revolving doors, among the many
amazing facilities the college had to offer. The Botanic Gardens
were our next stop where the wonderful and weird plants, the
orchid house and the sunflower maze intrigued us. After this,
we made our way to the National Aquatic Centre where slides
and a wave pool kept us hugely entertained for the remainder
of the day.
-Eavan
On the 15th October we visited the Botanic Gardens in Dublin!
When we arrived first we did not think it even looked like
a college. It was hard to believe a place of such greenery
and peace could exist in the middle of Dublin. The grass was
a rainbow of green, with people strolling leisurely around.
We all shuffled uncertainly into the main office, glad to
be out of the cold and looking forward to discovering the
green expanse. We were greeted by one of the Directors of
the school and led out. We were first shown the nearest garden,
we ventured over a cobbled bridge that was dusted with small
pink petals that had floated down off the trees. It looked
exactly like pink snow. We were then shown the towering green
houses that we learned were reconstructed during the seventies.
We all thought they held a strong resemblance to the green
houses in the Harry Potter movies. After that we got lost
in a maze of sunflowers. It was a massive maze and probably
looked glorious in the summer, but the winter had turned them
grey. All in all, it was a really enjoyable day , but I still
don’t think a career in horticulture is for me!
Jo O’Brien.
After the visit to Mountjoy Prison, the transition years
went to the Hugh Lane Art Gallery in Dublin. They were greeted
by their tour guide who brought them around the gallery showing
them famous works of art. Firstly, she took them to a painting
called “the Umbrellas”. She discussed the artist’s
techniques and frame of mind when painting this piece. She
then compared another piece by the same artist to it. The
transition years were then shown work by Claude Monet and
Francis Bacon. The Hugh Lane Gallery famously houses Francis
Bacon’s exact art studio, taken piece by piece from
England and placed in the same way as he had it in his Gallery.
The transition years could look through several windows into
the studio and were a bit surprised to see what a complete
mess it was. Then they saw some of Francis Bacon’s unfinished
work. It was a great experience to have seen the work.
-Aoife Kelly.
On Tuesday 2nd December the fourth years accompanied by Ms.
Bradfield and Ms. Briody went on a trip to Dublin. The bus
left the school at 8.50 and we arrived in Dublin shortly after
11 am. Our first stop was Collins Barracks where we spent
an hour wandering around seeing all the various showcases.
We enjoyed the “way we wore” exhibition; fashions
throughout the century could be seen on stands. We also saw
variety of old fashioned jewellery. We also inspected the
army gear worn – planes and the military jacket which
Michael Collins wore during the 1916 rising in Smithfield.
After an hour or so of this, we took to the ice, where most
of us spent the hour on the ice… literally sitting on
our backsides, while others skated around effortlessly, looking
like pros. We then headed to Dundrum shopping Centre, where
we shopped till we dropped; we spent a lot of time in Hanley’s
Toy Store embracing our inner child. We even managed to persuade
Mr. Hanley to turn on the snow machine for us while we stood
outside singing Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer. We left Dublin
at around 7 and arrived back in Callan around 9pm. Despite
many injuries and skated-over fingers we went home that night
with many shopping bags and happy memories.
At the time of going to press the TY students are frantically
rehearsing for their show that will be performed before Christmas.
This year’s show will be different to previous years
as it comprises of extracts from a number of musicals and
plays such as The Wizard of Oz, Bugsy Malone, Romeo &
Juliet, (modernised and shortened), Our Day Out, Grease, Little
Shop of Horrors, Fame and The Sound of Music.
The TY students have all worked extremely hard and taken responsibility
for ALL aspects of staging the show, from costume design to
choreography and from prop making to programme production.
We have been very impressed by the student’s maturity
and good attitude and can’t wait to see the completed
show!
Pictures
can be seen here
On Wednesday 12th November, the transition years went on a trip
to the National Maritime college in Cork for a tour of the college
and an insight into some of the training courses which lifeguards
and sailor under-go to become qualified. We were shown the pool,
which can simulate all the different condition out a sea. It
even had virtual thunder and lightening. We were also brought
into a ship simulator, which was like being on the bridge of
a ship sailing into Sydney harbour. It was very realistic. We
were brought on a tour of the engine room and shown how all
the different equipment on a ship is operated and also a model
of a ship, which the sailors study to help them learn how to
operate the equipment properly. Before leaving we were given
handouts about the part of Cork and all the different careers
involved with the sea. Some of us also got our photographs taken
with lovely Cork sailors.
-Rebecca Meagher and Maria Power.
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