On behalf of DIT, students from St. Pauls C.B.S. are being tutored in web design. Every Wednesday 13 students attend the class in DIT Aungier street.
Transition Year students have just finished a Media course. The course was undertaken over a 7 week period. It was taught by Yvonne McDonald. The students learned camera angles, camera shots and how to use the camera etc.
The course helped by giving an insight to the world of show business. At least 35 from 38 students said that they didn't know much about show business until they undertook the course. They also said they would consider media studies in college.
The first two weeks covered the theory and understanding of the course. The course consisted of three phases. The first phase was theory. In the second phase we brainstormed and delegated jobs for our project. The third phase consisted of shooting the project. The show will consist of interviews with some teachers and the changes they have seen over the years in the school.
The second set of interviews consist of two of the school's top athletes. It will also include a news programme in which they reported the recent news from the school.
Early in the school year trasition year students took a trip to Delphi, Co. Mayo on Friday 16th September. The train journey was four hours with another few hours travel on the coach to the place they were staying. They arrived at Westport train station at 12:00 noon. They boarded the coach and departed for Delphi.
When they arrived in Delphi at 1:00pm, they were sorted into groups of 9 and were given a timetable of their activities. The first activity was kayaking in the near-by bay. This was followed by dinner. After dinner some played football and some went on a hill walk. At 9:00pm they watched a movie before heading to bed.
That following day Saturday 17th September, they did more activities. First up was canoeing, then they finished for lunch. The second activity of the day was surfing in Clew Bay. Before geting onto the surf-boards they did a lesson on surfing. An instructor came into the changing room before heading out to sea on the boards and showed them how to get up on the board when a wave was approaching. He then took the board out on the sea and they follwed, doing exactly as they were taught. The current was a bit strong on the day and some fell off their boards before getting up without any complaints, to joke about it. They kept going and going until they were knocked off their boards again and again. At 5:00pm they finished again for dinner. After dinner there was another hill-walk throughout the bogs of the near-by mountains. Everybody participated in the hill-walk. Some stumbled upon weak patches of bog, one student actually jumped into a weak patch of bog and swam around in it.
Nobody came dowm from the mountain clean. Everybody had either jumped into the weak bog patches or just jumped and started to swim around. At least a quarter of them were dirty, some more than others actually were, but not as dirty as others proved to be.
Transition year students have just finished their second work experience out of two in the school year. The two classes did different types. One class did a career choice work experince while the other class did voluntary work experience. Earlier in the year it was the other way around.
All the jobs were found by two teachers. Then the students were allocated a job or simply did a job they got themselves. The work experince was a helping hand to some in choosing their career when they leave school. Some found that the work world isn't all its said to be. After the work experince some students said they would consider the jobs they were given as a career option. Some found their jobs interesting and said that its the career they were longing for.
One of the Transition Year classes decided they would do a Mini company project. There were three different groups that did different projects. The aim of the project was to see who could make it all the way and make a reasonable profit. Two of the three groups succeeded in making a profit but they didn't make as much as they hoped.
The two groups that succeeded didn't make what was expected, but they all made a contribution to their projects. One group stood until they sold more than the other two. They made sure they did what was expected of them and came through. After it all ended it wasn't a big success but they got there in the end.
Before Christmas last year, Transition Year students helped to raise funds for the Central Remedial Clinic. The students along with fifth year LCA students, went out on to the streets of the city centre and raised over 1000 Euro for the clinic. They went from St Stephen's Green to Henry Street collecting donations from passers-by.
Their charity work only began there. They went on and had a sleep over in school to raise more funds for Malawi, they raised over 2000 Euro from the sleep over. All in all the Transition Year students have raised over 5000 Euro for charity so far over a three month period.
Transition Year students have taken a course through-out the school year. The course consists of seven modules in which there is an exam at the end of each module. There have been two tests so far with not many people passing. This course enables students to have an understanding in computers and they will recieve a certificate at the end of the year.
To get this cert students must pass all seven exams scoring 24 marks on each exam which is 75%. If students fail to reach the 75% mark by even 1% they fail the test.
Transition Year students take part in certain activities every Thursday afternoon. The activties they take part in are Football, Rowing, Pool and Table Tennis. Ten students take part in rowing, another ten take part in pool and table tennis. The rest take part in football. All the students think activities are the best part of the week.
Some describe rowing as a great part of physical development, some describe football as the best activity they have ever done in school, the rest describe pool and table tennis as a relaxing sport in which they can enjoy theselves very much to their delight.
Transition students are currently undergoing a mentoring programme with sixth class students from the primary school next door to the school. The programme is part of the Edmund Rice awards given to the students at their graduation at the end of the school year. The students from the primary school take their lunch hour to come and play pool, board games and table tennis with the Transition Year students. The programme is also to give sixth class students the opportunity to get to know the students as they come in to the school from sixth class. It will enable them to know a few faces when they need to know anything about the school or about any teachers they might not know.
This programme is going to give both students from each school an opportunity to interact with each other as well as the Transition Year students who will be looking out for the new first years when they come into the school in September.
Before the Christmas break, trasition year students went to a show in DCU as part of their Transition Year science course. The show was hosted by one of Ireland's leading scientists. The show was attended by other schools from the city area. The show gave the students a look into the world of science and how different types of gas and liqiud were made. The show went on for one and a half hour. Students from different schools volunteered to help with some experiments and other types of hand held experiments. The show proved to be a success and the students said that they would go again.
