Is Transition Year worthwhile? Kate Haley from Loreto Community School in Milford has spent a few weeks working for donegaldaily.com. Here she answers the burning question and asks her classmates what they think……
Transition Year, what’s it all about? Do students actually get anything out of a year spent away from stress of exams or does it just make them lazy? A year for development or just a year of dossing… Donegal Daily gets Transition Year students from Loreto Milford’s side of the story.
TY student Kate gives her view on the matter. ‘I can only tell you about my experience of TY, it’s not the same for everyone but I think Transition Year is more than just worthwhile. The things I’ve got to experience have been amazing. All the competitions we’ve got to do and the trips we’ve got to go on were class craic. I’ve have made friends from all corners of Ireland. Work experience has been a real eye opener too and it’s really good to know what different jobs are like out in the real world. Of course it goes without saying that working for donegaldaily.com was incredible. I would 100% recommend it to any student considering doing it and it’s defiantly not a doss year!’
Meadhbh has her say ‘I think honestly Transition Year is as good as you make it! If you do nothing the whole year it’s going to be boring apart from the trips but if you enter all the competitions that are open to you it will make the year a whole lot more interesting and worth while. TY isn’t for everybody so I guess you just have to make the decision for yourself.’
Eilis tells us of her experience ‘I think TY is totally worth it, I think the people who get involved in all the competitions and all the extra curricular activities get the most out of it. It is definitely not a doss year if you take part in all the activities. I loved TY!’
Ciara says ‘It’s a good year and I would recommend that any self-motivated student should do it because it gives you the chance to mature and experience new things before going into the senior cycle. Personally for me it was a brilliant experience as I felt I needed a break from all the studying and books but believe me TY is no doss year! I got involved in as many activities as I could and I feel this has really helped me improve my confidence and independent learning skills. TY gives you a taste of the working world outside of school and statistically people who’ve done TY do better in there Leaving Cert then those who go on from Junior Cert. TY was totally worth it and I would undoubtedly do it again if I could.’
Heather thinks, ‘If you keep busy in TY, then it is really fun and worthwhile but if you don’t get involved in the activities then it can be really boring. I think if you don’t think you’d be bothered working in TY and you’re just taking it to doss then don’t do TY. You’re just wasting another year of your life in school! So if you’re going to do TY and you want to make it worthwhile then get stuck into everything going. You’ll have a class time and learn loads rather than dossing and being bored for the rest of term.’
Kieran advises, ‘TY has its ups and downs and it’s not for everyone! It can be class craic and other times it can seem really pointless. I loved TY because we did so many things and we were involved in loads of competitions so we got to meet a lot of different people. I think if you’re considering doing TY then just go for it! It’s really made me a lot more confident then I used to be and on the whole it was an amazing experience.’
There we have it. It would seem that Transition Year is what you make of it. So make it an amazing year by doing amazing things and giving everything a go. And who ever said it was a doss, not to these TY’s that’s for sure!
Tags:
