Here you will find information on the various courses we did throughout the year.
Enda Flynn - Financial Advisor
This year on a Thursday Enda Flynn came in and taught us the basics of life assurance and all various types and methods of insurance. Enda is a former student of St. Mel’s College who recently started his own business called Flynn and Lynch which is located on Dublin Street. This class was very interesting as it gave us a more in depth view into the rules, regulations and basic aspects of insurance.
Nicholas Sweeney Architect
Nicholas Sweeney of Sweeney Architecture came into our class to speak to us about the competition we will be entering. He gave us advice and tips and helped us develop our proposed plan. He also gave us a talk on architecture which was interesting. Our project includes redeveloping the old swimming pool in Longford into a skate park as there are no facilities for people who have in interest in skating and I think our idea caught his attention which is a good sign for our group.
Green Schools
On Tuesday the 12th of October a man from the Longford County Council, Gary Brady, came to our class to talk about the Green Schoolslag program. He advised that the whole class participate in the Green Schools program. He said that the aim was to create a better environment and also to make people aware of pollution. The following week we went around in groups doing several different checks, like the bins in all the class rooms, the canteen, the staff room , the assembly hall, the study hall, and the school grounds studying where the most general waste and recycling is.
Gaisce
The President’s Award or Gaisce is a project that aims to get people involved in new pastimes and the community. It is very popular for TYs to take part as they have extra time due to no exams. The award involves 13 hours (1 per week) in 3 areas, community involvement, physical recreation and personal skill. We must also do an extra 13 hours (1 per week) and a camping or hiking trip overnight. For personal skill I joined a band (3 steps back) and we progressed to the final of the Longford youth factor. For physical recreation I began training in Mixed Martial arts and plan to keep it on after TY and for community involvement I coached and trained the Melview national school basketball team.
Child Psychology
Every Wednesday after school for an hour, half the class did a child psychology course which was run by Jennifer Murray. This course was part of our personal development section in the Gaisce. We learned about the different kinds of development a child goes through such as cognitive and physical. This course will help us in the future if we become parents.
CPR/First Aid
For the first two classes after break we started a C.P.R course. We were each given out a booklet explaining it all. Firstly we learned about initial patient assessment. This involved tilting they’re head back to open the airways to see if they’re breathing or not. We were then given a demonstration on how to perform C.P.R and then we did it! Next were shown how to do C.P.R on children and infants. We then learned how to perform C.P.R on an adult while using a defibrillator. We had to do this working in pairs. After that we were given a demonstration on how to put a patient in recovery (safe airway) position. We then had to do a medication assessment on Asprin.
Area Enhancement Project
This year we participated in the Longford Town Area Enhancement project. For our part we had to study Ballymahon Street, Bog Lane, and Killashee Street. We researched the history of the area and with the help of local photographer Shelly Corcoran we took pictures of these areas in the town and suggested ways of improving the area. We had to put all this information into a presentation to send to the council and we look forward to see if any of our ideas will be taken on bo
Young Entrepreneurs Competition
Our Student Enterprise project was basically a blackboard with names written onto it describing how certain people like their tea. We figured that after a while of asking visitors how they like their tea that it would eventually become quite frustrating so we came up with the idea of Chalky’s Teaboards. We spent the whole year coming up with ideas for the project, designing posters, a display board and a very detailed business report. We were shown other projects from previous Transition Year classes so we would know what our competition would be like. Our competition on the day of the Student Enterprise exhibition was quite nerve racking though. There were so many colourful and detailed projects in the competition that we began to worry about our chances of winning best display but thankfully the work we put in paid off. Doing the student Enterprise project was a great experience because we learnt so much about setting up a business and team work. It was one of my favourite parts of Transition Year.
Cookery
We did cooking at two different stages throughout the year. Once before Christmas and the other time was after the Easter break. We were thought by local chef Caroline Mc Cormack. We cooked everything from vegetable soup to chocolate brownies. This course was very successful amongst the students and we all enjoyed it
Photography
Every Thursday, for two hours transition year students have been taking part in a photography course, held by local photographer Shelley Corcoran. Students have been learning about a number of different types of photographs such as ‘Hockney’ and ‘The Rule of Thirds’. We also have been learning about taking photographs with the camera setting on both high and low ISO, taking sports photographs, looking at the shutter speed of cameras and taking some group photographs. We took a trip to some exhibitions in Dublin and practiced street photography while we were there. We entered a competition for Le Crunch Apples which was fun. Towards the end of the year we learned all about studio photography. Our best photographs will be displayed in Backstage Theatre at the end of the year. Check out the photographs we took over the year on Midlands College of Photography Website. http://www.midlandcollegeofphotography.ie/schools/gallery.php?id=1
Mental Health
Every Monday in transition year we have had a class of mental health where we learned a lot about people’s state of mind. We were told stories every week about what people are going through how they feel when a disaster has struck the family. We were told the different types of feelings and the most’s popular ones that came up were depression and anger. On the final day of mental health we watched a film about phoebe prince were it showed us how she died because of bullying.
Safety in the Workplace (Manual Handling)
Every Monday after lunch we go to a “Safety in a workplace” lesson. In this class we were shown pictures of all the kinds of accidents that happened in an unsafe workplace. We were told how to make the site as safe as possible. On the last day we had an exam “Manual Handling”. We were marked on what our stance was when we bent down to pick up the object and we were made do it again if we bent our backs so we had to keep a straight back at all times.
Self Defence
On Monday afternoons, two self-defence instructors came into our school for five/six weeks to teach us all about reading signs that people are going to attack you, pressure points on the body, techniques and also about consequences of your actions/Reaction.
The instructors names are Paddy and Sean. Both of them came in on the first afternoon, but then took turns in the classes. They went into detail with Japanese culture and where certain techniques evolved from and how they developed. They also told us stories about past experiences and stories they heard themselves.
At the end of each session, we finished off with calming, and relaxing Meditation.
The instructors names are Paddy and Sean. Both of them came in on the first afternoon, but then took turns in the classes. They went into detail with Japanese culture and where certain techniques evolved from and how they developed. They also told us stories about past experiences and stories they heard themselves.
At the end of each session, we finished off with calming, and relaxing Meditation.
Toastmasters (Public Speaking)
We have started a public speaking course called “Toastmasters”. This programme will help us in many ways, such as teaching us how to conduct ourselves in things such as job interviews or giving public speeches. It is done voluntarily by Marie and Mike Thomas. Marie is a stress consultant and Mike is a Lecturer in Mathematics, a Mathematician, a Scientist, a music teacher and a Musician. So far, we have learned the different stages of giving a speech, and have learned how to make eye contact with the audience or how to interact with them. We have also learned about body language and different hand gestures, such as how to show if something is heavy or to put emphasis on a quote. So far I think that everybody is enjoying “Toastmasters”.
Dance
We are doing a hip hop dancing course with local dance teacher Amy Duignan, this takes place every Wednesday after lunch and is greatly enjoyed by all. Photographs of this can be found on our Photographs Page.
Water Safety
We did water safety in the mall complex. We did it every Friday morning for an hour. We learned the many skills that is required when there is a life at risk in the water. It was enjoyable.