In Transition Year in St. Mel's College we study the following subjects:
English
For english this year we had Fr.Joe McGrath. At the beginning of the year we watched different educational documentaries. Fr. McGrath was introducing us to the concept of film as a studied text and getting us used to comparing. We were also introduced to Shakespeare by studying sonnets to get us used to the language, which would help us complete the Leaving Certificate if studying a Shakespearean play. This was very enjoyable. We also touched on drama and on various types of literature.
Irish
Our Irish teacher for transition year is Ms. Trudy Farrell. We have it twice a week. For the first part of the year we read and studied “An Triail”, a drama about a girl in 1950’s Ireland who gets pregnant and must flee to the city to escape her family’s and her community’s judgement. This will be our drama for the Leaving Certificate. After we had finished it we attended a performance of the drama in The BlackBox Theatre in Galway. The play was very well done and we all enjoyed the trip to Galway. After we had finished “An Triail”, we began practising our Oral Irish for an exam we had in December. Mrs. O Toole examined us and gave us grades for our christmas report. When we finished our orals, we touched on the grammar section amd began doing excercises as practice. After that for the remaining week, we read short stories and watched Irish documentaries.
Maths
This year Transition Year students had plenty to do in Maths class with Mr Enright. Lots of topics were covered such as Everyday Maths, Algebra, Probability, Geometry and Trigonometry. We enjoyed learning maths in new and fun ways and benefited from our time in Maths class.
Social Studies
Social Studies consists of History with Mr Waldron and Geography with Ms Fallon. This year we have been working on our projects to be put up around the school. Mr Waldron gave us various titles to base our projects on. We also chose a novel each and read it. we then reviewed our choice for Mr. Waldron
Science
Science has been one of our best and most productive subjects this year. Our two biggest accomplishments have been that we entered project in the BT Young Scientist Exhibition and that we have started the "Green Flag" campaign. Sean Costello, Fergal Keenan and Rory Sullivan represented us in the "Young Scientist" competition with their project titled; "Does The Price Of An Item Affect How It's Rated?", in the Social Category.
Career Guidance
We have Mr O’ Shea for career guidance, in this class we have been discussing about different career possibilities for each student. It’s very helpful as it helps us realise what careers may be possible for us in the near future. It has been enjoyed by all.
Leisure Studies
So far throughout the course of the year we have played golf, rugby, soccer and tennis four completely different sports. We played golf for a few weeks and we enjoyed it very much. We learned about how to hold the club, the different types of swings and how we should be positioned when swinging. We were taken to a Pitch and Putt course in Ballymore and given a proper try at golf. It was a very enjoyable course. We also did a six week course in water safety and life saving in our local swimming pool.
French
The French classes that we have had this year are very different to the ones we had previous to the Transition Year. We have looked at different things in France and at things that are associated with France. This was a better way of learning about France and an easier way because you didn’t feel like it was actual work. We all did projects at the start of the year on things such as what cars France produce and other things that are well associated with France, and we have learned a lot about the French language and the French culture this year in our French classes.
German
This year Transition Year students had plenty of work to do every week. We had German twice a week and we worked hard for those two classes. Mr O’Connell taught us everything we needed to know about German, he gave us crosswords and other worksheets, he also gave us a city each to do a project on. Seven students altogether made up our German class and on behalf of them and I we really enjoyed the year.
Construction
We have Mr. Galvin for construction. As part of this class we entered Buildings of Tomorrow Competition. We were asked to design a building and model of a building we would like to be built in Longford. The different teams created such varied designs as a waterslide for the mall, a new facility for the Attic Youth Café, a skate park and much more. It was a group from our T.Y. class that won the competition. Larry Moran, Rory Sullivan, Ryan Mangan, Stephen Duke and Liam Hughes designed the winning entry, a proposal to turn the old, derelict swimming pool into a modern skatepark. It was a fantastic idea and deservedly won.
After the competition finished we began work on a woodwork project. We all decided to create clocks. We sanded, varnished, inlaid and routered our pieces and the end products were beautiful clocks.
After the competition finished we began work on a woodwork project. We all decided to create clocks. We sanded, varnished, inlaid and routered our pieces and the end products were beautiful clocks.
Computers
We have computers with Ms. Mulvihill 3 times a week. We used a lot of these classes to do our project work for the various subjects and courses including the Area Enhancement project, Enterprise and BT Young Scientists. We learned how to use Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. We also did a scratch course during one of the classes until christmas. This was a computer programming class which showed us how to create games. We also created this website and uploaded photographs from during the year in preparation for an end of year slideshow.
Business/Accounting/Economics
This year we get to sample all the business subjects. We have Mr Boland for Business, Ms Dempsey for Accounting and Mr Gacquin for Economics. It has been great to get an insight to what these subjects will be like for the Leaving Certificate.
Religion
Fr. Joe Mc Grath teaches us Religion this Year. During the year we have touched on topics such as Sectarianism, Communities of Faith, Different religions, Empathy and morality. The religion course has been very interesting and enjoyed by all.