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Transition Year
2009/2010
- Transition Year students are now participating in a new Road Safety programme. The aim of this course is to raise students’ awareness of every aspect of Road Safety.
- Waterford Sports Partnership in conjunction with Transition Year students has held a Festival of Sport in 2009 and 2010. The aim of this programme is to encourage Transition Year students to increase their level of physical exercise and to promote physical exercise among Junior students.
- Transition Year students have the opportunity to participate in Gaisce, the President’s Awards.
- Log-On-Learn is our new course for retired people, partly sponsored by Intel, Microsoft and An Post. Transition Year students act as individual “buddies” to the adults on the course.
See the Newsletters for Many More Activities and Photos
2007 - 2008
TY B MAGAZINE
We had a day in school called “Shades for a Day” where we raised money for the Irish Guide Dogs. We manage to raise lots of money for the charity. In order to present the money we went on a day trip to the Guide Dog training centre near Cork City.
The staffs were very friendly and they had the tea and biscuits ready on our arrival! They then brought us up to a video room where they showed us a very interesting video about the training of the Guide Dogs and how they can influence and help the quality of many people’s lives.
We also learned how much time and effort goes into the training of the Guide Dogs. Not every dog is a suitable candidate for helping blind people so these dogs are used to help autistic children.
We then saw Mrs. O’ Brien acting like a blind person by using all the different equipment blind people use. While doing this she had to wear a blindfold. It was kind of funny watching her crashing into everything!!!! They then brought us on a tour of the houses where people go while they are being introduced to their dogs. They have to use very different equipment to ours. We then met all of the Guide Dogs. They were so cute!!
One our trip was over we went to Mahon Point to do some shopping! It was an unreal day!!!
Éilís Kiely
Jemma O’Donnell
On the 25th October we had a Manual Handling Day in school.
In the morning we started off with watching horrible images, that will I’m sure, remain traumatizing our minds. Seeing people get their hands blown off by fireworks, to a maggot being pulled out of the eye was just the way to start off a day after breakfast!
In the afternoon we were taught how to lift boxes/ tables properly, with the added bonus of a harmony of knees clicking. We also put out fires, but not before we attacked Róisín with the fire extinguisher leaving her paralyzed with the cold below the knees.
We finished the day with a written test that consisted of everyone’s tests having answers that were given from different people. I repeat we were not cheating. Think of it as a healthy open discussion. We each got a certificate, and prizes were presented by an American dude from Phoenix. The prizes were: for 1st place, a fire extinguisher given to Jenny Burke, 2nd place a fire blanket given to April Bennett and the 3rd prize was a brooch of a statue that represented “The Thinker”.
April Bennett
Jenny Burke
Everyone in TY got involved in the panto, it was a great way of getting out of class. We helped Sinead and Ms Foley to paint the set. It started off being four or five of us but when people heard about our radio and Laura singing a few more joined us. We never thought we’d get it finished when we saw the size of it. It covered the floor of the class and looked like it would be impossible, but when we all got down to work we got it finished in plenty time for the panto. It was a great success.
Chloe Power
I took part in a beauty day where two beauticians came in to our school.
I was used as a model where they did my make up for me.
I did not really like the way they did my make up and neither did anyone else in the class because we found the makeup did not suit our skin tone and did not have good coverage.
In my opinion my makeup made me look like a drag queen.
In total that day I took my make up off at least six times.
They recommended that I should change my make up because it was not suitable for my skin it did not allow it to breathe. 
When they were taking my make up off my face they had to cleanse my face three times.
Some of the helpful tips were to cleanse more then once in order to remove all make up, use a toner and moisturiser, and go outside without makeup for at least fifteen minutes to allow the skin to breathe.
Heya everyone! Keelin, Richael & Ria here from TYB. We are going to give you a little gist of what happened at the ceilí! It was a great day and we had a wicked good laugh! We came in at 9 and we started practising our steps with Ms. Pickering and Ms. Carey so we wouldn’t make a show of ourselves in front of the boys! When it came to five to eleven we were wrecked but really we weren’t after starting yet! When we came back after quarter to two we were back on our feet again. We all paired off with each other as dancing partners but Mrs O Donovan and Mr. Stack from the brothers wouldn’t let us and we were paired off with all the boys how embarrassing!! We were all having a great laugh doing our jigs but then after a small break we came back to find that half the lads were after running out of the fire exit and down to the bookies to place a bet on a horse and we were left stranded L . . Apart from that we had a brilliant time and for the rest of the day all we could hear in our heads was “Isteach dó trí agus amach dó trí . . . .”
 
Richael Hayes
Ria Robinson
Keelin Organ
Trip to Dublin
We got the bus from the school at seven o clock we were all really tired and a bit cranky all except for Louise Duffy who was already dancing! We had a great time on the bus we were listening to music on our mp3 players and we watched “Juno” and “Save the last dance” .Then we stopped at a garage and bought some jumbo breakfast rolls. We finally arrived in Dublin at 12 o clock and we went to the national history museum then we got our photos taken on the steps of the museum and then we made our way to the Dáil! We all sat around the court watching Brian Cowen fighting with Enda Kenny!! It was brilliant... then we got a tour of the Dáil which was a bit boring but we were all excited about getting food and shopping that we didn’t care!! We walked to the city and we all ran to the shops!! A few of us went to TGI Fridays it was lovely!! Then we went shopping... a few of the girls meet Glenda Gilson the lucky things!! And they got their picture taken with her! After a long day of shopping, eating and listening to the members of the Dáil we got back on the bus and left for home we were all really tired and a few of us fell asleep on the bus. We finally arrived home. We had a brilliant day!!
Róisín Caulfield
In the second term of TY, Mrs. Dennehy and her first group of TY drama students travelled to the Half Moon Theatre in Cork. We went to see “Shopping For Shoes”. It was a one woman show. At the start she asked us all how we pronounced all the different brands of shoes. We said them differently to everyone else!! The play was brilliant. It was really funny. One woman was behind a wall of boxes and used different accents for all the different characters.
After the play we went shopping. Some of us were shopping away when we got a phone call to say “The bus is leaving with out ye!”. So we all started running across Cork. But we made it and we all got on the bus and went home. It was a very enjoyable day.
Aisling Hourigan
Lisa Denmead
Áine Lynch
Caitriona Butler
In 2007 the school organised a ‘Pink Day’ to raise money for the breast cancer ward in the Bonds hospital in Cork. Everybody brought in €2 and we were allowed to wear pink clothes, some people even dyed their hair pink for the day! Altogether we raised €900. In December TyA and TyB, along with Mrs O Donovan and Mrs O Brien, travelled to Cork to present the money to the sister in charge of the cancer ward at the Bonds. They gave us food and drink while we were there and after that we went shopping for two hours in the town. It was handy because it was close to Christmas so we had a chance to buy some presents!
Anna Landers
Alix Barry
Drumming
A german man came into the school and did drumming with us.
We were playing on the Bongo’s and chanting tribal songs!!
Muriel looked very African with her hat on while playing the Bongo’s!
It was a very enjoyable hour.
We must have sounded fairly stupid to anyone who was passing the door if they heard us chanting and playing the bongos.
We always thought we had great rhythm but found out we obviously didn’t after drumming
A bongo
Muriel Moore
Avril Wall
We started 1st aid in September wait Elma Walsh. We thought it was going to be terrible having a double class full of notes and learning but Elma defiantly made it interesting and fun. We had a great laugh bringing Fred (the dummy) back t life every week. Poor fella must have been exhausted with it all but he never once complained. We got lots of help from Elma, we learned a lot but really enjoyed the class. We will be getting our 1st aid certs soon and hopefully now we will be able to cope with life threatening situations.
Muriel Moore
Every Thursday until Christmas Billy from the Waterford kickboxing club came up to the Ard Scoil nDeise to the TY’s to have a bit of a workout and to talk to us about the dangers around us and self defence and drugs was a main topic Billy would talk to us about. The once day we had a proper work out and most of the class where in pain for the next few days ha ha. It was a good laugh though. We really enjoyed the kickboxing sessions, and every Thursday we where looking forward to Billy coming into us. Billy taught us how to protect ourselves and told us that if we ever had any problems just to get his number off the school and give him a call and he would be glad to help us out! I have to say that the TYB class really enjoyed kickboxing with Billy.
Laura Coward
In March, the upcoming Cáirde Girls in 2008/2009, along with the girls from Loreto in Clonmel, went to the Sacred Heart Convent in Cork for a Cáirde Girls training day.
We did exercises on leadership and played ice-breaker games, including the Simpsons game, fruit salad (where Jenny fell) and pirate ship, where we had a collision involving Sinéad tripping up Aisling, Aisling falling, causing Sinéad to fall over her and finally Emma falling over both. Oh dear! It was funny to watch but was sore.
To help our communication skills we did an exercise where we were just given a box of straws and pins and told to make something tall, beautiful and sturdy enough to face a drop of about 6.5m. We were split into three groups, each having to concoct a design. In our group we constructed a fabulous Chinese apartment, complete with helicopter landing space and five star pool and gym, along with a room for each Cáirde Girl. Surprisingly, ours withstood the drop (even though they all did) but, alas, did not win the packet of cookies. AW!
After lunch we sat in two separate rows facing each other. A picture was placed behind one row so that the opposite row could see it. This was a communication exercise so the person we were partnered with told the other what to draw. It taught us listening skills, with hilarious outcomes!
A prayer service was the perfect end to our fun filled day.
Grace Collender
Jenny Burke
Lisa Denmead
Kayleigh Fraher Burke
We all had to break into small groups of a maximum of 5 people and start up a mini enterprise.
The groups were:
TY Muffins
Tutti Fruti
Bling Art
Glamour Dolls
The Bag Ladies
Pimp My Locker
Smoothie Heaven
Personalised Notebooks
Strictly Starsigns
Book ‘n’ Look
Sweetie Beads
The Name Game
Hope Bars
Wiggie Boards
We had a craft fair in the senior hall and all the school and the Brothers came to see our lovely businesses. We had another craft fair for Gregory Fitzgerald and some other man and they picked which businesses were going to go to the County Final in the Friary.
The groups were:
Pimp My Locker
Bling Art
Strictly Starsigns
The Bag Ladies
Smoothie Heaven
We went to the Friary on the 7th February. There were 20 mini enterprises from all over the County. We all had to set up stalls to show off our products to all the County Enterprise Board people and the friary students. The Ard Scoil TY’s came out to have a look at our stalls aswell. We got a free dinner in the Friary-Chicken Burger and Chips-it wasn’t the best!!
The Bag Ladies won an award for best display and Bling Art won an innovation award.
Mary Coyne
Avril Wall
On Thursday the 24th of January Ard Scoil girls joined up with the guys from the Brothers for a fun quiz. Since there were 58 girls and 20 guys there were 2 girls and 1 guy to a table. What a bummer! Among the many rounds the puzzle, picture and movie rounds were the most fun as they were the most challenging. Everyone worked as a team, literally, everyone. Each team conferring answers with each other. There were terrific prizes for both losers and winners. The winners received €20 between them. The team consisted of Grace Collender, Kayleigh Fraher Burke, Brian Hughes and Ria Robinson who joined the team for the last round. Oh and not forgetting Lyndsey’s funny pen which Jenny and April found hilarious!
Kayleigh Fraher Burke
Jenny Burke
Grace Collender
 On the 16th April two barristers from Cork came to the school to give us an incite into the life of a barrister and told us about the different aspects of the job. In the morning the barrister told us about basics of being a barrister and told us all about the courts. She gave us examples us different cases but the weirdest case was about the people in the raft eating the cabin boy to stay alive. After break we joined up with the other class and watched the court scenes in the film “A Time to Kill “which everybody really enjoyed. After lunch we acted out our own case study about Bob “Jaws” Murphy, everybody was given a script and their own part. We had a few minutes to read through it and then court was in session. It started out good but then people started getting confused about what to do so we all switched characters and started again. Luckily it went better second time round. Overall it was a great experience and a very enjoyable day.
By Lisa Denmead
On the 8th and 30th of April 2008 students from Ty A and Ty B went horse riding in Colligan Equestrian Centre. We had to pay € 10 for each lesson with Louise Moloney. At 1 p.m we got on the bus with Mr. Collins and made our way up to Colligan Equestrian Centre. When we arrived we were greeted by Susie (a girl who works there) and she fitted the helmets on everyone. Everyone thought they looked really silly with them on. When we entered the arena our horses were tacked up and ready for us. We could only go in groups of 10 at a time because there were only enough horses for 10 of us. The rest of the people didn’t get off too lightly though they had go lead the horses around for the people that hadn’t done it before and who were very scared. It was really funny to watch the people who hadn’t done it before or who hadn’t really been around horses much because anytime the horses sneezed or coughed the person screamed!
 First they learnt how to walk, stop and steer the horse they were on. Then Louise told them to start standing up and sitting down in the saddle to prepare them for trot. Then one by one they began trotting. Some people found it very bouncy and difficult to get the rhythm of standing up and sitting down in trot. After a few times trying, Louise introduced a circles. People found this hard because they had to steer as well as standing and sitting in trot. At the end of the lesson Louise just got the students to halt and walk on again. After the lesson everyone was really tired and sore but we all really enjoyed the both day we went up to the riding school.
Alix Barry
On the 7th of May we went to Oyster Haven. We had to leave really early; the bus was leaving at five to eight in the morning!! It was a long trip up. When we got there we all sat on the wall and we were told all about what we were going to be doing for the day.
We were split into two different group and they were split up again into smaller groups. One group did the water activities first, and the other group did the land based. I did the land based first and I thought it was brilliant it was all about team building and communication between people on your team.
We started out trying to get across a toxic swamp with three planks, then we went to a insect infested work shop were we had planks and round logs and we had to row across to the other side. They were both really fun. Then we went to another activity were we had to stand on ants (our team set the new record) we stamped all the ants in 28 seconds!!
Then the fun really started we went into the bog and did challenges. Jungle Jane’s verses Funky Surf! The first thing we had to do was cross a crocodile bridge, we started off well and most people stayed dry but then Avril fell off into the boggy water and this was just the first of her falls!! We were destroyed with mud and bog water and full of scrapes and bruises at the end. It ended with Funky Surf winning!! Then it was lunch and we were starving!! We sat out in the sun and ate our lunch.
After lunch we went out on to the water. We first went on the double and triple kayaks. Then we all rafted together and we swapped kayaks, then we went onto the shore and we got into a big boat and we all paddled out.
We played games on the boat and we tried to see how fast we could spin it. Then we went back into the shore and we got into single kayaks they were much easier to control and we played water polo. It was a draw. It was a brilliant day, we all enjoyed it and we would definitely go back again!
By Aine Lynch
 On the 25th of September 2007, TY students travelled to Tullaghmore, Co. Offaly, for the ploughing championships. It was a long day because we were on the bus since 6 am!!
But nevertheless we all really enjoyed the day!! We stopped in Urlingford, Co. Kilkenny, for food, we only stopped for an hour. When we got there
we were greeted by the smell of farm animals, and lots and lots of mud! Nobody was surprised by how filthy we were by the end of the day because of the amount of mud fights we had. Trying to find food there was impossible because it was at the very end of the field, but because we’re Ard Scoil students, we EVENTUALLY found it!!!!!After we had our hunt for food, we went to find the free stuff! We got bags, hats, milk?! , badges, stickers and lots more!
To finish off the day, we had to get changed outside the bus, which wasn’t funny because there was a bus full of boys in front of our bus!!We left Tullaghmore late in the evening and arrived home at
about 7:30! It was a very enjoyable day!
On September 19th the TY group went on their first enjoyable outing. This was to go surfing in Tramore!
We were split into two groups, one went surfing in the morning and the other went for an exhaustingwalk.
Both groups found it a challenge to get into the wetsuits and also trying to carry the heavy board down the road to the beach. While still on the beach the instructors showed us how to balance on the board. They made it look so easy and we thought we’d all be flying at it in no time, but found it was a totally different story once we hit the water. It was hard to drag the board in deep enough to surf properly as the wind was catching the board and sending us flying with it. This meant that everyone kept crashing into each other and everyone ending in hysterics! It was brilliant! By the end of it some people got the hang of it and were able to stand up on the board, catching the best waves. Oh ya!
The second activity was a 7 mile walk where we walked over a beach and up and over sand dunes. 7 miles sounds really long I know, but the time flew as we were all chatting and having a laugh, having said that we were relieved when we got back to the centre.
All in all it was a terrific fun day unfortunately none of us turned out to be pro surfers! ;)
By Lisa Denmead & Jenny Burke
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