Well done to the students from our Transition Year Class of 2020 who recently received their Gaisce medals to acknowledge their hard work and commitment to this challenge last year. Gaisce or ‘great achievement’ is a self-development programme for young people between the ages of 15-25 and has been in existence since 1985. The Awards initially flourished under the patronage of former President Patrick. J Hillary and to date and have been supported by subsequent Presidents. To date over 300,000 young people have participated in the Gaisce programme.
In order to gain this award, students must commit to involvement in key areas of personal development such as community involvement, personal skill development, physical recreation, and an adventure journey. Thankfully, the girls had much of the work done for their Gaisce awards before school closed in March but unfortunately, Covid-19 meant that they could not go on an overnight adventure trip with their classmates as would have happened in previous years. This year instead, the students took part in ‘A Backyard Adventure Journey’ where they still had to plan their trip, make arrangements to ‘camp’ if possible, prepare their own food, and complete a minimum of 10,000 steps in a 24 hour period. All of these activities had to be documented and proof submitted to their Gaisce leader to ensure that they would gain their award on completion of the tasks. We are delighted that the girls were able to complete their Gaisce challenge in this way and we were proud to present their medals in school before mid-term.