💼 Work Experience was a great success and it has been lovely to hear the stories from placements and share the students’ sense of achievement. This year, we have had more supplementary placements than ever before, and it shows how much our TY students are thinking about future careers and taking all the opportunities available to them to try new things.
🍭 TY students have continued their great work supporting charities. Following the great success of the Hope Foundation Collection in December where a very small number of students raised an amazing total of €1,925.25, another group headed into town to collect for Lollipop Day on Grafton Street and collected €1,000 between them. We still have more charity work to come as 4M and 4Q are working on fundraising plans for St Vincent de Paul. We have been working with Graham Warren from SVP for the last few weeks to learn more about social justice and how we can support the work of the organisation. After Easter, we will be helping to collect for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and organising a sponsored Swim a Mile to raise funds for Barretstown and Crumlin Children’s Hospital.
📚 We have 8 recently qualified TEFL teachers and more to come as students work their way through the course. The course is long and it is testament to the hard work of the students that they are finding time for this in their free time.
☕ We have a total of 90 level 1 qualified Barista following the in-school training that took place over the course of the year.
🏑 Come Friday, 34 students will have completed the Hockey Ireland coaching course.
🛟 This week, mock exams were taking place for all students taking the NPLQ lifeguarding course. Their final exam is on April 20th, and we wish them all luck.
🛠️ All TY students took part in an Apprenticeship workshop where they learned how to wire a plug and make a wooden photo frame.
🐍 Reptile Haven arrived in school last week, bringing a van full of snakes, lizards and even a tarantula. We had plenty of students (and one teacher!) who were brave enough to take the tarantula challenge, where you let the tarantula walk up you as you lie on the floor. I’m not joking 🕷️
👗 We have had great success in the Relove Fashion competition with 2 groups making it through to the semi-finals. Both groups had a 20-minute online interview with the judges to discuss their creative process and inspiration for their outfit.
💡 Two fledgling businesses also made it to the South Dublin Student Enterprise Awards to showcase their business model.
💟 TY students have started a mentor programme with Form 2 students where they meet their partners each week to chat about how school is going and offer support with what for Form 2 is a tricky year with CBAs in every subject. This is a new initiative and something we hope to expand next year. We will be appointing school mentors after the Easter break.
🚌 We have visited GoQuest, Croke Park and the Wax Museum with Emerald Park still to come before the end of the year.
🎓 Form 4 Portfolio interviews will take place on Tuesday May 19th, and students will be asked to present a reflection on their Transition Year, thinking about new skills they have learned and how the year has helped them move towards Senior Cycle. On the evening of May 19th (19:00 – 20:30), we will celebrate the TY Festival of Learning with our students.
🤓 Form 4 end of year exams are on Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th of May. Students will be examined in Maths, English, Irish, MFL and their academic rotation subjects. On Wednesday 27th, we will visit Emerald Park and that will be that for TY 2025-2026. Term ends for Form 4 on Wednesday 27th of May.
