Transition Year
The Department guidelines for Transition Year states as its mission “to promote the personal, social and vocational development of pupils and to prepare them for their role as autonomous, participative and responsible members of society”.
What a student gets out of TY depends hugely on the attitude she takes to it in the first place. If you are open-minded you are more likely to see and grasp the opportunities. It is an opportunity to try new activities, new subjects, attempt things they’ve never had an opportunity to do in their academic life before.
Through this, they become stronger in themselves, their confidence grows, their ability to work as part of a team is developed, along with their social and personal skills. Transition Year is a year-long test – your level of engagement will be your reward.
Aims of Transition Year
The Transition Year Programme aims to promote the personal, social, educational and vocational development of pupils and to prepare them for their role as autonomous, participative and responsible members of society.
Transition Year is designed as a bridging year between the junior cycle, which is very much dependant on teacher led learning and the senior cycle which involves much more independent, self-directed learning.
The NCCA conducted an Independent longitudinal study on the performance of Leaving Certificate students and found that those who had taken the Transition Year Programs “were likely to be educationally adventurous than those who chose not to follow the programme.
That is, they were more likely to retain subjects at higher level, to move up from Ordinary to Higher level and from Foundation to Ordinary level. They were also more likely to take up subjects which they had not taken before.”
