St Patrick’s and Presentation Secondary schools joint Transition Year third annual graduation and awards ceremony took place on Monday evening.
Twenty three students graduated from the programme having completed their studies and participated in a huge number of competitions, projects and activities throughout the year.
On the night, students were presented with the Gaisce Award for achieving an internationally recognised set of goals over the year.
These included helping out in their local community, developing a new personal skill, improving their physical recreation levels and also completing a 26 km trek with an overnight stay in the Black Valley.
Personalised Portfolio
Students received a personalised portfolio including: Saint Vincent de Paul Youth for Justice, Defibrillator Training; 121 Digital, Multimedia and Film-making; First Aid; Driver Education; Delphi Adventure Centre and Young Social Innovators certificates.
An additional certificate to signify the academic achievements of students was also awarded to all students.
Parents, teachers and students were treated to a look back at the year of this Transition Year group when students spoke about their different experiences of the year.
TY Co-ordinators Annette Leen and Tim Long spoke of how TY allowed these students to learn more about themselves, improve their organisational skills, open their minds to a broader set of experiences and gave them the opportunity to take ownership of their own learning.
Work Experience
They thanked their teaching colleagues in both schools and all of the local businesses who support the programme for taking students on work experience.
There was a selection of awards presented to individual students. Leona McEnery received the award for ‘Spirit of TY’ while Paul Walsh and James Brosnan were both awarded the ‘Contribution and Diligence’ awards.
Lorraine Hanrahan won the Student of the Year Award. Principals, Katherina Broderick and Denis O’ Donovan spoke of how well the year had gone for this group of students and how it equips them so well for their leaving certificate and beyond.