Beneavin College Transition Year

 

2014 – 2015

Why Choose Transition Year ?

Transition Year can help students:
 Discover more about their personal strengths
 Develop maturity and self-confidence
 Achieve improved Leaving Certificate results
 Build interpersonal and team skills
 Develop entrepreneurial skills
 Explore the working world
 One year programme
 Bridges the transition from JC to LC
 Encourages personal/social development and independence
 Development of a wide range of transferable skills
 Fosters academic achievement
There is growing evidence that students who have taken the Transition Year Programme are more self-reliant learners when they enter third-level education than their peers
(Source: Commission on the Points System, Final Report & Recommendations, 1999. P46)

In the Transition Year Programme the pupil will take greater responsibility for his own learning and decision-making. Pupils will be encouraged to participate in learning strategies which are active and experiential and which aim to help the student develop a range of critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Transition Year Curriculum in Beneavin College

Core Curriculum

• English and Communications in 21st Century
Arts/Beneavin has talent/musical /
Paired Reading/Media studies/journalism/debating etc
advertising – production of school magazine /Film Appreciation
• Film Making and Computer Studies
• Irish Studies
• Maths
• Modern Languages
• Faith and Action
• Sports Science
• Career Guidance / Personal development
• Science
• Design and Manufacturing
• History and Archeology and Heritage Programme
• Geography
• Entrepreneurship and Mini Company
• Food Studies

Trips
Adventure Outings and Team Building Experience
Trip Away
Bonding Trips
Work Experience and Community Service

Experiences

• Photography
• International Fundraising social justice programme
• Student Council
• Gaisce: President’s Award
• Horticulture
• Drama
• Computer Coding
• Linguistics Olympiad
• Young Social Innovator
• Involvement in Localise Pease Corp
• Global Classrooms Project
• First Aid
• Sci fest
• Drive for Life and Road Safety
• Health and Lifestyle
• Health and Hygiene
• Peer Educators Programme
• Fundraising
• Field Trips
• Hosting Events
• Mentors
• Retreat
• Visiting Speakers from Gardai, Concern etc…
• Heritage Centre visits
• Mental Health & Well being
• Mini Company
• Student Council
• Other events

Work Experience and Community Service

Work Experience: What is it?

“Work experience” involves spending time as part of a school course, learning at first hand about life in a workplace.
The employer agrees to co-operate with the school in taking on a student for a work experience placement, usually for about a week or two.
The employer knows that he/she is taking on a person as part of a learning experience, not as some form of cheap labour.
The student needs to be aware that
The placement is part of the school course and offers a great learning opportunity.
The employer – who has an enterprise to run – is co-operating with the student with limited direct benefit to the enterprise.
Both employer and student will complete a report at the end of the placement.
These reports will become important documents for future reference.
Getting the Best from Work Experience:
To get the most from a work experience placement, it is worth thinking in terms of three stages. For a student to get maximum benefit, it is important that each stage goes well. The three stages are:
PREPARATION:
 Searching for a placement which will suit your interests
 Presenting yourself to the employer and making a good case for yourself
 Understanding what the employer expects from you

PLACEMENT:
 Turning up in good time
 Presenting yourself appropriately
 Following the instructions given by your supervisor
 Performing the given tasks
 Getting on with the other workers
 Dealing with people in a friendly and courteous way

REFLECTION:
 Thinking about the placement
 Talking about the placement with your family – and friends, if you wish!
 Writing a report on your placement
 Discussing your work experience in class and with your teachers
 Clarifying, in the light of your placement, your plans for further work experience, for studying and for the future

Community Care

Aim of Programme:
 To develop an understanding of Community Service in terms of its structure and processes.
 To promote development and appreciation of the needs of society among the students.

Duration:
Two Weeks
Type of Placement:
Experience in any of the community care services is a relevant element in the preparation for adult life. Services such as those concerned with social and economic disadvantage, physical, sensory and mental disabilities, and for special groups such as children, the chronically ill and the aged are most appropriate for this preparation.

Community Service will include:
 Briefing of pupil prior to placement
 The support of parents
 Coordination by the school
 Commitment and input to the process by the pupils
 Keeping of records in the form of a journal
 Reporting of progress through tutorial and religious education classes
Students are encouraged to find their own placement in their local area

Teaching And Learning Methods

A key feature of Transition Year is the wide range of teaching and learning methods used. Some of these methods include:
 Activity based learning
 Group work – discussion, debates, role plays
 Project work and research
 Visiting speakers and seminars
 Study visits and field trips
 Personal responsibility for learning
 Work experience and community service
 Computer based learning
 Oral Presentations
 Demonstrations

Reading Requirement in Transition Year

Transition Year provides students with the time to develop their reading and literacy skills. In order to encourage the students to broaden their literary horizons each Transition Year student will be required to read a minimum number of novels throughout the academic year. Students must have their novel with them at all times during the year. Should a teacher be absent or a speaker be unavailable students will continue reading their novel or writing up the book review.

Research shows that avid readers:
 read better, write better, concentrate better
 are quicker to see subtleties
 have an easier time processing new information
 have a better chance for a successful, fulfilling adult life
 have many interests and do well in a wide variety of subjects
 develop an ability to understand how other people think and feel
 acquire the ability to sift information and to understand how unrelated facts can fit into a whole
 tend to be more flexible in their thinking and more open to new ideas
 do better in school and exminations
We hope that this initiative will foster a love of reading among our Transition Years and that they will continue to develop this interest throughout their adult lives and reap the many benefits which reading provides.

Assessment in Transition Year

Assessment is an integral part of the teaching and learning process at all stages in the school. It aims to be diagnostic, so as to provide accurate information with regard to pupil strengths and weaknesses, and formative, so as to facilitate improved pupil performance through effective programme planning and implementation. The TY curriculum is a balance between the academic and the non-academic and is regularly reviewed and assessed by both teachers and students. As a result subjects on offer are subject to change and revision each year.

Assessment is carried out on an ongoing basis and includes school-based assessment of projects or portfolios, oral, aural, practical and written activities. Evaluation of activities such as Work Experience, Community Care, etc. regularly involves the providers/hosts of such activities and parents.

Appropriate modes of assessment are chosen to complement the variety of approaches used in implementing the programme and include the following:

• Written, practical, oral and aural assessments
• Assessment for Learning
• Reports of work experience and community care
• Projects and exhibitions of work
• PowerPoint presentations
• Book reviews
• Research
• Pupil diary/log book to record personal progress
• Parent/Teacher meeting
• Portfolio Assessment / e-portfolio Assessment
• Student participation in curricular and extra-curricular areas
• Vox Pop
• films/ Videos
• Interviews
• Transition Year Graduation
Students will be assessed in a variety of ways depending on the aims of individual subjects:

Formal exams in core subjects i.e. Gaeilge, English, Maths, Science, European Language and other subject examinations as stated in syllabus.

Certification:
A general certificate of participation in Transition Year will be issued to students on Transition Year Graduation subject to the fulfilment of programme requirements. Other certificates will be awarded, for example First Aid, Gaisce, Young Scientist, Mini-company, and Young Social Innovators, etc. as applicable.