Welcome to our blog about the Transition Year in St Wolstans Community School, Celbridge, Co Kildare. Here you will read all about what happens in Transition Year. You will get a good idea of how busy our year is!
Follow individual student blogs as well and see how they are getting on.

All contributions come from the students themselves and the TY Coordinator.
Enjoy






Wednesday, January 27, 2010

In School Science Competition

During our triple science class, all the TY's were given the opportunity to display and present their BT Young Scientist projects. All of the four groups that got through to the competition in the RDS and all the other entries got to show off all the hard work they have been doing in science since September and present their projects to the rest of the year group.

Everyone found the projects so interesting, there were some really great ideas and the hard work that everyone put in really paid off.

Nice work girls! =p

Ellie xox

Drama Competition

On Monday the 25th January TY Desta went to Mullingar with their English teacher Ms. Guilfoyle to take part in a TY drama competition. There were two plays entered from our class "Us and Them" and "Seventeen". In the weeks and days leading up to the day we were all very nervous but also very excited at the same time. I was in the play "seventeen" and it was great fun preforming our play.

We left the school on Monday after registration for Mullingar. The first group were on at 11am and we got to watch them as they were performing. They were excellent!! Then it was my groups turn to perform. It was nervous standing in the wings watching the girls on stage and waiting for your turn but once you were on stage it was grand. We did really well. Each group got a certificate for taking part and the judges commented on each performance.

It was nerve wracking waiting to see if we got through but that was put to bed when we found out on Tuesday in our English class that both groups got through to the next round and will have to go back to Mullingar again and preform our plays again.

Well done to all the girls and thank to Ms Guilfoyle for all she did to help us!!!

It was soo much fun and I actually cant wait to do it again !!!

Emma Murphy :)

Drama class

In English class, Desta are doing plays. At the beginning of the year, we split up into two different groups to do separate plays. Ms Guilfoyle then told us about a drama competition, and we were all keen to take part. The time went in a flash and before we knew it, the play was a week away!

We spent all of the time before Christmas holidays, coming and going to class having to learn our lines and act out the play. We had too pick out different music to go with different scenes in the play, which was really fun, dancing around the classroom to different songs!

It wasn't always going according to plans though. We had disagreements about the different lines and roles, and then the play overall. However, Ms Guilfoyle put the arguments to rest, and we got back to work!

Well, tonight is the day before the competition, and I am so nervous, as are all of the girls. Everyone is worrying about same things - what if someone doesn't turn up? or what if someone forgets their lines? Its all the little things as well, but as soon as we're up on stage in front of everyone, we'll just forget about the worries and get on with it....just make sure not to make eye contact with the audience :L Once we're all up there anyway, there isn't any going back! We're going to have to put our all into it and make the most out of it!

I'd just like to say good look to all of the girls in the plays tomorrow, hope all goes well! And thanks to Ms Guilfoyle for doing the plays with us!

Ali Bell (:

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Towards 2015 - a book about the Millennium Development Goal No 2


2015 is the year set by the United Nations to achieve the targets set for the Millenium Development Goals in the year 2000. The 8 Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) are broken down into 21 quantifiable targets. The problem is that the world is still a long way from meeting these important targets and we only have 5 years left.
TY and fifth year students, with help from the charity Self Help Africa, particularly Mr Patsy Toland from Self Help, and Mrs Leahy and Mrs Kavanagh Bracken, are doing what they can do make sure that the committments made in the MDGs are not forgotten. They are taking the lead in compiling and publishing the second edition of “Twenty Fifteen”, based on MDG No 2 – Universal Primary Education.

“Twenty Fifteen” is a compilation of essays, poems and articles that express peoples’ views on the important targets set by the MDGs. Some of the contributions will be by famous authors and celebrities, but others will be made by people like you.

This project offers students and their families the opportunity to make a small but significant contribution to a global and historic project. If you would like to submit a reflection, poem, or story (max 500 words) or a photo, on Primary Education, send it to the school or email the students at towards2015@gmail.com

Further information on the MDG's can be found at the Self Help Africa site http://www.selfhelp.ie/


Here's a post from Louise.....

Tuesday 26th Jan 2010

Hi there,
Work for the Towards 2015 book for Universal Primary Education is truly underway. For the book, we are each going to interview our grandparents about their primary school days.

I'm really looking forward to talking to my granny about her school life in rural Ireland and I can't wait to hear some stories about her primary school education. It will also be exciting to hear the other girl’s interviews as well.

At today’s meeting, we all were assigned famous people to contact, asking for them to contribute stories from their childhood education or to speak about the importance of primary school education for all.

The entire experience with the preparation for the book has been really enjoyable and I know its only going to get better.
Louise Geagan Murray

Savvy Savers blog


The school bank, Savvy Savers, have set up their own blog to keep the school informed about the banks progress. You'll also find out about special offers etc being offered by the bank.

Click here for their blog. They also have a Facebook account here

Don't forget to come back to the TY blog for more updates:)

Thanks to Meg for keeping us informed. She's doing a great job at Sales and Marketing!! I'm sure the free sweets to customers last Friday went down a treat!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Team Bladhm

Team Bladhm is our TY technology group consisting of six members,

Aisling Lee, Team Manager
Caroline Kelly, Resource Manager
Alex O'Neill, Design Engineer
Nicolle McDonagh, Media Manager
Sinead McCabe, Graphics Designer
Emily Murphy, Manufacturing Manager

We recently got into the regional finals of F1 in Schools technology competition.

Our team’s name is Bladhm. Bladhm is the irish word for flame. We chose this name because it's an original name with an irish twist. We chose Bladhm because we felt it was the best name by far and all the team agreed on it.

Our team, Bladhm, has decided to design and make a type R formula one race car, and designing has already started, although manufacturing is some time away.

We hope to get some local sponsors, to help with the costs. We're looking for around €200 to cover the design costs, aswell as the team outfits.

Thats our update so far :)

Team Bladhm

SAVVY SAVERS!!!!!!! (:

Build a Bank Challenge is back in the school and this year it's going to be better than EVER!! The whole team this year is made up of TY's!

Manager- Ellie O'Halloran
Assistant Manager- Pamela Drumgoole
Sales and Marketing-Me :) (Meg Kelly)
Tellers-Sinead Cummins and Laura Doyle
Auditor-Sinead Keogh

Since I'm the sales and marketing "executive" I'm hopefully going to use this blog for some marketing aswell :) hehe and let people know what's going on in the school bank and see how amazing Transition Years are at running our Banks!

So far being on the Bank Committee is so much fun! We have all gotten along so well and had one bonding day so far with more to come. All the team have such amazing ideas which we all put into one to make one AWESOME idea! We have come up with the name Savvy Savers, because we hope to encourage all the students in the school to start saving at a young age and through the school bank, it's a perfect way to do that!

One of the best things about joining the school bank is that every person that joins before the end of January can get up to €30 FREE CREDIT! with no catches what so ever...just - up to €30 credit when you join! its simple!

We'll be opening @ Lunch every Wednesday on the science corridor.

Every member that joins can help us build our bank by getting a "brick" that they can sign their name on and put it on our bank poster. Every 50th brick gets a really cool prize.

There are going to so many amazing competitions including a secret up and coming one call "Beat The Bankers" which everyone will find out about soon!
So JOIN THE BANK NOW!!!.....and then once you do you can thank me later :) hehe.
Any questions about anything ask me or any of the other girls!
See you Wednesdays @ lunch!
Wish us luck :)

XOXO
~Meg xxxx

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Parent Teacher Meeting

It was a pleasure to meet all the TY parents today at the TY and 5th Year PTM. I was delighted to report to them how their daughters have matured and grown in confidence, and pleased to hear that the same transformations are being witnessed at home.

We have only 4 months left of TY and I know that the girls will mature and grow even more in confidence. I can't wait to see all those quiet, shy girls of last September, take to the stage for their TY night in May.

Mrs L

Monday, January 18, 2010

Emma and Meg's BT Young Scientist 2010

On Friday the 15th of January the T.Y.s and second years went to the BT Young Scientist 2010 . All of the T.Y.s had to enter the competition at the start of the year and we went along to support the four TY groups that made it through to the final at the RDS.

The projects at the competition we all very good and there was a good variety of projects. It felt great to see our friends in the RDS in the final of the competition and know they were picked from thousands around the country.

When we were there we met Dara Quilty and Dylan from Two Tube who were reporting on the competition. It was great fun to go support our friends and also have a great day out at the same time.

Another trip to add to our T.Y. experience!!

Dont forget to check back to the blog to see whats happening

Emma M


On Friday all of the TY's headed off to the BT Young Scientist with the 2nd years! It was a day that we were all looking foward to, well, because of the science and of course the fact that there would be loads of other schools there from all over the country...that we could talk to about science of course! :)

Four TY groups got into the competition so we were all looking foward to seeing them and to hear how they were getting on.

The day was br-il-i-ant! The exibition was really good and we saw DARRAGH QUILTY! There was also a ferrari car there, loads of free science stuff and some really cool projects.

The girls were doing great and their desks gave us a place to sit. They told us all about the stuff they did and it seemed like they were having such an amazing time at the competition, made me regret not coming up with a better idea!

There was some really cool 3D shows on in the arena and a deadly CSI thing upstairs! We also saw lots of people we knew and made some new friends as well :)

Our girls didn't win anything but they did fantastic! And we wouldn't have gone or entered if it wasn't for TY It was an amazing day and I don't think we'll forget it. Our last time at the Young Scientist :( ....because only 2nd years and TY's go to it from our school. We can enter again in 5th year though.
So it was such a good day :) :D
XO XO
~Meg (",)

Young Scientist Exhibition

Well, TY's were back at school today after their Young Scientist trip last week to the RDS. They were full of talk about the Exhibition and were really impressed by some of the exhibitors there. There was a lot of talk about the different school uniforms that they saw and most girls thought that St Wolstans uniform wasn't too bad after all!!

Pamela is going to write something for the blog about her experience as an exhibitor and hopefully someone else will write about the exhibition as a visitor. They met so many famous people and took so many photographs, hopefully some will be shared here. A few girls even managed to be interviewed by TG4.

Mrs L

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Snow days!



Four days off school for snow was great, but the novelty wore off, too many snow men and skulled knee caps can make you miss the routine of Wolstans! Happy to be back in school, T.Y always keeps you occupied :)
Hannah :)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone.

Good luck to the 5 TY groups who are displaying their projects and competing at the Young Scientist Exhibition this week. The rest of TY and all 2nd years will be visiting the exhibition tomorrow. Enjoy:)
Mrs L