TY Diary 2020 2021

Welcome to our TY Diary 2020/2021! On this page we will keep you up to date with all our adventures during the year!

Today, the 4th of March, all Ty’s attended an online course with John Lonergan former Governor of MountJoy Prison at 12pm. It was very interesting and we learned a lot. John has been retired for the last ten plus years and he now does a lot of community work. We learned a lot about the Children Act which was introduced in 2001. If you have a criminal conviction, it stays with you for life. Some people may not know this but if you have a criminal conviction you cannot get a Visa to work abroad, you can’t get a job with the public services and most private companies wont accept anyone with a criminal conviction. Ireland is at an all time low with minors in detention, compared to before when it was thousands it is down to below 70 minors. And also adults in prison are at a low point due to Covid. There are currently around 3800 adults in prison, 96% of them being men.

Hair Care

Yesterday all TY students participated in a haircare course with Ann O ‘ Reilly. We learned how hair is damaged , how to take care of hair properly and secret tips such as “applying conditioner to the ends of your hair even if you have short hair and never apply to the roots as it will give it an oily look.“ It was very interesting and we learned a lot about our hair and how to treat it properly. I would definitely recommend this course again.

10K for FOCUS Ireland

We the TYA Young Social Innovators class were busy raising much needed funds and awareness for charities working with the homeless community since September. Though we were in a lockdown we came up with a plan to raise money for FOCUS Ireland, a charity that works tirelessly to provide rehousing and essential services to people in need. All the members of our class ran individual 10 Km routes on Saturday 20th of February, and we tracked our progress using the "Track my Run" app. Thank you to everyone who donationed helping us raised over €850!

Here are some images of us out and about training for our 10K

coming soon ....

On December 17th, 8 transition year students travelled to see some Irish Angus cattle. Three students are taking part in the certified Irish Angus competition and have qualified through round one. They visited Lemonfield Angus Herd  in Crecora, Limerick. A very impressive set up by Donogh McCarthy. We got to meet Angus calves, heifers, cows and a bull that weighted 1 tonne. Some were able to walk the heifers around as they were halter trained and the rest petted them. We learned about how important good and sustainable breeding is to Irish agriculture. We learned how the animals are rated with stars and what meanings behind each star. We got a full tour of the farm. We got great information from Donagh who offered a massive insight into his business. This will be very helpful to us in our competition entry.

Massive thanks to the team at Lemonfield farm for giving us a thorough insight into having an Irish  Angus farm. We would definitely love to come back with other groups.

On Friday the 4th of December, we held a Christmas Dress-Up Day in aid of Focus Ireland. It was organised and run by both of our T.Y. classes, Ms. Collins and Mr Malone. It was a day on which the students came in dressed up in Christmas outfits, were delivered hot chocolates and got to watch “Home Alone”. We also organised a collection of €2 from the students to fundraise for Focus Ireland. The work for the day was divvied out amongst the two T.Y. classes. Some students checked the classes for lactose intolerant students, others were tasked with the making of the hot chocolate, some given the job of delivering it to the classrooms, and many more jobs like costume judging and photography. Overall, the day ran quite smoothly and seemed to be very enjoyable for everyone involved. And at the end of the day, it was all to raise money for a good cause

Christmas Day 2020

On Tuesday the 1st of December, we were at the Dungarvan Greenway in Waterford. We left on the bus to get there at 7 in the morning. When we arrived, we each got a bike and started to head along the track in groups of 4 or 5. The track was thankfully quite flat without any extreme hills or drops. The weather was overcast but the rain stayed away. In total we covered about 48km, being 24 forward and 24 back, and I think I can speak for almost everyone when I say that we can no longer feel our legs.

Curraghchase

On Tuesday the 24th of November,our class took a bus journey to the Curraghchase Forest Park in Limerick. Here we were given a map of the park and a list of landmarks and obscure objects located within the park. We were then told to split into pairs and were tasked with taking a photo of each of the landmarks or objects on the list and, to deter cheaters, the photos had to include at least one member of the pair. There was no forced order in which they were to be done, so over time more and more groups took their own paths with the hopes of being the fastest group back. Our search for pictures took us all over the park as we had about an hour to work with. In the end, Padraig and James arrived back first and we headed back to school on the bus. Despite some occasional showers, it was quite a fun and enjoyable trip.

Photography Course with Micheál O’Sullivan

On the 16th of November, we got to spend the day having a smartphone photography course with Micheál O’Sullivan. As part of this course, we spent about 30 minutes learning about basic photographic techniques such as the Rule of Thirds, which explains how a photograph’s proportions should be. After this, we walked around the town of Kilfinane using the techniques we learned for practical photos. It was after this that we travelled by bus to the Ballyhoura Forest Park. Here we learned about Split-Focus and Auto-Focus and used the stunning forest scenery of the park to refine our photography skills in a mixture of scenes. Finally, we travelled to Doneraile Park to learn about Panoramic Photos and Profile Pictures. The scenes of the small river and the Doneraile Estate made for some perfectly framed photos to showcase what we had learned. Finally, we returned to the classroom to spend the last 30 minutes editing our photos and learning about things like contrast and sharpness. Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience and taught us skills that will only become more important as social media evolves.

Orienteering in the Ballyhoura Mountains

On Tuesday the 10th of November, we took a short bus trip to Ardpatrick and the Ballyhoura Forest Park. When we arrived, we were split into pairs and given a map of the area and a sheet containing a number of answer slots. Our task was to navigate around the mountains and find codes scattered on objects like posts which were marked on the map, and then return to the visitor centre as fast as we could. The mountain paths were covered in foliagemaking for a great sense of exploration. It didn’t take long for us all to get separated when trying to decipher the maps. A couple of wrong turns led some groups to take close to two hours, while the fastest group completed it in a blazingly fast half hour. When the final group had returned, we headed back onto the bus and returned to school after a great few hours exploring the Ballyhoura Mountains.

As part of the TYA Young Social Innovators project, we took to the footpaths of Kilfinane to represent the number of homeless people in Limerick. The launch of our TYA campaign "Homeless Not Hopeless" took place today in Scoil Pól. Homelessness is a very prevalent issue in Ireland and as part of our campaign we are organising care packages which will be donated to Novas. If anyone would like to donate items for our care packages, please contact the school for more information! 

Clay Pigeon Shooting

Today we went clay pigeon shooting at the Lazy Dog shooting range in Ballintubbur. We left the school at 9am and it only took us about 15 minutes to be standing with the guides. We were split into two groups based on build and we either went with Ray or Joe. 5 people in each group shot at a time and we got individually fitted and shown how to work the guns. All of us were right handed so there was no issue there, but when we were checked for which eye was dominant there could be an issue. If you were left eye dominant you had to close it or in James's case, wear an eyepatch because your right eye has to line up with the barrel of the gun. We got 25 casings each and all got the opportunity to shoot on our own, but also in a competition form against each other. There were 3 different angles the clays came from, 1 far away coming towards us and the other two close getting further away. When we all finished we had a chance to take photos and take home some clays if we wanted to.