This option is available to girls who have completed Junior Cycle programme. Girls may be interviewed by the Transition Year Admissions committee.
Current application form must be used and is available at the school
Some or all of the following information will be required when your daughter applies for admission to the Transition Year programme.
- A completed Application form
- School attendance record.
- School Behaviour history.
- A contract for learning and attendance to be signed by the girl and her parents.
- Consent to review of her progress in Transition Year by the Admissions Committee.
The school will offer a place in Transition Year if it is believed to best suit the student’s requirements and the needs of the school. (admissions policy)
For students enrolling from other schools/countries:
- Birth certificate (copy)
- 2 x passport photos with name of girl on back.
- Reference from previous school principal (in English)
- Current health status information
- Interview with Principal or TY Programme co-coordinator before end May of admission year.
- Consent to a review of her progress in Transition Year by the Admissions Committee.
The school will offer a place in Transition Year if it is believed to best suit the student’s requirements and the needs of the school. (admissions policy)
All students and their parents are required to read and understand the school’s code of behaviour before admission.
The discipline is identical to that of all year groups i.e.:
Girls attend morning assembly.
Students may not be absent from class without permission.
Full uniform is required in school. For activities that require movement, the school P.E. tracksuit bottoms and top may be worn.
To sum up, respect for others should be part of every student’s behaviour in school. (Code of Behaviour)
Unlike many schools there is no entry fee for TY.
However money for activities is collected twice yearly.
On the contrary, teachers notice greater maturity and application among those who have completed the TY option. Many of those who achieve high grades in Leaving Cert have done TY. Studies prove that this is the case.
In Our Lady’s Bower Secondary School, the programme is designed to provide many different new activities, as well as the more traditional class work. There is less formal homework, but students should have a great deal of project, performance and group work to do, both during and after school. Deadlines must be met, assignment work must be completed on time, and students can be asked to help out at school activities.
Transition Year students can be school ambassadors, as in for instance Open Evening. TY students are encouraged to meet visitors with courtesy, and receive visiting speakers in a well behaved manner. The workshops in TY encourage students to participate actively in learning, to relate to adults, and to question intelligently.
Transition Year can allow for the development of an individual’s “multiple intelligences” – linguistic, spatial, logico-mathematical, musical, Bodily kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. The TY programme can also develop key skills for the 21st Century such as the three T’s –thinking, teamwork and technology.
Transition Year can allow for the development of an individual’s “multiple intelligences” – linguistic, spatial, logico-mathematical, musical, Bodily kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. The TY programme can also develop key skills for the 21st Century such as the three T’s –thinking, teamwork and technology.
To get the most from the TY programme, expectations have to be clear, effort has to be put in, and goals have to be achieved. As TY is an optional course of study, a Contract of Learning is signed by the student and her family, and kept in the school.
When it comes to deciding on whether to take the TY option, it is clear that a small number of students may not be ready to handle the demands of working in groups as well as the self-motivation required in some activities. All students should follow the advice of the school when selecting the fourth year option, whether Transition Year, or Leaving Cert Year 1, (Fifth Year). A student may be put on probation on entry into Transition Year. This is to make sure that all girls make the right choice of programme. The school will offer a place in Transition Year if it is believed to best suit the student’s requirements and the needs of the school.