Mini Company, Fun Walk and Fundraising for Peter McVerry Trust

On Monday the 20th of September , all Transition Years headed off to Naas for a mini-company work shop at 9.00am. We headed off in two coaches, one occumpanied by Ms.Leonard and the other by Ms.Evans. We had lots of fun on the bus , lots of singing and dancing. When we arrived in The Moat Theathre in Naas we were welcomed by the lovely staff at The Moat Theathre and students from other schools around the Kildare area. We were given our seats and soon enough we were being told about the ups and downs of running a business, the good and the bad and the things to do and not to do. The woman that was giving us the talk her name was Orla. She was lovely and freindly.
The first half Orla showed us videos of running a business that may help us in the process of setting our business. Orla also showed us videos of previous winners and tips we could take on board. She showed us a video of the 2008 winners which were Dig-i music from St.Wolstans who won the National competition. We then had lunch and we headed off to the local shops to buy whatever we wanted or just to have a look around. When we came back we had the 2nd half of the work shop, where we were put into our groups that we would be working in. When that was sorted out Orla then told us to come up with 50 ideas for a business. At the end we all headed to McDonalds , yuum and headed back home for the rest of the day. It was a good day for all.
On Friday the 24th of September we had our annual fun walk. 1st years were pink , 2nd years were red, 3rd years were green , Tys were yellow, 5th years were blue and 6th years were black and white. This year unfortanetly we wernt allowed dress up due to the price of costumes, so we jus had to wear something that was the relevant colour to our year group. Our class Amina danced to Reach for the stars by S Club 7. Ms O'Callaghan our tutor , dressed up as a star which was really funny. I must say our dance did look well after all the hard work we had done preparing for it. Thanks to the teachers who took us out of class to practice and thanks to Ms O'Callaghan who made it a great day with loads of laughs , expecially when she "fell" near the end of the dance. It was a brilliant day, thank god the sun was out.
On Saturday the 25th of September , 15 Transition Years students including myself , headed off to the local tescos to raise money for the brillaint Peter Mc Verry Trust who take in those who are homeless and those on drugs and help get them clean from drugs. Overall we had a great day and made LOADS of money for this worth while trust. We hope to do more fundraising for them in the future.
Steph S :)

Transition Year Trip To Carlingford :)

Monday the 13th of September. Transition year classes Amina and Emnett headed of to Carlingford Adventure Centre Co.Louth. We all met at the nearest gas station Esso at 6.30, we all had some breakfast and some tea. The bus arrived at 7 to bring us down. Twelve girls in my group occupied the mini bus with Ms.Rowan whilst Ms O'Callaghan accompanied the coach with the rest of the girls. We had a fun journey down with people singing and some sleeping. About an hour and a half on the road we were greeted to Co.Louth by the big green fields and sea breeze.
After we collected our luggage from the coach we headed up the hills to Carlingford Adventure Centre. It was a lovely village but so small. We were greeted by the lovley staff. We sat down in the conference room were we were told the rules and what activities we were going to be doing. Everyone was exhausted but still hesitant to have fun on the activities. Shortly after we were given the key to our room. Our group got a lovely 12 bedroom > 6 bunkbeds. Thank god i was on the bottom bunk because i sleep walk and fell of the bed that night. We had a drawer full of sweets which kept us fed for the night. My bed was really comfortable :). We got into our gear that we would need and headed through the city to get ready for our 1st activity. We climbed up a hill in the lashing rain to get to our 1st activitie, we all headed to a little tent where we were given safety helmets and a map of the site .
The aim of this 1st activitie was to get as many jems as possilble by completing little tasks around the site. We all headed off in our groups and completed the various tasks. By the end of activities one we had collected 26 jems in total :). At 1 o'clock we headed back for our lunch. We had so much fun on the way back . Ms O'Callghan and Ms.Rowan got attacked by some of the girls with mud , poor Ms O'Callaghan suffered the worst with mud in her hair , all over her face and in her mouth. We had our lunch and headed off to our 2nd activity which was in the water , that was the BEST one .
We got into our wet suits and we were put into our boats, there was 3 boats attacked to each other. We all paddled from one side of the lough to the other , when we reached the other side we jumped out of the boats the water was freezing but we still swam in it . We paddled over to the peer . Everyone jumped of the peer . I jumped off the larger peer it seemed like i was never going to hit the water. We got dressed and headed back for our dinner. We had lovely home made stew and ice-cream for dessert.
At 7 o'clock we headed for our 3rd activity which was mountain climbing. It was disgusting , we were covered from head to toe in mud. It was a lovely walk but tough. We went back for the evening, we all had our showers. Then we headed to the local chinese. We all got 3 in 1s , Ms O'Callaghan got a satay one to fit in with the group ha. We went back and sat in the conference room around the fire telling eachother stories. 11 O'Clock bedtime , we headed to our beds and had our drawer full of sweets.
8 O'Clock that morning we were woken by the announcements telling us to wake up. We got up changed our covers on our bed and packed and headed for breakfast. We then headed up the hills again for our rope climbing , which was extremely scary but exciting at the same time. It was all about team work to help get the people up the ropes and onto the little green platform. We then headed back for lunch and then we had a game of volleyball :). We then headed for our last activity which was orienterring which was fun and extremely hard. We then headed back , collected all our stuff and said our goodbyes and headed out to the buses.
We arrived back in celbridge at 7 O'Clock . I must say it was a GREAT start to Transition Year.
The fun couldnt have happened without Ms Rowan and Ms O'Callaghan , Thank You
On Wednesday the 15Th all Transition Years and 5th years got their Junior Cert Results at 12.40 , the excitment in the Hall as Ms.Barry entered with the brown envelopes. Everybody Done Brilliant , Well Done Girls :)
Steph S

Steph S  :)

Ty Amina :)

Transition Year - Week Uno 

On the 31st of September we started back to school early to see the school had changed . There was new plasma screens, the outside of the building was painted a different colour and they had moved the lockers around. The plasma screens are turbo deadly , they brighten up the whole corridor. At 9.05 we were put into our base classes , i got put into class Amina , which means truth and honesty in some African language. I must say we all get on great together as a class which is brilliant. Our class tutor is Ms O'Callaghan , shes great we also have Ms O'C for pe which is alot of fun. Our base class got separated into 3 groups for our options. I am in group C. We got introduced to our new teachers Ms Mc Ardle, Mr Walsh, Mr Dooley, Mr Seery and Ms O Hanlon. Once we settled down to work we were told what fun things we would be doing through out the year, such as home economics we will be making outfits out of a t-shirt and a pair of three quarter lengths and one person from the group will be modelling the outfit at the end of year fashion show. 

This Monday we had a social development with Mr Austin Dunne. It was a fantastic day. Our whole class seemed to enjoy it. Basically the aim of the day was to build 'mega confidence' and get to learn more about each other. We done so many activities as a group and got to learn more about ourselves. We took a personality test. There are 4 groups , red , blue , green, yellow. We got put into one of the colours according to our personality. I was put into the yellow group which means 'mad cow' along with 4 other girls. The day turned out really well. It was a great start to Transition Year. I cannot wait for Carlingford bonding trip on Monday . 

Steph S :)