Tranisition Year Activities as described by one of last year's pupils (Catríona Lane) A doss, a break, a waste of a year.... These are the images of Transition Year that spring to many stereotypical minds when this valuable year is mentioned. These views are completely fictional and are statements given by people who know very little about Transition Year in Pres. Listowel. Transition Year 1999/00 is no exception to T.Y's. We have been kept busy with projects activities and many trips. Our first term was mainly occupied with our exciting trip to Dublin and extremely beneficial First Aid classes. We have all completed our First Aid exams and Law exams (Dublin). Many projects were also completeed in this term. We all did a project on our chosed French town and on an E.U. country). If you thought our first term was busy, the second term was even busier. We invited many intereseing guest speakers including our local physiotherapist..., Garda Shane O'Driscoll for a drugs talk and Terry O'Brien to speak on disability. The speakers were excellent and gave us a broader view on life. We have been lucky enough to do a fantastic music workshop with Peter Baxter (a songwriter). In the course of this workshop we learned bout professions in the music industry and we also wrote and recorded our own song. Quite an achievement! Our music education did not end there. Our music teacher Mrs. Henry organised a trip to an African music show held in St. John's. It was a spectacular performance. It showed us African instruments being used and how different their music culture is to ours. The major event of our second term was two weeks work experience. We were scattered to a range of places such as creches, nursing homes, Radio Kerry, The Examiner and Limerick Institute of Technology. Work experience was thoroughly enjoyed by all. It was a beneficial experience and we all gained a better insight into our future careers. On our return from the 'big world' we were shown the skills of drama by talented Victor Hayes. We also attended photography classes. We were introduced to the use of computers, scanners and hi-tech equipment in photography as well as taking photos ourselves. Our sign language classes were next on our agenda. We are currently being taught the tools needed to communicate with deaf people. Our teacher is both deaf and dumb but is an excellent, fun teacher. Our next excusion was to the Brandon Hotel where Women's Rights Day was held. We were all quite sceptical at first, thinking we had all our rights. Our views were quickly changed when we attended this day for women. We were reminded ther still is gender inequality. This year's T.Y's have been lucky enough to be given a second round of work experience, much welcomed by us all. A group of us are helping the Nano Nagle School with their panto 'Cinderella' and will be gladly offering our services to them for the second round in the 'big world' while others are still undecided about the second round of work experience. We have also undertaken and successfully obtained E.C.D.L's (European Computer Driving Licence). These exciting activities, however, are not all that we T.Y's do. We also attend usual classes to study normal subjects. We receive a taste of them at senior level. Transition year is a fantastic year with great benefits. I would advise everybody to do it.