According to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the first year of the three year senior cycle, namely the optional Transition Year for those 75% of schools nationally who avail of it, is designed primarily to bridge the Junior and Leaving Certificate Programmes in an examination free environment facilitating the personal growth and maturity of its participants while affording them the opportunity to develop an appreciation of the value of learning in preparing them for life beyond the school walls, whether in further and higher education or in the workplace and in relationships generally.
Minister Burke introduced TY in 1974 while articulating that ‘school is losing contact with life outside and the student has little opportunity to ‘stand and stare’, to discover the kind of person he [sic] is, the kind of society he is living in’ and has evolved along these admirable lines since.
The aims of Transition Year include education for maturity, through experience of adult and working life while acquiring general technical and academic skills with a view to gaining a well-rounded, interdisciplinary, self-directed, socially aware and competent learning experience.
Transition Year is an incredible opportunity to build and promote fluency in mathematical concepts, fundamental to critical thinking and appreciation, and to bring our creative and talented children in a direction they would possibly and probably never have thought was one they would enjoy, or indeed gain from, while of course stimulating the interest of students who have traditionally taken to these subjects. This opportunity exists within the greater aspiration of growth and personal responsibility, and it is possible that one would nourish the other and become interchangeable and possibly even interdependent.
During our customised Mathematics Centered Transition Year Programmes, students have the opportunity to explore and experience different career options such as Video Production & Editing, Sound Production, 3D Animation and Media Technology as well as having the time of their lives staying at Kylemore Abbey and taking part in brilliant Adventure Activities such as Kayaking, Rock Climbing, Windsurfing, Water Trampolining and other great outdoor activities at Killary Adventure Centre.
Students also explore the mathematical concepts underpinning their syllabus in very stimulating, dynamic and highly visual iPad driven workshops. [TESTIMONIALS ]
Learning through discovery, creativity and adventure is the corner stone of our philosophy and our workshops are designed to help teenagers get to grips with the associated mathematical concepts, so for example, using a GoPro camera to shoot a video from the the Giant swing and work out its speed.
You can see how students got on in previous camps Students Productions of Camps 2014
Students can choose an adventure activity and shoot it on one of our GoPro cameras and edit it and we will project the films during a screen presentation to their family and friends on the final day.
The mathematics related to the art and the creation of digital photography is explored and used in the production of the GoPro films.
All students work in small groups of three and four with each assigned a major duty such as visual production/editing, sound recording/editing and sound track production among others.
The final product will be shown on a large screen with a student produced original sound track as part of the exhibition and concert at the end of the week, a celebration open to family and friends.
The Connemara Maths Academy Magazine September Issue is live now and includes highlights from previous camps and packed with great highly visual representations of maths concepts and interesting and relevant articles and blogs. Its a great way to find out about our philosophy and to catch up quickly on what Connemara Maths Academy is about. You can read it on your desktop by clicking the Front Page below or you can open it up in the Flipboard app on your mobile device.
Click the Front Page below to read:
Junior & Leaving Cert Courses
