TY BLOGS
CAMPING
Wednesday morning I received my junior cert results. I was relieved to get them as I had been waiting all summer for them. My parents were with me when I opened them and I was happy with most of my results.
I had my bags packed the previous night and couldn't wait to get on the bus. I had arranged to be in a tent with Freeman, Ken,John and Jack. Growing up my family would go camping in Wicklow so I was able to supply a suitable tent to stay in.
I had never been to lough Dan so it was a new experience for me. I was the only one who knew how to put up this tent specifically but they learnt quickly and the tent was up in no time.
Camping is often a lot less enjoyable if the weather isn't on your side and on Wednesday afternoon it wasn't. Despite the bad weather we still managed to enjoy the walk that afternoon. In the evening after the walk Ken had already made curry so we reheated it for dinner.
That night we made a bonfire and hung out in the barn. I was roasting marshmallows before it began to rain again so I went inside and played cards.
The next day we set off on out 22km hike. I was using the hike and camping trip for my gaisce which was handy. I was tired and wasn't looking forward to it but once we got into going it was very enjoyable. This was the longest walk I had done so it was a new experience for me. The scenery on the walk was incredible. The walk made me appreciate the beauty of nature.
On Thursday night after the walk we went for a swim in the lake in the lake. It was the coldest camping trip in 12 years so understandably that wasn't a good idea as the lake was ice cold. I was very grateful for the hot shower after the swim.
That night the teachers cooked us burgers. I would like to thank the teachers for volunteering for us as we had a great camping trip. By the time I got home on Friday afternoon I was exhausted and went straight to bed .
I had my bags packed the previous night and couldn't wait to get on the bus. I had arranged to be in a tent with Freeman, Ken,John and Jack. Growing up my family would go camping in Wicklow so I was able to supply a suitable tent to stay in.
I had never been to lough Dan so it was a new experience for me. I was the only one who knew how to put up this tent specifically but they learnt quickly and the tent was up in no time.
Camping is often a lot less enjoyable if the weather isn't on your side and on Wednesday afternoon it wasn't. Despite the bad weather we still managed to enjoy the walk that afternoon. In the evening after the walk Ken had already made curry so we reheated it for dinner.
That night we made a bonfire and hung out in the barn. I was roasting marshmallows before it began to rain again so I went inside and played cards.
The next day we set off on out 22km hike. I was using the hike and camping trip for my gaisce which was handy. I was tired and wasn't looking forward to it but once we got into going it was very enjoyable. This was the longest walk I had done so it was a new experience for me. The scenery on the walk was incredible. The walk made me appreciate the beauty of nature.
On Thursday night after the walk we went for a swim in the lake in the lake. It was the coldest camping trip in 12 years so understandably that wasn't a good idea as the lake was ice cold. I was very grateful for the hot shower after the swim.
That night the teachers cooked us burgers. I would like to thank the teachers for volunteering for us as we had a great camping trip. By the time I got home on Friday afternoon I was exhausted and went straight to bed .
TY EXPECTATIONS
My expectations for transition year are to develop as a student and as a member of society. I hope to mature by learning outside my natural environment. I plan to do this by taking part in Gaisce, work experience and community service.
For Gaisce, I will be getting involved in my community by helping in Bray Lakers. This is a recreation facility in Bray for people with special needs. I will be helping with boxing every Saturday afternoon there. I will also be attending a First Aid course for 13 weeks in BIFE in Bray. This will help me how to remain calm and react in emergency situations. I also plan on going to the gym for 23 weeks as my new physical skill. I hope this will help improve my rugby game.
I am looking forward to taking a break from academia and learning in different opportunities. I hope to develop as a rugby player over the year and improve my game. I have joined Greystones Rugby Club where I was a junior member to help with this.
For my work experience weeks I will be helping out with my dad in Zurich the insurance company. I will also be doing a week in Bray Garda station to see if a career working with the public as a guard would suit me. Currently I don't know what career I will pursue so this work experience will give me a better insight into what I will do in the future.
Kairos
On the Thursday 12th of October my form 4b went to kairos in maynooth to shoot our television show. We had decide to do our show on “I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here”. But when we got to the studio we realised that it we wouldn't be able to do it as we wouldn't have been able to make the studio like a jungle so we changed it to celebrity challenges.
We had prepared different roles for everyone in class the previous week and I had been assigned to the sound department. This group was Colm, Josh and I . Colm was in charge of fading the music and the microphones and josh was inches set room and was holding the boom. I was happy with my role and think the sound team did it's part for the show.
I really enjoyed the day out in Maynooth and it was a different experience.
Scuba Diving
On the 27th of November, we went to National Aquatic Centre to do our scuba diving course as an extracurricular activity . We left the school at 9am to go it the pool. When we arrived, they divided us into 2 groups. I was in the first group and we went to get changed straight away while the others would watch us . When we got poolside we put on our wetsuits and goggles and waited on the edge of the pool for the tanks to be placed on our backs. I was able to remember what all the buttons did but I was not able to breath very well. It felt to unnatural and my asthma started to affect me.I decide that I wasn't enjoying it and asking if I could stop.I personally didn't enjoy it but I can see how other people would enjoy it.
Martial Arts
On Monday the 23rd of November we began our martial arts course. It was more about learning martial arts through self defence. The course was run by David Brown and he has been teaching martial arts for the last 20 years. We started the course of in the halla nua with a slideshow. THe first thing we learnt was how to asses a threat, we saw videos of how attackers move and how they engage with you. This is very useful because it helps you prepare and anticipate an attack or get out of that situation. This stage took up the first two hours of the course and was just as important as the physical defence part.
We Went down to the sports hall for the sender part of the day and learnt has to palm, elbow, kick knee, block and hammer fist. We also learnt to take down an attacker from the crowd and standing. The second say we learn to combine all these skills into combos. We also learnt how to disarm someone who has a gun, knife and baton.
At the end we did an assessment on the skills we learn over the course of the two days. Overall I feel like I learnt a lot of new self defence and martial arts. I really enjoyed this course
We Went down to the sports hall for the sender part of the day and learnt has to palm, elbow, kick knee, block and hammer fist. We also learnt to take down an attacker from the crowd and standing. The second say we learn to combine all these skills into combos. We also learnt how to disarm someone who has a gun, knife and baton.
At the end we did an assessment on the skills we learn over the course of the two days. Overall I feel like I learnt a lot of new self defence and martial arts. I really enjoyed this course
Liverpool
On St Patrick's weekend I went to Liverpool to see the Liverpool vs Watford match with my dad. This was my Christmas present and I had been waiting a couple of months so was very excited. We flew into the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool. We planned a one night stay. I got up in 5:30am in Greystones and was in Liverpool by 9am. We decided to go into the city centre as the match did not start till 5:45pm . So we got the bus to the Albert dock and walked up to the Main Street in search of a place for breakfast. After breakfast we went in search of the hotel to check in. We still had a lot of spare time so we went to a local hotel to watch the Ireland vs England six nations match.
We got to the statism 5:15 so we decided to get a burger in the fan zone before the match. When we finished the food we went to our seats. We were in the new main stand very high up only not many rows from the back. The atmosphere was still unbelievable only something i had imagined before this moment. Hearing You'll Never Walk Alone for the first time in anfield was something special.
The match was a brilliant experience and it was great to see Salah score four years and Liverpool to win 5-0. I was very grateful for this experience and hope to do it again when I'm older. We stayed the night In a inn and got a light home the next day.
We got to the statism 5:15 so we decided to get a burger in the fan zone before the match. When we finished the food we went to our seats. We were in the new main stand very high up only not many rows from the back. The atmosphere was still unbelievable only something i had imagined before this moment. Hearing You'll Never Walk Alone for the first time in anfield was something special.
The match was a brilliant experience and it was great to see Salah score four years and Liverpool to win 5-0. I was very grateful for this experience and hope to do it again when I'm older. We stayed the night In a inn and got a light home the next day.
TY RUGBY
After the end of our Junior Cup year our year that was playing rugby took s long deserved break throughout the summer until August when we started pre season. This was just gym once a week until we got back to school. During This time there was a change in management for the 4th year team and we didn't have a coach during the summer but as we got back to school we had a new coach. George Noupou. I don't think one player on the team that hasn't had a laugh with George and he was I think made TY rugby a great year. None of the our Jct squad had gone up to the seniors so it was practically the same team that player the year before bar 4 or 5 positions. We all loved George's attitude to rugby which was laid back but serious when he wanted to be.
I remember our first game against Blackrock away. They were playing the game seriously until we went about 3 tries ahead and they started messing. We started to lose focus. George brought us in and told us to ignore them and play our rugby. I fairly sure we won by 5 or 6 tries after that.
We had a couple more friendly matches because the world famous TY league began. We had a couple of tough matches against temple carrig, Blackrock again and rosacea away. We won all of our games except a draw against roscrea. This was around October and Mr Jolly had told us that there would be a semi final in the first week of December. December came and went and no semi final. This is when the conspiracy theory of that the Ty league was fake came about. We had never seen a league table and didn't know who we would play in the semi. Also we had talked to people on other schools and they hadn't heard of a league at all. It was believed that Mr Jolly was just telling us that it was real and that arranged loads of friendly matches and told us they were league games. Even George thought the League Is fake.
We had loads of funny times with George like when we played American football to warm up before matches or in training. We had mcdonalds before our match in roscrea which George destroyed 7 burgers by himself. One of the funniest guys I have ever met and made our ty rugby experience very very enjoyable. We eventually played the semi final of the league in the second week of February. On behave of the TY rugby team I would like to thank George for coaching us and mr Jolly for organising our matches
I remember our first game against Blackrock away. They were playing the game seriously until we went about 3 tries ahead and they started messing. We started to lose focus. George brought us in and told us to ignore them and play our rugby. I fairly sure we won by 5 or 6 tries after that.
We had a couple more friendly matches because the world famous TY league began. We had a couple of tough matches against temple carrig, Blackrock again and rosacea away. We won all of our games except a draw against roscrea. This was around October and Mr Jolly had told us that there would be a semi final in the first week of December. December came and went and no semi final. This is when the conspiracy theory of that the Ty league was fake came about. We had never seen a league table and didn't know who we would play in the semi. Also we had talked to people on other schools and they hadn't heard of a league at all. It was believed that Mr Jolly was just telling us that it was real and that arranged loads of friendly matches and told us they were league games. Even George thought the League Is fake.
We had loads of funny times with George like when we played American football to warm up before matches or in training. We had mcdonalds before our match in roscrea which George destroyed 7 burgers by himself. One of the funniest guys I have ever met and made our ty rugby experience very very enjoyable. We eventually played the semi final of the league in the second week of February. On behave of the TY rugby team I would like to thank George for coaching us and mr Jolly for organising our matches
Greystones Rugby
On the 30th of April I had a final while playing for my club in Greystones. It was the under 17 Leinster shield. We were playing in Malahide and Skerries. We qualified shield when we lost to Coolmine 9-3. They went on the come runners up to lansdowne in the final .
The match kicked off at 1pm so we arrived at 12am to warm up. I was playing centre, we were playing a weaker team and this turned out to be a mistake as we're 19-0 down. The coaches decided to make a lot of substitutes and by half time we were 19-19 at half time.
Skerries scored straight after half time to make the score 24-19. Fortunately we clawed it back again and the match 24-35 . This was our first silverware of the year a we were delighted. Jake, Ben Hogan, Ralph and Conor all played the match aswell
The match kicked off at 1pm so we arrived at 12am to warm up. I was playing centre, we were playing a weaker team and this turned out to be a mistake as we're 19-0 down. The coaches decided to make a lot of substitutes and by half time we were 19-19 at half time.
Skerries scored straight after half time to make the score 24-19. Fortunately we clawed it back again and the match 24-35 . This was our first silverware of the year a we were delighted. Jake, Ben Hogan, Ralph and Conor all played the match aswell
Tag Rugby
For the first 6 weeks of Transition Year we participated in tag rugby during physical education. This was really fun because they brought in people from outside school to help us try a new sport. I enjoy playing rugby so I was always going to enjoy it. Tag rugby had slightly different skills but the majority like catch, pass and offside were the same so I adapted well enough. At the end of the 6 weeks there was a tournament for all the schools that had played the sport in PE like us Loreto Bray, Dalkey and Blackrock were all there in UCD. We were split up into teams and began a Round Robin tournament. My team won the plate and I really enjoyed the day out.