Merry Christmas

It's not the end of the world

Hey guys,

So this week of Transition year madness came to an end yesterday, and with it came the start of my two week long CHRISTMAS holidays!

We spent the first three days of this week in 'test mode' but come Wednesday the only thing pulling us through was the thought of our day out on Thursday. So, when it came, we were all more than happy to drop our books and pick up the bowling balls.

We had a small party for all TY's on Thursday morning where we danced around, ate cake and handed out our secret Santa presents. I was delighted with my present, a cupcake body lotion with a dr.pepper smelling body wash (yum) and 3 BOXES of brownies! If that wasn't enough we then headed out to bowl, and when I came 4th out of 6 people it was time to go shopping.

But of course, the first thing I did was run over and grab myself some chinese food, as one should. It was delicious and with 10 minutes to spare we got a little bit of shopping done too ! So that was our great day out and that's us finished until January! Merry Christmas!!

Till next week,
Ciara



It's been a long time coming!

Hey Guys,

So two weeks have passed since my last blog post (apologies) and I have lots of TY news to share! In my absence the Christmas countdown has begun, and everybody's already in the holiday spirit! Also, I've completed all of my Christmas assignments, so now there's plenty of time for fun and.. oh yeah, tests.

I'll start off by telling you that myself and my team mates Eimear & Zoe have COMPLETELY finished our JunkKouture design and even managed to get it onto a cat walk this week for a fashion show. The show was great and everybody's designs were amazing! It was fantastic to see all of our hard work finally paying off!!

 

 

 

In other good news, my group have begun selling our mini company product. Business is excellent and we're having a blast so far, I feel like i'm in a fully blown business! This week was also the deadline for the rest of my Christmas assignments. I have finally  finished all of these and they included : My Geography 'around the world' scrap book, a music folder & an english essay. That's the hard part done, and really, it wasn't hard at all!

 

Today I went along to a ballet with my year. We took the day out to see one of our school's students dancing in the Nutcracker ballet, and it was really good fun! We're now refreshed and getting prepared for next weeks tests. Transition years don't have it bad at all and we're finishing our 2 days of tests by  throwing ourselves a little Christmas party and going out to bowl, shop and eat some more of that amazing Chinese food I told you about in my last post. We even finish 2 days before the rest of the school, now that's not bad..

 

Till next week,

Ciara





Chinese Food !

Hey guys,

So this week of Transition Year included some more hard work on my Junk Kouture project and a trip to White Water shopping centre to work on mini company!

We left the school  bright and early and headed to the cinema to get one of our many talks on our mini company projects. These talks are very beneficial to each group, they teach us how to make good first impressions and how to make our products as successful as possible! But, it has to be said, the best part of the day was most definitely lunch time. We were allowed run rampage in the shopping centre, and our first stop was the food court. We found an amazing place for Chinese food and stuffed our faces until we couldn't fit any more! After that we hit the shops to see what they had on the rails!

Also, in other news we have only one more item to complete before we're FINISHED our Junk Kouture project! About time! And, just in case you hadn't figured it out yet..

THE HOLIDAYS

ARE

COMING!

Till next week,

Ciara

Blog title

Hey guys,

So it's now into the third month of Transition Year, and this week there was a lot of work to be done, but of course, a lot of fun to be had along the way! I have made advances in my Junk Kouture project, read a few books and even begun new interesting projects including dramas and clock making.

I'm going to start off with my most enjoyed part of the week so far, my religion drama! Our drama is based on homelessness and in going with that theme we even held a talk in our school library. We were told about the amazing work done by the Simon community and it was really inspiring! Also, in my own news, I've joined the library and begun reading 'The Kite Runner', already half way through and I absolutely love it, I'd definitely recommend it !I have also completely finished my junk kouture shoes, and if you liked them before, you'll love them now! We're just one step closer to finishing our whole outfit!

Throughout Transition year we are given the opportunity to try out new subjects that we hadn't done before and one of those subjects is Technology. So, as part of this new class, we have been assigned a clock to make. I'm almost finished and have decided to complete it with an ice cream cut-out (carved by myself of course) made out of pink and yellow plastic. This has been really fun and it's great to see the end result of something you've worked on yourself.

I'll update you next week on what I have been getting up to but until then,
Ciara

Project X

Hey guys,

So this week I've been hard at work completing projects and meeting my deadlines. It's been a fun week and it has been great to see all of my efforts come together after months of preparation. But it hasn't exactly been hard work all week, there have been plenty of memorable moments throughout the process.

Starting bright and early on Monday morning we got working on our Technology project due this Friday. For this, we must design a formula one car that will be innovative and faster than the rest, you could call it a competition. As part of this project we had to take pictures of each team member... in front of other students... long story short that didn't go so well!

Another project that was finished this week is my geography 'world trip' project. It took a looong time but i'm so pleased with how it's turned out, after all, it took me 2 months! This week I have made really exciting advances with my junk kouture outfit. We have designed and finished the shoes. They are complete with a bow, frills, and a hand-made stack of bulging presents. I think I'm in love.

So that's all I got up to this week but I will be posting again here soon so make sure to come check that out. Also my fellow classmate, Orla, is writing a great Transition Year blog so to see what she gets up to each week, click here !

Till next week,
Ciara

Oh look, it's our shoes!

I love free stuff

Hi guys,

Another week gone by in Transition year and after a lovely week of midterm break, it's time to crack on with some project work.

This week I got to work creating a mood board for English. If you don't know what a mood board is it's a small display that tells people about you through words and images for example 'happy' or a picture of your dog. It allows you to be really creative and it's all about individual work so I really enjoyed that! Also, the deadlines for my geography and mini company projects are coming close so i've been hard at work finishing them off this week.

Thursday was a great day for Transition years this week. We went to a movie theatre to get a talk about our mini company products but instead ended up watching the new bond movie 'Skyfall' and getting popcorn, Sprite, Jellies and our own madagascar cup (which now comes everywhere with me) all for free! Also this Thursday I started a new class after school on photography. It was really interesting and we've been set a project to do for Christmas time which I can't wait to get started on!

Today (Friday) was also a great day. Myself and my fellow mini company group members carried out a survey for our product and we continued to work on our Junk Kouture project. Tomorrow is the opening day for incoming 1st years to our school so we have volunteered our design to be displayed for all that come to see it. It's amazing to see how far it's come!

This Wednesday I also went on my sixth day of work experience so if you'd like to read about that there's a link to it on the right hand corner of this blog. That's all for this week!

Till next time,
Ciara

Ghouls in School

So since it's Halloween today I thought my post for this week should come in a different style. Please enjoy a video of the great costumes worn last Friday ! try not to be too creeped..

Hurry Along Halloween!

Hi guys,

Back AGAIN after ANOTHER week in Transition year, and it's definately been a fun one!
We've advanced on to making an adorable hand bag for our junk kouture project and i've almost finished my Geography project ! But, what I want to skip right to is what has happened on this craaaazy Friday!

So, I  told you last week that I was going to dress up as a zombie this Friday. Well, I have. And I might have mentioned it was going to be pretty crazy. Well, it was. After ruining my brother's shirt with gashes and blood (fake of course) and making my face up with special 'shadow' effects and a lovely glob of blood around my mouth, well, I was good to go.  All this day has consisted of is eating a bunch of sweets and watching the likes of 'hokus pokus'. It's been great, and I hope you enjoy your halloween this October, just wish it would hurry up already!

Till next week,
Ciara

Halloween is coming!

!ZOMBIES!

Hi Guys,

Back again after another week in Transition Year. This week involved many mishaps with our Junk Kouture outfit, another Wednesday of work experience and more work from something I might not have told you about yet, Mini Company.

As myself and Eimear were one man down this week for the making of our Junk Kouture outfit, it is only fitting that we have encountered a slight problem with our design. We had our skirt made when we realised it was stapled onto our waistband. This wouldn't work as we needed to weave the two together in order to complete the piece, but of course, we couldn't do that without drilling some holes first. And as we prepared to drill these holes in our skirt, we quickly realised it just wasn't going to work that way. We had to take it ALL apart, quite a big problem. But, after finally drilling the holes and spending about 4 hours re-modelling our skirt, we finally completed it and are well on our way to finishing the whole design! Also, Eimear(our chosen model) tried on the whole outfit and I must say, it's looking pretty promising..

So, something that I haven't mentioned yet on my blog is another one of my projects called 'Mini Company'. This will be carried out by all Transition Year students during Business Studies class. It involves groups of 2-12 people forming a mini company coming up with a smart, unique product to sell throughout Transition Year. Each group will be submitted into a competition for all Transition Year students accross Ireland and there will be an over all winner based on things like cleverness and product sales. My groups design is top secret for the moment, so keep reading every week to find out what it is we're doing.

Halloween is coming and to celebrate, my whole school is dressing up next Friday before our midterm holiday, our theme is 'zombies' and I can't wait to dress up and be the best zombie ever! Also, if you'd like to read about my fourth day of work experience you can check it out on my other blog linked in the top right-hand corner of this page.

Till next week,
Ciara

 

What week is it again?!

Hey guys,

Back again after another week in transition year. This week involved my whole school participating in our  annual fun walk, Eimear, Zoey and I coming very far with our junk kouture outfit and the beginning of many more exciting new projects. Let's catch up :

So, to begin with, I took part in the Fun Walk with the rest of my class last Friday. I realised quickly on Thursday evening that I hadn't made my costume for the walk, and that I had infact not even gotten the materials needed to make it. This, of course, lead to a late night scram to the local supermarket to find myself a cardboard box and some very dodgey yellow paint. And although it was a very late night for myself, it was completely worth it as we danced our hearts out infront of the rest of the school. Very badly. Unfortunately, we did not win, but we had a great time losing!

But, on a lighter note, our junk kouture project is coming along GREAT. We're all super excited about it and have been working hard on it for the best part of TY so far. This week, we've almost completed the skirt for our outfit, meaning we have the skirt, bodice, accessories and headpiece done and dusted. That just leaves shoes.... and don't worry, i'll be posting a picture of our progress very soon!

Also, last week I mentioned the BT Young Scientist competition, an important science event run every year in the RDS for students and businesses all over Ireland. I also mentioned that myself and Eimear have to come up with a project and enter it in this competition, but I regret to inform, that we've missed our deadline. Oh well, best of luck to all the St.Wolstans girls that entered!

This week, I have also been working on TY blogs, mostly about work experience and Transition Year as a whole, and on projects. Still working on my exciting Geography project, I have begun new ones in Maths and English about famous mathematitions and my favourite movie scene ( mine chosen from Forest Gump of course).

That's all I have to report on from this Transition Year week but make sure to check out my other blog about work experience for more posts from me.

Till next week,
Ciara.

Check out our dance routine for this years fun walk !

Hi Guys,

Back again after another week if Transition Year excitement. This week has been spent preparing for our school's annual fun walk and our many up and coming projects.

The 'fun walk' happens every year in my school. Each year is appointed a colour and each class is left to organise costumes, dance routines, you name it! It's great fun and is held in light of our Anti- Bullying week. The idea is that everybody comes together to achieve a fun school day where we perform our dances and parade around our locality in our hand-made costumes. This year, my colour is yellow, and we've chosen to be Lego men, while dancing to the well known hit 'hey-ya' by outcast.

I'm really looking forward to the Fun walk tomorrow, and let's hope my class win ! (did I forget to mention the class with the best dance routine wins a prize?). I'm going to make my outfit by cutting arm and leg holes out of a large cardboard box i've managed to get a hold of. I'll then attatch toilet rolls to the front and colour it with yellow paint for the 'lego man' look!

Other than focusing on the Fun walk, we've also been working hard on projects we've been assigned. They're great projects that really get you thinking, take for example, our geography project where we have to 'virtually' visit 6 countries in 1 year with 12,000 euros spending money. It's hard work, but heeeapps of fun and it's something I've never done before.

This week was a great week for me and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. I also went on my second day of work experience this Wednesday so you can check out what I got up to on my Work Experience blog (you'll find a link to it on the top right-hand corner of this page).

Till next week,
Ciara

Hi Guys,

Back again after a looooong week in school, which involved my first ever day of work experience! This week started off slow, working on our junk kouture outfit (which is coming along nicely) and on our ideas for the quickly approaching BT Young Scientist competition which takes place in January 2013.

So far, things are going great regarding my Junk Kouture outfit. There have been many new designs made to replace former unco-operative designs and to add that extra bit of excitement to our look. Eimear, Zoe and I  have been hard at work all week and have finished our fantastic bodice. It is complete with weaved gift bags and a colourful fan of crepe paper to go with our theme 'All wrapped up'.

I am working with my Junk Kouture partner Eimear for an exciting competition called 'BT Young Scientist'. We must come up with an impressive topic with which we must do a project about and submit into the competition with the hope of getting far. This competition is a well known and respected event that takes place every year in the RDS in Dublin. It hosts a number of  high quality science projects from students all over Ireland and is an honour to be accepted into.

This week I also completed my first day of work experience which is another part of my Transition Year programme, it was a great day and you can find out more about what I got up to on my other blog dedicated towards that. You can find the link to that blog on the top right hand corner of this page.

Till next week,
Ciara.

St Wolstan's TY: If I had a boat.......

St Wolstan's TY: If I had a boat.......: .....I'd go out on the water! TY's go kayaking at Carlingford.

Hi Guys,
It's a new week and i'm back again to share with you my TY experiences. This week has been absolutely MAD! It all started  when I woke up early Monday morning at the ungodly hour of 5:45am, to make it to a meeting point where my classmates and two buses awaited for our much anticipated trip to Carlingford!

After a two hour bus journey and what seemed like a bucket of sweets, we arrived at our destination, and began our activities right away. Our first activity began with a walk up a killer hill and although we were all in bits afterwards, we continued on to what would soon be known as the best fun of all... laser combat! I particularly enjoyed this activity and took pride in my shooting skills and the fact that I was only killed once, although others might not have been so happy with that as my shooting name (saber) soon made it's way on to everyone's wanted list.

As the day rolled on, we took part in kayaking and a mountain walk in the late evening. These consisted of crawling through many tunnels and best of all walking blindfolded in a line shouting ''i'm a spoon'', you might not get that one..  Afterwards everyone got together to hang out before we all headed to our rooms and ate sweets to our hearts content or until we fell asleep at 12:30am (I blame the hill walk for that one).

The next day held great activities which got us rolling down hills in giant blow up balls laughing our heads off during zorbing and making terrible progress over a small lake to help an 'African tribe' with their water pump troubles in the team challenges ((sadly, my group didn't win ): )). Carlingford 2012 was the best experience EVER and I can't wait to go back sometime soon. After returning from our trip, tired and sad to leave, we began a new school day where we endured 3 workshops and then left for home to sleep for 14 hours.

Two days later and we're all finally ourselves again, visiting a local cinema about our upcoming mini company projects and of course, buying wonderful cinema food. I will let you know next week how our Junk Kouture outfit is going but for now I will leave you with a video my year head, Mrs.L. kindly made for us all,

Till next week,
Ciara.

Check out the amazing outfits people submit to Junk Kouture every year!

Carlingford here we come!

Hello again,

So this post comes after the week of receiving my Junior Certificate results, along with the rest of the country of course, and after celebrating endlessly my mind has finally begun focusing on my nearing adventure to Carlingford with my fellow TY peers.

We've been told to bring old clothes, shoes, togs, and towels, so the rumours are endless as to what we'll be getting up to, but I know one thing for certain.. it's going to be the best time EVER. I've already begun making plans with my friends regarding the mass amounts of food to be brought to Carlingford by each person, because food is essential of course.

If next week isn't going to be special enough for us TY's, we have yet another workshop lined up for the day of our return. We'll be taught the ins and outs of our shortly commencing work experience, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Also myself and my Junk Kouture team have completed our head piece for our 'all wrapped up' themed design, and just to make you really jealous, I've got a picture of it to show you below before I finish off for today. Hope you like it!

Just to Say Hello..

Hi guys,

This is Ciara  from St. Wolstans Community School. I've set up this blog as part of my Transition Year programme to tell you guys what TY is like and to share with you all of the exciting things i'll be working on.

It's only my first week here and already we've got to work on crazy projects like Junk Kouture  where I, along with Eimear and Zoe , have the task of designing a dress out of recycled materials ( I'll let you know how that one goes!). Also, we had a great TY workshop where I bonded more with my class mates, gained confidence, and got some great tips on how to present myself during work experience. 
It was a day to remember and really helped my whole class settle in to TY mode.

So that's all from me today, but make sure to check out my TY blog every week for more  posts about
what I get up to in Transition Year. It's going to be exciting!