Transition Times: Teachers tell us how they approach the freedom of transition year

Yvonne O'Toole, Holy Faith Secondary School, Clontarf, Dublin

"The main focus of our Irish studies in transition year is to take the language out of the classroom and place it in the context of Irish culture. We achieve this in a number of ways - the arts play a big part in our programme. Every transition-year class does a module in Irish dancing [ below]: they really love it, and it's a great fit in our school, where music is a such a big part of the students' lives.

"Our students are very active in the Ceoltas group, so we have plenty of traditional Irish musicians to play to our Irish dancers. Last year we took part in a European cultural exchange programme called Comenius. Students and teachers from other EU member states came to Ireland to sample the cultural life of students here, and we were able to perform Irish music and dancing in the school.

"To develop Irish over the transition year we spend a lot of time preparing for debates. This is an excellent opportunity for the students to use their Irish-language skills in a meaningful way. We compete with other schools on the debating podium, so that students get a chance to sharpen their oral- communication skills.

"We don't use textbooks in transition-year Irish: we prefer to use Irish-language media texts, such as Ceim and Dreimire. We make a big effort to follow the interests of the students in the development of the transition-year Irish programme, and we aim to stay as far away from the Leaving Cert syllabus as we can.

"We encourage Gaeltacht visits and take students to Irish-language plays, so they can see the language in action in the community. Our main objective is to ensure that the students enjoy their experience of Irish in transition year. If they are engaged with the language on a fun level it helps to develop their oral, aural and written skills organically.

"The method works: the standard of Irish in our school is very high.

The vast majority of our students go on to take honours Irish for the Leaving, and our results are excellent. Of course we are delighted about that, but it doesn't change our priorities in transition year. We want the students to have fun with their language. In many schools there is a negative energy against Irish. Not here."

Send your thoughts on teaching in transition year to lholden@ irish- times.ie