THERE are 17 acres of grounds to be patrolled at lunch.time. "It's good exercise," says Andrew Cox, Transition Year co-ordinator at Newtown School in Waterford City. He chats with students as he strolls about in the sunlight. On either side of a long curving avenue there are playing fields and rolling parklands.
Later at about 4.30 p.m. he will tog out for hockey practice with the under-14s. This is his only real contact with the junior years. His time is concentrated on teaching the senior classes.
Teaching in a long-established boarding school has its charms and responsibilities. Newtown is the only Quaker school in the country.
Cox's day starts at 8.55 a.m. - usually with photocopying material for his afternoon classes. It's Thursday. His first class is double Leaving Cert geography.
They watch a video, which some of the students have shot while doing field work along the river Suir where they looked at the impact of man on the environment. Afterwards Cox shows the students how to write their reports. The aim, he explains, is "to prepare what we would say in an exam situation."
On the way to have a cup of coffee at 10.3,5 a.m. students crowd around asking about everything. "It's the nature of Transition Year where people are always asking what happens here and what happens there.
Cox spends the hour before noon handling queries and any problems that arise from the Transition Year students' 10-week community work. They work in an old folks' home, in hospitals, schools and so on. During this time, Cox also works with three students who are producing a 10-minute video on environmental issues. "It's given them a great focus," he says. "I help them with editing." Cox also teaches environment studies and tourism awareness.
A keen Transition Year advocate, he agrees that it is organised chaos. But, he points out, "it's a flexible system which allows students to develop their interests and skills for the Leaving Cert - where you improve your methods of learning.
At 1.30 p.m. he has a meeting with the three other teachers on the Transition Year support team to discuss recent activities. They evaluate how the 25 students who are just back from two week's experience got on and also how the other half of the class fared on a two-week European exchange.
Cox was with the group which spent a week in the Netherlands and a week in Germany. "It's great for them just to travel to Europe," says Cox. "It just broadens their focus so much."
From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Cox has about 20 students for tourism awareness. They talk about golf courses as he shows them slides of golf locations. They then visit a nearby new golf course and talk to a member of the local authority which is overseeing its development.
One day a week he supervises study. He also oversees the work of students who have formed a sea pollution group as part of the European environmental programme.
