Events
TRANSITION YEAR STUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO GET INVOLVED IN EVENTS THAT ARE ORGANISED BY THE SCHOOL, BUT, MORE IMPORTANTLY, THEY ARE ENCOURAGED TO ORGANISE AND RUN EVENTS THEMSELVES.
2022 – 2023
Ski Trip
On Friday 10th February the TY class arrived back from their Ski trip in Italy. This trip has become an annual event for TYs and a high point of the year. The students, accompanied by teachers Cecilia McGuinness, Áine McManus, Bryan Henry and Liam Lynch, left Sligo in the early hours of Monday 6th arriving at Santa Catalina, in the Italian Alps, that afternoon. The students had three and a half days of ski instruction on the slopes and activity filled evenings of skating and tobogganing. After the week’s activities the students and their teachers arrived home nicely exhausted and ready for their mid-term break! Huge thanks to the teachers for giving their time to take the students to Italy.
2021 – 2022
TY FUNDRAISING RUN
This year the Transition Year class are completing a 5km walk/run in aid of North West Hospice. This event will take place at Doorly Park on Saturday 14th May at 9:30 am.
The aim of this fundraiser is to create awareness of the work the Hospice does in our community. It is also an opportunity for the whole SGS community – students, their families, all staff, past pupils and friends of SGS – to come together for an excellent cause.
To prepare for the fundraiser the Northwest Hospice hosted an informative talk to all TY students about the services the charity provides. The TYs are now ready to take on the “Couch to 5k” challenge and will begin a 6-week training plan, starting this week. Anyone can get involved in this get-fit programme and a PDF booklet has been compiled to help motivate you and organise a training regime. A “I Donate” page has been set up for you to donate directly to North West Hospice and the link is below. Friends and family members please mention the name of the TY student you are supporting. Registering for the final run/walk on Saturday 14th May can be done on parkrun.ie. We hope to see a good turn-out on the day and ultimately make a handsome donation to the north West Hospice.
https://www.idonate.ie/SligoGrammarSchoolHospice5km
2019 – 2020
The advent of Covid19 put a halt to many of the main events of Transition Year 2019 – 2020. Apart from the TY trip abroad, you will have to look to previous years to get a flavour of SGS TY.
TY SKI TRIP 2020
For the last week of January SGS Transition Year students headed off to Santa Caterina Valfurva, Italy, for the annual TY ski trip. Setting off from Sligo in the dead of night the students, accompanied by Mr Lynch, Mr Giblin, Ms Stinson and Ms McGuinness, travelled by bus to Dublin airport, arriving next day in the snow-covered Italian Alps. The following days were spent on the slopes learning to ski and the evenings were occupied by activities including ice-skating and tobogganing. The students got a chance to explore the lovely town of Santa Catalina and do a bit of souvenir shopping before returning to Sligo almost a week later. The trip was a great success – and quite exhausting for both teachers and students! Thanks so much to the teachers for giving up their time to take the TYs away.
TRANSITION YEAR 2018/2019
TY Awards Night
On Thursday 23rd May the Sligo Grammar School Transition Year class of 2019 held their final Awards Evening. They gathered in the school with their families and friends to present their achievements and to be presented with certificates. Genevieve Cox and Luke Glennon were MCs for the night and many TY students took the podium to report on the year’s activities. The list of projects and competitions the students were involved in seemed endless and included CanSat, Build-a-Bank, Young Social Innovators, Comhairle na nÓg, An Taisce Green Schools Programme, Irish Angus Schools Beef Competition, the Youth Bank and Junk Kouture. Trips and tours, whether educational or just fun, were high on the agenda with the Ski Trip to Italy in pride of place, followed closely by the bonding trip to Killary Adventure Centre in September and the end-of-year camping trip to the Forest Park in Boyle in May. The International Students were represented by Martin Bourquin Escudero who gave a funny and heart-warming speech about his experience as a boarder. “I came here a boy” he said, “and I leave a man!” The Award for the TY Students of the Year went to Emma Gallagher and Mark Mulhern. Both students were totally committed to the year and took every opportunity offered to them, realising that they might never get another chance to experience such a diverse range of activities again. Fundraising is a major part of TY and on the evening cheques were presented to Sligo Cancer Support Services, The Alzheimers Association, The Paediatric Unit, Sligo University Hospital and St. Cecilia’s Special School. The evening was a great success and a few tears were shed at the end of such an amazing year. We wish all the TYs well as they prepare for their Leaving Cert examination in two years time. See some photos HERE
TY end-of-Year Camping Trip
On the 16th of May, the TYs headed to Lough Key Forest Park for the annual camping trip and to finish TY off with a bang. Despite the beautiful weather all through the week before departing, it managed to rain on us as we pitched our tents. There was a big rush to get the fires started and food cooked before everything got soaked! Mr Lynch, Mr Henry, Mr Giblin, Ms McGuinness and Ms Hall had their work cut out for them dealing with all the tent mishaps. There were a good few rips and broken poles before everyone had a decent layer of plastic above their heads. Some day pupils looked like sherpas bringing extra gear for their beloved boarders. Everyone awoke to the dawn chorus. Feeling very at one with nature, another rustic meal was cooked in the open air. Amazingly all tents were packed up by 8:30am! Activities for Friday started at 9am with a few hours in Boda Borg and Zipit. The claustrophobes and agoraphobes faced their fears, despite being mentally and physically exhausted. The bus load of zombies pulled into the Grammar at 4pm and everyone started their weekend with a nap in a proper bed! Thank you to all our teachers for taking us!
TY trip to Italy
In February Sligo Grammar School TY students returned from the annual Transition Year trip abroad. This year, as last year, it was a ski trip to the beautiful Italian Alps. Accompanied by Mr Lynch, Mr Giblin, Ms Stinson and Ms McGuinness, the group of around 40 students enjoyed five full days on the slopes. The trip included ski-ing lessons with all the equipment provided. Their evenings were full of activity too, with tobogganing, ice skating and a disco all organised for the students. With the active days and equally active evenings, the students returned to Sligo tired – but happy. A memorable week for all! Thanks to the teachers for giving up their own time to look after the students. A holiday for the students, perhaps, but hard work and lots of responsibility for the teachers!
TY Bonding Trip
In September the TY students and some of their teachers took off to Killary Adventure Centre on the annual bonding trip. The students got down and dirty, swimming in bog-holes, climbing walls, and generally communing with nature in a very hands-on way! The trip included an overnight stay in the Adventure Centre and, of course, very little sleep was had! Any energy that might have survived was used up the following day as the activities continued and the students arrived back in Sligo on Friday afternoon, ready for a sleep-filled weekend.