Transition Year helps people learn about themselves and to move from one stage to another, whether it’s the stress of the Junior Cycle or not knowing what you want to become in future.
As a student with a learning difficulty, for example dyslexia and autism, TY has helped by challenging me to learn.
This year I’ve received more help with learning and I also receive encouragement from classmates and teachers to learn no matter the results. At times I found it difficult to focus on the work given by the teacher, but I was helped and encouraged to work to the best of my ability. TY has also made it easier to learn and figure out what I want to become in the future.
Another challenge that I’ve overcome, thanks to the help of the teachers and other students, is discovering who I am. The staff help by praising me and the students help by standing behind me telling me over and over that I can do it. The TY trips also help students with a disability to become more confident about themselves and make new friends.
TY has given me the chance to learn in a different way by going on trips, working in teams and through modules. TY work experience has also helped me learn that people with learning disabilities are all around us and working like everyone else.
The achievement I am most proud of is our Transition Year Christmas Fair, where we made goods to sell. I got to work and talk to new people while the feeling of being judged for having a learning disability wasn’t in the atmosphere.
Over the year, I have become more confident in trying new things and this has also helped me to become more independent. In one of the TY modules we get to make speeches and this has also helped me gain confidence.
TY taught me that even with a disability I can still learn even if that is at a slower pace than others. It has also taught me that having a learning disability does not mean I can’t learn like the other students around me.
I would encourage other students with difficulty to learn and students who find it hard to make friends to do Transition Year. You can learn things you never knew about yourself and work with people you never worked with.
