TY students rewarded for efforts
KENNEDY COLLEGE Transition Year (TY) graduates celebrated the end of a great year together with family and friends at a special ceremony in the school on Thursday.
TY students, teachers, parents and guardians, and family members were welcomed to the school by principal Suzanne Barrett.
Also in attendance were Mary Browne of New Ross Lions Club, Fran Ronan and Nick Murphy of Sports Active Wexford and Lorraine Gannon of Lake Region/Integer New Ross.
Ms Barrett praised the TY students for their hard work and excellent engagement in the TY Programme throughout the year and the staff for their commitment to ensuring the programme continues to be a success. She complimented the students on their hugely successful Christmas Craft Fair and praised them on being the driving force behind achieving the Amber Flag for the school which promotes positive mental health and wellbeing in the school community.
TY Co-ordinator Vanessa Murphy thanked the students for their engagement throughout the year, highlighting a few of the more memorable events: the overnight adventure journey as part of the President’s Gaisce Bronze Medal Award and mystery midnight walk, Junk Kouture, the Christmas Craft Fair, and their collaboration with parents on a horticulture group, to name but a few.
She complimented the students on their excellent reports from work placement.
Ms Murphy aid: ‘A big thank you to all the local employers of New Ross and surrounding areas without whom we could not successfully run the work placement element of the TY Programme.’
She thanked parents and guardians for their support throughout the year and said the TY’s were a credit to themselves, their parents/guardians and to the school.
New Ross Lions Club were thanked for their collaboration and hosting of TY mock interviews, as were Integer and Jim O’Neill and Ms Lorraine Gannon for hosting a TYs visit and organising a TY project on Lake Region. Sports Active Wexford’s Fran Ronan and Nick Murphy were acknowledged for playing an important role weekly throughout the year with rugby, soccer, GAA and leadership/ coaching and training.
‘ The college hope these are but some of the collaborations and community links that can be embedded into our TY Programme for years to come,’ Ms Murphy said.
TY’s were presented with their graduation certificate by Ms Barrett.
Jennifer Canning was named TY Student of the Year. Full attendance, Excellence in behavior and Merit Certs were also presented.
Each student received his or her TY Portfolio of Certificates achieved during the year. This included certs for Excellence in Behaviour, merit certs for excellent engagement in the whole school community, full attendance certs and many more from Gaisce, The Presidents Bronze Award, Sports Active Wexford and Sports Leaders UK, New Ross Lions Club, Green School, Litter and Waste Flag Cert, Junk Kouture Participation, Work Placement Certs, Mindful Warriors Wellbeing Certs, Cumas ‘Ability Awareness’ Everybody is Equal Cert and a cert for collaborating with Kennedy College’s Parents Horticulture group throughout the year in the development of a remembrance wall and garden space in the school grounds.
The ceremony concluded with a slideshow of the TY’s activities throughout the year and TY’s serving their parents and guardians and invited guests with refreshments.