Projects

Transition year is an opportunity for all students to try out new projects and ideas. Over the years our TYs have taken on many new challenges and projects. Here are a few recent ones.

2021 – 2022

Sustainable Living

This Autumn the Sus Living class have three projects to keep them busy. They are busy preparing colourful planters to be placed at the front entrance to the school. Others are getting stuck into digging out the soil in the raised beds of the school community garden to plant food crops for next year. Finally the school is delighted to get involved with the Gaisce Award #BulbsForBeeschallenge. This project is an all-Ireland challenge to plant pollinator-friendly bulbs. Early spring is the time that many pollinators emerge from hibernation and need to find food, and species like Grape Hyacinth and Crocus are rich sources of nectar. Later species like Allium provide nectar in the summer. The TY students planted 50 Grape Hyacinth (Muscari Armeniacum) bulbs in the flower bed at the front gate. Hopefully the school grounds will be brimming with flowers – and bees – in the spring.

For more information on this project – and to get involved yourself – go to https://www.gaisce.ie/bulbsforbees/ and follow the project on Twitter @GaisceAward #BulbsForBees

Green Schools

Sligo Grammar School runs a “Green Schools” class in Transition Year. This is a national initiative which encourages schools to promote environmental awareness among students as well as setting goals for the school in terms of its own environmental footprint. This year the Sligo Grammar School TY Green Schools Committee have been busy this term. They organised a series of “climate aware” events for Climate Action Week from 11th to 15th October, airing a documentary titled “The True Cost” which highlighted the social and moral issues around cheap clothing. They are following this up by organising a textile recycling drive on Wednesday 3rd November. They are inviting students, parents and friends to donate unwanted clothing to the recycling drive. They hope that the act of gathering unused clothing, together with the airing of “The True Cost” will make students and their parents make more informed choices about “fast fashion”.

Our TY GreenSchools Committee have been busy this term and have installed a new recycling bin system throughout the school. Watch the Video below to see what they have to say about the new system.

Young Social Innovators

A group of TY students are involved in the Young Social Innovators project which en- courages young people to take an interest
in social issues of all kinds.
The first fundraiser of the year was on Friday 22nd October. Just as the school broke up for the mid-term break, virtually the whole school population got dressed up for Hallowe’en. The annual Fancy Dress for charity was a fun-filled way to wind up the half-term. Students and staff alike got involved, coming to school in a vast array of fancy dress. We had Jedi knights, punks, Mario Bros, Grim Reapers, witches and wizards galore as well as dinosaurs, gypsies and pirates. Prizes were awarded to the best fancy dress in each class as well as to the best-dressed teachers, Ms Hynes, Mr Staunton, Mr Lynch, Miss Hall and Mr Geraghty. The group raised almost €800 for UNICEF Afghanistan Children’s Appeal.

The teacher photos are above- always good for a laugh! To see many more photos from the day look at the Gallery for 2021/2022.

Shoebox Appeal

Well done to Siobra O’Callaghan and Siofra McElduff who organised The Shoe Box appeal collection as part of Young Social Innovators. The girls displayed great organisation and team work skills participating in this worthy initiative.