Swim A Mile With A Smile

This Wednesday the TYs and the LCVP students went to the National Aquatic Centre to take part in the Ian Daly Swim a Mile Withe a Smile. This charity raises money for the Cancer ward in Crumlin Children's hospital and Barretsown. It was a great day out and everyone swam more than they had hoped to swim. I was planning on swimming 16 lengths of the pool and in the end I doubled what I had expected to swim and swam 32 lengths of the pool which is half a mile. It was a lot of fun however I am disappointed that we didn't get a chance to go on any of the slides.
 After the swim everyone was very hungry so we went to Blanchardstown shopping centre to get something to eat. We ended up spending most of the two hours in McDonalds but it was still a great day.

This is the pool we swam in

Back to School..... Again

We came back from our two week Easter holidays this week. It was difficult to get up in the morning to say the least. We are still going into Work Experience but we are almost at the end of our eight week. I am sad to be finishing as it is the last Work Experience that I am going to do and I have also gotten to know the people in my work and they are all very nice.

 This week in Work Experience at lunch I met Ellen again and because it was raining we decided to go to St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre. While there we were asked by people in 7up T-Shirts to think of a creative invention and describe it in seven words or less. We then went into a photo booth where they told us we could get our picture taken to bring home. We thought this was great and we were going to get a free can of 7-Up as well. That idea changed in the booth. There was a voice that we thought was the machine telling us to do things like put your hand in the air and turn around etc. When we got out of this booth we were then told that we were being recorded in the booth and that there was comedians in a secret room telling us to do all of the actions. We then signed a release form and are waiting to find out if we are going to be on their Facebook page.

On Thursday we had a talk about the Ian Daly Swim A Mile With A Smile campaign. Which we will be doing on the 6th of May in The National Aquatic Centre. A mile is 64 lengths of the pool. It will be interesting to see if I can do that many lengths.

Work Experience #3

I recently started my third and last work experience which is very sad. I have really enjoyed learning about the world of work and meeting all of the new people in each of my work experience placements.

This time around I am in a reinsurance company called Renaissance Reinsurance. Reinsurance is "a process whereby one entity (the reinsurer) takes on all or part of the risk covered under a policy issued by an insurance company in consideration of a premium payment. In other words, it is a form of an insurance cover for insurance companies." . Which sounds very boring but very important. For example if there is a flood in your housing estate and all of the houses are covered by the same insurance and they are all ruined, it will be very expensive to fix them all and if your insurance company gave everyone the amount of money they need there would be no money left for the insurance company to pay staff etc. This is where the reinsurance company comes in, they give the insurance company money so they can cover all the damages. This all still sounds very boring.

In my work experience I fill in A LOT of spreadsheets. I was asked to research the companies competitors in London . I looked at each companies Annual Report and found all the information that I needed. It is quite tedious and boring but I also get to have an hour long video call from my supervisor who is working in London at the moment. He tells me all about the insurance companies and what is involved in having a job there.

I also get free lunch from any of the five restaurants that are nearby the office which is a big plus. I also have lunch with Ellen   as she is in Work Experience near by.

Although it sounds very boring I really enjoy my work experience.

Where Would You Like To Visit When You Finish School?

When I finish school I hope that I will be able to visit many places all over the world so choosing just one place is very very difficult.

After much thought I have decided on South America. Very precise right ? There is no one place that I would like to go the most in South America but the continent itself interests me a lot. I think their culture would be very different to ours. I think there is a lot of beautiful undiscovered spots there that would be amazing. I want to go to Machu Pichu in Peru, to Carnaval in Brazil, to Buenos Aires in Argentina, to taste Colombian coffee in Colombia and try to get to as many countries as I can in South America.


Argentina

Buenos Aires

Brazil

Rio De Janeiro 

Colombia 

Houses in Colombia

Peru

Machu Pichu 

How has TY been so Far ?

So far TY has been filled with some months where we aren't in school for more than two days in a week, and other months where we have to actually do some work. The trips have been great fun and they cover a wide range of interests from jumping off sea trampolines to going to see ELF the Musical, we have gotten to do at least one thing that has interested us. However most people have enjoyed all the activities that we have been given the opportunity to take part in(even if you didn't think you would like to walk up a hill while blindfolded....). There has also been the 'boring weeks'. They were boring in a sense that we were in school most of the days and had to do 'normal' school work but in the middle of each week we have work experience. Every Wednesday we have been out in the world of work and it has been...interesting. Sometimes good and sometimes not-so-good but in the end it is all experience and you've got to take the good with the bad.
 TY so far has been a great year to learn more about myself, for example if you want someone to draw a good leaf for you, run away from me and that I am surprisingly not so bad at making teddy bears, the teddy may say something different. I have learned new skills through all of the projects that we have been doing so far and I have no doubt that there is a lot more learning about yourself to be done in TY.
  I now know that what ALL of the teachers said at the start of the year was true, however annoying it sounds ' You get out of TY what you put into it'

Long Time No Blog

I has been a long time since I blogged last. TY has been very busy over the last few weeks. Since my last post I have been very busy.

   On Wednesday, 10 December all of the TY year went into town to sell holly badges for the ISPCC as part of the Holly Days collection. We were split into groups of two, I was paired with Sophie and we stood outside American Apparel in the freezing cold and asked people to donate money for the ISPCC. Before going home we got a much needed hot chocolate to warm ourselves after the long day outside.
 

 
The next Wednesday while the rest of the school was busy doing exams we were off to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre to see Elf the Musical. It was a great break from our exams and it made everyone very excited for Christmas. There was singing, dancing and even snow. It was a great day out.

After our two week break we had another trip awaiting us. The BT Young Scientist exhibition in the RDS. There was three girls from our school who got through to this exhibition. We were very proud to see them there. It was a great day, we learned a lot from all of the exhibitions and we got some free things from them as well. Hometown also performed a few songs which meant there was alot of screaming girls.

  I have had a great time in TY over the past few weeks and there is a lot more fun times to come.

Everyday Is A Fashion Show And The World Is The Runway ~ Coco Chanel

This week was the much awaited St. Wolstan's Fashion Show. The fashion show was held over two days, Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th of November in the Celbridge Manor Hotel. Rehearsals had been going on for weeks and I think that all the practice  that models,singers, dancers went through really paid off on the two nights. The models looked great, they had gotten their clothes from shops in Liffey Valley, Naas, Maynooth, Celbridge and Leixlip. I discovered some shops that I had never heard of before and without a doubt my Christmas list has grown....A lot.

The Entertainment

Ty Models

Debs

 The Transition year Mini Companies also got a chance to show their products . This meant a lot of work for the TYs because we had to get our products ready to sell and organize our display along with most of TY busy doing other things for the Fashion Show and we also had our school work on top of it. It has been a busy few weeks.

This is my Mini Company

1.