Transition Year

St. Michael’s was one of the first schools in the country to pilot the Transition Year Programme. Over the last number of years the programme in the school has been developed and expanded.

The Department of Education & Skills defines the purpose of Transition Year as follows:

‘To promote the personal, social, educational and vocational development of pupils and to prepare them for their role as autonomous, participative, and responsible members of society.’

Transition Year in St Michael's aims to

• Encourage personal and social development of students
• Further academic achievement. Help prepare students for further study and adult working life
• Increase social awareness of students with emphasis on development of confidence and personal talent
• Provide education through real life experience, use of ICT, peer teaching, research, self-directed learning, self-evaluation and self-assessment, and community based focus, whilst retaining a focus on more traditional methodologies, subjects and assessments
• Create a positive environment in which students have opportunities to reach their true potential while availing of a supportive framework for personal development
• Include parents, guardians, students and school management in a process of consultation and support for the mutual benefit of all

Transition Year Programme in St Michael's includes

• Irish, English, Maths, Science, French / German, Business– all mixed ability
• Social justice, Computer studies, Choir, Careers, Religion
• Various modules: e.g. Public Speaking, Yoga, Crafts, Art, Media Studies, Geography, History, Italian, Gym , Sign language, Home Economics, Science.
• Subjects are determined by the availability of specific teachers, timetabling restraints, the availability of resources and the size of teaching groups etc. One year’s subjects do not determine the following year’s timetable.
• Work/Activities are largely school-based. Work experience of approx 10 weeks
• Subject departments or individual teachers devise, evaluate and assess the curricula, guided by the DES guidelines for Transition Year.
• Student, parent and guardian evaluations and weekly reflections

Currently Transition Year is optional and is subject to the school’s Transition Year Admissions Policy.

For some work experience students will require to be Garda vetted. This process can take up to approximately 30 working days, so we strongly advise to apply well in advance of the scheduled start of the work experience.

The Garda Vetting Process

There are Five stages in the vetting process:

School User: is the person in the school responsible for Vetting Applications

Vetting Subject: is the person being vetted (TY student)

1. School stage 1 (see below for details)
2. JMB submits completed vetting application to the Garda National Vetting Bureau (NVB)
3. The NVB communicates by email with the Vetting Subject seeking further details and carries out the appropriate Garda checks. On completion, the NVB sends a vetting disclosure to JMB
4. The JMB processes the disclosures by posting the disclosure to the JMB vetting portal. Please note that only the school. Principal has access to the disclosures.
5. The vetting process is only complete when the school accepts the vetting disclosure/outcome. The school should print twocopies of the vetting disclosure and retain one copy on school files and give a hard copy of the disclosure to the Vetting Subject.

Vetting Process

1. This stage was previously carried out in hard copy. The JMB Vetting Portal digitised this stage and replaces the paper form previously submitted to the JMB in hard copy.
2. School issues Vetting Validation Form to the Vetting Subject (TY student) - informs the VS of the role to be selected (see Role list page 5).
3. TY student completes the signed Vetting Validation Form to the school in hard copy – The school must retain this form.
4. The School User (school office) issues a vetting invitation using the JMB Vetting portal.
5. The Vetting Subject (TY student) checks their email, uses the details therein to login to the JMB vetting portal, and completes their application for vetting for the role agreed by the school.
6. Vetting Subject (TY student) clicks submit to return the form to the school.
7. The School User (school office) must check ‘My Vetting Applications for Approval’ on the portal on receipt of notification email.
8. The School User (school office) submits the form to JMB online. Note the JMB has no access to the information completed by the Vetting Subject until the school user clicks submit.

Vetting Process Stage 2

JMB uploads the form to the NVB Portal.

Vetting Process Stage 3

This stage of the vetting process is carried out by the NVB.

Vetting Process Stage 4

JMB uploads the disclosures onto the Principal’s section of the JMB Vetting Portal which is available under the Document Repository tab - only the Principal can access the disclosures on the JMB Vetting portal.

Vetting Process Stage 5

The vetting process is only complete when the school accepts the vetting disclosure/outcome. The school should print two copies of the vetting disclosure, retain one copy in school files, and give a hard copy to the Vetting Subject.

Vetting Validation Form

Vetting Roles

Please note that students can only be vetted if they are over 16 years of age.