The very first day back at school in August, we were given an introduction to Transition Year, explaining how it works and what we can expect. We were also given a TY induction pack, with all the necessary forms for the beginning of Transition Year. On this day I learned that the school gives us the opportunity to do extra-curricular courses throughout the school year. Honestly, I wanted to do all of the courses available, but that would be a bit much! So I choose to do three of these courses: Public Access to Law, ECDL(European Computer Driving Licence) and First Aid. Public Access to Law was to take place the 11th of November; in August this date seemed ages away! Suddenly the 11th of November was at our doorstep, the time has gone too fast! Today, Friday the 11th the group of students who decided to partake in the Public Access to Law course met in the Halla Nua first thing in the morning. It was fascinating to observe the type of students that chose to do this course. A barrister was invited into St Gerards to broaden our knowledge on law and to give us a taste of what a trial is like. I was very excited for this course! As I am not entirely certain what career I would like to pursue in the future, my aim for Transition Year is to create options and possibilities and try out as many different things as possible! Prior to this course I already had an interest in law. My mother is a self-employed lawyer and my granny likes to watch ‘Judge Judy’, so I guess it's in the family! The course started off with. introducing herself and explaining to us the main concepts of law; such as the difference between a barrister and a solicitor, why we have laws, how laws come in place etc. Then we had a group discussion on various previous cases. The Barrister explained to us previous cases that had been brought to court and we all voiced our opinions on the motifs of the criminals and the decision of the jury. I found it hard to understand how humans can have the ability to murder another person, without feeling remorse. The concept of mass murder and serial killers frightens me, but what scares me more is that humanity have the ability to do this. It was an extremely interesting discussion A barrister's wig! A very important aspect of court cases is that, in order to prove your case you must have adequate evidence. As we know, evidence is found and examined by Forensic Scientists. Therefore we watched a video of Forensic Scientists trying to crack a case by looking for evidence and analysing it. Watching this video really helped me put what the barrister was saying into context, and created a clearer picture of law and the function it plays in society as well as the importance of evidence. After break, during which we had our YSI bake sale, we got the chance to do mock trials. I was, to say the least, excited and looking forward to acting out court cases with my friends! Court cases on television can be interesting, dramatic and as times over-powering. I was looking forward to seeing what our trials would be like. The first mock trial we did involved a two drivers and resulted with an assault. The story behind the trial goes something like this: The taxi driver, acted by Eoin was driving dangerously on the motorway early one morning. Another driver, Harry, was annoyed with the taxi driver for driving badly so he made an angry gesture at the taxi and slightly bumped into the taxi. Eoin was angry so he came to a complete halt, got out the taxi and started shouting at Harry. Then Eoin grabbed Harry’s keys from the ignition; this provoked Harry and caused him to supposedly ‘assault’ Eoin by twisting his wrist to get the keys back and kicking Eoin. There were some witnesses present at the trial too, and Anabel, Dillon, Darcy and Odhran were the barristers. The trial was very exciting and entertaining. I thought the barristers did a great job and their final speeches were exceptional. Once the trial ended, the jury (consisting of everyone else) had to make the decision: Is Harry guilty of assault or not? And it turns out that we couldn’t come to a clear decision as in order to convict a person the jury must totally agree. The next trial was about a passenger causing trouble on an airplane and fighting with the cabin crew and stewards. The defendant, Lauren Fahy, was convicted with disturbing public peace. The third and final trial was set in the context of a Gaelic Football match. Ultimately what happened is that after a match between two rival teams the referee, Pat Parker, and a player, Chris O’Connor got into a fight about a penalty awarded to the opposing team which resulted in the referee pushing over the player causing him to awkwardly twist his ankle. The referee was charged with assault. In this mock trial Robert was Chris O’Connor, the injured played and I was the aggressive referee, Pat Parker (we pretended it was a female!). Emma and Andrew were the barristers. It was a thrilling experience, being questioned in a firm and demanding manner. I found it quite challenging to sit in front of the jury and tell them my side of the story, it was even more challenging to answer Emma’s (the barrister) questions; a few times she caught me out and I had to quickly cover up for myself! The trial resulted with Pat Parker not being guilty (even though I personally thought Pat Parker was guilty!). In conclusion it was a eye opening course that has given me an insight into law and court cases. I enjoyed the day very much and will definitely consider law for a future career.
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On Thursday the 17th of November, all the senior students had the opportunity to participate in the “Careers Evening” event, organised by the Career’s Councillor, Mrs Maguire. I was excited when we received the form on which we had to tick the careers we would be interested in learning more about! I thought very deeply about which careers I wanted to learn more about, as at the moment I am not quite sure what I would like to pursue in the future. I am trying to keep my eyes and mind open to all possible careers during Transition Year. Thursdays are generally busy days for me! I have ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) after school and then I help out at Greystones Library as part of my Gaisce Community Service. Today I had to cancel the library as we were going to have the Careers Evening! When I entered the Junior School Hall at 7.30pm, I was amazed to see several tables set up everywhere around the hall. Signs were hung above tables to show which careers this person would be talking about. I immediately sat at the Public Relations table with Carla and Anna. I actually knew very little about Public Relations prior to this event. I am glad that I now know and understand a great deal more about Public Relations than before, and it also seems an exciting and appealing career. The tables were full very quickly, so you had to run to get a place! Next I went to a lady who was talking to is about Business Studies. This is a very broad and interesting career, and the talk helped me grasp the concept of Business and the type of careers it is better. The following talk I attended was Human Resource Manager. I found this career particularly appealing as it seems to tick many of the boxes of what I like and what I am good at! The fact that females tend to go towards the careers of Human Resource Manager more than men, fascinated me. Quickly I claimed a seat at the table for Journalism, TV/Film and Drama. I could really relate to the speaker, and her career interested me very much. It seems quite an exciting yet difficult job! However I do enjoy writing extremely much, and the idea of doing it as a big part of my career seems very nice. Lastly I went to the Marketing table. Since I did Business for the Junior Cert I have a fair idea of what marketing is and what the career entails. Nonetheless it was useful to talk to a person who is involved in marketing themselves, to get an insight into the career. This Careers Evening has really inspired me and opened my mind to many possible options for future careers. I was very happy with the talks I went to, and thought the speakers were especially kind and answered all my questions fully!
Monday, 24th October Entering school on Monday morning in my tracksuit, I walked into the Halla Nua not knowing what to expect from this Martial Art course! I have very little knowledge on the topic of self defence and martial arts. This course seemed to me as very useful and practical, to defend ourselves in the future. We were greeted by our two instructors, Daragh and Cathy, who are both very experienced martial arts and self defence instructors. The first part of the course was theory, which is almost as useful as the practical part of the course! We were shown a detailed slideshow on self defence, including a few videos of people street fighting and an elderly man being mugged. The purpose of the video of the man being mugged at a train platform was to investigate the stages of the man approaching the elderly man and eventually stealing his laptop. It is very important if we sense someone is a threat or dodgy we must always follow our gut instinct and be alert. When the ‘bad guy’ asks their victim a question they are ultimately interviewing them. Based in the answer the victim gives, they can figure out whether they are an easy target or not. Therefore if we feel we are being ‘interviewed’ by a ‘bad guy’ we must make a point of looking them in the eyes and answering with confidence. Very importantly we must be assertive, especially girls. I found this information very useful as I feel sometimes I am not assertive enough and this could have consequences. I now fully comprehend how to respond to a potential threat. When we find ourselves in a difficult situation, where we are not sure how dangerous a person could be or we don’t know what to do we must follow the SAFER method. S stands for step back, A for asses the situation using the POP method (place object person), F for find help, E for evaluate the possibilities and R for respond. We must not react to a situation but rather respond, as responding involves thought and is safer. We were provided with a lot of valuable information to defend ourselves and to avoid being attacked. We were explained that there are three main reasons you might be attacked: for property, physical attacks, or to be killed, and we were told how to handle each type of attack. Next we all ambled down to the sports hall to commence the practical part of the course, the part most of us had been waiting for! We got into groups of 6, I was with Emma, Carla, Anna, Eleanor and Lily. Firstly each group was given a pad, which one person from each group took turns holding. The pad represented a person’s head! We were shown how to effectively slap, punch, elbow, knee and kick the ‘head’. I greatly enjoyed this, as it is almost fun to muster all the power you have and lash out at a pad, I think I would be a lot less enjoyable were it an actual head! Emma was by far the strongest, her kicks were very powerful! It is interesting to see how some people are very aggressive if they want to be, while others remain calm but accurate with their punches and slaps. Everyone thought it was hilarious that I had to jump to successfully knee the pad, as I am quite small! After lunch we moved on to ground fighting. Daragh told us the last place you want to be in, during a street fight is on the ground, as you are a lot weaker and more vulnerable. We did a few exercises where we had to get off the ground as quickly as possible. Some people had good balance and got back onto their feet in no time, however others had more difficulty and kept falling back down! We were shown how to successfully get off the ground, and how to bring our opponent down to the ground using a few simple but effective tricks. As the day went on, instead of getting more tired, our year seemed to get more energetic and aggressive! We ended up doing actual ground fighting, the goal of the exercise was to pin your opponent to the ground for 3 seconds. A few girls did this exercise, but almost all the boys did it. They were very competitive and a few minor injuries aroused! It felt almost barbaric as we cheered on the boys fighting and scrambling on the mats...like wild animals. When it was time to go home I definitely felt more confident and skillful. I was already looking forward to tomorrow! Tuesday 25th October As opposed to yesterday, today’s schedule was all practical. We started off the day by getting into pairs and performing elaborate and slightly complicated moves. I paired up with Emma, there was only a bit of a height difference so when we had to ‘strangle’ the other person I couldn’t reach! The instructor advised me if I am in a situation where my opponent is bigger than me (most likely) I should first kick them in the groin and then strangle them (violent, I know!). It was very fun and exciting doing all these sequences as they looked and felt very realistic. Our instructors made a point of putting all the moves they teach us into context so we know when they could be used. I very important thing I learned is that if you ever find yourself being strangled the first thing you should do is bring your chin down to your neck as this will help the blood and oxygen flow to your brain. The following exercise we did was based on ground fighting again. This time we were all a bit more experienced and knew how to do the basic things in ground fighting. Soon afterwards the instructors brought in weapons. Firstly we were all given a bat, and were taught to to protect ourselves from a swinging bat and how to disarm a person. It was quite entertaining watching my year swinging rubber bats dramatically at each other and them swiftly disarming their fellow student! Then knives were brought in. Even though they were rubber knives, they could still potentially injure someone, so it was a bit frightening combating with my partner who possessed a knife! The method to disarm someone, be it a bat or a knife, remains mostly the same. By the time I managed to get the knife off Emma, I would probably be stabbed to death...The part of this course I found most frightening was the exercise where your partner sits on you and forces the knife down directly at your chest. The sensation of lying on the floor and a knife directly above you was, to say the least, frightening! Daragh and Cathy demonstrated how to forcefully stop the knife from coming down on us, and how to reverse our positions so that the victim gets onto the ‘bad guy’ in a matter of seconds. All it really takes is strength and aggression! The 'stabbing' exercise, demonstrated by Carla and Eleanor! As we were leaning all these fascinating skills I had forgotten we were also going to be assessed on them! As I am in form D, I was in one of the last groups to be assessed. The test was mainly fitness, strength and aggression based. I was paired with Mar. As Mar held the pad I had to slap it with all the power I could, them run up and down to the wall, then do push-ups and punch the pad. The format of the assessment was: performed a skill on the pads, run up and down and then do some type of exercise. I actually enjoyed the assessment more than I thought I would! I got really into it, and forgot I was getting tired or out-of breath. Finally we were shown what to do when the ‘bad guys’ have a gun. According to the instructors guns are rarely used in street fights, their purpose is more to intimidate when they want your property. For example they might hold you at gunpoint and demand for your purse. Although the guns weren’t real, they had the exact same design as a real one, and once I held one I felt a strange feeling of power over my opponent!
In conclusion I found this Martial Arts/Self defence course very useful and enjoyable. The instructors were kind and helpful and the students all participated well! They told us we were the best group they’ve ever instructed at our school, and possibly in the country. This was a lovely end to a great two days. |
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