Transition year interview not successful

My son age 14 (B.day in June) expected to do Transition year 2012 - 2013. He was not successful at the interview and same at the "appeal interview" He is below average at doing homework and this is reflected in any exams throughout the year, although is is always described as pleasant and cooperative in class. The letter we received from the college states that there is a limited number of places primarily due to Department of Education & Skills cutbacks in teacher resources. As far as I am aware he is the only member of his tutor group not offered a place, how much "Teacher Resource would one extra student on TY use up? Without the "Transition Year" experience the would start 4th. year in September and would have completed his "Leaving Cert" at age 16, I think this is too young! Any suggestions?

Hi. I am not sure how the appeal avenue is for you now, but I agree that your son will be too young at LC stage. I did my LC at 16 and I think I was way too young. My only suggestion wiould be that you consider your son doing 4th year twice. This will give him a chance to improve academically and re-unite with his friends when they come into senior cycle. My daughter did this for subject change reasons and it was ok for her. Good luck. It is hard to argue successfully with schools which can be run a bit dictatorially.

plankton said:

He was not successful at the interview and same at the "appeal interview"

Click to expand...

Interview? Since when to students have to do an interview to get into Transition Year?

The "interview" is just for students to show they are willing to actively partake in the programmes being offered.
Interesting that in some schools its compulsory to do a transition year,(regardless of age) and in other schools they interview to see who could most benefit from it.There have always been interviews and not everyone got do the TY year and this happened even during the boom..
I would have thought that your son was a perfect candidate for a TY year due to his age,and the hope that he would mature during that year and an opportunity to improve on his homework etc.
He seems exceptionally young to be in third year..my son will be 14 in August and is only in first year!( they couldn't start school until they were 5 or older)

Slim said:

My only suggestion wiould be that you consider your son doing 4th year twice. This will give him a chance to improve academically and re-unite with his friends when they come into senior cycle.

Click to expand...

This is a much better idea than going through to leaving cert and then repeating.
Some children gain from transition year,others take a backward step

Fourth year is Transition year...If he cant do it once ,I cant imagine they would allow him to do it twice?
He would I would imagine ,find it difficult to do third year twice also ,as this is the Junior cert year.Maybe it would be possible to do fifth year twice or perhaps the leaving cert/6th year,as a lot of students seem to do ?

thedaras said:

Fourth year is Transition year

Click to expand...

Read the first post, the OP stated their son would move on into 4th year if they could not do the Transition Year. Many schools don't consider TY as 4th year, but as an optional interlude between 3rd and 4th.

I had always thought that Transition year was commonly known as 4th year..and the two years after were 5th and 6th year..you learn something new everyday..thanks for that.