An Unforgettable TY Trip to Barretstown

Last week, 40 of our TY students took part in Barretstown’s 4 day, 3 night TY residential programme. This programme is designed to help students develop key skills such as leadership, communication, decision making and problem solving. Everyone was really looking forward to visiting Barretstown following the memorable trips enjoyed by TYs over recent years.

Bright and early on Monday morning, all the students arrived in the dining hall ready to go. They boarded the bus and made the quick, one-hour, trip to the campus in County Kildare. After a leisurely tour around the beautiful site, everyone was ravenous! They all headed to the dining hall called Elizabeth’s Treehouse where they were served a delicious meal of cajun chicken and wedges. After refuelling they headed over to the rock-climbing wall where each student got the chance to climb up the different walls. Then they had a workshop based on wellbeing and ways to promote healthy eating. Subsequently, the students made their way over to their accommodation and had some chill time. After dinner, they had an evening full of activities including a quiz with prizes for the winners! After a long but very fun day, everyone headed back to their rooms for some much deserved rest!

The fun continued on day 2! After a delicious fry-up in the morning, the students had a day full of activities. They had workshops based on leadership, fundraising and public speaking. Then they moved onto activities consisting of low-ropes, canoeing and arts and crafts! After a gorgeous dinner and dessert, their evening programme commenced! That night, they played ‘Trivia Master’. The winners of this game were The Goonies who were awarded with a state of the art trophy! It was a great way to end the day!

For the final full day, the camp-leaders had an action-packed day in store! They began the day with archery and a budgeting and finance talk. In the afternoon, students did arts and crafts and learned about the importance of asking for help when needed. They also had an opportunity to go to the shop and buy some really cute merch! That night, everyone gathered around the campfire and were served with smores, hot chocolate and some amazing music!

On Thursday, they had pancakes to start the day, and then played a very intense round of mini-golf. After, they headed over to the theatre where students were presented with the cheque that showed how much money they had raised. Collectively they raised €31,932 for this amazing charity. Afterwards, They boarded the bus and headed home after an phenomenal 4 days!

We would like to acknowledge all of the teachers who accompanied us on the trip an in particular, Ms. Murphy, who organised this incredible opportunity for us! Over the last three years she has helped raise over €100,000 for Barretstown- what an achievement! I think it is safe to say that this was an amazing trip that everyone thoroughly enjoyed!