What is a transition year (Ireland)?

"Piss without studies or classes" hahah that's pretty much what it is, he explained it well!

Transition year is the fourth year of secondary school (I'm guess your "high schools" is the equivalent of a Irish secondary school). It's optional (as in students are given the option to do it, or skip it if they wish and continue from their third year and go straight into their 5th year) so that pretty much sums it up - it's pointless really. Students aren't examined in this year (well their not in my school and I attend an all girls secondary school in Dublin) as they pretty much are never in school. It's called "Transition Year" as it gives students a chance to "transition" and mature before starting their two final years. Their never in school as it's basically a year where they do work Experince, and gain certificates for multiple things that in my opinion are pointless, but all the same I suppose they'd look good on a CV. You also get the chance to do Gáisce (the presidents award), which is a good thing I suppose. But yeah, it's basically a year to relax after the junior cert - which may sound brilliant but it makes you lazy, and students who do TY often find it hard to get back into the routine of getting homework and studying.

So here, I'll sum up what TY is: It's a year where students rarely have any classes, often walk around the school like zombies as they have nothing to do, they work for free at work Experince which they do for 3 months (which means no school for 3 months as they have to work), archive pointless certificates that mean legit nothing, get the chance at Gáisce, Relax and do piss all, and get lazy. The inky good thing about TY is the fact that they often go on trips (which you pay for yourself) to Differnet parts of Ireland, and even abroad to countries like France, Italy, Spain, And Germany (as these are languages offered at our schools, which is why the trips are always to those countries). Last year the TYs in my school went to some theme park in Italy, and the year before them went to the largest theme park in the world .

^ pretty much sums it up.