High School Programme - My Irish Exchange Adventure

Being an exchange student in Ireland means more than just studying abroad. School is a mix of new challenges and friendly guidance, while life outside the classroom is filled with exploring Irish culture, from the lively streets to stunning landscapes. Every day shapes my journey, both academically and personally.

High School Programme Ambassador – Lilli, Germany

Hi, I am Lilli.I’m from Germany and I’m 16 years old. I live in Killbarack and I go to school in Raheny. My school is “Manor House”, it’s an all girls school. I am in fourth year which is also called TY. TY stands for Transition Year, which is basically a programme which offers a unique opportunity where schools and communities can collaborate to encourage young people to thrive now and into their future. I have been here for a little over a month now. My school starts at 8:40 am and ends at 3:40 pm. Wednesdays are half days so school ends at 12:56 pm. I am in TY, which means that my school days are a little different to the other year’s.

School life in Ireland

On Mondays we have musical day. In my school you do your own musical with your year when you are in TY. Our musical will be “Aladdin”. Every Monday we work on our musical. We are split into four groups. One is the set design group, which is my group, the second is enterprise, they organise everything, do the tickets, make t-shirts and so on. The last two are the dancers and actors, they are split up into two groups because otherwise they would be too big. The roles were already announced, so everyone knows their part and learns it. We will perform our musical before christmas break.

The other school days are mostly like normal school days. You have your subjects that you chose and the subjects that you need to do like math, English and religion.

We also do a lot of activities.
For example, we did a self defence course in the first week of school. We were told how we should defend ourselves in certain situations. We also did drivers education in the same week. On this day we learned how to change a tire and we got to drive a car for the first time.

You also get a lot of opportunities to develop yourself further. For example, “Gaisce”. Even international students can do it. In fourth year, which is TY, you can do the bronze Award. In fifth the silver one and in sixth the golden. If you’ve never heard of it before, like me, I’ll explain. Gaisce is an award you can get if you complete a number of things. For the bronze one, which I’ll be doing, you have to do 13 weeks of three things and one thing for 26 weeks. You have to do a community involvement, physical recreation and personal skill. You have to do all of this three for at least an hour a week. You choose one that you want to do longer, meaning 26 instead of just 13 weeks. If you complete this you will get the award. The award is recognised in 130 countries and it represents that you are reliable and dedicated. The award can help you if you’re looking for a job or want to go to university.

Freetime as an exchange student in Dublin

Now from school life to my free time.

Ireland offers a lot of things to do in your freetime. My favourite thing I’ve done so far is definitely the Howth cliff walk. I did it in my first week here and I did it with a friend. We got the train to Howth and then did the cliff walk. It was really beautiful and exactly what you think of if you think of Ireland. The cliffs were beautiful and the weather was gorgeous, which was great for us.

I also love to go into the city centre. It’s fun to just walk around the streets and look at the different shops, there are definitely a lot.

An activity that I also really enjoyed was the “National Gallery of Ireland”. I went there by myself and got to see the “Women Impressionist” exhibition and it was lovely. For anyone who likes art and museum’s as much as me this is a must see.
This has been my journey so far.

I hope it inspires you.
Thank you for reading.
Lilli 🙂