LCA Page

L.C.A.!!

In school I am doing a course called Leaving Certificate Applied. It has helped me a lot to stay in school. It is a great idea for people who aren't very academic in school. In LCA I have learnt a lot of new things like computer skills and art. These skills I would not have learned doing the normal Leaving Cert.

In LCA you do not do History, Geography or Business Studies. You also do not do the same English and Maths that you would do in the normal Leaving Cert.

It is Maths that you would use in every day life, and English that you would use every day like interview skills, typing a C.V. and filling in an application form.

You do alot of work experience in LCA, you get to go off on two week breaks to get a better idea of the job that you might like to do when you leave school.

You do a lot of projects where you have to use your hands instead of your head. You also get to go away on camping trips and hill walks. It is a great way to stay in school and concentrate on skill that you have that you wouldn't be able to show in the normal Leaving Cert.

We went on a camping weekend to Carlingford adventure centre. It was brilliant, we went bivouacking in the frost for the night and we stayed up all night having a laugh. We also went canoeing. We did raft making as well.

While we were down there we got to know each other a lot better. It was a great weekend and I would love to go again. It was a great experience in that we had to work as a team in the tasks we had to do. It was like a survival course for the night. We had to walk up the mountains to the forest, pick a spot to camp and pitch a site. All we had for the night was a few big plastic bags and a sleeping bag each, no tent. During the night we ended up cutting up the bags and tying them to tree to make a tent.

One of our key assignments for LCA English was to get a guest speaker into the class. I organised Billy Mc Guinness, the guitarist from Aslan to come in and do an interview with us. Here is a pic of Billy with my class.