Any feedback from past/current students?

Kilmurray

I have a daughter who is in CTYI 8-13 prog. She started from 6-7 yr prog. I just want to know if any of students who took courses thinks it is woth the driving back and forth every Saturday? Her weekdays are full of homeworks, afterschool activities, etc( Well birthday parties to attand as well). She is in youth orchestra. She loves EVERYTHING!!!! I am dead tired after all the driving not to mention to meet the emotional/intellectual demands from my daughter. I went to conference few weeks agao about the understanding education of gifted children. Many good talks but I wanted hear from past/students as well from their point of view.

PurpleFistMixer

I did one of those saturday courses (many years ago now!), the drive to DCU was about an hour, hour and a half from where I live... not worth it, in my opinion, but I wasn't too mad on the course either. The residential summer courses are excellent, though. (Not sure if they do them for the younger age groups, I did it in the 12-16 group.)

claire h

Kilmurray wrote: »

I just want to know if any of students who took courses thinks it is woth the driving back and forth every Saturday?

Have you asked your daughter whether she thinks it's worth the trip, first of all? Are there any courses she's particularly interested in, or does she just want to do 'everything'?

I'm a former student, currently teaching there, was actually speaking at that conference (in short: am very much 'yay, gifted education!')... and I do think the Saturday classes are worth it, if students are enjoying them and if it's a subject they really want to do (rather than just going along because their friends from previous courses are there). They're two and a half hours (with a break), which is long enough to sort of justify the trip in many cases (depending on how long it's taking you to travel, of course). There are also a lot of kids whose parents work out a carpooling system so that you're not driving every week - if you talk to the co-ordinators there's usually a list so you can find out if there's anyone travelling from nearabouts where you're coming from.

The summer schools for young students are certainly worth looking into; they don't offer residental places for the young student programme anymore, though. Again, only if there's a subject combination that she wants to do - while the social side of things is obviously important, the point is to try to get both the social side and academic/enrichment side of things.

Hope that helps. I'd seriously look into the carpooling thing and see if you can sort something out - obviously you want to facilitate your daughter as much as possible but it's tough to be SuperParent!

Jim_Are_Great

I went to one of those courses, except it was in Waterford Institute of Technology. There was only one course available, and we had to eat sitting outside the canteen for some reason.

I appreciate that this is of no help to anyone, I just felt like typing.

x_Ashy_x

I did the summer courses for 4 years n they were the best summers of my life! defo worth it! made really great friends and I got the chance to experience things I never would of in school. Ask your daughter if she wants to do them or not because unless its a course she will enjoy then theres no point really. They're really brilliant though!

slasher_65

I did the saturday courses, with about a half an hour drive. Go for carpooling, and make sure that she chooses courses which she will really enjoy.

They Rock, and some say that the food you get on them is so much better then the residential food.
True story.

markytowny94

i have more experience wit 8-13 than 12-16 but in terms of food 8-13 kicks ass.if you do morning and afternon classes in 8-13 you can get a proper ....i hate the word for some reason....... "carvery" dinner for a fiver but 12-16 is like microwavable s***.cold chips with green or red flavour soup is to be expected.

slasher_65

markytowny94 wrote: »

i have more experience wit 8-13 than 12-16 but in terms of food 8-13 kicks ass.if you do morning and afternon classes in 8-13 you can get a proper ....i hate the word for some reason....... "carvery" dinner for a fiver but 12-16 is like microwavable s***.cold chips with green or red flavour soup is to be expected.

Not forgetting the all important stomach-lining eating Orange Juice.

Om nom nom nom.

markytowny94

yeah for lunch you dont know if your gonna get cans of pepsi/fanta or the orange juice that is extremely strong that comes in weird little cups that look like the ones ya get medicine in

PurpleFistMixer

You mean normal polystyrene cups?

I loved that orange juice. : (

markytowny94

theyre not really polysteren theyre paper or a weird type of card. fanta or orange juice?

PurpleFistMixer

Hm. Well that's good to hear, polystyrene is a nightmare for the environment. I'd take my chances with the orange juice over fanta, it's too sugary for me. (That said, don't do what a biomed class did one year and stop eating sugar at all, that'll land you in hospital.)

Jack Lynch

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

You mean normal polystyrene cups?

I loved that orange juice. : (

The orange that was 25% mayonaisse? Each to his own, I suppose...

PurpleFistMixer

25% mayonnaise is a slight overexaggeration. We all know 10% is the healthy amount for an orange juice. Not too salty, not too watery.

In an offtopicish way, I feel sort of like I'm back at CTYI now as I'm staying in DCU doing physics, only... we don't have any supervisors and can do what we want, so really it's quite different entirely.

phaze

Hi - just wondering how others have found the CTYI summer courses. My nephew did the 6-7 year old engineering and law course for the week. While the course was advertised as being full of practical activities, as one would expect for young children, both subjects were very theoretical with one drawing activity, a remote control car and a court case the only practical work he did for the week. The law notes were way over his head - it was difficult for me to remain interested when reading them.

Very disappointing course for him but we did hear that the courses tend to be hit and miss. Anyone else any views.