And this year's winners are . . .

Transition year is mostly about taking part, but it's also about winning. Thousands of students have taken part in competitions over the past year, from business enterprise to journalism and fashion. Louise Holden rounds up the victors

Bridging the divide

The annual Age Action essay and photography competition drew hundreds of entries from schools around the country on growing old in Ireland. Essay winner Donna Quinn looked at the disappearance of older people from culture and media and wondered what we are sacrificing in sidelining them. Photographer Anne-Marie Doyle captured a beautiful moment of old and young enjoying each other's company, above.

I could talk to my grandad for hours on end about absolutely anything. He was a deep thinker and an excellent listener. I felt I could talk to him about anything because he was the type not to cast judgment but to look at the story from both angles.

Sadly, elderly people are not treated with the respect that they used to have or that they deserve. They are everyday victims of beatings, burglary and brainwashing con men. They are ignored by our growing economy, as they are looked on as worn-out batteries that can no longer be used and so are pushed to one side, to make room for the younger, skilled workforce with plenty of energy to burn.

Whatever happened to the days when the elders were the soul of the family, from whom everyone sought advice?

In the world of advertising, ageing and elderly people feature very little. Beautiful young supermodels and handsome strong men advertise most products and services on television and in magazines. When was the last time you saw a 60-plus woman advertising toning moisturiser for Nivea or an elderly man advertising the latest BMW sports car?

If you need proof, turn on your television and see how many documentaries are on about people having plastic surgery in the hope of making their lives better.

They have convinced themselves that all of life's problems will simply go away if they get a facelift or a nip and tuck.

We need to stop our obsession with trying to look young and learn that our bodies are merely shells, which cover our souls and personalities. By allowing others to see the real you, you can create friendships that are based on the liking of who you are and not what you look like.

This may take years to achieve for some people, but, as the saying goes, in youth we learn, in age we understand.

... - from Being Old in Ireland: A Youth Perspective by Donna Quinn

Giving the pros a run for their money

The first Irish Times SchoolMag competition was a roaring success, with more than 200 magazines entered for a range of writing and design prizes. This was not exclusively a transition-year competition, and entrants came from first to sixth year. The overall winners in the junior category came from St Mary's Secondary School in Newtown, Co Tipperary, for the charming It's a First Year Thing. As the students were all new to St Mary's, they decided to get to know the school and each other by documenting their experiences in a lively and fresh school magazine.

The winners in the senior category were the boys from Presentation College in Bray, Co Wicklow, who produced Impact, a magazine so slick and sophisticated it had Irish Times production staff quaking in their boots.

Individual prizes were also awarded for writing and design, and some of the winners are pictured here. The students wrote about wristbands, beauty, chainsaws, underground rappers, apartheid and bird husbandry. The standard and range were impressive. In the design category we had ace photographers, subeditors and cartoonists.

All the winners received cash prizes and certificates, and specially commissioned trophies went to the two winning magazines.

Bank on them

Presentation College in Tuam, Co Galway, built this year's best school bank, according to the judges of the AIB Build a Bank Challenge. More than 120 schools participated in the contest, with nine coming through to the national final, at the Great Southern Hotel in Galway last week.

Presentation College's six student bankers and their two teachers won a week in New York.

Competitors came up with some impressive ideas for student banking, including an Irish-only bank, a DVD to explain 24-hour banking and a half-day for classes that opened the most savings accounts.

They also spent a year running school banks, encouraging friends and colleagues to save for holidays, college and mobile-phone credit. Some schools took in €20,000 as students put their allowances and part-time wages to work.

In good company

More than 150 schools entered the National Get Up and Go Mini-Company Competition. After regional heats, 30 enterprises went through to the national finals, in Portlaoise on May 6th.

Rathangan Post Primary, from Co Kildare, whose company was called Home Made Country Preserves, took first prize for stand presentation. Scoil Mhuire in Strokestown, Co Roscommon, won in the accounts category with Tuck Inn, a food retail enterprise.

The most original idea came from Mercy Secondary School in Galway for Cluster Buster, a contraption designed to gather stray wires from mobile-phone chargers and other appliances. The quality-of-product award went to Portmarnock Community School for Fame Dreamers, its dance-tuition company.

Loreto College on St Stephen's Green in Dublin took the marketing award for Green Gallery, an enterprise that commissioned and sold work by local artists.

Haute couture or high art?

The 35 finalists in the Coca-Cola Form and Fusion Design Awards 2005 paraded their costumes at the Point in Dublin last Friday. Students used all kinds of materials, including staples, toilet rolls, wire, sugar, sweets, syringes and peacock feathers, to build quirky sculptural creations that were closer to high art than haute couture.

A total of 350 schools - encompassing 14,646 students, 846 teachers and 2,441 costumes - took part in this year's contest, making it the biggest transition-year competition in the country.

First prize was awarded to Illuminati Marionette, a design by students at Jesus & Mary Secondary School in Gortnor Abbey, Crossmolina, Co Mayo. Brothers Alan and Anthony Harrison, with their teacher Fionnuala Keveny, designed the costume using recycled clothes, black plastic wrap and white bin liners. The costume was based on the Illuminati, a Freemasons-style secret society.

Second prize went to a costume called Jellytron, which was created by students from Cólaiste na Toirbhirte in Bandon, Co Cork. The costume looked at the role of the jellyfish as a signal of environmental and hydrological distortion by human industrial processes.

Third prize was awarded to Calvin Twine, a costume influenced by the rural environment of its creators, from St Declan's Community College in Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford. The students created a stunning dress from baler twine.

Young social innovators

Last Wednesday and Thursday saw 1,867 transition-year students from 74 schools exhibit 120 projects on strategies to address local, regional and national social needs.

The Young Social Innovators (YSI) competition, which had been running as a pilot for five years, finally went national this year, to great acclaim. "The health of society is enhanced or diminished depending on the extent to which people participate in it," said Noel Ahern, Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, as he launched the YSI showcase, at Citywest in Dublin, last week.

"The YSI programme is vital for our young people and actively encourages them to get involved in the community, and I believe that we will reap the benefits in years to come."

This radical programme, designed to deploy the talents and energies of students to tackle social problems, was established by St Stanislaus Kennedy. "This first ever national YSI showcase demonstrates the dedication of our young people to tackling social issues," she said at the opening. "This showcase is an amazing example of young people's vision, creativity, idealism, inventiveness and innovation. You are sending a clear message of your care, concern and your great desire to build a more just and inclusive society."

Moyne Community School, in Co Longford, took first prize for its project on alcohol abuse, called Don't Drink til You Drop, Think and Stop! The students plan to design a model for an alternative youth centre that can be replicated throughout the country, distribute peer-led pamphlets in schools and continue their link with the local health board with a view to publishing their research, results and recommendations.

St Mary's School for Deaf Girls in Cabra, Dublin, and Coláiste Daibheid in Cork came joint second. St Mary's designed a project called Deaf Proud, to improve communication between the deaf and hearing communities. Coláiste Daibheid designed a project called Lest They Be Forgotten, to heighten awareness of injustices in the world and to remember those who have died as a result of terrorism.

Loreto Secondary School in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, came third with Are You Big Into Starving Yourself? The students hoped to raise awareness of anorexia, bulimia and obesity, to encourage healthy eating in and outside schools and to change people's eating habits in their community.