St Finian's Community College is a 620-student school in Swords, Co Dublin. It is typical of many medium-sized community schools in Irish towns, with students from a wide range of social backgrounds.

Its success as a Transition Year school clearly lies in the enthusiasm of its staff. About half its teachers are involved in the programme, but this rises to 70 per cent when those who have been involved in the past are included.

"We love it, because we know we have a good product," says the school's Transition Year co-ordinator, Ada Broderick. "We know the kids enjoy it because they vote for it with their feet."

Roughly half the fourth-years take Transition Year. Unusually, many of them then go on to do the Leaving Certificate Applied. In addition, many courses lead to school-awarded certificates, and are thus a boost for students who are weaker academically but are for once getting equal recognition with their normally higher-achieving peers.

Year head Donal Garrigan teaches them economics, "the most interesting subject in the world". He uses no textbooks, but encourages students to read the heavier newspapers. Broderick teaches development studies. She recently played the Fyffes-produced "Banana Game" with her students, with groups role-playing growers, pickers, shippers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers. They ended up seeing how unfair the banana trade is.

In religion, she gets information and speakers from groups which appeal particularly to teenagers, such as Focus Point and the Samaritans.

History teacher Catherine Scanlon is a passionate believer in the importance of politics. "I try to convey to them the idea that democracy can work, and that they should vote - despite all the tribunals and scandals." Scanlon also offers a history of 20th-century Russia, using videos and books like 1984 to raise issues including communism, the second World War and the conflict in Yugoslavia.

The school's most popular programme is a weekly afternoon-long course in first aid, personal development and self-defence. An outside specialist, Rose Fitzpatrick, uses "role plays", games and activity-based projects to raise issues ranging from conflict resolution and interview techniques to personal relationships and sex.

The foreign trip - this year to Paris, next year to Rome - is a highlight. Many students do part-time jobs to save for it, and for some it is their first time on a plane.

Other projects include a problem-solving competition among local schools; St Finian's studied the problem of heavy school bags. Students also prepare film treatments, do woodwork, set dancing and horse-riding with the disabled. Outdoor pursuits, bowling and Quazar lead to more relaxed and equal relationships among students and between students and teachers.

St Finian's staff find generally that the year leads to greater maturity and confidence, with students who were silent and sullen at Junior Certificate "bubbling and delighted to go on to Leaving Certificate Applied, remaining together as a group". These are just the kind of students who before Transition Year and LCA would have dropped out at 15.