What is Gaisce?
The Gaisce Award is awarded by the President of Ireland to a student who successfully completes each area of the Award. The Gaisce Award is a non-competitive personal challenge. It encourages students to become involved in their communities, develop their confidence and increase their levels of responsibility by fulfilling the Award. Students are required to become involved in each of the following areas for one hour a week for thirteen weeks. One activity will be pursued for a further thirteen weeks (twenty-six weeks in total).
Community Involvement
e.g. Assisting in the coaching of a junior sports team in the school or local club, involvement in the School Homework Club, helping out with Tidy Towns
Personal Activity
e.g. Learning how to cook/bake, play a musical instrument, sing, photography
Physical Activity
e.g. Learning how to play a new sport like badminton. You could also get stronger at a sport that you are currently involved in by setting a new goal within that sport.
Adventure Journey
Students will travel to Carlingford Adventure Centre where they will partake in a Gaisce hike and team building activities.
All these Gaisce activities are recorded on a record card which is signed, then submitted at the end of the school year to Gaisce. Students will receive their Gaisce medal, Gaisce pin and a certificate signed by President Michael D. Higgins at the Transition Year Graduation.
Michael Magbo
My Gaisce experience is something that I will never forget; This Award programme is a personal Challenge from the President of Ireland to successfully complete various activities throughout the Award journey. I successfully completed activities and found myself in a place I never thought I would be in. My immersion into this Award programme is one that made the receival of the award even better, since I showed that I was dedicated by putting in enough effort to make the end goal worthwhile.
The completion of the award consisted of thirteen weeks of physical recreation, a personal skill, community involvement, an additional thirteen weeks of one of the three sections previously listed, and an adventure journey. For my physical recreation, I played football every Friday for two hours. Since I was so consistent in it, I decided to choose it for my additional thirteen weeks. I cooked at least one meal every week for my personal skill. I helped my school get a Green Flag as a part of my community involvement. I completed these activities fairly quickly, which put me in a position to simply get my adventure journey done.
An adventure I participated in was the President's Award ‘Defence Forces’ Challenge that consisted of four days and three nights at the Army Barracks in Athlone. I originally planned to apply for this adventure as I thought it would be an exciting experience. Thirty participants across Ireland were selected and I was glad to be one of the thirty. The journey is truly an unforgettable experience, one which I would definitely recommend to anyone