How to Propose a New TY Elective in Your School

To propose a new TY elective, put a one-page proposal in front of your TY coordinator in the spring term, before next year’s timetable is fixed. Make sure it answers the six questions the TY Core Team will ask. This is what students will learn, who will teach it, how many hours it needs, what it costs and who pays, how learning is assessed, and how it reaches the student’s portfolio and school report. The redeveloped Transition Year Programme Statement leaves the choice of electives to each school. A well-argued proposal from a teacher is exactly how new electives get onto a TY menu.

Key takeaways

• There is no external approval body for TY electives. The school’s TY Core Team, led by the coordinator and supported by the principal, decides what runs.
• Timing matters more than polish. In most schools the TY menu for September is settled in the spring term. This is around the time TY information evenings and interviews are held.
• The Programme Statement gives electives a combined time guide of three to four hours a week. Therefore, a new elective is competing for a small, fixed slot. Say exactly how much of it you need.
• Cost and staffing sink more proposals than content does. Name the per-student cost, who pays it, and who teaches it if you are out.
• A proposal that already shows how the elective meets the four curriculum dimensions saves the coordinator work, which makes a yes more likely.
• A one-page template, plus a worked example, is below. Copy it, fill it in, send it.

Who actually decides which TY electives run?

The school does. The NCCA’s Transition Year Programme Statement, introduced in all schools from September 2025, sets out a framework rather than a list of approved subjects. It places planning and review with a TY Core Team in each school. In practice that means the TY coordinator gathers ideas, the Core Team weighs them against the time and budget available, and the principal signs off because electives involve staffing and, often, a charge to parents. A teacher with a good idea does not need anyone’s permission outside the building, but does need to persuade the people inside it.

If you are not sure what makes an elective “count” under the new Statement, read our NCCA checklist for recognised TY electives first. This guide picks up where that one ends: it is the teacher’s side of the same conversation.

When should you pitch a new TY elective?

Earlier than feels necessary. TY is planned a year ahead: schools recruit the next TY group through information evenings and interviews in the spring, and the electives on offer usually need to be known by then so they can appear in the information pack and the fee breakdown. Once the timetable for September is built, adding an elective means taking time from something else, which is a much harder conversation.

Typical pattern only; every school’s calendar is different, so ask your coordinator when next year’s TY information pack goes out.

What will the TY Core Team ask about your proposal?

Almost always the same six things. Answer them before you are asked and the conversation moves from “should we?” to “how do we fit it in?”

Time guide and curriculum dimensions from the NCCA Transition Year Programme Statement.

How should you cost a TY elective?

Be specific and be honest. TY is funded through a mix of a Department grant and a contribution from families. The family contribution is what most coordinators are protecting. TY costs vary widely between schools. Many publish an all-inclusive figure for the year in their TY information pack. Your elective will sit inside a number like that, so the Core Team needs to know whether it adds to the fee, replaces something else, or costs nothing at all.

A useful way to present it is cost per student, cost per hour of timetabled learning, and what the student walks away with. An elective that costs more but ends in a qualification the student keeps is a different proposition from one-off workshop fees, and you should say so plainly rather than hoping the coordinator works it out.

What makes a TY elective proposal get rejected?

Rarely the idea. Coordinators turn down good electives for practical reasons, and most of them can be fixed before you submit.

• It arrives too late. The fee and timetable are already set, so there is nowhere to put it.
• It depends entirely on one person. If you go on leave, the elective stops. Show what happens in your absence.
• It has no end product. Nothing goes into the portfolio, so the student and parents have nothing to point to in May.
• It duplicates something already running. Check the current TY menu and explain what yours adds.
• The cost is vague. “Minimal cost” makes a coordinator nervous; “€X per student, covered by the existing TY fee” does not.
• The hours do not fit. Asking for three hours a week when the whole elective slot is three to four hours leaves no room for anything else.

The one-page TY elective proposal template

Copy this table into a document, fill in the right-hand column and keep it to a single page. Coordinators read a lot of ideas in the spring; a single page that answers everything gets read properly.

A worked example: proposing a TEFL elective

Here is the same template filled in for an accredited online course, using our own Transition Year TEFL programme as the example. Swap in your own details, or use it as a model for a completely different elective.

Coordinators can request cohort pricing to complete the cost line. Our guide to fitting an online TEFL course into your TY programme covers the timetabling side in more detail.

How do you get students and parents on board?

An approved elective still needs students to choose it, and in TY that choice is usually made by families as much as by students. The information evening is where most of that decision happens. Ask the coordinator for two or three minutes on the night, or at least a paragraph in the information pack. Parents are weighing the TY fee against what their child will get for it. Lead with the outcome rather than the activity. Include what the student will be able to do, and what they will have to show for it in May.

A short, plain parent note helps, too. It should say what the elective is, how many hours it takes, what it costs and whether that is already inside the TY fee. It should also include how students are assessed, and what they keep at the end. Keep it to half a page and avoid jargon such as “curriculum dimensions”, which means a lot to a coordinator and very little to a parent.

For an elective that ends in a recognised qualification, such as a TEFL certificate, be precise about what it is and is not. It does not carry CAO points. Its value is in the portfolio, a personal statement, an interview, and the option of part-time or summer teaching work later. Parents trust an elective more when its limits are stated up front.

What should you do after the elective is approved?

Keep the evidence from day one. The Programme Statement expects each part of the programme to be reported to students and parents and reviewed by the school. The teacher who proposed an elective is usually the one asked how it went. A simple folder with the outline, attendance, assessment results, a sample of student work and a short end-of-year survey covers almost everything you will be asked for. It also makes renewing the elective for the following year a formality rather than a fresh pitch.

Where this fits with our wider Transition Year coverage

This guide is part of our Transition Year series. For the full picture, start with the complete guide to Transition Year TEFL programmes, then go deeper:

• What counts as a recognised TY elective: the coordinator’s checklist against the four curriculum dimensions.
• TY elective vs TY module: how schools use the two words.
• Transition Year ideas: modules, activities and projects that give students something to show.
• Choosing the best Transition Year elective: how TEFL compares with other options.
• TEFL in Transition Year at Ard Scoil na nDéise, Dungarvan: one school running it.

Proposing TEFL as your school’s next TY elective?

Our Transition Year TEFL programme is a 120 hour, Ofqual regulated course. It has ten assessed modules and nine months of access per student, with September and January intakes. It currently runs in 52 schools across 20 counties in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Request cohort pricing to complete your proposal, or see the Transition Year programme for schools.

Sources: NCCA, Transition Year Programme Statement (PDF). Curriculum Online, Transition Year hub. Oireachtas, parliamentary question on Transition Year funding (TY grant to schools).