Ireland's big school secret: how a year off-curriculum changes teenage lives

20 years ago it was considered a 'doss year' (waste/screw-around etc.), and the general perception was that it was for those that require a little more time in the oven developmentally before proceeding to the next stage. I was a child then so I don't know if that was true, but certainly the majority of people who took it were not academically inclined.

Which seems fair enough. There’s already a year difference between the youngest and oldest student in any given class; if you want your children to do well, make sure they’re among the oldest.

The problem is it might come too late to change their self-perception. A year is a lot of time when you’re nine

TY is typically at 15ish.

A year is still a lot then. You can do a lot in a year if you don't have to worry about earning a living and have the time to engage in things that are interesting.

It was both extremes when I did it 15 years ago. Those who needed it just to catch up on what they were supposed to have learned in junior cycle and those who wanted a bunch of extra curriculars for whatever reason. Note that admission to college/university in Ireland is not a motivator for extra curriculars - for school leavers the only things that matter are your overall grades, and for some courses, grades in specific subjects. (For foreign students, over 25s, those with special needs etc. there's a 10% or so allocation for an alternative process which is more subjective application based. But the 90% go through the purely grades based CAO)

Think it varies a lot school to school and sometimes even year to year.

Not in my school: the vast majority who took it (this was the '90s, when it started) were the ones doing almost all honours.

It heavily depends on the school, I would guess, however, but often those who need "more time in the oven" come just as much from the academically inclined side as from the less academically inclined side. For both, it allows them a broader window on who they might be.

So the article suggests that has changed - people who take the YT year get significantly higher results in their senior years.

Hard to split that from just age based improved performance though.

That's the problem — it might well be far too late.