Cultural heritage explored at Inagh school

A NORTH Clare primary school hosted 27 teachers from around Europe last week as part of the EU Comenius Programme.

Teachers from Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Turkey took part in a cultural exchange with their counterparts in St Flannan’s National School in Inagh.
As part of the two-year programme that began in September 2009, teachers from St Flannan’s travelled to Germany and Italy last year but were unable to travel to France on a scheduled trip in January because of the bad weather here.
“The teachers were to go to Avignon in January but because of the weather, they got stranded. It was disappointing but the meeting itself went ahead,” said school principal, Anne Quinn.
Last week, the Inagh school hosted a planning meeting and exchange with teachers from the other schools.
“The German teachers arrived on Monday, with the other teachers arriving on Tuesday. Normally, there are only 12 to 14 teachers max at these meetings but because it is Ireland, there are 27 of them. The interest in coming to Ireland and meeting Irish children and seeing Irish culture is huge,” Ms Quinn stated.
The theme of the project undertaken in each of the schools is TEACH – tell everyone about cultural heritage.
The school children in Inagh are undertaking a project focussing on local heritage. Each classroom in the school is studying a different type of building, including houses, the school through the decades, Bunratty castle, a workhouse and the courthouse in Ennistymon.
As part of this, the children in St Flannan’s put on a display of cultural heritage for the visiting teachers on Tuesday.
“We held an assembly and some of the children did brush dancing, which went down very well with our guests. Others did a Finnish dance, which they had learned last year and this really entertained the Finnish teachers. They also did the Siege of Ennis, which they then taught to the visitors. They sang Irish songs and recited poetry. Everyone got involved. This is the key part of the visit for our children.
“One of the Turkish teachers dressed in traditional costume, which was stunning and did the traditional dance for the children. This was directly after one of our kids did an Irish reel, so you could see the contrast straight away,” Ms Quinn recalled.
“When our teachers visited other schools, they were shown traditional dances and games. On Wednesday and Thursday, the teachers went into classrooms teaching their national games.
“Quite interestingly, one of our Finnish teachers wants to learn hurling. We have given him a DVD and a manual and one of the mothers here is coming in to teach him basic skills. He wants to bring back hurleys and helmets and start hurling there so what started out as a project on buildings has evolved to include music and dance and even hurling,” she added.
The project, according to Ms Quinn, has a very positive impact on the children, bringing history and geography education to life.
“The main aim of the project is to make them aware of their Irishness, their local heritage and culture. Then, with the exchange of the teachers and the exchange of information, the children realise that there are a lot of similarities between them and their European counterparts but a lot of differences too. They also learn that we are quite unique to be Irish but we are also European,” she concluded.
As well as visiting the school, the group of teachers also travelled to numerous tourist sites around the county and returned home on Saturday.