Foras na Gaeilge award for Lahinch school

VETERAN broadcaster and sports commentator, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh last week presented Scoil Mhuire, Lahinch, the Foras na Gaeilge GLEO 2011 Award in Croke Park along with 16 other schools from all over the country.
The GLEO awards recognise schools that have led the way in promoting spoken Irish in their schools and communities during the past year.  Schools are selected on the basis of their innovation and creativity and this year and 17 received an award of €3,000 to spend on Irish language resources and language events for their school.  Scoil Mhuire won first place in the Munster Region.
“These awards are a great incentive for both teachers and students to look for innovative and interesting ways to promote spoken Irish in their schools,” said Mícheál.  “There’s no doubt that they make Irish more fun for the pupils, which in turn fosters a further love of Irish as they grow older,” he added.
All English medium primary and post-primary schools in which Irish is taught are eligible to enter the GLEO Awards. Fifty-four schools from across the length and breadth of the country entered this year and were visited by the independent judges, who then selected the 17 outstanding schools honoured at the ceremony.  The judges found websites, drama and puppet shows, quizzes and passionate debates, to name but a few of the varied activities, all run as Gaeilge.
School principal Kevin Glynn explained how the Irish language is promoted in the school. “There has been a huge emphasis on oral Irish in Lahinch school for many years and all the children have been involved in a scheme we devised ourselves called Labhair Gaeilge agus Fáilte.
“When a child speaks Gaeilge to any of the teachers they receive a sticker and when they have 20 stickers they receive a lucky dip. The prizes in the lucky dip come from www.molanoige.com and are all in Irish. The children loved the lucky dip and made every effort to get those stickers up. They even came in to school in the mornings with new words and phrases they got from their parents. So we decided to enter the competition this year and we are really delighted to have won first place in our region.”
“Tréaslaím le gach uile dhuine sa scoil,” arsa Eileen Ní Ghallachóir, duine de na múinteoirí, “is pribhléid agus is pleisiúr domsa a bheith i mo mhúinteoir anseo”. “Everyone got involved, it was a team effort right from the start, and all our parents, pupils and staff made huge efforts. We spoke nothing but Irish in the staffroom, we played games in the yard as Gaeilge, we read Irish storybooks every day, we made books in Irish, the parents borrowed Irish books from our library, we used Irish websites on our interactive whiteboards, we played tunes, we danced a few steps, we had an Irish talking bear that went home to all the children, we won prizes at Féile na hInse and we even had a table quiz as Gaeilge for the children and parents. Irish is now very enjoyable in Scoil Mhuire, Lahinch and it is part of what we are.”
“Last Thursday, the whole school celebrated our win. We all travelled to Dublin and visited Dublinia, Croke Park and Dublin Zoo. Katie Lernihan was the lucky child chosen to accept our award from Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh. We will spend our winnings on lots more Irish resources and events as Gaeilge, le cuidiú linn an Ghaeilge labhartha a chur chun cinn ar fud na scoile. Beatha teanga í a labhairt,” Eileen concluded.