Two Donegal schools chosen to participate in new Irish project

 
 

Two Donegal schools have been selected to participate in a project to promote the teaching of Irish.
As part of the pilot project, PE and other subjects are to be taught through Irish.
Education Minister Joe McHugh has announced that Fairytales day care in Milford and Naomh Colmcille primary school in Kilmacrennan have been selected to take part in the project.
The schools were chosen on the basis of the criteria set out in the application process including the size of the school, location to support clustering and ongoing engagement between schools and experience of using Content and Language Integrated Learning.
The first year of the project will help to inform the Department on the development of the CLIL programme including CPD, assessment and resources.
The Department’s CLIL project team will assess each of the settings and schools participating in the pilot to identify its level of preparedness for the project and what further supports they will need.
Under CLIL, the theme of “communicating” will be taught through Irish in early years settings. In the primary and post-primary schools three subjects will be taught through Irish including PE. The other two subjects have yet to be finalised but may include Visual Arts, Maths, Science, Business, Geography, SPHE or CSPE.
The Department’s CLIL project team will use information from the schools to outline the weekly contact time children in the selected settings and schools will learn Irish through CLIL. Some subjects may be taken through Irish for a full class or part of a class, every day or once a week.
A range of ages will be involved in the pilot. At early years stage it will involve children in years 1 and/or 2 of the ECCE programme. In primary it will be junior and senior infants and pupils in 5th and 6th classes. In post-primary it will be 1st years. This will inform the benefits for transition between early years to primary and from primary to post-primary.