First to Sixth Class pupils are considered part of the “Main School”. Subjects are taught in ‘Main Lessons’ – the first two hours of the school day, in blocks of up to four weeks, allowing for depth, integration and focus. Artistic activities and movement are integrated into the day and form part of the teaching of each Curriculum Area of the Primary School Curriculum (English and Irish Language, Mathematics, Social Environmental and Scientific Education, etc). The use of drawing, painting, music, movement, poetry, modelling and drama is at the heart of the learning experience in all subjects. In addition all children take classes in handwork (knitting, sewing, felting); physical education; and the older classes learn French. Skills such as drawing, painting and craftwork are valued as highly as academic ones and are part of every subject. This gives every child an opportunity to shine and builds confidence and self-esteem.
Our aim is for all children to experience a personal connection to what they learn in school, and so to nourish a love of learning that they will carry into their lives beyond primary school. We want to see the children develop into confident and enthusiastic readers, skilled and expressive writers, at ease when working with numbers and mathematical concepts. Our academic assessments show good results. We do use some text books in our older classes; however most of the teaching material is presented verbally. The education combines solid academic values with a sense of wonder for the world around us that truly speaks to the child’s emerging personality, and equips him or her with the imagination, flexibility and inner strength to face a fast-changing world.
The narrative themes of the curriculum meet each developing phase of childhood and are woven through each year in such a way as to create an integrated whole between all the subjects. In class one letters are discovered through the illustrations of the stories they hear, deepening their pictorial imagination and laying the foundation for a vivid approach to learning. The four elementary mathematical processes are introduced and reinforced through concrete activity, including movements such as skipping, jumping and rhythmic clapping, thus supporting and strengthening different ways of learning. Song and music punctuate the morning and the first musical instrument of these years, the pentatonic flute, is begun. Heart, hands and head are all engaged, as the child finds their own increasingly expressive and creative voice.
Each year the child will experience different stories and legends as a journey. In class two, animal fables and saints’ stories meet the growing awareness of the contrasts that belong to our nature and the truth that authentic intelligence includes an ethical dimension. By class six, children will have experienced the worlds of Irish legends, Old Testament stories, Native American and Norse tales, Indian myths, Hinduism and Buddhism, Sumeria, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Islam and medieval times as they are drawn through contrasting worlds towards the actual events of history and characters who have played a formative role in shaping events.
Recitation of poetry and prose is a daily part of the primary level curriculum. The children learn poems and speeches by heart. Clear enunciation and voice quality are stressed and we use tongue twisters and other vocal exercises. This helps with vocabulary, grammar but also with spelling as, if words are spoken clearly, it is easier to hear how they are constructed.
Science is developed in a way that matches the wonder and curiosity of the young child. Observation and a profound appreciation for the natural world and its rhythms are encouraged in myriad ways throughout the cycle of the year. Natural history and biology are begun in class four and five through the study of the animal and plant kingdoms. Physics and chemistry are introduced at class six in recognition of a significant cognitive shift in the child and the readiness for understanding how science draws on ways of thinking about and discovering the world.
Events such as Maths Week, Science Week, and Seachtain na Gaeilge are fun events for the whole school community. For Maths Week we held a Maths Fair for which each class developed a number of mathematical puzzles and games, with pupils and parents moving between classes to take part in the games. For Seachtain na Gaeilge parents were invited into the school for a day of activities, classes one and two led parents through a ceili, classes three and four ran a cafe selling tea and cakes entirely through Irish, and classes five and six performed a play in Irish. For Science Week Dr Michel Dugon visited the school and took the children on a bug hunt in the school grounds.
From class one onwards children go on an annual school trip. The school trips are based on subjects studied through that school year. For example last year first and second class, who studied the WB Yeats poem The Stolen Child, went to see the play Human Child in Baboro, which is based on the Yeats poem, then went to visit Coole Park, Lady Gregory’s home, where Yeats spent much of his time. In third and fourth class the children took an overnight camping trip, linked in to their study of the Human and Animal Kingdom. In fifth and sixth class they studied the Greek myths and the children travelled to participate in the the Steiner Olympics alongside pupils from Steiner schools across Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The class play takes place each year and is often written by the teacher for the class. In co-ordinating expressive activity, in learning to work as a team, the themes of the year can be consolidated in a celebration of the learning that has taken place over the course of the year.