Creative Schools 2019-2020

Gaelscoil Bhréifne was delighted  to hear about the Creative Schools initiative and were eager for all our pupils to participate in the scheme.

The Creative Schools initiative aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives. This initiative will understand, develop and celebrate the arts and creativity in schools. It will establish a range of collaborative opportunities for schools by developing and strengthening the relationships between schools and the broader cultural and community infrastructure within which they operate. The long term aim is for every school to be supported to fully embrace the arts and creativity, ensuring a positive experience and strong outcomes for children and young people.

Gaelscoil Bhréifne has traditionally been very lucky to have creative teachers who have shared their talents with the children over the years. As for the present, Múinteoir Siubhán and our runaí Marina, who are on our Creative School committee, are currently working to put together a Creative Schools programme to run over the course of the summer term and into the next academic year. 

We have been partnered with and are working in close collaboration with Mary Farrelly, our Creative Associate. This has been a great experience for our school. Mary has been successfully able to assist us as a school by identifying the relationship we have with creativity through the eyes of the teachers and the children. What emerged out of that process was that as a school, we have a lot to celebrate, much to communicate and a great roadmap for how we can develop further as a school. There was a huge amount of effort involved in the information gathering stage of the project. We were relieved to hear that there would be another year to engage with the project, as we felt that we would need a lot more time to embed the learning from the information gathering, and having another year next year will allow us to do that.

The main outcomes for our school are that the children voted to do more work around some traditions that have been forgotten, such as knitting. Other classes voted to taking part in a more modern project; Lego We Do. The children will learn how to code and create a vehicle to move around a set course.  Another group requested a dance and drama workshop, therefore we are so grateful to have Mary Farrelly working in partnership with us and she is willing to impart her knowledge and skills in this area to our pupils. 

We are thrilled to have been selected for the Creative Schools initiative 2019-2020 and look forward to updating you further by sharing many photos from our Creative School projects.