Bluestar 2016
Here's our 2016 Bluestar Report
Historical Please outline below how your school fulfilled the criteria for the historical section of the Blue Star Programme highlighting in particular where technology was used for this project work. Feel free to add photos where appropriate. • The children in 5th & 6th Class studied WW2, the time period directly following it and the formation of the EU • They read The Diary of Anne Frank and her links to WW2. • The children in the Senior Room studies the Holocaust. • The children in 4th Class studied Adolf Hitler and his links to WW2 and how WW2 led to the uniting of European countries and the EU. • The children in 2nd & 3rd Classes looked at the life of Christopher Columbus, they mapped his route and his discoveries. • 4th Class researched and completed individual projects on famous Europeans, among these projects we learnt about, Adolf Hitler, Marie Curie, The Queen of England, William Shakespeare. The children then presented their projects to the rest of the class and then to the wider school community during our Europe Day. Some of the children did this as a hardcopy and others presented a powerpoint. Geographical Please outline below how your school fulfilled the criteria for the geographical section of the Blue Star Programme. Feel free to add photos where appropriate. • The children in 2nd and 3rd Class completed a study of Spain. They looked at its location, The Monarchy in Spain, The physical features including its mountains, rivers etc. They found out the population of Spain, the fashion, clothes and climate in Spain. They also looked at Spain as a tourist destination. • The children in 4th Class looked at the geography of Europe and the capital cities. They worked on the location of these countries and played games where they had to describe the location of a country and the class had to guess the country. • All of the children looked at the European flags and dressed in the colours of the flags during Europe Day. • The children in 4th Class completed a study of The Netherlands, its location, the language, capital, pastimes and the people of The Netherlands. • The children in 5th & 6th class looked at the physical features of Europe - its longest rivers, highest mountains and the landscape. • The Senior Infants & 1st Class children studied Lithuania as there is a child from Lithuania in their classroom. They had a visit from a Lithuanian parent who brought in food from Lithuania for the children to sample. They learnt where Lithuania is located and the physical features of Lithuania. They learnt about the climate in Lithuania. They also presented their information to us during a question and answer session on Europe Day. The Lithuanian pupil was able to identify differences and similarities between Lithuania and Ireland. They made a Lithuanian flag and also impressively taught us how to say ‘Hello’, ‘Goodbye’ and “How are you?’ in Lithuanian. Cultural & Creative Please outline below how your school carried out the cultural and creative section of the Blue Star Programme focusing in particular on the creative elements of this part of the Programme. Feel free to add photos where appropriate. • On Europe Day the whole school community dressed in the colours of a European Flag. They children presented some information and facts about their chosen country to the whole school community. The children tasted foods from Europe including croissants, crepes and French cheeses. • The children in 4th Class studied the life and works of Van Gogh as part of their study of The Netherlands. They looked at his paintings and discussed their favourite paintings. • The children produced some work on their chosen countries and drew and coloured the flag for their country. • The children in 2nd & 3rd studied the customs and celebrations of Spanish people and also tasted Spanish foods. • The children in Senior Infants and 1st Class learned from a Lithuanian pupil and parent about the customs and traditions of people in Lithuania. They tasted Lithuanian foods and looked at traditional dress. • Pupils in 5th and 6th Class carried out role playing, hot seating and conscience alley games while studying the life of Anne Frank. • A part of their famous Europeans projects some of the 4th Class pupils chose to research and present projects on famous sports people such as, Tommy Bowe. One child chose Actor, Daniel Craig and another child chose Liam Neeson. Three of the boys in 4th Class carried out projects on famous Engineers - Enzo Ferrari and Ferruucio Lamborghini from Italy and Henry Ford from Ireland. • Children in 4th Class looked at music from The Sound of Music - The Lonely Goatherd, Edelweiss and Doh a Deer and discussed the movie and that is was set in Austria. Institutional Please outline below how your school carried out the learning for the the institutional section of the Blue Star Programme. Feel free to add photos where appropriate. • The children got an introduction to the Institutions of the EU. The learnt about the Parliament and The Courts. • The children received an insight into Europe’s relationship with Ireland. We discussed how life in Ireland has changed as a result of being a member of the EU. • We discussed trade between European Countries and what gets exported from Ireland to Europe. • Some of the children knew a lot about the EU and farming and about the subsidies and grants received and they presented this information to us on Europe Day. • We discussed the upcoming Referendum in the UK on ‘Brexit’. We are located very close to the North of Ireland and the children were fascinated about and discussed the implications of ‘Brexit’ for the teachers who reside in the North of Ireland, their parents who travel to the North for work and the possibility of border controls and customs were discussed and became a discussion for a new generation of Irish children. • The children in 5th & 6th Class looked at the work of Translators and Interpreters in The European Parliament Europe Day Celebrations Please outline below how your school celebrated Europe Day and how these celebrations included the wider school community. Feel free to add photos where appropriate. The children really enjoyed dressing up in their European colours for Europe Day. Each child presented their country and shared some interesting facts that they had learnt about their chosen country. We had a quiz on European Flags and Capital Cities. The children in 2nd & 3rd Class shared their research on Spain with the school community. The children in Senior Infants impressed us with their knowledge on Lithuania and showed us the flag which they had made and shared their Lithuanian delicacies with us. The Senior Classes shared their knowledge of the formation of the EU and the background of WW2 and its implications for Europe. The children also carried out the “Handshake for Europe’ We discussed the upcoming UK referendum and the possibility of a Brexit and the implications of this on the UK, The North of Ireland and any implications for people in border areas, such as Monaghan. The children in Senior Infants and First concluded by sharing with us some Lithuanian words which they had learnt and our Lithuanian pupil sang us a beautiful Lithuanian song. Feedback Please include any additional thoughts or comments that you had about the Blue Star Programme: would you participate again, how could the Programme be improved, did you do anything particularly different as part of your Programme? This is my first year leading and promoting the Blue Star Programme in school and I have to say I really enjoyed it myself. The children found out loads of information about all aspects of life in Europe. They enjoyed the historical aspect and learning about Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank. We would have loved to have had a visit from an MEP and this is something we would definitely look into in the future. I am looking forward to my visit to Europe as part of the Blue Star Programme and this will make it easier to teach the Institutions element in the future as this is an area I, myself do not know a lot about. Thank you for the opportunity to do this. Mrs Donnelly. |