Baboró - Artist In Residence - Colm Ó Foghlú
Common Ground Exhibition 2024
From the cave paintings in Lascaux to the emojis we use today, symbols have been used for thousands of years to tell stories. Each child has a story as unique as they are that is shaped by their name and their family’s own story, language and culture. The exhibition, Common Ground, presented the children in second class' story through symbols imagined by them.
The exhibition was an immersive experience which encouraged those attending to scan the QR codes to gain access to a soundtrack which accompanied the children's work. In this audio you could hear the children's parents speaking in their mother tongue explaining the meaning of their child's name and why they choose that name for their child.
Diversity and inclusion are of the utmost importance to Baboró and Merlin Woods Primary School. Common Ground was a celebration of the many and varied languages and cultures that are such an essential part of the students. It also reminded us, no matter how wonderfully diverse we are, of how much we have in common.
From the cave paintings in Lascaux to the emojis we use today, symbols have been used for thousands of years to tell stories. Each child has a story as unique as they are that is shaped by their name and their family’s own story, language and culture. The exhibition, Common Ground, presented the children in second class' story through symbols imagined by them.
The exhibition was an immersive experience which encouraged those attending to scan the QR codes to gain access to a soundtrack which accompanied the children's work. In this audio you could hear the children's parents speaking in their mother tongue explaining the meaning of their child's name and why they choose that name for their child.
Diversity and inclusion are of the utmost importance to Baboró and Merlin Woods Primary School. Common Ground was a celebration of the many and varied languages and cultures that are such an essential part of the students. It also reminded us, no matter how wonderfully diverse we are, of how much we have in common.
Scratch and Coding
Scratch is a computer language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations. Scratch teaches computational thinking and problem solving using a simple-to-use, yet powerful, building block approach to software development.
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Incredible Years
Dina Schools – Incredible Years: weekly lesson delivered in each class by two teams which teaches social and behavioural skills for the long term benefit of the child’s life skills. |
Junior and Senior Infant Programme emphasising use of concrete materials and language
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Structured teaching of comprehension and writing genre strategies and delivery of the programme through a two year cycle
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Using active learning and play as a methodology in this curriculum framework which has been developed for children from birth to 6 years of age. Junior and Senior infant teachers incorporate purposeful play sessions into their teaching and children’s learning develops through interaction with each other and partnership with parents.
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Cursive Writing
The benefits of introducing cursive hand writing from the start has been well-documented by various experts, including Brendan Culligan. There is a very strong link between improved spellings and using cursive writing. Therefore, Merlin Woods Primary School has introduced the policy of using cursive writing from Junior Infants up through all classes.
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Team Teaching
Team Teaching in all classes: early intervention through Language and Learning Support Team, where children work every day in small groups with a teacher for intensive literacy or numeracy support.
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Tin Whistle
Tin Whistle: All children learn the tin whistle from 1st class with their class teacher, giving every child a chance to learn and appreciate a musical instrument.
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In this initiative in conjunction with Galway Education Centre and Medtronic, Children use Lego to develop robotics and early engineering skills. This work is done in various classes in the final term and throughout the year by the teacher running the weekly after-school Lego Club.
We have 165 children learning the violin as part of their music development. Every child from 2nd, 3rd and 4th class has a violin on long term loan for the year from the school and receives free weekly professional tuition from talented music teachers Ciara O'Connor and Lucy Le Marquand. This partnership with Music Generation and Galway City Partnership enables our pupils to avail of an amazing opportunity and hopefully develop a love of music that will continue to grow. Many thanks to all involved and to Music Generation and Galway City Partnership for this special collaboration.
After School Clubs
Our school offers a wide variety of after school
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CYCLE RIGHT is the National Standard for Cycle Training and provides practical cycle safety and skills training to promote competent and confident cyclists. CYCLE RIGHT is an inclusive programme.
Student Council
Our School has an active student council. The pupil voice is very important and instrumental in the ethos of the school. Student Council meet regularly and have many great ideas they would like to trial in the school. Our student council members are easily identifiable by their student council badges.
Active SchoolsAn active school is one where physical activity is valued, promoted and enjoyed by all.
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Digital LiteracyOur students have access to laptops and smart tablets throughout the week.
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Arts Week
Arts week 2023 saw the children engage in art, dance, drumming, visits from a poet, extra art in the classroom and photography art. It all culminated in a whole school art exhibition on Friday. The entire school community had a wonderful week exploring the arts.
