Gortskehy National School is the first primary school in Ireland to have the pupils' video work featured on An Lar TV, a community TV channel for the Irish Diaspora. anlar.tv has an audience of between 2,500 and 3,000 people a day in some 50 countries. Gortskehy school joins a list of other educators providing content for the channel such as the University of Limerick, the Royal College of Science at UCD, and the Irish School of Animation in Dublin.
Gortskehy NS produced a DVD as part of the Something Fishy programme aimed at fifth and sixth classes in primary school. The Something Fishy Project was a concept originally developed in collaboration between the Central Fisheries Board and Blackrock Education Centre. The aim of Something Fishy is to inform and educate students on water quality, fish, the environment and angling.
The Gortskehy pupils used Skype to record face-to-face video interviews with Colette O’Flynn, research officer at the National Biodiversity Data Centre in Waterford, Brian Curran of Ireland West Angling, and Herbert Dingerkus of the East Mayo Anglers' Association. The DVD is informative and records the children’s artwork, research, interviews and exploration of a local stream with the assistance of Aisling Wheeler from An Taisce. The project took three months to complete with all aspects of the production and editing taking part in school under the guidance of principal Padraig Beirn.
The 40-minute video will feature on the 4pm slot at anlar.tv from Sunday July 3 to 10 and at 5pm from July 10 to 17. It can also be viewed any time at www.gortskehy.com
An Lar TV is a link to home for many Irish people living all over the world and the children of Gortskehy National School are very proud to be a part of it.
