The children of Gortskehy National School located at Annefield, Hollymount, enjoy all the benefits of attending school in the beautiful pastoral landscape of the rolling plains of south Mayo, surrounded by green fields and ancient stone walls. The only sounds that punctuate the air outside are those of birds singing and cattle grazing in the surrounding pastures.
But over the coming months all this is to change as the school will come alive to the sounds of diverse European languages, music, and culture. Gortskehy National School has been selected to participate in a Trans European project with seven schools from across the EU over the next year.
Eighteen representatives from these international schools will visit this small dynamic rural school from October 4 to 7 for the first planning meeting for their exciting new Comenius project. Teachers from France, Austria, Hungary, Turkey, Estonia, Romania, and Italy will spend time in Gortskehy, Roundfort, and the surrounding areas of south Mayo as the new programme commences.
The Comenius Programme is part of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme whose actions aim to help young people and educational staff to better understand the range of European cultures, languages, and values. It also helps young people to acquire the basic life skills and competences necessary for personal development, future employment, and active citizenship. The Comenius Programme enhances partnerships between schools in EU member states and encourages language learning, innovative ICT based content, services, and better teaching techniques and practices.
Coincidentally, Gortskehy National School is celebrating 125 years of providing primary school education to the children of the area this year. The blackboard and chalk have been replaced by laptops, interactive whiteboards, and the internet but the school continues to be a vital and much loved part of the community and many of the grandparents and great-grandparents of the current pupils attended the school themselves in days gone by.
To mark this historic occasion and this exciting new challenge for the school’s young pupils, Marian Harkin MEP will visit Gortskehy National School on Saturday October 6 at 12 noon to unveil a commemorative plaque at the site of the old school building which closed its doors in 1964. She will meet the school community past and present and welcome the international delegates to the area.
Later that evening the celebrations will move to Delia Murphy’s in Roundfort where the school children will give a lively display of traditional music, song, and dance in the company of local well known traditional musicians. All are welcome to go and enjoy what promises to be a very memorable evening. Full details are available on the school website www.gortskehy.com
Delia Murphy who was a pupil of Gortskehy National School famously brought the traditional ballad ‘The Spinning Wheel’ to international audiences, and the renowned Mayo based Foxford Woollen Mills has been bringing traditional Irish tweeds and woollen goods to international markets for 120 years. The board of management of the school would like to acknowledge the generosity of Joe Queenan, managing director of Foxford Woollen Mills who kindly sponsored some traditional gifts for the visiting delegates.
