Welcome! Fáilte!
Sligo School Project offers a unique educational option in the north-west of Ireland. It is the multi-denominational alternative serving town and county of Sligo.
In 2012 we celebrated our 25th anniversary and in the same year a process of rejuvenation started in the school. We hope that the website will give you a flavour of school life, as well as being informative and helpful.
If you are seeking information that you can not find on our website, we encourage you to contact us and let us know your query. If you like to visit the school please contact Carmel on 071 9143073.
Sports and Fun Day, as always we needed a bit of good luck with the weather. Everything else we can manage ourselves: happy children, happy parents, a lot of activity, races, skills, face painting, smiles, hugs, friends, babies, tea and biscuits …
Plus, Jennifer and Michael came in with a surprise food bonanza, including buns and halal hot dogs. Thanks so much for this!
We have a page full of pictures of the day and you can find them here.
Our last trip to the Model Gallery led us into a fantasy world full of strange characters.
Read about it here.
After weeks of practicing the guitar children from SSP took part in a performance organised by the Music Generation program. There is an article about the experience on a separate page. To read it, please follow this link. Sincere thanks to Cranmore Regeneration Project for partially funding the project for the children in Sligo School Project. Their contribution gave the children such a wonderful opportunity.
Recently we paid another visit to the local Garda Station. Mark, the community gard, showed us around behind the scenes. He also brought us into the courthouse where we had a chance to stage a trial court case.
The judge appeared to be a bit more casual as expected, but the different parties in the case were still fully engaged in the deliberations.
A regular feature in SSP is that the children write a report or a memory after returning from a visit or school trip. Obviously this has some ‘educational value’ – but it also allows the children to keep a track record of their experiences with their class mates which they may enjoy greatly in years to come when they look back at their primary school days. When you browse through the different sets of our webpage you will find a good few examples of such reports. Here is a nice example about the trip to the …
Garda Station and Court House
We went to the Garda Station on the 10th of June. We walked to the station because it is near the school. We met Mark there. He is a community guard.
First Mark took us into the interview room where people get asked lots of questions. Then we went to where people get measured. They measured me. After that, we went into a cell. There was a bed and a toilet in the cell and nothing else.
There was a gym where the police do exercise and boxing. Next we went to a camera room. There were lots of cameras and we could see our school on one of the screens. When we went outside, we saw a police car. Everyone got inside the car.
When we were finished in the station, Mark took us over to the Court House. He brought us into a court room. Everybody had a turn to be the judge.
Then we went back to school. It was a lot of fun.
By: Tamas Perei
It may be worthwhile to point out that for many children in SSP English is not their first language. For them to be able after a few years of learning a new language to actually write a fully fledged story or report in English is an achievement that can not be praised highly enough.
As for our trip to the Garda Station and the Court House, you can find some more (and more pictures) about it on the page: activities outside the school.
We have uploaded a couple of new pieces on the webpage recently. Here are some links (in no specific order) to the relevant pages.
Cassie and Samara wrote about the guitar lessons in the school.
Anna has compiled the recipe for the home made pizza and it is added now on the page about the activities in the school (you may need to scroll down a bit on the page to get to it).
We recently watched a live link with an astronaut, Tim Peake, on a space station. The children saw Tim do some amazing things with water. Because the astronauts live in a weightless environment, some ordinary tasks become quite difficult. It was fun to watch. For those of you who like to see it, try this link.
Members of An Garda Siochana came to the school to talk with the children about road safety, particularly safety while cycling. We already had a visit from a member of the RSA (Road Safety Authority) earlier in the year. We welcome every opportunity for the children to reinforce road safety lessons.
The children in Deirdre’s class have been working extensively on a programme for reading and spelling. The programme focuses on high frequency words which make up a large portion of all the words we read and write. By spending time practising these words in a variety of contexts, the children become a lot more confident in their own written work. The children work at their own pace which allows for differentiation.
Carmel started knitting as an after school activity with the children again. We will certainly see a couple of new teddy bears in the school soon …
The annual reading day took place on the 10th of March. We took the opportunity to shuffle around the structure of the webpage a bit. You can now access the various pieces on the reading days from a central reading day page. If you are only interested in this year’s event you may also go directly to this year’s reading day page. Here you will also find a link to some of the stories that the children wrote and read out. Something absolutely remarkable may at least be mentioned briefly because it is often forgotten: In SSP there are children from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some of them have no problem at all with reading or writing in English, but there are also a number of children who only recently came to Ireland. Often this means they are learning English as a new language. It is quite incredible that these children have the confidence to stand in front of an audience in a full room and read out a story in this completely new language. For anyone to consider, how would you feel if you were asked to come up on stage in Russia or Japan after being there for only a couple of months and read out a story in Russian or Japanese in front of a large number of people? We cannot overemphasize the courage that these children have, and great credit also to the entire school community to make it so easy for them to find their way into their new environment.
We also uploaded another little extra that co-incides with the idea of the reading day. This is a story that was sent to us by Clément Duguerre. He was a pupil at SSP a couple of years ago before his family went on a world trip that brought them eventually to New Zealand. After living there for a while they moved back to Europe and Clément lives now in sunny Spain. His story can be found here: The mysterious room.
Two events were agreed with the children in the school meeting, and dates set for them:
On Wednesday, the 10th of February, there will be a Cake Sale and Jumble Sale in the school. Start: 10 a.m.
On Wednesday, the 9th of March, we will have our annual Reading Day in the school. Start: 10 a.m.
There is some information on the Reading Day already on our webpage, you may have a look here.
The winter performance has become an annual event at this stage. The children enjoy preparing for the show but more importantly, they love having their family and friends watch them perform on stage. This year, the children performed the musical, ‘Billy No Buzz’. The message for us all in this play is that we are all different and it is important to embrace our differences. The play fits in well with our school ethos.
The children also played tin whistle, sang songs, recited a poem and Tom put on a puppet show which everyone enjoyed. Some of the older children formed bands and entertained us. Stars of the future, perhaps!
Thanks to all of the parents who helped out with the refreshments afterwards.
Believe it or not, we simply forgot to take pictures on the day – it seems we were all too busy. Sorry for that. However, we have asked parents who took pictures to forward them so that we also can put them up on the webpage.
Sligo School Project is a multi-denominational primary school, affiliated to Educate Together. It caters for children of all religious, cultural and social backgrounds equally. In the everyday life of the school the children experience an environment that is characterised by mutual trust and respect.
The entire atmosphere in the school is characterised by an informal, and yet reliable and trustworthy climate. Creating and maintaining such a climate leads to an exceptionally good relationship between children and adults, which eventually also impacts on the learning experiences of the children. However, it requires some conscious efforts on the side of staff and parents, to support this climate.
Obviously Sligo School Project teaches the national curriculum covering the entire subject areas just as any other primary school. A particular focus in the school lies on physical activity and sport. The children get lots of opportunities during the day to move, which also includes a great variety of P.E.-activities. Acting out their need for physical activity is a very good basis for a more concentrated work atmosphere when it comes to the academic side of learning. The children greatly appreciate this mix of activities during the school day.
In the weekly school meeting children and adults openly discuss all issues that come up between them, with a particular emphasis on interpersonal relationships. A ‘buddy system’ is in place in the school whereby the older children act as support for the younger ones. The various age groups mix a lot in everyday school life.
In Sligo School Project children and teachers address each other on a first name basis. For the children here the teachers are Carmel, Deirdre, Mary, Siobhan, Sandra, Erenda. Also, the children all wear their own clothes, there is no school uniform. In general it can be said that each child is accepted in her or his individuality, and is allowed to express it. The teachers focus a lot on helping the children to build up their self-esteem, and at the same time become self-responsible in their social environment.
It is the understanding of Sligo School Project that learning in school needs to be more than just pen and paper exercises in a classroom. Surely such exercises happen in the school as well as in any other school, but a lot of the learning activities also involve learning through discovery. The children engage with topics in multi-faceted ways, be it in science, history, geography or any other subject area. This includes very frequent excursions to places like the local library, the IT, the local theatres, and the immediate surroundings of the school.
Due to the multi-denominational character of the school there is no religious instruction in Sligo School Project. Instead the children learn about different religious and ethical systems.
A close contact between home and school is essential for providing the best possible learning environment for the children. Parents are welcome to meet the teachers and principal at agreed times whenever requested. Families who consider sending their children to Sligo School Project can contact the school with their inquiries at ph. 071 9143073.
