Ballyfinane N.S. was delighted to be awarded the Blue Star in May 2020. This was a whole school initiative. The children studied the following.
Historical
Sweden and Italy in the Junior Room where they created a powerpoint presentation on Alfred Nobel who was born in Sweden and Leonardo Da Vinci, Vivaldi (Italy)
All children learned the timeline to illustrate the steps in setting up the EU
Pupils in the senior room chose an EU Country and in groups they explored a Historical Aspect of the country. Pupils used online search engines e.g. Kiddle and encoclopedias to research this.
Geographical
In the Junior Room pupils created a powerpoint presentation on Sweden (flag, capital city, population, language, what it is famous for, similarities/differences to Ireland) They used a large map and placed photos of famous people across Europe, e.g. Hitler, Vivaldi, Swen- Goran Eriksson, etc
In the Senior Room pupils completed a project on their chosen country focusing on the flag, population, year entry to the EU, language, comparasions to Ireland, tourism, etc. They also studied places-cities, mountains and rivers
Cultural & Creative
In the Junior room they made Viking runes, a Viking Longship, Viking figures out of salt-dough and dressed them. The pupils dressed up in Viking costumes and dressed up, acted out and hotseated characters. They also earned about food from Sweden and performed Waterloo” from ABBA.
The Senior room explored the following aspects of their chosen country –Food, Art, Sport and Famous Artists/Scientists (STEAM). They reported their findings to the class. The pupils also learned a simple song/tune from their chosen country on the tin-whistle.
Institutional
All pupils from 2nd class up watched a DVD on the setting up of the EU, single currency, The European Parliament, Fisheries Policy, Agricultural Policy, Travel, Health – the European Health Insurance card,
In the Senior room the children wrote a letter to the MEP, Sean Kelly inviting him to visit the school and talk about his work and European issues. He was due to visit on March 13th but due to COVID this visit was postponed.
