Comenius Trip to Ireland
Pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6 accompanied by Mrs. Sarll, Mrs. Price and Mrs. Bessell recently visited our Celtic Comenius cousins in Waterford, Southern Ireland. They all visited our partner school, Gaelscoil Philip Barun and were given an insight into Gaelic speaking school.
Pupils and teachers sat in on a Gaelic lesson (and didn’t understand a word!) and our pupils took part in a 5 nations football tournament, as well as trying the Irish sport of hurling. (Mrs. Bessell got really stuck in with this!) Chloe and Bethan from Year 4 stayed with the school’s headmaster and his family and Amy and Alys stayed with another host family.
All four girls were looked after brilliantly and were taken out on trips to the beach and the local fairground.
On our first day in the school all the Irish pupils welcomed us by lining up along the long entrance to the school, wearing hats bearing the Comenius partners’ flags and waving and cheering madly. Some other pupils played the drums, which we could hear in the distance as we approached. It was a marvellous spectacle and a warm, inspiring start to our visit.
Our teachers gave a presentation about St. John’s, Porthcawl and Wales and Alys presented the head teacher with a beautiful red wrought-iron dragon which her mother had kindly donated as a gift from us all. Our pupils also sang ‘Ar Lan y Mor’ to one of the classes and we all taught them a few snippets of Welsh. Mrs. Sarll was delighted to spot a Gaelic word which looked like a German and French word – ‘chorp’ means body, which is very similar to the German ‘Körper’ and the French ‘corps’, and of course, to the Latin ‘corpus’. Look out for Gaelic lessons in St. John’s in the future!
The Irish pupils entertained us with a fabulous concert, including some traditional Irish dancing from the school’s very own champion dancer. We were bowled over by the Irish hospitality and are grateful to Galleway chocolates for donating some of their fabulous choccies for our Comenius Day.
The whole trip was an enormous success and both teachers and pupils found it enjoyable and, of course, very educational. As a result of being in a Gaelic school, Mrs. Sarll and Mrs. Price are hoping that we can have a Welsh speaking break-time once a week to add to our already glowing linguistic reputation in St. John’s. The end of the trip provided a rather hairy moment when due to an accident, we could have missed the plane home! Alys’ and Amy’s reactions to this sums up the success of the trip perfectly: ‘Ooh! Great! Can we stay in Ireland for another week then? Or maybe we could move St. John’s? I’d like to live here’.
We will soon be showing all pupils a video of the trip and there will be photographs on display during Comenius Day (5th July). Chloe and Bethan are also writing a diary of the trip which they will read out in an assembly. We are very much looking forward to our Comenius Day and hope that all pupils will dress up in the colours of our partner countries (Turkey, Iceland, Germany and Ireland) or their national costumes, as well as contributing ideas (quizzes, games, crafts etc.) and food for our stalls. There will be a Fancy Dress Competition on the day.
