An eTwinning story from Ireland’s Singing Island of Arranmore

Árainn Mhór (English name: Arranmore) is an idyllic island off the west coast of County Donegal, Ireland, along the famous Wild Atlantic Way. The island boasts enticing rocky cliffs, golden Irish beaches and breathtaking views of both ocean and mountains. It is also one of the few places in Ireland left with a strong Gaelic tradition.

Gairmscoil Mhic Diarmada is a small DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) rural secondary school located in close proximity to the coast. The school was opened in 1990 after the local population undertook a great campaign. At present, it counts 71 students and 18 English-Irish bilingual teachers. Care, respect, equality, school community and excellence in education are its core values, which are also reflected in the school policy and decision making.

Florence Calais is a secondary school support teacher with 15 years of experience in teaching numeracy, literacy, study and emotional skills at Gairmscoil Mhic Diarmada. In this video, she will take us on a virtual tour to introduce us to the school as well as learn its intriguing surroundings.

She also shared with us the challenges and advantages of teaching in a small Irish rural area and how eTwinning impacted the quality of learning in the classroom.

'On such a small island, severe weather conditions represent growing risks for students’ learning, with the north-westerly wind sometimes forcing the school to close temporarily. While lessons can be recovered, the declining population means that our school can only offer a limited number of subjects and certificates due to the low number of students.

Notwithstanding, having a low number of students has its advantages. Teachers can develop a closer professional relationship with their students as well as prioritise each pupil’s personal and educational progress. Having nature at your doorstep also helps elicit a range of physical and mental benefits for students, who can enjoy activities such as gardening and studying the ocean and wildlife. Additionally, synergy with the local community is strong.

For instance, during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a local nurse and doctor held lessons about various diseases and taught our students first aid. Local entrepreneurs and employees also visited the school to offer their insights on entrepreneurship and their use of the hub on the island. Media training was also delivered by a local businesswoman who involved the students in activities with the local community. 

Finally, our school is also involved in several projects, such as the ‘Plant a Planet’ and ‘Future Innovators’ projects. While the ‘Plant a Planet’ project focused on planting as many trees as possible on the school ground, and even entered the Youth Environmental programme, the ‘Future Innovators’ project aims to address social challenges using social innovation and social enterprise approaches while working with local residents, community groups and organisations.

eTwinning has been greatly beneficial to the students. It allows them to connect and participate in projects across Europe and thereby encourages them to develop a ‘European dimension’ by expanding the walls of their classrooms. In this way, their learning experience is enhanced as they can find renewed enthusiasm in, for instance, learning a new language to make friends with other European students. Meanwhile, it provides us teachers with new strategies and tools, as well as ways of teaching as we also learn and adapt to a fast-changing world. 

Having taken part in eTwinning projects, our school was quite used to communication tools and, therefore, we were quite prepared to the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown. The school managed to provide laptops and iPads to the students in need. By the time the second lockdown was put in place, more ICT resources were made available to both students and staff.'