Downpatrick Naiscoíl Performs Well In School Inspection

FOR the past 10 years the Naiscoíl Dhún Pádraig has been providing pre-school education for children and it has continued to grow. This week it received a glowing accolade when the Department of Education inspectors made a snap inspection and it passed with flying colours.

A delighted Delia Mhic Lochlainn, Nursery Leader, said, “We received just one day’s notice because of the holidays etc and we were under a bit of pressure. The inspectors look at every aspect of the running of the Naiscoíl including all of the paper work. They look over the core seven areas of learning. And after the inspection we learned that our performance varied from good to very good. We are just delighted with this result.

Classroom assistants Ciara Ní hEigeartaigh and Teresa Smyth chat to the pupils in Irish. 

“Speaking Irish and even another language has proven to help pupils perform better at English and Maths later on in their education. Just now we have 36 children – 20 in the morning session and 16 in the afternoon.  When they are ready to go on to primary school, most actually go to the Bunscoil. There are around 80 pupils there at the moment at the Irish unit in Our Lady and St Patrick Primary School in Downpatrick. There is definitely a growing interest in the Irish language.

“Many of the children at the Naiscoíl are well on their way to becoming bi-lingual and most achieve their gold Fáinní later on in their education at the P7 primary school stage and would then speak Irish at home.  The Irish speaking community now have a unit at St Malachy’s High School in Castlewellan and some even travel off to Belfast to continue their Irish language development at this higher level.”

Leader Delia Mhic Lochlainn, right, with assistant Amanda Murray at the sand pit. 

Delia explained that the four staff and the management body were all greatly encouraged by the results of the inspection.  She added, “Our facilities in the St Michael’s Centre are well set up and the children really enjoy their classes. We provide a wide range of creative, intellectual, physical, social, emotional and personal development for each child.”

She explained that the Irish immersion programme is used and the children learn the language in a natural way while they are engaging in activities such as with sand, water, jigsaws, construction toys, role-play, and music.

Classes are also provided for parents who want to learn Irish and these are held in the St Michael Centre. “The aims of the Naiscoíl are to encourage language development in the community, within families and in the Naiscoíl itself,” said Delia. “Even our staff is committed to developing their Irish language skills in their own personal development. It is an on-going effort within the Irish language community. And the inspection has now given us much more encouragement recognising our efforts in this area. We are all very proud and delighted to have reached this level.”

The morning class of the Downpatrick Naiscoíl. 

Pupils at the Downpatrick Naiscoíl with classroom assistant Shirley ó Prisligh and leader Delia Mhic Lochlainn.