Primary Computing January 1997
NITECs Irish Education Web provides links to Home Pages for a number of Irish primary schools. One of these, Gaelscoil Chill Mhantain, is Ireland's first Inter-Denominational school. Irish is the language of the playground, the staff room, and the Board of Management meetings. One of the school's objectives isto achieve fluency in the Irish language among pupils at an early age. In addition, the Gaelscoil is a community which wishes to promote Irish language, culture, and heritage. But Gaelscoil Chill Mhantáin is unique in that it operates under a joint Catholic/Protestant ethos, acknowledging the unique contribution of both traditions in Irish life. The Gaelscoil seeks to promote an understanding and appreciation of worship in both these denominations, while encouraging tolerance and respect for the values and beliefs of others. Gaelscoil Chill Mhantáin is the first Department of Education funded primary school in Ireland to have a joint Catholic/Protestant ethos.
The full Catholic religious education programme will be taught to Catholic children, and the full Protestant religious education programme will be taught to Protestant children. In recognition of the major similarities between both programmes, all children will, in the main, participate in religious education together, and special care will be taken to explain differences in belief and worship patterns of the represented denominations. In light of this integrated approach, it is expected that pupils will be separated only when preparing for the sacraments. In addition, the children will celebrate several festivals during the year including First Communion (Catholic), Harvest (Protestant), and Christmas/Easter which are common to both traditions.