Eleven students from St. Aidan’s Rilwan Gbadamosi, Ryan Dunne Heenan, Luke Franklin, Steven Kearney, Sofia Da Silva, Bilquees Allie, Emmuella Sogoba, Scott Boylan, Daniel Tejade and Sean Matthews were chosen as Ambassadors to represent the school on the Erasmus+ Irish Mobility - 'Europe, A Heritage Made of Stories' hosted by Killinarden Community School in March. They were accompanied by St. Aidan’s librarian Ms. Flynn and Ms. O’ Connor.
We were joined on the mobility by Killinarden Community School librarian Ms. Kerr, teachers and the student Ambassadors: - Sara Dean, Shantelle Fitzgerald, Zoe White, Aaron Jacobs, Jamie Lee Murdoch, Leah Dawson Connors, Romeo Ali, Adam Curren and Nichella Brennan. Killinarden Community School hosted us and the school based events for the week.
St. Aidan’s students gathered each day in the Library from 7.30 am and the students from Spain and Czech Republic who were living in Avon Rí for the week arrived each morning at 8.00 am to St. Aidan’s to collect teachers and students for the day’s activities in Killinarden Community School. Each day started with a fantastic breakfast at 8.30 am in Killinarden student canteen with the day’s activities starting at 9.00 am.
The students working in teams took part in Comic writing Workshops with author Alan Nolan producing a fantastic comic – ‘DRAT! Foiled Again’: - Dr. Cyrus wants to destroy Europe and conquer the planet. Only five Superhero Teams stand between the evil genius and world annihilation. Who will succeed?
The students also worked hard to win the Kahoot quiz designed by the Irish Team and based on the novel they all read in advance of the mobility ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’. The international students from Spain and Czech Republic each prepared an activity in advance of the mobility to present at the school: - the Czech Team presented a very moving presentation about what the book suggested to them, the Irish Team prepared the Kahoot Quiz based on the book plus an Action Bound Virtual Reality Quiz/Tour of famous Dublin Statues. All the teams had to take part in the quiz answering questions about each statue; finally, the Spanish Team produced several short dynamic videos plotting different aspects of the book. It was a learning experience as the students were given an insight into each culture.
The students and teachers also managed take part in a number of Literacy Get Together’s visiting ‘Make A Book 2020’ in Dun Laoghaire County Council Offices, touring the Lexicon plus joining in an author talk with Carmel Kelly who talked about being an author and the inspirations for her books. The students and teachers also managed to take part in readings from translated children’s books in Hodges Figgis bookshop, helping to celebrate World Book Day 2020. We also enjoyed author workshop with Dr. Barry Fitzgerald who helped the students celebrate Engineers Week in Ireland by giving a talk about ‘How to be an Engineer and Build an Iron Man Suit’. He signed a number of copies of his books which he presented to the students who could answer his quiz questions. The students were enthralled!
The remaining days saw many cultural highlights including a visit to Butler’s Chocolate Factory and MoLI – Museum of Literature Ireland. However, by far the most riveting part of the week was the Magic and the Céilí in Avon Rí on Thursday night, with magician Reuben entertaining the students and teachers with his magic followed by singing, dancing and socializing!
The students also had favourite moments and forever friends. The entire mobility was an enlightening and fun experience. We were sad that our Italian partners could not join us and hope that we can all meet up again on the last mobility of this project in Spain.