School’s out for the 40 or so 11- to 12-year-old boarders at Scoil na Leanaí in Co Waterford’s Ring Gaeltacht.
On the beautiful day when we visit, the girls are playing games on the AstroTurf pitches while the boys are playing a form of golf on the undulating green space behind the school.
Activities, including squash, camogie, Gaelic football, hurling, rounders and volleyball, are led by cinnirí who also double up as house masters/mistresses in what is Ireland’s only Irish-language boarding school for primary-school-age children.
There are no day pupils.
Like all boarding schools, the day is filled with routines for meals, class, sports, study and free time before bed. But, what is most striking here is this small group of pupils haven’t got the company of younger pupils they would have in a regular primary school or older students if they were in the preparatory year of a secondary school.
Classes in Scoil na Leanaí – a typical 1960s-style Irish primary school building on the Coláiste na Rinn 10-hectare campus – end at 3.30pm. The pupils then change into sports gear for games until their evening meal is served at 6pm.
Later their daily routine continues with supervised study, supper and more activities before bedtime at 9.30pm. At weekends they go to traditional Irish music concerts or take trips to local beaches or other places of interest. They return home every third weekend.
Following the Department of Education primary school curriculum for fifth and sixth class through the medium of Irish, Scoil na Leanaí is run by Coláiste na Rinn as part of its wider promotion of the Irish language with short residential courses throughout the academic year and the summer months.
Olive Croke, the principal of Scoil na Leanaí, explains that the majority of pupils come from English language primary schools. “In September, most of them have very little Irish so, in the first month, we don’t do English, history or geography,” she says. “We focus on oral language by singing songs, doing poetry and getting their tongues around the syllables of the language.”
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Most of the teachers and the school’s language assistant are native Irish speakers, and this year’s cohort of pupils includes seven who previously attended a Gaelscoil. Most come from Dublin schools, with a sprinkling from Waterford, Kildare, Kilkenny and Galway.
Fees are €16,000 for the year.
Muireann Ní Dhomhnaill, chairwoman of the school board, and a former teacher and pupil at Scoil na Leanaí, says the children first need to learn the everyday phrases to communicate with the cinnirí, the nurse and diningroom staff. “It’s about building friendships, going for walks. It’s a graded approach. We start with junior-infants-level Gaeilge,” she says.
Croke says the school accommodates different levels of Irish with a lot of emphasis on speaking, listening to and understanding Irish. “It’s about seeing Irish as a living language,” she says.
“Anyone with an ability is pushed, yet we take care of those with additional needs. We don’t put the same pressure on grammar or spellings for anyone with a learning difficulty,” she adds.
The pupils don’t have access to mobile phones, but they can receive phone calls from their parents at three different times during the day on one of nine landlines in the corridor next to the school office.
“It’s a screen-free year for them – no television, no iPads and no internet. They have no access to mobile phones. If they own one, it is kept in the office until their bus journey home,” says Croke. She adds that since she started in the school in 1993, she has never heard any child say they miss not being able to watch television.
Ní Dhomhnaill says one advantage she sees with these young boarders is the conflict resolution skills they learn at an early age. “If there is an issue in a [day] primary school, they bring it home and the parents often get involved and it [can] escalate,” she says. “But here, the onus is on the child to resolve it with the guidance or a teacher, a cinnire or the nurse. That makes them more resilient in preparation for secondary school.
“You can read on a child’s face if something is upsetting them. You learn to read their emotions and find out if someone has taken their toothpaste, if they are feeling excluded, or if the family cat died.”
Seán Mac Gearailt, one of the three Scoil na Leanaí teachers, says that for some students, being at the school is their first exposure to a coeducational school environment. “Initially we are mindful that the girls sit with the girls and the boys with the boys, but we encourage them to mix,” he says.
The children sleep in separate girls and boys dormitory-style two-bed cubicles in the main building overlooking Dungarvan Bay. Collages of photos of family members and pets and cards adorn the walls of these shared spaces.
The boarding house supervisor sleeps in a room at the end of the corridor, and the nurse’s room is just around the corner.
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Nurse Catherine O’Brien says it is great to see how the children mature over the year. However, she gets to see them when they at their most vulnerable. “Sometimes friendships can be overwhelming for them or they are homesick. Often, when they come to me, all they need is a good cry, a one-to-one chat or an extra phone call home,” she says.
The school is governed by the Department of Education and the Catholic Church. “It has a Catholic ethos, but we accept all faiths. That said, 38 out of the 41 attend Mass,” says Croke. Two year ago Scoil na Leanaí got official recognition as a Scoil Gaeltachta. “Since then, we have links with the local Scoil Náisúnta, the Níonra and Meanscoil St Nioclás, attending cake sales, table quizzes and concerts.”
The school holds annual open days to encourage new pupils. They also promote the school at an event in south Dublin every year. However, even with these events, numbers are a quarter of what they were in the 1990s, which Croke attributes to pressure on secondary school places. “If they leave their feeder school to come here, they will lose their place in the secondary school,” she says.
Back on the campus, cinnirí Vivienne Uniacke and Clara Coughlan explain the pupil’s daily routines include putting out their washing to following the rota for their 10 minutes’ shower time and tidying their rooms before classes begin.
“They cry when they arrive because they have left their parents and are homesick. But then they cry again when they are leaving because they are sad because they are leaving the good friends they made,” says Uniacke.
Pupils’ experiences at Scoil na LeanaíOlivia Kelly from Naas, Co Kildare
“I found it exciting to come here. You can get lonely sometimes, but we have so many friends. It makes you more independent and I like meeting people from different counties in Ireland.”
Gráinne Phelan from Co Waterford
“I love the sports – camogie and basketball are my favourites – and having fun with new people. I think we will make friends for life here as we are all so much closer.”
Lelia McKavanagh, Kinvara, Co Galway
“Irish was never my favourite subject and I wasn’t very good at it. I wanted to improve. Being here has made me more confident about going places by myself. The nurses are very kind and you can speak to them in private through English if you are upset.”
Oscar Boyle from Mount Merrion in Dublin
“I came here to learn Irish and become more independent before I go to boarding school. You get used to being so far from home, and we can speak to our parents once a day in the morning time, at lunchtime or in the evening.”
Luca Cullen, Rathmines, Dublin
“I was in an Irish school before, but this is a good opportunity to improve my Irish. I like the idea of living in a boarding school. We go home every two or three weeks, so I don’t miss living at home.”
Cúán Ó Muirí, Monkstown, Co Dublin
“I speak Irish at home so I was already fluent in Irish, but my teacher gives me extra work. I’m the youngest of six boys, and four out of five of my brothers came here. They said it was the best year of their life.”