“I think it’s an incredible school for active participation,” Siobhain Grogan says. “We want to create leaders of the future. Not just to run businesses, but we want to help create community.”
Ms Grogan teaches maths at Gaelcholáiste Chill Dara in Naas. In August, she was instrumental in setting up Uisce for Gaza – a fundraiser that has so far yielded over €83,000 for clean drinking water to reach the city, and highlighted the strength of the community the school has built.
With the money raised, Mohammed Alazzami, a fellow teacher in Gaza, facilitates the transfer of water trucks from desalination plants to deprived people. He takes photographs of each truck, dedicating them to their Irish sponsors alongside thank-you videos.
“When the students found out about the project, a group of fifth-years organised a bake sale, raising enough for three full trucks of water,” Ms Grogan says. “A number of other schools and businesses have since come on board.”
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Seán Ó Cuinneagáin, one of the fifth-years, says: “Anyone that had an interest in helping out or putting towards the cause had the option to join. A few of us came together and baked some things and then we set up at lunchtime. The sales were great – the queue was all the way down the hallway.
“I think it’s a great school in that way. They’re very supportive on taking action on what you believe in. Actions speak louder than words, so doing something about what you think is well promoted here.”
Four hundred students attend the gaelcholáiste, and it is a tight-knit community. They employ Córas na dTithe, a system that divides students into Hogwarts-style houses to compete for points throughout the year. The factions are about 50-strong and feature students at each stage of their secondary education.
“They garner points for being particularly good at the Irish language – for all kinds of different activities,” says the school’s principal, Conor Ó Mathúna. “Those points are totted up at the end of the year and the house with the most points goes off to Tayto [Emerald] Park.
“When they come in in first year, they’re not just in first year. They get to meet more mature students. This brings out the best, I think, in everybody, and it makes the school a much more welcoming place.”
It’s not just a school subject. It’s not just certain books you have to study. It’s a language
— Conor Mac Dómhnaill, sixth-year student
That sense of camaraderie is evident in how students engage with projects such as Uisce for Gaza. It has been further nurtured by the school’s policy on mobile phones. The students are in their second year of using the Yondr pouches that are set to be rolled out across Irish schools in the coming months.
Though the pouches have received criticism nationally for the €9 million allocation they received in the budget, staff in the gaelcholáiste have found them to have a positive impact. There is a particular benefit in restricting access to the English content that phones provide.
“When they’re in class, often the teacher is doing a lot of the talking,” Mr Ó Mathúna says. “They’re doing a certain amount of talking themselves, but it is when they go out at playtimes and breaks that this is very strengthening in terms of the Irish language use in the school. They’re socialising with each other – using social language and giving each other their full attention.”
Teachers themselves are a part of Córas na dTithe, with each teacher assigned to a separate house and competing alongside their students. Ms Grogan, like the rest of the staff, is known to students by her first name – another small way in which she believes the sense of community is encouraged.
“It’s all about relationships,” she says. “The central way a school can function is if there are good relationships. The more you can build on relationships, the safer the environment is for everybody, and the more willing people are to co-operate with each other and to egg each other on. So, when a project like Uisce for Gaza is promoted, people want to come on board.”
Conor Mac Dómhnaill and Aoibhín Ní Mhórdha are in sixth year at Gaelcholáiste Chill Dara. Both list the size of the school and the focus on an intermingling community as real strengths. In their time there, both have developed a love for the Irish language.
“As you grow up in the school environment, you kind of see the benefits of the Irish compared to people like my friends who’d go to the English schools in this town,” Mac Dómhnaill says. “You realise the value of it and, especially going into college, I’ll definitely be keeping Gaeilge up in my adulthood. Definitely.”
“It’s great to see it outside of school as well because you almost come to associate it with school and being told what to do,” Ní Mhórdha says. “When you get to hear music in Irish outside of school and watch movies in Irish outside of school, it really does open your eyes.”
Adds Mac Dómhnaill, “It just means it’s functioning as a language. It’s not just a school subject. It’s not just certain books you have to study. It’s a language.”
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