On Friday, 19th September, our Heritage in Schools Roadshow visited Sligo. In collaboration with Sligo Education Centre and the Heritage and Biodiversity Officers from Sligo County Council, we hosted a day of fun and interactive heritage workshops.
School's out so our hardworking Heritage in Schools Specialists had time to attend our annual networking days recently.
Over 600 children and 65 teachers and SNAs from local Kilkenny primary schools gathered at Áras na hOidhreachta on 13th June for our third annual Heritage in Schools Archaeology Day.
Heritage in Schools expert Anthony Galvin-Healy has just returned from trekking across the top of Europe. Anthony, who visits schools talking about polar heroes Tom Crean and Ernest Shackleton, has been a regular visitor to the Arctic over the past three decades. This time he was trekking across the extreme north of Finland, in temperatures of minus 23 degrees, to raise funds for the charity SightSavers, which provides medical care in the developing world.
On Thursday 23 January 2025 the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) welcomed members of the Heritage in Schools panel, both in person and online, to learn about RIA educational resources for primary schools from the RIA Library, Dictionary of Irish Biography, Irish Historic Towns Atlas, Grangegorman Histories and the Digital Repository of Ireland.
We are delighted to welcome 24 new heritage specialists to our Heritage in Schools programme and it was wonderful to host an induction day for them at Áras na hOidhreachta last month. We had an informal and enjoyable day which included presentations from Heritage Council staff and long term members of the Heritage in Schools panel, who provided lots of useful tips on delivering programmes and engaging with schools. We heard more about the work our new recruits will do with schools, as well as expanding our reach and offerings on history, archaeology and biodiversity they will bring some new topics to the programme too, including mosiac culture in Ireland, history of the use of archery in Ireland and Thornton Irish Lace and crochet. Further information will be available from website profiles which will be activated when we re-open in January.
Heritage in Schools has had a bumper year with an estimated 3,000 visits delivered in 2024 and our funding is now fully allocated. We will be open for bookings for 2025 from 1 January and we look forward to visiting your school in 2025!
Celebrate Samhain and the end of the harvest season with a free Heritage in Schools visit for your school. We have 100 free visits to give away which will be allocated on a first come basis and one visit per school.
To celebrate National Hedgerow Week 2024, 2-8 September, the Heritage Council is offering 100 free Heritage in Schools visits to primary schools. Visit content must relate to Irish hedgerows and must take place between Monday, 2nd September and Friday, 6th September.
Our Heritage in Schools Specialists enjoy an annual networking day each year, usually at the end of June when schools break for the summer. This year we decided to hold smaller regional events instead of one main event in the midlands, so our team took to the road for a week and met as many specialists as possible. We had a fabulous week of meetings in Tramore Coastguard Cultural Centre, The Burren College of Art and Glenveagh National Park.
Over 500 children from local Kilkenny primary schools descended on Áras na hOidhreachta on 14th June for our second Heritage in Schools Archaeology Day.
On 2nd May Carlow College, St Patrick’s, will be blitzed by a group of Heritage Specialists from the Heritage Council’s Heritage in Schools programme. Carlow primary schools are invited to join us for a day of fun and interactive heritage workshops which will cover topics such as archaeology, biodiversity, heritage crafts and storytelling. This is a FREE day and lunches will be provided.
