Aine Brosnan

Subject(s):

History, Geography

Curriculum Strands:

Local Studies (History), Early people and ancient societies (History), Continuity and change over time (History), Human environments (Geography)

Counties catered for:

Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow

Classes catered for:

All Classes

Book virtual / in-person visit

Áine has been offering workshops to children for nearly 20 years, inspiring children to investigate their own local area - using interactive maps, they get a bird’s eye view of their school and its surroundings. They also do hands-on activities such as creating model monuments or writing stories or rhymes.

Áine's in person visits can include a range of topics to suit the school, size of the group, age ranges etc.

She is passionate about opening the children's horizons to what's in their locality, what mysterious monuments stand hidden behind the ditches and those ivy clad walls. Hands on crafting is also a fantastic way to build children's sense of a 'can do' attitude and achievement, creating replicas of stone age monuments or exploring the world of the Ogham language.

Creating the calendar of the year using the cross quarter points is also a fun hands on experience for the children, using everyday objects to symbolise the different seasons.

Testimonials

• "Informative, interactive memorable visit. Pupils were made aware of little nuggets of information about their main street, areas that they pass everyday."

• "We were delighted with the 5 visits from Aine. She was absolutely fantastic! Very well informed and weaves so many genres into the lessons." - St Joseph’s N.S., Castlemaine

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• "Excellent workshop from start to finish" - St. Michael's N.S.

• "We were blown away by the fantastic visit from Aine yesterday. The boys were fully engaged with the talk in the morning, absolutely enthralled when they discovered parts of their own city that they see regularly. They also thoroughly enjoyed creating the song at the end." - Scoil Cholmcile, Blarney St

• "We visited a local fort, the pupils really engaged with the folklore and history of the fort. It awakened their imaginations and developed their appreciation of their local environment. The pupils were very actively engaged and working collaboratively." - Scoil Chrochan Naofa

• "Very enjoyable day." - St Colman’s NS, Cloyne

• "Thank you Áine. The children loved your visit." - Derrinacahara NS, Cork

• "We had a wonderful day and received lots of good advice about high end pollinators for our school grounds and surrounding areas." - Kiltiernan NS, Galway

• "Áine, was extremely informative the session led to huge appreciation from the children on the knowledge that Áine had on pollinators." - Bodyke NS, Clare

• "Áine gave a clear and enjoyable history walking tour in Cork city." - Scoil Padre Pio, Cork

• "The children really enjoyed their virtual visit from start to finish. They were lots of examples and pictorial evidence that appealed to the children. They particularly enjoyed the zoom meeting and were very engaged with the facilitator." - Scoil Cholmcille

• "Great way for the children to engage with real people and real specialists from all walks of life!" - Scoil Choluim

• "Áine engaged very well with the class, they enjoyed the little rap exercise. It was great to look at places of interest near the school. In this current climate i think it's an excellent alternative to having a day out with a Heritage Expert." - Crannógbuí NS

• "This was our first experience of an interactive zoom session and it worked out very well. The children gave very positive feedback afterwards and loved the fact that it was interactive." - Muinefliuch NS, Cork

• "We were delighted with our virtual sessions with Aine. Her workshops titled "Mysterious Monuments" brought us on a journey of learning and discovery in our local area. Aine planned the sessions very well to maximise the benefits to all the pupils. Prior to her virtual visits, we received teacher notes with clear preparatory work for the different classes to do which included video clips to watch, questions to answer, worksheets and some local research. This helped to engage the pupils' interest with the topics of discussion and lead to an enthusiastic response from the pupils through: poetry writing, photographs, art etc. We are especially grateful to Aine for including the Infant classroom in her planning. She was excellent at pitching her video and virtual visit discussion on "Holy Wells" to the Infants, using story, art, images and sound. Aine enlightened us all on the numerous monuments from the past in our parish and has motivated us to plan trips to visit these local treasures in the near future. Burgess Staff highly recommend a visit by Aine Brosnan to schools." - Burgess NS, Tipperary