Coláiste Bride
Clondalkin
The Multicultural
Centre
Staff
Elaine Sherwin,
English
Martin O’Keeffe,
Maths, IT
Michelle Abbott,
CSPE, Spanish
Ailish O’Connell,
French, Italian
Pat Malone, English,
Geography
Sally-Ann White, (Post)
Welfare
*Aoife McArdle, Breda Deegan: Resource
Teaching to Traveller Students; working
mainly in the Intercultural Office
David Duffy,
Clondalkin
Partnership
Contents
The Multicultural Centre: an Overview
Community Links: Clondalkin Partnership
The Role of Post of Responsibility
Language Support and French
Team Teaching and Language Support
The Multicultural Centre: an
Overview
Introduction
Elaine Sherwin, Language Support
Teacher (22 hrs) Academic Year ‘02-’03
English, Music
2007-2008: Completed a Postgraduate
Diploma in Learning Support and Special
Educational Needs with Church of Ireland
College of Education in Rathmines.
Academic Year 2002-2003
2002-2003: 14 students: Belarus,
Chechnya, China, Kenya, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Romania, Ukraine, Vietnam.
No specific area assigned for the delivery
of language support.
Issue: no space; storage of students‘
assessments and work a concern.
Academic Year 2003-2004
Academic Year ‘03-’04; approximately 50
students - Bosnia, Congo, Latvia,
Lithuania.
Issue of space: with the increase in
numbers, a real need for ‘a place of
belonging’ for the students.
A concern about delivery of a programme
of support to the increased number of
students.
Assigned an area towards the back of the
library: The Multicultural Centre.
Positive impact on school life: the
presence of foreign-national students were
acknowledged; they were visually
represented in the ‘heart’ of the school (on
ground level).
Acknowledged Ramadan, marked
Christmas, Chinese New Year, Islamic
New Year.
Colaiste Bride’s Intercultural Choir – the
Rainbow Choir; a musical The Thousand
and Second Night; both helped integrate
Irish and foreign-national students.
Collaboration with community; links with
Clondalkin Partnership, in-service to the
staff in September 2003, the Equality
Officer Marie Laukenen addressed staff.
Academic Year 2004-2005
Academic Year 2004-2005 – approximately
68 students; Angola, Cameroon, Iraq,
Libya, Moldova, Philippines, Poland, South
Africa, Thailand.
The Rainbow Choir and intercultural
celebrations throughout Clondalkin in
liaison with Clondalkin Partnership i.e.
Intercultural Family Day in the Coldcut
Club; Intercultural Christmas Celebration in
Aras Chronan.
First Year of Monthly Coffee Mornings for
parents of foreign-national students in
association with Lucy Peprah, Equality
Officer at Clondalkin Partnership.
Reasonable Accommodation for foreignnational students: having introduced
dictionaries in the students’ native
languages.
The Intercultural and Inclusion Policy
with CDU; formation of an Intercultural
Council.
Introduction of World Language Papers at
Leaving Certificate: Portuguese, Russian,
an Iranian student studied Arabic but didn’t
sit Leaving Certificate.
Academic Year 2005-2006
Academic Year 2005-2006 – approximately
75; Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Somalia.
‘Year of Transition’.
February 2006: Move to new school.
International Intercultural Week: marking
Anti-Racism Day; entering Schools Against
Racism Poetry Competition.
Assigned classroom on the ground level of
new school.
Intercultural Office on middle floor.
The Edmund Rice Award was presented
to Colaiste Bride’s Intercultural Choir – the
Rainbow Choir in recognition of their visits
to the homes for the elderly throughout
Clondalkin, their visit to Cloverhill Prison
and their performance at Advent Mass that
December.
Academic Year 2006-2007
Academic Year 2006 to 2007 –
approximately 80 students.
Move to top floor and establishment of a
Multicultural Centre in our new school.
New room with more possibilities & more
space: smaller adjoining room; bank of
computers; attention to seating; work
stations for specific activities.
Set up Numeracy unit; Literacy unit; IT unit;
audio unit; office ‘Audio Visual Room’
with audio-visual equipment; cabinet for
storage of assessments; magazines and
papers in students own languages.
Metro Eireann with journalist Sandy Hazel
– Ireland’s Multicultural weekly visited the
school and covered The Multicultural
Centre in their May 2007 edition.
Academic Year 2007 to 2008
Academic Year 2007 to 2008 –
approximately 93 students: Bangladesh,
Czech Republic, Somalia.
New staff because of the lift on the cap:
number of students per teacher and the
extension of the two-year allocation per
student.
Acknowledgement that 2008 was the Year
of European Intercultural Dialogue.
The Edmund Rice Award 2008.
In acknowledgement that 2008 was the
European Year of Intercultural Dialogue,
the Multicultural Centre nominated St
Michael’s Holy Angels, Special School for
students with Mild GLD for the Edmund
Rice Award in acknowledgement of the
students’ work on the plight of street
children in Brazil.
This involved visits to St Michael’s and
dialogue between students of the
Multicultural Centre and students of Senior
6.
The award was presented to the
Multicultural Centre and St Michael’s
Special School by Mary Davis, Special
Olympics CEO in the Royal Dublin Hotel on
10 April 2008.
Danish Exchange Students: March
2008; contact with the Danish Embassy,
consultation with the Ambassador's Office
– borrow Danish Flag, welcoming message
in Danish.
The International Day Against Racism is
March 21 2008.
4th Annual School Against Racism
Poetry and Short Story Competition ceremony on 19 April 2008.
School Awards Ceremony in May:
Students of the Multicultural Centre and TY
students.
The Delivery of Language Support
areas of difficulty
Each student is given a Folder with a
document called an IEP (Individual English
Plan) focusing on the strengths and
needs of the student.
A section called the ‘Weekly Template’ has
to be completed at the end of each lesson
citing progress and area of need for the
following lesson.
It is signed and dated by the teacher: a
record, accountability.
Assessment of students: Formal and
Informal.
Formal: Heinemann ELT, Vocabulary in Use
and Advanced Grammar in Use
(Cambridge University Press) – areas of
weakness are established – handouts on
specific grammatical forms distributed to
students.
Informal: written assignments, reading, oral
work.
Learning Support model: Language
Support: lack of in-service: in the past one-day in-service offered to new
Language Support Teachers with IILT
(Integrate Ireland Language and Training).
The ratio of students per teacher.
Units of work: individualised programmes
for students as learners with individual
needs; digital camera ‘an aid’ functional &
social literacy – ICT, scrap books, photos.
Literacy: huge problem; some students
from particular cultures not to the
standard of Irish students of same age.
SEN: the assessment of foreign-national
students with special educational needs,
students with Mild GLD (high incidence),
dyslexia (specific learning disability (low
incidence).
Current assessment involves administering
the Neale’s Analysis (the Nara), GRT II
(Group Reading Tests in the Entrance
Exam); the Norman France Level 2, NRIT
(Non-Reading Intelligence Tests): all
culturally exclusive with complex
vocabulary.
The alphabet.
Letter formation, handwriting.
Students and ‘the silent period’.
Expectation from mainstream teachers that
students will reach the standard by X
amount of time.
Little input by select number of students.
Speaking in their native tongue at home.
Some students not working, doing
homework or taking ownership of their own
learning.
Too much dependency on the teacher.
Multiculturalism and TY
A module-based course of nine weeks
duration – undertaken by all students - first
introduced in Academic Year 2006.
Introduction to terms such as ‘culture’,
‘identity’, ‘multiculturalism’, ‘ethnic’,
indigenous’, ‘diversity’, ‘integration’ etc.
Students were made aware of the
countries and cultures represented by
students in the school.
They had to choose a country and
research. Students were encouraged to
interview students from their chosen
country in the Multicultural Centre.
Other areas of study: a racist society –
cause and effect.
World Languages and TY
In 2005, Arabic, Japanese and Russian
Language Courses were offered to TY
students over six classes.
Awarded with a certificate at the TY Award
Ceremony.
In 2006, languages extended to include:
Chinese, Dutch, Lithuanian, Portuguese,
Ta’ Galog, Thai and Urdu. Certificates
awarded for Dutch, Ta’ Galog and Thai.
Academic Year 2007 -2008: all students
take a course in Spanish during
Multicultural Classes.
Examinations at Christmas and Summer.
Links with the Community
Clondalkin Partnership
Funding applications, each year.
Women’s Forum: Guest speakers, Equiju
African Dancers in to dance.
Lucy Peprah, Equality Officer, monthly
coffee mornings for parents of foreignnational students.
Community Links: Clondalkin
Partnership
New Intercultural Centre opened
Thursday 13 March, Mill Shopping Centre,
Clondalkin.
Information booklets for parents in
various languages .
Resource: legalities surrounding a
student’s legal status in the country etc.
Links with the Community
Edmund Rice
Edmund Rice Camp Leaders with Patricia
Higgins; every year we have speakers in to
attract new camp leaders.
Patricia Higgins, has moved into the area
of management of Inchicore’s Intercultural
Centre – great link and contact to have.
Edmund Rice Awards Ceremony 2006
and 2008.
Interling Translations: provide interpreters psychologists, in meetings with parents
with English Language Deficit.
CDU: Intercultural Workshops.
LYNs network.
Intercultural Office
Support Services for parents of foreignnational students
Information Document for Parents.
The National Welfare Board (published by
NEWB) in various languages.
Information Leaflets for Parents of nonEnglish Speaking Non-National Children
attending Post-Primary Education
(published by the Department of Education
and Science).
Health and Well-Being – Directory of
Health Services in Clondalkin (published by
Clondalkin Partnership).
Information Booklet for Staff (published by
the Curriculum Development Unit with
information for staff on various cultures.
Open Door – Information and Services
Directory for Immigrants and Ethnic
Minorities in the Clondalkin and Dublin
area (published by Clondalkin Partnership).
The Role of Post of
Responsibility
Prefects to
the Multicultural Centre
Three prefects (6th Yr students) ‘Prefect to
the Multicultural Centre’.
Duties include attending September
Induction Day; attending weekly meetings
during break time with teacher with post;
mentoring – the vulnerable and the newly
arrived.
Mainstream student
involvement
Approximately 20 Irish national students of
foreign parentage work with the
Multicultural Centre - plan Intercultural
Events.
Attending meetings with prefects.
Designing posters.
Preparing food for celebrations.
Post of Responsibility: Welfare of
Foreign-National Students
Sally-Ann White
French, Irish, English teacher.
Back ground in SPHE.
Training in Counselling and Bereavement
Counselling.
First assigned to Post of Responsibility in
September 2004.
Work closely with Elaine and other staff
members of the Centre; meetings weekly
to discuss students’ welfare.
Consistent Contact with students
especially ‘newcomer’ students, the
‘vulnerable’ and ‘at risk’.
Delivery of Induction Programme to
foreign-national students.
Monitor progress of all students
throughout the year.
Outside the Multicultural Centre; liaising
with Tutors, Year heads, Guidance
Counsellors and Management to ensure
that foreign-national students are ‘cared
for’ in the school environment.
Role provides a link between mainstream
staff and the staff of the Multicultural
centre.
Language Support and French
Language Support Teaching
and French - Ailish O’ Connell
Background: English/French/Italian.
Working in Language Support since 2003.
Senior teacher with an A post.
From her own personal experience: ‘the
Multicultural Centre ‘new’ and a ‘positive’
experience.’
Contents of the students’ folder; English
Grammar and written work.
French: Oral and written; developing
Chinese/Vietnamese students’ phonic
awareness; grammatical structure of
French.
All Leaving Certificate students who come
to the centre – preparation for the orals
and written questions from the papers:
French and Italian.
Team Teaching and Language
Support
Martin O’Keeffe and Michelle Abbott
Facilitate language support in the centre
Mr.O’Keeffe and his role
Numeracy and I.T. support
Ms. Abbott and her role
Literacy and vocabulary
Team Teaching is a vital part of our role
Project work
Book reviews / Movie reviews
Quizzes and Debates
Support service for personal problems.
Contact us:
The Multicultural Centre,
Room T2,
Colaiste Bride,
New Road,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
Ph. (01) 459 11 58 (extn.218)
e-mail: elainesherwin@hotmail.com