SHARED EDUCATION

Markethill Primary School is partnered with St Patrick’s Primary School, Crossmaglen for Shared Education.  Our partnership began a number of years ago, with teachers and pupils coming together to meet new people, develop new skills and explore our communities.

The overall aim of the shared education project is to bring together children from all different religious, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds in an effort to work together for the benefit of everyone.  Shared Education hopes to improve both educational and reconciliation outcomes by schools working collaboratively.

The purpose of shared education is to:

• deliver educational benefits to children and young persons;
• promote the efficient and effective use of resources;
• promote equality of opportunity;
• promote good relations; and,
• promote respect for identity, diversity and community cohesion.

Sharing in Learning for Success!

It is the vision of both schools that all pupils, from P1 to P7, will be successful in all their endeavours. The coordinators hope that by staff and pupils sharing in their educational journeys, that shared education can be a vehicle for raising standards as well as developing essential thinking skills and personal capabilities for the future. 

Pupils and staff have commented positively thus far on their experiences. Pupils have engaged in a range of literacy, numeracy and WAU activities, as well as outdoor learning activities using the local environment such as Gosford Forest Park, the ancient church and graveyard of Creggan, the resting place of the Gaelic poets and the burial place of the O’Neills and the pre-historic site of Annaghmare.  Both schools have also participated in sporting and music events.

Markethill Primary School has engaged with visitor from Spain and America.  The school has welcomed the Sullivan family, part of the Ojibwe Native American people.  They shared their songs stories and music with the boys and girls of Markethill and Crossmaglen.  The children were taught how to dance in powwow and stay in time to the beat of the Native American drums.  This cultural exchange has allowed our classes to engage with the meaning of culture, language and community as well as reflect on the traditions that we enjoy in our part of the world and how they may differ from many other communities in Northern Ireland.

 

Visits such as these link wonderfully well with our school initiative on ‘Rights’, providing our children with the opportunity to consider the importance of being a ‘good neighbour’ to all people regardless of their background and story.

Further information including a video on Shared education can be found on the Education Authority's (EA) website. Click on this link: https://www.eani.org.uk/parents/shared-education

Mr K Qua – Shared Educator/RRS Coordinator       Dr H McLernon - Principal