Offaly County Library Service and the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative (MLPSI) have won the prestigious European Award for Languages (EAL), also known as the European Language Label for a joint language project which involved the participation of four Offaly primary schools (Scoil Náisiúnta Naomh Eoin - Rath, Mercy Covent NS - Birr, St. Cronan's NS- Lusmagh & Shinrone Mixed NS). The award ceremony took place on Friday 25th September in Farmleigh. The keynote address was given by Professor David Crystal, a writer, editor, lecturer and broadcaster.
This is the first occasion that a joint initiative between these two organisations has won the award. The support and supply of resources from Offaly County Council and the MLPSI have ensured that library staff can organise more community based projects.
This project was co-ordinated by Martina Needham, Executive Librarian, Offaly County Library and Catherine McAuliffe, Regional Project Leader, MLPSI. There was invaluable support provided throughout the process by the County Librarian (Ms. Anne Coughlan since retired and Ms. Mary Stuart) and the National Co-ordinator for the MLPSI (Ms. Tanya Flanagan).
The European Award for Languages (EAL) is an annual award given to projects where participants have found creative ways to improve the quality of language training, motivate students, and make the best use of available resources. The award, which is co-ordinated by the European Commission, is managed in Ireland by Léargas.
The aims of the project were to
- use the library as a venue to promote modern language learning and teaching
- showcase modern language resources in the library to pupils, teachers and parents
- create fun activities which would test pupils' language and library skills
On the European Day of Languages - 26th September 2008, a cultural morning was organised. Forty pupils from four different schools participating in the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative gathered in Birr Library (Rath NS, Mercy Convent-Birr, St. Cronan's NS, Lusmagh and Shinrone Mixed NS). They showcased their language skills in French, Spanish and Irish through drama and song.
Teachers and parents manned the ten language and cultural workstations. Teamwork and cooperation were required as one representative from each school made up the ten different teams. The fun activities were designed to heighten the pupils' awareness of language, culture and library skills.
Pupils' skills in the areas of language awareness, cultural/intercultural awareness, library skills such as information retrieval, reference skills and information literacy were all tested in the process. Each activity used a different teaching methodology to appeal to the different types of learners.
Each pupil was presented with a certificate for participating in the event and the winning team received a language prize. All resources used for the cultural morning can be downloaded below:
European Award for Languages Award Winning Project 2009 - Forging lanaguage links with your local library (PDF File)
Photostory of cultural morning at Birr Library (WMV file)
The success of this partnership has acted as a platform to show the possibilities of collaboration between the County Council, local schools (both primary and secondary) and the MLPSI.