Creative Schools is a government initiative. This is the first time lots of government departments have come

together realising the importance of creativity in schools. Studies show that when young people have the opportunity to engage in a creative way their overall learning, development and wellbeing improves.

I was delighted to work with Coláiste Dún na Rí and assist in developing creative activities in the school. We

set up a creative schools advisory committee to seek the student voice and see what type of creative activities the

students would be interested in. In 2019 we organised a number of workshops over a couple of days. Coláiste Dún

na Rí became a virtual stage for nearly 200 first and second year students.During both days, the students under the tutelage of experts from the world of

drama, dance, drumming and voice coaching explored the creative benefits of these activities.

This year we focused on one activity over a longer term and decided on poetry and creative writing with Poet Heather Brett. She has many poetry collections and is celebrated locally and nationally.

As well as assistance from a Creative Associate each school is allocated €4000 over the two years to enable them to engage with professional artists and develop creative activities in the school.

Unfortunately due to Covid 19 and school closures the workshops with Heather are postponed until autumn. We also hope to include a rap artist and some visual art /illustration to really bring the words of the students in Coláiste Dún an Rí to life and add another dimention to this wonderful opportunity for students to express themselves.

This is a particularly important time to ensure creativity is given a priority in all of our lives. It’s fantastic to see all the creative activities students are sharing during lockdown.

Our aim for Creative Schools is to broaden the opportunities for creativity and engagement in the arts for all students. Creativity helps development and well being, it is not only about being good at art, music etc, it also helps our imagination and ways of thinking and learning. Being able to think creatively is a very important skill for the future.

Keep being creative Coláiste Dún na Rí, It was a real pleasure working with you and getting to know you all over the past two years.

Joanne Behan Creative Associate, Creative Schools initiative

NewsletterColáiste Dún an Rí

In Coláiste Dún-an-Rí we have a long-term plan to fully embrace the arts and creativity, ensuring a positive experience and strong outcomes for our students. We endeavor to encompass creativity as part of teaching and learning in every subject department.

The Creative Schools initiative aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives.

In Coláiste Dún-an-Rí we view creativity as very important. It is encouraged not only in the traditional sense in the Arts but also through the sciences, maths, business and technology subjects, but to mention a few. Teachers’ lunch times and after school time is regularly given in order to enrich the creative experiences in our school. Students can partake in the BT young scientist competition, the young enterprise awards, school choir, school variety show, poetry competitions, STEAM clubs, regular trips to the theatre and local arts centre.

Creativity helps students to be innovative and also encourages them to learn new things. Students can grow up as good communicators in addition to improving their emotional and social skills.

The world we live it is changing rapidly. 65% of the jobs for children entering primary school today have not yet been invented. There has been a significant shift in the job market, where a creative person is preferred to someone with a specific skill set.

Innovation and ‘thinking outside the box’ are now some of the most desirable attributes in a prospective employee. Candidates who know how to be creative and can express this easily will be way ahead of the competition, so learning this skill early on is important.

Creativity helps develops the following skills:• The ability to think outside the box• Creativity is… using your imagination to produce

outcomes that are both original and of value.• Creative people invent, imagine, problem solve,

create, and communicate in fresh, new ways.• The seeds of creativity live in everyone• Thinking imaginatively / lots of ideas• Reflecting critically• Transferring knowledge / skills into new settings• Asking challenging questions• Taking and managing risks• Persistence/resilience

Importance of creativity

“ ”

In April 2019 , Coláiste Dún an Rí became a virtual stage for nearly 200 first and second year students as they participated in the Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools initiative that aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives. 

Despite the fact that the school opened only three years ago, Coláiste Dún an Rí has already established itself as a creative mecca both in its teaching methodologies but also in its promotion of the arts. The school was selected as the only second level school in the county to become involved in this creative initiative that enables the creative potential of every child.

Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. This initiative aims to understand, develop and celebrate the arts and creativity in schools. It establishes a range of collaborative opportunities for schools and will develop and strengthen the relationships between schools and the broader cultural and community infrastructure within which they operate. The long term aim is for every school to be supported to fully embrace the arts and creativity, ensuring a positive experience and strong outcomes for children and young people.  

Creative Arts CommitteeAt the beginning of the school year, the school set up a Creative Arts

Committee led by the students themselves. The students undertook workshops to identify the place and role of creativity within the school. Having accepted a definition that creativity is a set of innate abilities and learned skills, the capacity of individuals and organisations to transcend accepted ideas and norms and by drawing on imagination to create new ideas that bring additional value to human activity, the committee then decided what it would like to have a series of future creative workshops, the result was the two fun filled days last week. During both days, the children under the tutelage of experts from the world of drama, dance, drumming and voice coaching explored the creative benefits of these disciplines. All children got the freedom to show their creative sides and of course this will have long term benefits for them as they move through the school. The Creative Schools’ initiative will, going forward, provide opportunities for students from Coláiste Dún an Rí to share their school’s experience and learning with the networks and partnerships in which the school is already engaged as well as with other schools, policy makers and the general public.  

Coláiste Dún an Rí was delighted to be one of schools selected to participate in this project as more than 400 schools applied to become involved in the scheme.

A creative inspiration

Hello all, I really hope everyone is safe and well and weathering this pandemic as best we can…we are truly lucky to live in Ireland when we see so much news now of how bad things are in other countries.

I was delighted to meet you in your beautiful Kingscourt Dun an Ri College and I really look forward to continuing the project in September. We had just got started finding out what our Celtic zodiac animal was and what tree sign went our birthday.

Below is the Song of Amergin, reported to one of the oldest poems in Ireland written by Amergin the Milesian after the mythical battle with the Tuatha De Danan. The words are a tribute to the beauty of Ireland with lines that praise nature and almost seem like a prayer. In those days there was no religion as we know it and people may well have worshipped the sea, the sun and wind and nature.

"I am the wind on the sea;I am the wave of the sea;I am the bull of seven battles;I am the eagle on the rockI am a flash from the sun;I am the most beautiful of plants;I am a strong wild boar;I am a salmon in the water;I am a lake in the plain;I am the word of knowledge;I am the head of the spear in battle;I am the god that puts fire in the head;Who spreads light in the gathering on the hills?Who can tell the ages of the moon?Who can tell the place where the sun rests?"

Celtic astrology is driven by nature. Each sign is represented by both an animal and a tree. Think about the Celtic animal for your birth sign.. are you like a swan? Gracious and gliding along uncaring about anything? Or have you the same cunning as a Celtic fox?

Put these along with the connotations of your own name... and as one young man said - Samuel means God – therefore I am God-like? Yes. Add three traits you might identify with yourself…perhaps brave, someone who likes to travel, a musician?

Perhaps your birthday is associated with the Rowan Tree... this is a strong deciduous tree and can also colonizes on bare ground. Together with Yew, it was used in the Middle Ages for making bows. Rowan berries are relished especially by thrushes and other bigger songbirds. One bird that is very fond of them is the waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus). It breeds in Scandinavia but, if rowan berries become scarce in its homeland in winter, it comes in large flocks to the UK and Ireland to feed on Rowan and some other, especially red, fruits.)

Now you have got your animal... say stag, your tree – perhaps rowan and all the details above.

A bit fanciful.. but that’s poetry! It can be as quiet or as triumphant as you want it to be. Play around with all the images and ideas of the animal, the tree, your own characteristics, your given name, your origins... ANY origins.

‘I am of Wales... a red dragon on my banner’or any country...

Use your imagination....

Use YOUR TRAITS, YOUR IDEAS, lots of leeway in poetry...

And try to draw these ideas, make them visual - what wouldn’t be artistic about a deer, red berries and tufted bird, antlers shine gold, a throne in the forest... it doesn’t have to be all paintings, any form of art, it might well be collage/photography/quick sketches... try it.

When we return we will be working toward a publication of creative writings and artwork in many forms.

A short book or pamphlet that will be the first for the School, an artistic calling card that everyone will see, all the students and all their families, all the business and houses in Kingscourt.

All the schools in Cavan will receive copies and it will be written and illustrated by YOU.

A Celtic identity through poetry

An example… This is me! I’m from Newfoundland and Ireland.

'I am of bright wooden houses, stilts shod with the sea... I am of the capling shoal, silvering a rush in the shallow Atlantic And I am the Celtic wildcat, a green-eyed gleam…

*Newfoundland houses are all wood and those near the sea are built on stilts into the water. The capling are small fish that are loved by whales - so that’s when you can spot one as they rush the small fish up onto the shallow beach. The last line is taking the idea of my

sign as wolf and its equivalent in Canada is a wildcat, all with lots of poetic licence. I want to hear about YOU.

The capling fish are driven ashore by whales.

Coláiste Dún an RÍ Literature & Art project with poet Heather Brett

I am of the red Rowan berries, Of the red stag, mirage in the morning mistThe red seal on a waxwing…I am Samuel, the last of the JudgesDún na Rí my forest seat, My proud antlers gleaming gold in the sun, songbirds trill a welcome as I wander the landthe hum of the earth my chorus.

You have the shape of an idea here…those antlers, a waxwing (lovely word) attracted by the red rowan berries.

So you’ve got a stag, a rowan tree, a waxwing, ideas that might come with the words brave/ loving/smart... what three lines could you put together that might make the beginnings of a poem, a haiku or a longer stanza?

Stag are noted as leaders, having integrity and switched into solar energy!!!

The tines of the antlers are the points…a stag of seven points – obviously, a mature male - seven points on each antler stag... knowledge and experience. What else does he have? Visions? A 6th sense? A waxwing is a nomad from the north… Rowan berries blaze, tempt the waxwing,Calls brightly through Dún na Rí at the stag, which is also known as the red deer.

Have another look again at the Amergin idea... I am the wind on sea... try with the personal ideas.

I am of the red Rowan berries, Of the red stag, mirage in the morning mistThe red seal on a waxwing…I am Samuel, the last of the JudgesDún na Rí my forest seat, My proud antlers gleaming gold in the sun, songbirds trill a welcome as I wander the landthe hum of the earth my chorus.