IT’S a highly debatable point – but the round table housing the teachers, mentors and pupils of St Dallan’s Primary School, Warrenpoint wore the broadest smiles in the entire room at the Wellington Park Hotel.
Voted the winners of the Primary School category of the Irish News School, Club and Volunteer awards, their table at last Friday’s event was bursting with pride.
“This award,” beamed school principal Una Farrell, “is affirmation of all the good work that goes on – not just this year but over many years at St Dallan’s.”
In a hugely competitive category, St Dallan’s saw off stiff competition from St John’s PS, Coleraine who were highly commended.
The judges hailed the “superbly structured coaching initiative running across all codes”, the “very strong health initiatives within the school” and its enriching partnership with local GAA club St Peter’s.
Another strength of the St Dallan’s entry was undoubtedly the “emphasis in involvement of all pupils with the development of coaching to address female participation, non-Irish participation and the creation of a specialist coaching programme for children with learning disabilities.”
The school’s GAA co-ordinator and teacher Brendan Rice said the key to their on-going success was including everyone in playing Gaelic Games.
“We’ve taken the approach of inclusivity for all children,” explained Brendan.
“We’d be a big school of almost 500 children and we have Gaelic Games for everybody – from P1 to P7, regardless of their ability.
“We also brought in an initiative to get foreign nationals involved and another big initiative was children with learning difficulties.
“We had a development programme with local club coaches to come into the school. I suppose the big thing is it’s not just about St Dallan’s Primary School. We involve all our community, we involve parents and we have a great link with St Peter’s GAA club, Warrenpoint.
Asked what the Irish News award meant to the school, Brendan said: “I may be the GAA co-ordinator but it filters down to all the staff – it’s the teachers, the classroom assistants, the coaches that come in; they’re all involved.
“Without our local club we definitely wouldn’t win this award. They have been very pivotal in the promotion of Gaelic Games throughout the school.”
Anne McCormack, School Liaison Officer, added: “There’s a great old adage: It takes a village to rear a child.
“We all feel a great sense of identity. We feel if we can contribute to the school then we’ve all done something worthwhile.”
St Dallan’s was formed in 2000, an amalgamation of St Peter’s and Star of the Sea schools.
Anne added: “In terms of the holistic GAA approach, the local GAA club and the school work closely together to address issues in society that can be developed in both the club and school.
“Each year we identify an issue. This year we identified road safety. In recent years we introduced handball to the school…
Guest speaker and former Antrim GAA player Anto Finnegan received the longest applause of the day after delivering a simple but inspiring speech on the importance of sport in a child’s development.
Anne remarked: “I think Anto Finnegan is a fantastic role model. It’s true what he said that it was his passion and love for the sport from an early age, and I think that love and community aspect is so important. I’d hope that we are good role models for every child that comes through our doors.”
