Drama
The school use elements of Drama with students all across the curriculum and with all abilities and ages, to support learning.
The younger students and those with a more significant level of disability use Drama throughout their day with emphasis on responding to sensory stimuli and action rhymes and songs and stories.
Role play is used to rehearse social and community skills during class time.
The whole school produce and perform a yearly performance at Christmas time. Auditions and rehearsals start after the mid-term break in October and happen at whole school level. This is a highly thought of and hugely exciting experience for all students and indeed staff.
Our performance includes Music Dance and Drama as well as Costume Design and Props.
All staff are involved and the anticipation is palpable across the whole school community.
We perform our Christmas Extravaganza in December at the Mill Bank Theatre in Rush. All families and friends attend.
It is a wonderful experience for our students to perform in a proper theatre complete with dressing rooms, full sound system and lighting.
The end result is lots of fun, laughter and a huge boost of self-esteem for everyone involved.
In 2014 we won a “ Bord Gais Student Theatre Award” for Best Costume Design.
We performed for the President of Ireland in the Helix.
Visual Arts
The school is in the extremely lucky position to have the services of an Artist in Residence. Johanna is a local artist who comes every Wednesday to work in the school. In consultation with the Principal and Staff who identify students most in need of her huge expertise, Johanna works with children individually.
Joke as we call her, also works with our school leavers each year to help them produce a “Work of Art” for their Graduation.
Her thoughtfulness and insight into the needs of our students is phenomenal and we are extremely grateful and indebted to her.
It is the wish of the Principal, Staff and The Board of Management to employ her permanently in our school.
The student’s wonderful art work is displayed around the school and much admired by all visitors
All pupils receive differentiated support in engaging in Visual Arts activities involving a wide range of materials and techniques.
Themes for art work are linked across all areas of the curriculum and the teachers work closely together to produce “whole school” works as well as individual classes’ displays in classrooms.
Many classes hold regular “Art Exhibitions” in their classes and invite other classes to come and admire their work. We encourage “cross curricular “activities during these exhibitions as the students like to offer refreshments to their guests all made by themselves.