Human rights education is one of the key aspects of the Learn Together curriculum for Educate Together schools. In Balbriggan ETNS, we do a lot of work on human rights - not just during our Human Rights Month of October but right throughout the year!
One of the rights highlighted in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the right to a language.
To celebrate International Mother Language Day on the 21st February, we decided to do a video project celebrating the first languages of the members of our school community (including English and Irish of course!).
We asked the families who spoke different languages to translate some key phrases from English into their first language. The student council then assisted one of the teachers to collect together the children who chose to be identified with the different linguistic groups (and of course who wanted to participate in the project!) to create a video of them teaching others some key words in their language or singing the song Frére Jacques in their language (for those who were so inclined).
Huge and heartfelt thanks to all the children and families who participated for sharing their languages with us!
Check out the project here!
http://languagesinbetns.weebly.com/