‘Teachers will apply different methods for each student’
IT is strange for an Irishspeaking school in a Gaeltacht area to still be designated as a ‘gaelscoil’, but four-and-a-half years on from its cross city move, Galway’s Colaiste na Coiribe continues on its unique path.
Formerly situated on the
Tuam Road on the east side of Galway city, Colaiste na Coiribe outgrew its small base and looked further afield. After years of battling for a new home it finally moved to Ballymoneen Road in Knocknacarra on the west side in 2015 to a site a few metres inside the Gaeltacht boundary.
A non fee-paying, nondenominational, mixed gender school with a student population of 598, Colaiste na Coiribe always held its own among its Galway counterparts, but since the move it regularly rubs shoulders with the best-rated schools in the country in the Sunday Independent school league tables.
According to principal Sean Mac Dhabhoc, the school targets talented teachers who are able to deliver their lessons in an individually tailored, studentfocused manner.
“I suppose the big factor is that we have excellent teachers, who are highly dedicated and highly committed. They use all of the best types of teaching methods. They will hone in on each student and apply different methods for each student,” said Mr Mac Dhabhoc.
Colaiste na Coiribe was established on the Tuam Road
‘Because we are a gaelscoil we try to focus on culture too’
site in 1992 under the auspices of the local VEC, while their new premises, which can hold 720 students, was officially opened by Richard Bruton, then education minister, in 2017, but it first welcomed students in October 2015.
Every year since 2015, and in eight of the last nine years, the school has seen 100pc of its students go on to third level. But Mr Mac Dhabhoc insists the sole focus of the school and its teachers is not on results.
“Not all of our students are high achievers. Last year we had one student who got eight A1s, and a student with seven A1s and an A2. I’d say if he’d appealed the result he would have got the eighth A1. There were five students with eight A1s in the whole country; we had one, but we could have had two.
“We do well with extra curricular activities too. In 2019 our basketball team won the All-Ireland final [boys U19 B] and the senior hurlers got to the final too [All-Ireland C championship]. That was great for us.
“And because we are a gaelscoil we try to focus on culture too. We have a ceili band, we have music and drama. Our school musical is coming up in two weeks’ time. There is always a lot of things going on outside school too and teachers are very committed.”
Technology is at the heart of every teenager’s life and as a result Colaiste na Coiribe decided to put it at the centre of teaching too. As well as running regular online skills training programmes for students and teachers, parents are also encouraged to take part.
“We believe that ‘a healthy mind is a healthy child’. Last year we got an expert in who spoke to the whole school and to the parents at different stages in relation to cyber issues. Not just cyber bullying, but the whole area of cyber awareness and safety.
“With the new junior cycle there is a lot of IT based learning. That’s the way students nowadays think. What student doesn’t have a phone in their hand 90pc of the time? We have to cater for their thought process.
“We also try to use IT to our advantage. We are a pilot school for Riomh-mhol Fisic, which is a Physics e-learning Hub. Ourselves and Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne in Kerry are the two schools who were chosen to test the process.
“Our physics teacher teaches students from other schools via video link — schools that are too small to have the allocation for their own physics teacher. It has worked very well.
“I think it will be expanded in the next few years into other schools, once we prove that it can be done successfully.”
As you might expect from a school where all subjects are taught through Irish, the uptake of higher level Irish is omni-present.
“Pretty much all of our students take higher level Irish. It is rare for a student not to. We are well above the national average for results in Irish too.
“Most of our students will come from a gaelscoil at primary level, the likes of Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh, Scoil Fhursa, Gaelscoil Dara, or Scoil na bhForbacha.
They are used to being taught through Irish. Some students who didn’t come to us in first year, will transfer into us in second year because they found learning through English very difficult, having being through primary school in Irish.
“The students are so used to speaking Irish on a daily basis and our teaching methodologies are well proven and well honed to get good results.”