Our involvement with the pupils of St.Patricks school has been, for the both of us, a great experience and an even bigger challenge. We were entrusted with the schooling of the senior children intermittently for two weeks. We received guidance from both the head teacher, Mrs Mary McCabe, and the temporary teacher, Mr. Olof Gill, as to the ability of the children in relation to our initial aims and work schedule.
We worked within the school timetable, so that the children were not exhausted by the Abbey topic and so that (hopefully!) they had projects to look forward to in the forthcoming weeks. This was necessary as the children had just returned from the summer break and were, as predicted, slightly boisterous.
There were several things that, upon reflection, we found surprising. The first was the children’s ability to voice their own opinion in a large group– a benefit of the intimacy of the small school. The second was their interest and existing knowledge of the Abbey that made our job easier!!!
Out of all of the tasks the survey was perhaps the most difficult for both the children and ourselves. It was the first time that the language difference appeared, with the problem of the accent and a difficult and selective vocabulary in relation to specific surveying techniques. Due to these barriers the notion of the elevations and the different measuring methods were laboured and as a result frustrating. However, we persevered and ended up with sufficient information for tasks that followed the survey. This culminated in 1/100 scale models of the abbey which facilitated the understanding of the survey.
The most successful project was the investigation of a cross-section through the wall and paintings. This served to illustrate the underlying structure of lime and sand mixes. Not only thought provoking, but a ‘hands-on’ task that was obviously popular. We followed this up with a final trip to the Abbey, concluding an all round experience that encompassed the history, geography, architecture, materials, construction and drawing techniques of the Cistercian Abbey on Clare Island.