Home Page News   St Benildus College "THE BEST EDUCATION MONEY CAN'T BUY" Irish Independent   Irish 2009/2010 < back   Gaeilge Mission Statement Our aim is to nurture love and respect for our native language and culture within our students as part of their holistic education in our college. As an Irish department we aim to promote Irish as a living language in our college and encourage all staff and students to speak Irish as much as possible. Spoken Irish is the medium of teaching in all Irish classes so that our students, commensurate with their abilities, learn to communicate confidently in Irish. This oral approach follows best practice in second language teaching and learning. Extra curricular activities in Irish in the college include; Gael Linn debating competitions, inter college and in-house table quizzes organised each year by Feachtasfor senior and junior students. In 2008 our students won first place in this competition. College table quizzes poster competitions Irish music and other activities are held during Seachtain Na Gaeilge. A visit to a performance of the play "An Triail" is also organised for Leaving Cert higher level students. In preparation for their Leaving Cert oral Irish exam teachers accQmpany a group of sixth year students to the Gaeltacht in Rath Chairn Co. Meath for the weekend just prior to the Leaving Cert oral examination. This has proved both enjoyable and very beneficial to the students. Transition year provides an excellent opportunity to develop students oral competency and their course includes a strong oral and aural component,skills which are particularly important given the increased marks allocated to these areas in the Leaving Cert (40% for oral in 2012).