Sorca Clarke
Question:149. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when the heritage in schools programme will return. [27725/20]
View answerThursday, 1 October 2020
Questions (149, 150)
Sorca Clarke
Question:150. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if funding under the heritage for schools programme will be provided to parents who are homeschooling in 2020. [27726/20]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 149 and 150 together.
The Heritage in Schools programme is not run by my Department but rather it is administered by the Heritage Council, which is funded by my Department.
The scheme provides a panel of 160 heritage specialists who visit primary schools throughout the country. The aim of the Scheme is to encourage awareness of the natural and cultural world that surrounds us in our daily lives and engage children in a direct experience of their heritage, preferably outside the classroom. The Scheme supports the aims and objectives of the Social, Scientific and Environmental Education (SSEE) curriculum and provides an additional educational tool and resource for teachers. The scheme is part-funded by the school and the Heritage Council.
Visits generally relate to heritage in the locality of the school, and, in previous years, through the Scheme, the children could develop a knowledge and appreciation for the uniqueness of their locality through trips to local parks, woods, lakes, rivers, sea-shores, old graveyards, castles or churches or other places of interest through structured field trips with a Heritage specialist.
While visits to schools have, of course, been on hold since mid-March 2020 due to COVID 19, the spirit of the scheme has been kept alive, and heritage specialists on the Panel were invited to make videos for promotion online. 30 online videos were developed, with the heritage specialists covering a vast range of topics from potato planting, folklore on herbs and beetle identification to modelling archaeological sites out of papier mâché and singing traditional songs. These have proven very popular with family groups too and are, of course, available to families who are home-schooling.
Public health remains the main priority of the Heritage Council, who will continue to play its part in keeping everyone safe. There are many factors to consider before the programme can open up to physical visits again, including a risk assessment on managing future processes for visits, as well as compliance with individual school COVID 19 policy statements and risk assessments.
The Council is, however, working on a virtual programme which is being piloted in counties Donegal and Kilkenny, with the Education Centres and the Heritage Officers. The response from schools so far has been very positive with approximately 90 requests for virtual visits registered to date. More detailed information on the videos, the virtual programme and the Heritage Council’s other activities is available on its website www.heritagecouncil.ie or by contacting the Council directly.
While funding for parents who are home-schooling is a matter for the Department of Education and Skills, the Heritage in Schools online material is available to all and can be found on the Heritage Council’s website.