Castleisland Community College Students Liaise with Tidy Towns

Castleisland Community College students out with their Engineering teacher, Bill Keane as they fixed fairy doors along the river walk. The doors have been fixed higher in the trees as fairies can fly and because most the previous ones were stolen. included in the photograph are: Shauna Mc Carthy, Keeva Aherne, Mr. Keane, Ella Killington, Mollie Mahony and Tara Kerin.

The open curriculum of the Transition year programme allows teachers to take on projects that appeal to them or to the school community in general.

The Transition year students connected with their local Tidy Towns to improve the amenity of the river walk. They made fairy doors using wood cut offs left over from school projects and horse shoes that were no longer in use.

The students worked in Woodwork and Engineering classes under the guidance of their teachers, JJ Herlihy and Bill Keane.

Fairy Doors Spirited Away

The project began last year and completed fairy doors from last year were placed on trees in April 2022. However much to the dismay of teachers and pupils, only three fairy doors now remain. The sign ‘Fáilte ó na Sióga’ has also disappeared. A sad reflection on our community that people would purposefully remove the doors and take away this wonderful magic and enjoyment from children.

‘Every year our school has set the target of involving our Transition year students with the Castleisland Community. Our aim is to make our students proud of their local town and to connect with it.

Liaising with Castleisland Tidy Towns

We liaise with Castleisland Tidy Towns to achieve this goal. Over the years the projects completed include four biodiversity signs along the river walk, building the model train at the entrance to the library car park, swift bird and bat signs along the river walk, making Castleisland the 50^th Fairtrade town in Ireland and creating a fairy trail along the river walk.

This year the signs have been attached to trees at a height to hopefully prevent them from being stolen again.’ said Doreen Killington, Transition year Geography teacher, Castleisland Community College.

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