Genealogy for Kids: Primary School Programme

Following from the very successful BBC series ‘Who Do You think You Are?’ and the increased Public interest in their Family History, Genealogy Ireland has recently designed a Genealogy Programme aimed at Primary School children, P7 level. This is a new qualification based Programme for 2009 and will be limited in its availability.

Delivered by our Genealogy Team, it is designed to accommodate individual schools and can be tailored to suit each school’s composition, i.e. location and denomination, or be more general in delivery i.e. cover an entire county/region. We deal with how to trace a family tree and the sources available and also with topics such as the Plantation, Flight of the Earls, Penal Laws, Record Destruction, Ulster-Scots, the Famine, etc. We also cover map reading, townlands, Christian names, surnames and have an option for a field trip. The delivery will be in a very easy to follow format and can help research, presentation and ICT skills. Group work skills will also be developed and the Programme is consistent with the objectives of the revised Curriculum.

We offer a fully accredited ASDAN Award course (see insert – presentation to 8 students by Education Minister), Bronze  Silver and Gold Awards. The Programme will be delivered over a period of ten weeks with a 2 hour weekly session delivered by our Staff. The P7 teacher will have further Course work to complete with the students (this will be outlined and is very easy to deliver). As I have mentioned each school will be able to agree their own Programme with our Genealogist. We also offer a basic Genealogy Ireland Certificate course which lasts 6 weeks and has no formal qualification.

If you feel your school would like to participate in this programme, we would like to meet with you and discuss the Programme in your school and outline the varied programmes and costs available to your school.