Bright pupils get a chance to shine

THEY’RE as young as seven years of age but are already tackling courses in forensic psychology and archaeology.

A group of almost 50 boys and girls from two Cork city schools are learning all about these and other scientific subjects under a programme for high-achieving children.

The 18-week Expanding Horizons programme has been devised in conjunction with University College Cork by staff at St Patrick’s Boys’ and St Patrick’s Girls’ national schools in Gardiner’s Hill.

Lorraine Houlihan, principal of the boys’ school, said it was an opportunity to give high-achieving pupils a chance to use their abilities.

“We have first and second class pupils doing the equivalent of Junior Certificate science for the first six weeks, the third and fourth class children are doing forensic psychology and the older group will be learning about archaeology,” she said.

Each group of eight boys and eight girls will have a chance to do a six-week course on the three different subjects, leading to a certificate award in the summer. The classes are being taken for two hours on Fridays in the science labs of St Patrick’s College on the same north inner city site.

Anne Lynch, principal of the girls’ primary school, explained that the staff wanted to give children with exceptional talent a chance to expand their learning.

“One of the aims is that, because bright children often under perform because of peer pressure, something like this will give them a group in which they can excel,” Ms Lynch said.

The Centre for Talented Youth in Dublin City University offers weekend science courses through UCC but it can be difficult for some children to attend for travel or financial reasons.

Programme co-ordinator Dr Siobhán O’Sullivan, liaison and support officer of UCC’s food science and technology department, said this was the first such scheme where lecturers were going into primary schools.

“It’s great to get kids this young interested in science, they’re really loving it and they’re full of questions,” she said.

“I’ve been teaching the first and second class pupils first year chemistry. They’ve been having great fun with the periodic table, making models of the different atoms,” Dr O’Sullivan said.

News of the programme has got around quickly and the school has already had to turn away interested pupils from other schools, but they are hopeful that additional funding could see the programme expand next year.