Scoil Mhuire Kilvemnon

On the 12th of June 2007 four students, accompanied by Mrs. Brett and Ms. O’ Connell, travelled to Uttendorf in Austria to visit their partner school and area and had a fantastic experience. The students stayed with Austrian host families in the region. Uttendorf is located in the federal state of Salzburg in Austria and is one of the biggest and sunniest parishes in the region called Pinzgau. There are about 2850 inhabitants but more than 160,000 people visit the town every year because it is situated in the national park “Hohe Tauern”. Glacier and mountain chains form the landscape. Furthermore, Uttendorf is famous for its graves from the Bronze and Iron Age and recently a prehistoric village was found.

Through exploring the traditions, history and folklore of the participating countries of the UK, Ireland and Austria the children have discovered that although the small rural schools are geographically distanced, within Europe, they are more the similar than unalike.The joint project is important for intercultural education and counteracts hostility to strangers and racism. It supports language acquisition and language variety for all involved.

Scoil Mhuire Kilvemnon hopes to continue the links with the schools that have been established and the children in the schools continue to communicate via email to keep up to date with the progress of their friends in Gurranaesig, Co. Cork, Uttendorf in Austria and Bath in England.

Some photos taken during the trip to Salzburg and Uttendorf to visit our partner school: Volkschule Uttendorf