Moate CS TY Trip to Nijmegan

On Wednesday 27^th of March, 8 Transition Year students departed Dublin Airport to go to Nijmegan, Netherlands. The objective of the trip was to teach Dutch students how to play Gaelic football and hurling during their P.E. classes as well as to experience the Dutch culture and lifestyle.

The students stayed in Dutch student’s homes for three nights and were made feel very welcome. Some students had to cycle to and from school, as is common in Holland. It was very interesting to see how well organised the roads were. Cyclists are very important in their culture so they have a lot of protection and space. There is also separate traffic light systems and tunnels for cyclists.

During the school day, the students were outside training P.E. classes. Half of the classes would do hurling and the others were taught Gaelic football. Classes were usually one hour long and the Dutch students were shown the basic skills of the game such as hand passing, soloing, kick passing and shooting before playing a small game. We taught 6 classes a day and all of the Dutch students enjoyed it and learned very quickly. A lot of them said they would go home and investigate the game more.

Our host families provided us with a lot of activities during our stay. We all went bowling together on Friday night and it was very fun. We also got to look around the very historic city heavily involved in World War II. They brought us on cycles along scenic cycle tracks. One cycle track passed along the beautiful floodplains of the River Waal. It was an experience to see storks and ducks along the cycle track and the nature of the area was amazing.

We returned home early on Saturday morning to traditional Irish cloudy weather. It was unforgettable experience and we have huge thanks to Moate Community School and Kandinsky College, Nijmegan for the opportunity and to our host families for treating us so well.

 

Ronan Aspell- TY1