The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) and Raidio Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) have announced the launch of a teacher’s resource guide to support the delivery of the new Junior Certificate English and Science curricula.

The materials are based around the successful TV programme ‘Tommy Bowe’s Body Check’ which was produced by Indiepics. The materials are available to teachers and students at www.rte.ie/learn.

This initiative was funded by the Television Licence fee and is part of a strategy to promote Irish content to younger audiences. The materials were prepared by Mary-Elaine Tynan and Pauline Kelly, co-authors of Fire & Ice, the leading English textbook for Junior Cycle, who have worked as teachers and teacher-trainers for a number of years.

Describing this initiative, Mary-Elaine Tynan said: “The new student-centred course for students in Junior Cycle acknowledges the importance of key skills which include literacy and, in this case, media literacy.

The documentary and accompanying classroom resources will engage students and challenge them to study an Irish documentary. Not only will they look at language, but they will also have to think critically about issues such as the nature versus nurture debate and the importance of nutrition among young people.

“For years, teachers have relied on teaching resources from UK and other countries, so it is very heartening to now see that RTÉ and the BAI have made such a huge commitment to education. It is especially exciting that we now have a home for these and other Irish educational resources on the new RTÉ Learn platform. This is truly bringing Irish education into the twenty-first century.”

Also speaking about the initiative, BAI Chief Executive Michael O’Keeffe said:

“This is a very exciting development for the BAI. It is the first initiative where a programme funded through the Broadcasting Funding Scheme has been used in the Junior Cycle and represents a significant educational resource funded from the Television Licence fee. I am confident that the partnership with RTÉ in the development of this material will be the first of many audio-visual initiatives to support students and teachers alike in the coming years.”

Colm O’Callaghan, Commissioning Editor, Irish Language, Education and Science for RTÉ said: “This partnership between BAI and RTÉ enables us to re-purpose publicly-funded, premium audio-visual content for practical educational purposes and we look forward to developing the project and the relationship further over the coming months.”

Source: Press Release

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