Cork Views: Celebrating the arts at Cork's Blarney Street School

Sometimes, I forget that I’m walking the halls of an inner-city DEIS primary school when I hear the distant fanfares of our Music Generation Brass Band, or joyful singing coming from different classrooms, or become surrounded by the creative and original art work displayed throughout its corridors.

I’m not in the High School for Performing Arts in downtown New York, or perhaps the Crawford Art College across town; no, this is my school, Blarney Street School for boys and girls in the heart of Cork city.

I began my teaching career here 22 years ago and was tasked with expanding our music programme, both curricular and extra-curricular.

In that time, we have developed our brass band with the help and guidance of Music Generation. Instrumental tuition is available after-school hours.

Visiting troupes of actors and musicians have included the Army Band of the Southern Command and the MTU Cork School of Music Jazz Big Band.

We have produced three large scale musicals, each with a 10-piece orchestra and full lighting and sound rigs.

Our most recent production, the West End smash hit Matilda, filled our 300 capacity hall for five sell-out performances.

Our annual Music Week in October includes workshops, performances, tours and also involves our parents who volunteer their time to demonstrate their instruments.

Last year, one of our parents from China, who was studying a Masters in Ethnomusicology in UCC, came to play the traditional Chinese instrument, the pipa.

This was particularly special as we got to hear about her life in China, that she was studying this instrument from an early age, and that it was all she ever did!

Another parent brought classes up to Farranree church to learn about and try out the pipe organ.

We are going bigger this year and Music Week has morphed into Arts Week ’25.

We will be celebrating the three subjects in the primary school arts curriculum, Music, Art and Drama. Each of those is allocated an hour per week at every class level, according to that curriculum.

The arts are often left to the end of an already overloaded timetable in our schools, but in Blarney Street, we see the benefit of learning about and appreciating the arts, so these subjects are put to the fore in our teaching and learning.

DEIS schools face many challenges. Some of the children in these schools can suffer from the fall-out of issues such as the housing crisis, and the schools continue to witness the knock-on effect of the covid pandemic on learning, attendance and mental health among some pupils.

Here at Blarney Street School, we feel that, although we must prioritise literacy and numeracy, and also the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), we must also promote good mental health and wellness.

The arts are our ticket to enriching our children’s lives, providing an outlet for expression and regulating their emotional states. This is especially true for children with special educational needs.

The arts are freely accessible to all, and a trained practitioner or physical resources are not always necessary, but are a bonus.

Whatever a child’s state of being, the arts provide a pathway to achieve success and wellness, offering opportunities to alleviate the stresses in their lives, if only for a short time.

Taking part in music, art and drama can be a mindful activity, whereby the brain focuses on the task at hand, allowing calm to enter and settle the body and mind.

This, in turn, regulates the child and gives them the opportunity to be ready to learn and engage during the school day.

It is a therapeutic tool and, often, a means of escape from their worries and daily challenges.

It is a form of expression, especially important when words and writing are beyond the reach of a young child who cannot even put into words what might be going on with them.

From a neurological standpoint, singing, making music and creating, release mood- boosting neurotransmitters such as endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin and others. The benefits are too numerous to be ignored.

In Blarney Street School, we celebrate music, arts and drama throughout the year, but this year, we are highlighting these subjects in the week running up to the October mid-term, coinciding nicely with the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival.

We have professionals coming in to do workshops, children will go on gallery tours, they will enjoy performances, and we are busy working on our new Buddy Bench in the yard and a new school sign - thanks to the input of each class and some of our talented parents.

Every DEIS school in our beautiful city does amazing work to protect and nourish our children’s educational and emotional needs, and I do hope that even more schools might be encouraged to tap into the incredible free resource that is the arts, lifting their students and the wider school community.