Longford pupils ‘feel like film stars!’

Children at a Longford school are close to raising €10,000 for a new classroom for students with autism (ASD).

Pupils and staff at St Colmcille National School in Aughnacliffe have received a great response to their locally-produced music video featuring a rendition of the song ‘Colours of the Wind’, with Principal Aideen Mulligan saying the children “felt like film stars” during production.

“They were delighted, absolutely delighted,” she said.

The video, which Ms Mulligan called “a whole-school approach”, aims to spread a message of inclusion, diversity and respect, as well as to raise awareness about the extra needs of children with ASD.

According to Ms Mulligan, students showed great interest in the fundraiser and “a great sense of community and camaraderie”.

“They’re very much taking ownership,” she said. “They want to help. They know siblings of the children coming and they want to help out, not to treat them differently but to incorporate the difference.”

“The innocence of children singing for other children who are going to come into their midst is actually quite heart rending,” she said.

The fundraiser has passed an initial goal of €6,000 and now sits at almost €9,300, however Ms Mulligan said they’d “love to make €10,000” before it closes.

She praised the generosity of the local community.

“It’s amazing, just amazing,” she said. “Little donations are still coming in now and then as people hear about it, people are happy to donate to local causes. Five euro makes a huge difference, anything at all makes a difference.”

Inclusion and diversity

According to the principal, local families whose children have autism approached the school about an ASD class at St Colmcille, rather than sending them to other schools.

It was an idea Ms Mulligan said meant more inclusion and diversity in the school.

“We thought it was a fantastic idea,” she said.

“We contacted the Department of Education to see what was the story and [they] suggested for the first time round we would use the accommodation we have already, a classroom that we have. That’s what we’re doing at the moment, we’re renovating areas that we had not utilised in full.”

The school’s plans include a sensory room, a de-escalation room, a chill out place for the children, and the conversion of a room into a higher spec classroom with sensory corners.

We're Ready for the next step

Ms Mulligan confirmed children with autism had attended the school before, stating it was “a challenging but positive experience”.

“We had a few children and it was a real learning curve,” she said. “Because of that experience we feel we’re ready for the next step. That [experience] was really key for us.

“We want to be ready. We want to know what we’re doing, we want to know about non-verbal programmes and visual aids for children, we want to know about all this before we start.”

She expressed her thanks to everyone who has donated to the fundraiser so far, and particularly singled out the people who helped put the video and song together.

“Ray McLaughlin did our sound,” she said.

“And the man who did our video, Brian Daly from Cavan, Music Generation; I have to mention them because without their support we wouldn’t have been able to do it.”

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