Local students make twinning visit to Italy

Following months of planning and preparations, four first year University students from Templemore travelled to Potenza Picena, Italy on Saturday last.

Ruth Johnston, Stephanie Treacy, Cormac Bourke and Donnacha Broderick are currently in Potenza Picena teaching English to young Italian students from our Twinned Town.

This exciting programme, which is supported by both Twinning Committees, will be extremely beneficial to the young Italian students who are always keen to learn the English language and Irish Culture.

Ruth, Cormac, Stephanie and Donnacha, who all have completed TEFL courses and various coaching and safeguarding and vetting courses, are leading classes every morning and afternoon in the beautiful coastal town of Potenza Picena for young students aged between 9 & 15 years.

Amongst the luggage that was brought over to Italy (along with the Barry’s tea bags and Taytos) was a bag of hurleys, sliotars and Gaelic footballs - these are all being used as part of the teaching programme to give our Italian counterparts a sense of our Irish culture. The concept of learning language through fun and games will certainly be proven over the duration of this project.

On completion of the programme, all the young Italian children will be presented with Certificates of Completion at a ceremony which will be attended by local Italian Dignitaries along with some members of the Templemore Twinning Committee who will travel over for the occasion.

We in Templemore, are indeed very proud of our four young volunteers who have taken on this challenge which supports all the ideals of Twinning, through building relationships with our European friends and incorporating the educational and cultural aspects of the programme.