Greetings from Ballybarnock – a brand new Ulster-Scots educational project for young children
Date Posted: May 15, 2023
Digital platform Seedling is proud to announce the launch of Ballybarnock, an Ulster-Scots resource for Key Stage 1 learners in Northern Ireland. These fun digital stories, games and activities were produced with funding from Northern Ireland Screen’s Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund.
The entire resource is freely available to all schools in Northern Ireland. Teachers and students simply go to the website to explore, play and learn at www.ballybarnock.co.uk.
Ballybarnock, a fictional town in Northern Ireland, provides the setting for a variety of interactive stories, games and activities designed to engage younger learners. Students can learn along with the Ballybarnock characters as they go about their daily lives on the farm, at school and out at sea.
This online resource is accessible on any device that supports a web browser. Teachers can provide access to Ballybarnock on an interactive whiteboard, desktop computer, laptop or tablet. The learning resources are aligned with the Northern Ireland curriculum and feature content for practising English Literacy, Mathematics, PDMU and of course, Ulster-Scots language.
Ballybarnock has been developed and trialled with the Key Stage 1 teachers and students of Derryboy Primary School in County Down. This video shows the children playing the games while Principal, Dr Judith Harper, and Key Stage 1 Teacher, Mrs Caitlin Pension, speak about the end result.
“Ballybarnock is a wonderful resource and you can see from the children using it how enriching it is for them. It enables us to embed Ulster-Scots in the classroom but it also provides an opportunity to explore other aspects of Foundation and Key Stage 1 curriculum learning,” said Dr Judith Harper.
“We were thrilled to see the rapt attention of the young learners when we launched Ballybarnock this week. We have supported the development of several digital learning resources through the Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund and we are excited to see them inspire and educate future generations,” added Richard Hanna, Chair, Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund.
“As children immerse themselves in the sites and delights of Ballybarnock, we hope they enjoy developing their numeracy and literacy skills as well as having lots of fun,” agreed Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund Executive Heidi McAlpin. “The option to toggle between English and Ulster-Scots text and voices brings an additional element of authentic Ulster-Scots learning within a colourfully illustrated rural setting.”
