The Maine Event - Learning in Lockdown

02 July 2020

Two primary schools showed recently that learning in lockdown has created new and vibrant opportunities. Children from Derryboy Primary School, County Down and Culcrow Primary School, County Londonderry collaborated on a venture that was the culmination of their school studies pre-lockdown.

The Maine Event - Learning in Lockdown

Two primary schools showed recently that learning in lockdown has created new and vibrant opportunities. Children from Derryboy Primary School, County Down and Culcrow Primary School, County Londonderry collaborated on a venture that was the culmination of their school studies pre-lockdown.

Through a live video link between the children and members of the Maine Ulster-Scots Project USA set up by the Ulster-Scots Agency, they were able to see the ancestral home of the McFadden family, who left Ulster in 1718 as part of a migration of Ulster-Scots families to America. They met and talked with Brad McFadden, a living descendant, and were fascinated by what they learned from archaeologist Pam Crane about the excavation of the site.

This experience came about as part of a wider project called ‘The Land of Promise’  in which these schools, along with Hezlettt Primary School and The Buick Memorial Primary School, Cullybackey have been engaged, teaching and learning about early Ulster-Scots migration to America in the 18^th Century.

The Land of Promise multi-media teaching and learning resource has been developed by the Ulster-Scots Agency and tells the story of the McFadden family from County Londonderry who were part of the first organised migration from Ireland to escape persecution and build their new lives in America.

Click on the picture