Title: The Halting site

Class Group: Third and Fourth Class

Age Group: 8-10 years

Subject Area: English, Art, ICT, History

Goals/Objectives of the Project:

1. To provide a resource of accurate material and information about the Travelling Community that can be easily accessed by Primary School Children.
2. To give travelling children a sense of belonging and a sense of pride in their history and traditions to help them establish their place in the surrounding world.
3. To keep in touch with transient children who spend some time with us each year and then move on to other schools around the country.
4. To open up lines of communication between teachers of Travellers with a view to sharing materials and building up a store of resources.
5. The school page is intended to be a vibrant, exciting place where the children can showcase their work, activities and achievements.

Objectives were met in:
English: Deciding on appropriate content, drafting, editing and summarising.
Art: Deciding on appropriate design, selecting backgrounds and graphics, drawing and colouring images when necessary.
I.C.T. Acquiring a familiarity with Hypertext Markup Language, use of digital camera and scanner.
History: Children acquired a knowledge and appreciation of their place in history.

Content of the Site
The site presents materials and information relevant to those who have an interest in the Travelling Community. The Site Development Team decided on four main topics: 1. A brief History of the Irish Travelling Community.
2. Work in our local travelling community.
3. Sport in our Local Travelling Community.
4. Our School.

Display: Holy Family Junior School Web Site

Pre requisite Learning
The children and teacher in this class had no HTML skills before starting the project. However the teacher was attending a Web Design course given by the University of Dublin as part of a diploma in Curriculum Studies. This course provided her with basic HTML, book and Internet references to guide her as she facilitated the design of this web site.

Pre- requisite Resources
1 PC and an Internet connection Scanner Digital camera Library/Internet

Management of the Project:
The class was divided into researchers, writers and graphic designers with one child who showed a remarkable aptitude for writing Hypertext Mark-up Language as the Junior Webmaster.
The children and their families were the primary content experts.
The teacher realised that, not being a member of the Travelling Community, her role was not so much to impart knowledge to the children but to provide guidance and support to them, to be the coordinator, helper and facilitator.

Evaluation: The children welcomed the creation and design of this web site with an enthusiasm and an excitement, which continues today.
"Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak. But there is another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world." (J. Berger 1972)
This is what "The Halting Site" has done for these children.
For me, the teacher, the web site has given me a thorough understanding of and familiarity with HTML.
For the children it was much more. It was an expression of their way of life.
Holy Family Junior School, Traveller Unit
SIP 058