our history starts here
Education
mountsandel education
Mountsandel Discovery & Heritage Group Educational Outreach was first targeted at Secondary Schools in the Coleraine and Triangle area.
In recent years the main thrust of The Mountsandel Discovery & Heritage Group (MDHG) education outreach profile in the past has been the school visits to the Mesolithic Dig Site and the Forest.
The school visits began in 2016. In a cross community outreach the school visits included both the Hon Irish Society School and St Malachy’s Primary schools. This initiative fulfilled the NI Shared Education Policy for schools from different traditions working together. ( i.e. Maintained Catholic Schools and Controlled or Integrated Schools).
In 2023 MDHG encouraged the Museum services to widen the remit and eight additional schools were offered site visits similar to those MDHG in conjunction with Coleraine Rotary and The Honorable The Irish Society.
Extending the visits to a wider school base proved popular and applications to take part in September 2023 were highly oversubscribed. Though the costs involved in transport and insurance increased it was still seen as a worthwhile outreach. IN 2024 MDHG engaged with Council to draw up a proposal for Peace Plus funding to upskill teachers, helping them to become more knowledgeable about Mountsandel, see the advantages for children of outdoor learning and lead to the development of resources which can be endorsed by CCEA and support the curriculum.
Funding has been secured for taking this forward in 2025.
activities
MDHG activities have included partnering with UU teacher educators on a series of events where the Salmon People story from the book by Thomas MacErlean has been used to teach phonetics and contribute to STEM subjects. Parents have been invited to two of these events and been successfully made aware of the importance of the Mountsandel site.
MDHG has also worked with the University of Ulster Education Faculty to review and update teaching resources created to teach about archaeology through history and in particular the work of Prof. Peter Woodman. Further work will be undertaken on this project and both the Hon Irish Society PS and St Malachy’s PS schools are willing to trial any materials produced.
In 2023 MDHG worked within a Cooperation Ireland project with Coleraine Grammar School and Loreto College.
MDHG has a future goal is o extend the educational outreach of recent years to Post primary schools.
case study
This Mountsandel documentary was developed in partnership with students from Northern Regional College.
MDHG, as part of Peace IV, worked with media students at Northern Regional College, Ballymoney to develop a short documentary on Mountsandel.
This project was incorporated into the students’ curriculum for 2018-19 and allowed them to learn more about Mountsandel’s history, while also gaining first-hand experience of developing a learning resource for the local community.
The broadcaster Helen Marks (BBC Radio 4 & Radio Ulster) walks you through the Mountsandel Mesolithic site beside the River Bann, describing the history of the area from Mesolithic time to the present and talks about its current potential economic, educational, health and recreational benefits this area has to offer.