Kildare school hosts inaugural Flagway Ireland tournament
Playing the Flagway game
When TY students from seven schools in the country were busy running around the gymnasium in Kildare Town Community School recently, uninformed onlookers would have been forgiven puzzlement. Coloured strips marked on the floor bore no relation to any of the traditional games like basketball or badminton.
The event was in fact a tournament. But one without a ball, with teams, in competition with each other, running between bases on the floor to work out mathematical processes.
The Flagway game is designed to show mathematics in a practical and fun way rather than as merely abstract concepts on a whiteboard. The teams in Kildare were TY student leaders who in turn will organise the games in their own schools for 1st Year students.
The event came from an initial visit in 2016 to Ireland by members of the Young People's Project (YPP) based in De Paul University in Chicago, organised by Rachel Linney of The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment with a view to incorporate YPP ideas into a course at Dublin City University.
The original concept was developed by Mathematics teacher, Bob Moses, who realised that pupils not being taught algebra at an early age later achieved lower educational grades. He founded the Algebra Project, a method of teaching the subject in a more easily understood way.
Participating schools at the Kildare event have been engaged with a TY module, developing mathematics literacy leaders, a collaboration between the NCCA and the YPP.
They were Cork Educate Together Secondary School, Presentation College Listowel, St Maccarten's College Monaghan, Patrician High School Carrickmacross, Portmarnock Community School and Kilkenny College. St Maccarten's College Monaghan won the inaugural Flagway Ireland trophy were .
Noore Elkatta from the YPP in Cambridge, Massachusetts, attended the event, which was facilitated by the Kildare Town Community School’s principal John Hayes and maths teacher Jack Dempsey.
A number of teachers from schools interested in working with the module next year also attended and have already signed up for the next teacher training programme which will be hosted by KTCS from 21st-23rd August 2025.
