b'The aims of the Yellow Flag Programme are to: Provide practical assistance and support to schools in intercultural education initiatives Improve the whole-school environment for all: students, sta and parentsPromote diversity in the school and wider communityInvolve the local community, particularly, local community groupsGain local publicity and prestige for schools and studentsThis is done with the following 8 steps: 1.Intercultural and Anti-Racism Training f or Sta and Management2.Going Beyond the School Walls: Engaging with the Community We dont just read about other cultures in a book. 3.Creating a Diversity Committee We get to talk to people about their experiences; we 4.Intercultural Review get to try food from dierent places. Once, we went 5.Action Plan for a Diverse Schoolto a Sikh temple where we took o our shoes and 6.Monitoring, Evaluation and Information Dissemination learned about another religion. Now we understandthings better. Its not strange, its just dierent. 7.Curriculum workStudentstsfrfromomthetheGaelscoilGaelscoilRiabhachRiabhachSchoolSchoolininCCoo 8.Diversity Code and Anti-Racism PolicyStudenGalway participating in the YGalway participating in the Yeellllow Flag Prow Flag ProgrogrammeammeTheprogrammehasshownremarkableresultsinpilot schools. Incidents of bullying have decreasedand children from other countries have gone fromfeelingshyaboutexplainingtheirbackgrounds toproudlysharingaspectsoftheircultureintheclassroom. Residents of all cultures are looking ateach other differently as community celebrations offood, song, and fashion have taken place beyond theschools, thanks to Yellow Flag. The Ireland Funds grant allowed us to take onfourmoreschoolsbyallowingustosaytolocal Government that we could match their funding withThe Ireland Fund grant, explained Paula. ThankstoTheIrelandFundsgrantwehavebeenabletoimpact over a thousand children.connect 2013 | 39'