Scoil Bhride marks World Down Syndrome Day

The pupils of Scoil Bhride held a  Blue & Yellow & Mad Sock parade on the grounds today to mark World Down Syndrome Day, writes Sarah Fitzpatrick. We want to raise awareness of what Down Syndrome is and to celebrate it especially for Ollie in 6th class and Evie in 1st class. 

There are currently about 7,000 people living in Ireland with Down Syndrome and each one of them is unique and different, just like all of us. Everyone wore blue and yellow clothing to school this morning as these are the colours that symbolise Down Syndrome. We also wore lots of socks. The idea for wearing lots of socks was created because chromosomes are shaped like striped socks and people with Down syndrome have an extra (3rd) chromosome (chromosome #21). This is why World Down Syndrome Day is always celebrated on the 21st of the third month, March.

To mark our celebration of everyone with Down Syndrome, we had a little parade at school, earlier this morning, led by Ollie in 6th Class. Children in 6th class handed out a sticker to each child before the parade. Special thanks to all students and staff for their work to create posters, banners, bunting, flags, sock displays and yarn plaits and bands. The photos capture some of the magic of this special day! Across classes, this afternoon, children enjoyed a range of learning activities including some short videos, to help us better understand Down Syndrome.

As part of our celebration, families were invited to support Down Syndrome Ireland via Aladdin payment. At the time of writing (Friday afternoon, 1:45pm), a whopping total of €1,080 has been raised!

For anyone who would like to donate, Scoil Bhride SNA Lorraine Reid, who led the plans, for today, is raising funds for Down Syndrome Ireland.

Photos courtesy Scoil Bhride.

 

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