Naíscoil na Seolta is a new integrated Irish-medium pre-school in east Belfast.

The naíscoil has emerged from the pioneering work of Linda Ervine, Turas and Cairde Turas, promoting the Irish language in east Belfast. Setting up the naíscoil was the next natural step for the growing number of people who wanted to access Irish-medium education in the area.

The name, Naíscoil na Seolta, means nursery school of the sails. This reflects our connection to shipbuilding in east Belfast, while also representing our children sailing off on their educational journey together.

The nursery currently provides 16 places for children of pre-pre-school age, 2 years and 10 months+ starting from September 2021. Sessions run 5 mornings a week. Each year begins with a settling in period.

From September 2022 a limited number of funded pre-school places will become available. Contact us to find out more information.

Our vision is to establish an integrated Irish-medium primary school in east Belfast. We are excited to offer your child the opportunity to take their first steps towards bilingualism. And we feel privileged to welcome your family into our dedicated and thriving, school community.

Integration is at the heart of everything we do.

While the majority of Irish-medium schools accept children of all faiths and none, an integrated ethos means our pre-school plays an active role in bringing children and families of different cultural traditions together.

Only 8.4% of schools in Northern Ireland have a mix of Protestants and Catholics (where at least 10% children are from one community). Nearly 30% of schools have no mixing at all. Schools have to go out of their way to get a mixture of children from different backgrounds.

We want to offer children in east Belfast a chance to experience integration in an Irish-medium setting. To offer children a broader range of friendships and experiences. To create a safe and shared space for cross-community events. This is not about diluting identities, but getting to know each other and learning about our different identities together. This gives children and families a lot of resilience in a divided society.

Our pre-school committee is voluntary, and is made up of a diverse range of people from both of the main faith/cultural traditions in Belfast as well as those from other or non-faith backgrounds.

Our pre-school is all ability, and inclusive of people from all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.

We work closely with the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) to bring more varied integrated education opportunities to the east of the city.

As it says in our motto, we believe that 'happy children learning together' is the best gift we can give to future generations in east Belfast.