A refurbished log cabin two miles outside the scenic east Co Clare village of Mountshannon is the unlikely setting for an exciting initiative in Irish second-level education with the launch of the so-called Alfa project.
After research by a group of seven parents lasting over two years, classes finally commenced last month for a group of 13 to 16-year-olds on a model based loosely on the Steiner Waldorf education approach.
The Steiner method of teaching is pupil-centred and aims to engage and nourish the whole pupil, body, mind and spirit, where the pupils are regarded as continuously evolving and the education must also evolve.
East Clare is no stranger to educational initiatives; in 1986, the first Steiner primary school in the state was established in the nearby village of Tuamgraney.
Since then, pupils at the Tuamgraney school had no choice on leaving but to enrol in the mainstream second-level schools in the area. However, that is now changed with the Alfa (Active Learning for Adolescence) project, where the curriculum is based on the Steiner method for Classes 8 - 1 0.
Project co-ordinator Caroline Kelly, who has two children attending the nearby Steiner School at Tuamgraney, says that nine of the 14 pupils attending the project are former pupils of the nearby Steiner school.
She says: "It is important to have choice in education and is unrealistic to expect that one education system will meet the needs of every child."
The pupils are taught by one Steiner-qualified teacher, Nick Godwin, who is aided by a number of part-time tutors throughout the year.
Mr Godwin said: "We can create lively, stimulating projects through the tutors collaborating with each other, like bringing drama into the history lessons and art into the landscape project as well as ecology, archaeology, botany, geology, and poetry."
Ongoing assessment and self-assessment are an integral part of the school ethos which is done through a weekly forum plus a meeting every half term to assess the projects and students' work, from what Mr Godwin calls "a practical, artistic, academic and social point of view".
Mr Godwin says that pupils are brought up to beyond the level of Junior Cert in most subjects, though they will not sit the exams or follow exactly the same curriculum. Instead they will be assessed on their portfolio of work.
He says: "Depending on what the pupil wants, they will be then free to return to mainstream education or enter an apprenticeship or take another route."
The school is part funded by a weekly contribution of £10 from parents, augmented by regular fundraising.
Voluntary administrator Audrey Flynn says: "We have received contributions from an Irish-based religious order, a foundation based in Germany and are currently making funding applications to various bodies, including the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs where we hope to receive core funding as a community-based project."
Ms Flynn says over the next number of years the school hopes to evolve into three groups of 15 pupils per group, with an introductory Foundation year, followed by two years of Active Learning.
She also hopes the Alfa Project will be involved in community-based social projects such as assisting in running a weekly drop-in/youth centre for other young people in the area.
The project's eventual aim is to secure recognition from the Department of Education, although this may prove difficult.