FIFTH class students from a Dublin 15 primary school have won top prize in a national drugs education competition.
The students from St Ciaran’s National School in Hartstown took the prize as part of a pilot programme in this year’s
‘Let’s Talk About Drugs’ National Media Awards, which is supported by the Dublin People Group.
The competition is organised by Greater Blanchardstown Response to Drugs (GBRD) to encourage a greater understanding and awareness around drugs and alcohol issues.
Fifth class students from another Dublin 15 primary school, Scoil an Chroà Ró Naofa Ãosa in Huntstown, took the runner-up prize in the same category this year.
Under the guidance of their teacher, Mary Phelan, the young students from St Ciaran’s wrote newspaper articles and drew cartoon strips around the effects of drug and alcohol use.
They were presented with their trophy by Minister of State, Roisin Shortall TD last month, but the organisers of the competition made a special trip to the school last week to present souvenir trophies to each student in the class who entered the competition.
The educational initiative, which is supported by the County Dublin VEC and the Health Service Executive/Drugs.ie, was set up to encourage students and adults to educate themselves and others about alcohol and drugs.
The other winners in this year’s competition came from Tipperary, Galway and Dublin and included youth groups, budding journalists, animators and aspiring journalists.
Phillip Keegan, Co-ordinator with Greater Blanchardstown Response to Drugs, congratulated the Primary School winners.
“Although the
‘Let’s Talk About Drugs’ National Media Awards have been running for six years, this was the first year that we invited primary schools to take part as part of a pilot programme,
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“Although the students are as young as 10 and 11, it’s a good time to introduce them to important lessons around drug and alcohol use.
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“During the pilot period, we were inundated with entries from primary schools and we are planning to add this new age category to the competition from next year on. Judging from the high standard of entries this year, primary school students have plenty to say about drug and alcohol issues.
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The two themes for this year’s educational initiative were:
‘Underage Drinking – Is Pricing the Only Solution?’ and
‘Drug Education in Schools – Are We Doing Enough?’ Phoenix FM and the Dublin People Group were the media partners for this year’s competition and a selection of the winning submissions are available to download from www.gbrd.ie.