SCOIL Choilm in Clonsilla has been named Best Newcomer at this year’s prestigious Our World Irish Aid Awards.
Fourth class pupils from the school along with their teacher, Orlaith Kenny, were delighted when Minister for the Diaspora and International Development, Ciarán Cannon, made the announcement at the national final, held at Dublin Castle last week.
The school’s project was entitled ‘How can the global goals improve the lives of the children in developing countries?’
Pupils worked on the project for eight weeks making Sustainable Development Goals lanyards, a scrapbook, a video presentation to the senior school, brochures, a poem, a school hallway display, a survey and additional work on their school blog.
Their project began by learning about the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development and about a school in Mozambique that featured in the competition’s resources and lesson plans.
Minister Cannon congradulated the pupils on their success.
“The judges had a particularly challenging task this year due to the extremely high standard of entries across the board,” he said.
“However, they felt that Scoil Choilm Community National School’s submission was a very impressive project on improving life for children in developing countries.
“Their project showed a great understanding of the work of Irish Aid, of how our lives are connected to those in other parts of the world and how our interdependence demonstrates the need to work together.
“It is evident that the learning from the Our World Irish Aid Awards activities this year has had a significant impact on the school and beyond and I would like to applaud teacher Orlaith Kenny and her pupils for all of the time and energy they invested in their entry.”