
What is the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA)?
What is the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA)? The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) is a payment which helps with the cost of uniforms and footwear for school going children. Applications for the scheme opens in June 2023 and the closing date for applications is end September 2023. This…

Coping With Exam Stress
The Leaving Cert & indeed the Junior Cert is always a stressful time for both parents and students alike. It can cause tension throughout the entire house; however it is a time when the student needs lots of support and encouragement. What can the student do to cope with the stress levels? In order to…

At the top of the world
In 2018 the Ireland women’s hockey team became one of the most amazing stories in Irish sport when they went from rank outsiders to world cup finalists. Katie Mullan was the captain. Fairytales rarely come true, even in sport. But in 2018, one did, when the Irish Women’s Hockey team made it all the way…

42% of Irish electricity in February came from Irish wind farms
Irish wind farms providing 42 per cent of the Ireland’s electricity, slightly more than in January but down on the record-breaking performance in February 2022, according to Wind Energy Ireland. Driven by wind’s strong performance average prices on the wholesale electricity market fell to their lowest point since November 2022. Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind…

South West College granted £23k to tackle marine litter in Lough Erne And Strule River
South West College in Fermanagh and Tyrone has been awarded £23,000 as part of Live Here Love Here’s Marine Litter Capital Grants Scheme, where organisations, community groups and businesses across Northern Ireland can benefit from funding to help protect local waterways and marine areas. The scheme made £198,000 available to purchase equipment and machinery that…

£6.6m funding to train young scientists on infections that pass from animals to humans
The next generation of scientists will be better able to predict, detect and control infectious diseases that jump from animals to humans, called “zoonoses”, thanks to major new funding. Queen’s University has brought together researchers from multiple schools including the School of Biological Sciences, the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, and the School…

Maynooth University project finds dialogue builds understanding between Gardaí and young black adults
Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology has published findings showing that facilitated dialogue can enable young Black adults and Gardaí to better understand each other’s experiences, perspectives, and to build relationships and empathy. The findings also suggest that dialogue could improve police-community relations, but requires substantial collaboration between communities, civil society and An Garda…

SEAI awards €19m in funding for energy research projects
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland today announced that it has awarded approximately €19 million in Government funding to support more than 40 new energy research projects across Ireland. These projects bring together leading academic institutes, companies, and public sector organisations and were supported with co-funding from the Department of Transport, the Department of Agriculture,…

Active School Week 2023 (#ASW23)
This week 24th – 28th April is Active School Week. The aim of Active School Week is to promote, encourage and support physical activities in school. This week can transform a child’s relationship with physical activity. Each day of the week is filled with exercises and fun initiatives that develop a positive relationship between students…

New College Places For Over 600 Extra Primary School Teachers
Some great news for the education sector this week as more than 600 new college places will be available for primary school teacher education programmes in the next two years. Education Minister Norma Foley made the announcement earlier in the week, stating that the new places will help to address teacher shortages in the sector….

The New Primary School Curriculum
From 2025, primary school students in Ireland will be required to learn a foreign language as part of a new curriculum. The move is aimed at helping young people develop a better understanding of other cultures and languages, and will see language learning become a core part of the primary school experience. The new curriculum,…

World Book Day – Changing Lives Through A Love Of Books And Reading
World Book Day 2023 is being celebrated on Thursday 2nd March. They are a charity that operate in the UK and Ireland. Their mission is to promote reading for pleasure, by offering children the opportunity to have a book of their own. They want to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds reading for…

The History Of Pancake Tuesday – Why Do We Eat Pancakes?
Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday to give it its correct name, always falls the day before Ash Wednesday which marks the start of Lent. The name Shrove Tuesday comes from the old word ‘shriving’, which means to listen to someone’s sins and forgive them. In Anglo Saxon times in England, Christians would go to church…

Minister Heather Humphreys helps launch SuperValu & GIY ‘Let’s GROW’ initiative for 50,000 primary school children
Primary Schools can learn how to grow food at school and register now to receive free ‘Let’s GROW’ classroom kit On 8th February 2023, students at Scoil Mhuire gan Smál in Inchicore, Dublin 8 officially launched the ‘SuperValu Let’s GROW’ initiative in partnership with GIY. This is a brand new partnership that aims to put…

Applications are now open for Enterprise Ireland’s 42nd Student Entrepreneur Awards competition
Awards are open to undergraduate and postgraduate students from across Ireland’s third-level institutions Closing date for entries is Thursday, 16 March 2023 Wednesday 25th January: Enterprise Ireland is inviting students from third-level institutions across the country who have an innovative business idea with real commercial potential to apply to this…

BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2023
The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) returns to the RDS this week and is open to the public from Thursday 12th – Saturday 14th from 8:30am to 5:30pm The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is much more than a competition. It is an experience of a lifetime for the second level students…

Drop in disadvantaged students going to College
There has been a drop in disadvantaged students going on to third-level colleges while on the other hand students from fee-paying schools and affluent areas are dominating the high points University courses. These results have been published in The Irish Times Feeder Schools 2022 and are thought to be as a result of the return…

Department Of Education Plan To Tackle Bullying In Schools
For the first time ever the extent of bullying in schools will be measured under a new action plan devised by the Department of Education. A national database is to be developed which will allow for the collection of data to form an annual report which will indicate the scale of the issue. Bullying in schools…

A New Football Royalty
Interview: Emma Duggan, Gaelic Footballer Words: Niall Gormley | Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile One of the most famous goals in gaelic football was scored in 1978 when Mike Sheehy of Kerry chipped Dublin goalkeeper Paddy Cullen with a quickly taken free off the ground. In 2021 the feat was bettered when Meath’s Emma Duggan struck,…

NCBi – Equitable Education
The right to education is something we are all familiar with however, for children and young people who are blind or vision impaired, the current education system can present some challenges. These challenges have been detailed by NCBI in a recent report entitled Equitable Education which was launched by Mr John Kearney, CEO of the…