Tag Archives: kinvara national school

PRIMARY-school pupils from South Galway and North Clare were among the award winners at the National Scratch programming finals held in Dublin Castle recently. CreativeComputerLab in Gort; Coder Dojo, Kinvara and New Quay National School were each represented in the final 25, out of more than 800 entries from across the country. The national competition is run by the Irish Computer Society and Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, Lero. Scratch is a visual programming language and online community developed by MIT, where people can create their own interactive stories, games and animations. It encourages children to learn computer programming and share their projects online on the Scratch server. The Scratch finals are held in conjunction with TechWeekIRL, which is a week-long technology festival held in Dublin Castle. CoderDojo, Kinvara was a finalist in the after-school section in the junior infants to first class category. Ariel Gorman developed an animated storybook of Dr Seuss’ book, entitled Oh The Places You’ll Go, in …

Sixth-class pupils at St Joseph’s National School in Kinvara beat off schools throughout the country to win the title of Responsible, Innovative, Social Entrepreneurs of the Year at a ceremony in Dublin recently. The 33 pupils were announced as winners of the 2014 Bizfactor, which means they will receive seed capital to help make their business idea a reality. The children, aged between 12 and 13 years, pitched their idea to 250 people outlining details of their company SG Inc – Sensory Garden Developments and asking for investment. The pupils sought, and achieved, investment for the development of a multi-sensory garden in the ASD unit of St Joseph’s, which caters for children with autism and other complex needs. The students were inspired to take on this project by a fictional story they read about Melody, an 11-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and by some members of the company being involved in working with children in the ASD unit, as part …