Ms Jennie O’ Farrell and her 2013-14 sixth class boys were the first group in our school to participate in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme (JEP) www.juniorentrepreneur.ie.  JEP is a 10 week entrepreneurial education programme for primary school pupils.  The programme is embedded in the principles of the Primary School Curriculum and utilises an integrated teaching and project-based approach to teach many strands of the curriculum.

The programme helped our boys to develop a number of skills including literacy, writing, presentation, drawing, technology, research skills, numeracy, financial, consumer awareness, storytelling, listening skills, creative thinking, problem solving, team building and collaboration skills.  The programme has a significant personal development impact on participating pupils, building confidence, self-awareness and self-esteem, and an appreciation of individual skills and talents.

The programme was a tremendous success in year one with the “Squashee Faces” project proving to be a real success for our budding “entrepreneurs”.   We anticipate that the project will continue to be part of our sixth class curriculum in the years to come.