Fermoy’s Bishop Murphy School, is one of 75 Cork primary schools to receive the esteemed Discover Primary Science and Maths (DPSM) Award of Science and Maths Excellence. The Fermoy school will be one of 16 schools nationwide to receive their 10th Award of Science and Maths Excellence and will be presented with a prize from Abbott Ireland.

Other award-winning schools in The Avondhu catchment include Ballyhooly; Ballygiblin NS; Kilbehenny NS; Castletownroche NS; Scoil Náisiúnta Naomh Micheál, Upper Glanmire, White’s Cross; Scoil Náisiúnta Mhuire, Scoil Náisiúnta An Athar Tadhg, Carraig na bhFear and Bunscoil Bhóthar Na Naomh, Lismore.

The DPSM Award requires primary schools to complete activities under five criteria to encourage a whole-school approach to maths and science excellence. These include engaging in hands-on DPSM science and maths activities, visiting DPSM Discover Centres and attending or hosting science events.

Hundreds of schools also participated in Greenwave, a nationwide project to track the advent of spring, as part of the Award programme. Participating schools recently submitted their log books for evaluation.

Commenting on the awards announcement, Minister Sean Sherlock said that Government policy is focused on helping young people to engage with science, technology, engineering and maths.

“Ensuring our population is skilled and trained in science and maths is crucial to attracting investment, creating high quality jobs and accelerating Ireland’s development into a competitive knowledge economy. It is extremely encouraging to see so many schools embracing the DPSM programme – an initiative which makes science and maths meaningful and accessible for children.”

Mr Sherlock said that not alone are these children developing core skills in these subjects, but they are also learning many skills which will stand to them in later life ‘including critical thinking, analysing, estimating, measuring, fair testing and recording’.

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the awards, maths educator and TV and radio presenter Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin this year led the DPSM Excellence Squad, a panel of some of Science Foundation Ireland’s best scientists to share their knowledge with participating schools. Pupils have been learning about topics including infection, anatomy, physiology, nano science, medical physics, and having fun with fluid and mathematics.