St Mary’s gets a Google boost

Two Louth schools have been named amongst five schools in Ireland - and two of only 60 schools across 33 countries - to receive funding from Google for this year’s Europe Code Week 2017.

St. Mary’s Parish Primary School Drogheda and St Vincent’s Secondary School Dundalk were both selected from over 500 submissions to receive funding from Google for their Code Week activities.

Google’s decision to directly sponsor schools for Europe Code Week is a result of the company’s ongoing efforts to encourage more students to learn about computing and to ensure that they are wellequipped with the technical skills that are increasingly required for the future.

The five Irish schools selected by Google are:

•St. Mary’s Parish Primary School, Drogheda, Co. Louth

•St Vincent’s Secondary School, Dundalk, Co. Louth

•St. Joseph’s Primary School, Ballinrobe. Co. Mayo

•Saint Eunan’s College, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal

•North Dublin National School Project, Glasnevin, Co.Dublin

The schools will host activities that range from in-class and extracurricular computer science activities (both hands-on and offline); coding workshops for students and their parents, teachers and grandparents; visits to local ICT companies; and an ongoing, year-long project to learn programming skills and collaborate in the creation of games for younger students.