KINSALE Community School (KCS) is leading the way when it comes to robotics as it has formally embedded the country’s first Junior Cycle short course in the subject into its curriculum.
Running since last September, the 100-hour course is available to 2nd and 3rd year students and aligns fully with NCCA Junior Cycle guidelines and key skills.
Developed by ICT coordinator and assistant principal Eddie Farren, with the support of school leadership, the course moves robotic from extracurricular activity to assessed academic subject.
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Students get to analyse problems, design solutions, prototype, code, test and refine and document all their progress through a class-based assessment engineering notebook.
Deputy principal Kathleen O’Brien said that robotics at KCS is about building confidence, creativity and resilience.
‘Students learn to think critically, collaborate effectively and apply knowledge in real contexts. Embedding this course ensures those opportunities are available to every student at Junior Cycle.’
More than 50 students are currently enrolled across two class groups. Working in teams of three, they begin with structured builds before progressing to student-led design. They complete both driver-controlled challenges and autonomous coding tasks, integrating engineering, programming and collaboration in a practical learning environment.
Riva O’Reilly, a second- year student said that working on VEX Robotics has been a fantastic experience.
‘I’ve been learning how to build and programme our robot, working as a team and seeing our skills and confidence grow as we competed successful through to national level. It’s been a blast.’
Alongside curriculum innovation, KCS continues its competitive success in VEX Robotics competitions which are organised globally by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF).
In the 2025 -26 season the school qualified four high school teams and three middle school (U15) teams for the VEX Robotics National Championships which were held at MTU earlier this week. Teams that excel will advance to the VEX World Championships in the US this April.
KCS has built a strong national reputation through sustained performance in robotics, participation in international competitions and its broader digital strategy as a Microsoft Showcase School.
