KINSALE Community School (KCS) is one of 43 schools nationwide that will pilot a new Leaving Cert subject called ‘Climate Change and Sustainable Development’ from next September.
The subject aims to develop students’ capacity for informed and meaningful action for a just and sustainable world as they engage with key sustainability challenges, including the climate crisis, according to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).
Deputy Principal at KCS Kathleen O’Brien was one of the architects of the design of the programme with the NCCA, which is why the school was selected to pilot the subject.
Principal Fergal McCarthy explained how over the last number of years they have been more and more aware of students’ eco anxiety and eco depression.
He said students feel that adults are missing climate targets and that the issue is pushed off the agenda continually with the covid pandemic, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and ‘a chaotic US presidency.’
‘Our students need to see that adults are taking this issue seriously,’ he said. KCS already has a sustainability chaplain in place, he said, adding that they have been involved in a multiplicity of successful projects relating to climate action.
‘Every opportunity we get in the promotion of climate action we take, and that’s reassuring our students that it’s doable,’ he said.
Take-up of the subject by next year’s fifth year students has been ‘fantastic’ he added.
There will be a national rollout of the subject in 2027 and some 40% of marks will be awarded for an action project based on a brief that will be set out annually by the State Examinations Commission.
Meanwhile, an Eco project by TY students from the school claimed a prize at this year’s ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards (YEA).
Their project, ‘Renew IT: Building a Future for Tanzania’ was the winner of the Local to Global SDG Award. For the project, the group repaired and refurbished unused school laptops to be sent to their partner school in Tanzania.
The students were also honoured for their outstanding work at the recent West Cork Youth Garda Awards where they picked up a Group award at a ceremony in the Westlodge Hotel in Bantry.
