Kinsale ‘Best School in Ireland’

KINSALE Community School was proclaimed ‘Best School in Ireland’ at the BT Young Scientist 2020 as it continued its long-standing success at the BT Exhibition.

The school qualified 14 projects for the exhibition, which in itself was a great success, as it represented the highest number of projects from any school in the country.

At the awards ceremony on Friday evening, Ellen Crowley (2nd year) came second in the Social and Behavioural category for her project titled ‘The Latté Levy - What is the cost tipping point and why do we not always use reusable cups?’

Ben Loughnane (3rd year) came first in the Social and Behaviour intermediate individual category for his project on heart calcification titled ‘The Power of 0.’ Ben also claimed the ‘Health Research Board’ award.

First year students Ian Cullinane, Jake Grace and Noah Dennehy Bailey came first in the junior group technology category for their project ‘Energy Efficient Fridge’. Emer Heery, Sylvie Plant and Mia Casey won the ‘Greencoat Renewables Plc’ award for their project ‘Investigating the feasibility of turning Kinsale into a Virtual Power Plant in order to reduce our carbon footprint’.  Six other projects also achieved hard-won ‘highly commended’ awards: ‘Can Yawning help improve our learning?’ – Saoirse Hayes and Kiely Lehane; ‘A Statistical and Experimental Analysis of the Link Between Reading for Pleasure and Problem Solving Skills’ – Anna Peare and Sarah Fitzgerald; ‘Climate Change Education Gone Too Far? A statistical study of the links between Climate Change Education, Locus of Control, Eco-Anxiety and effects on Youth’s actions’ – Rachel Henderson, Aoife Walsh and Meadhbh Hurley; ‘A Statistical Study of the public’s attitude towards testing drugs for contaminants at Music Festivals before and after being informed about this harm reduction methods’ – Caoimhe Lynch; ‘Do-re-mi or ABC: A Statistical Investigation on whether using song as a mnemonic device is effective for learning – Eva Crowley.

The largest cheer at the awards night was when Kinsale Community School was crowned ‘Best School in Republic of Ireland.’ This is another huge achievement and it reflects the great work done by all the students that qualified projects for the exhibition and the special place that the BTYSE is held in the school.

School principal, Fergal McCarthy said, ‘We are beyond proud of the achievement of our students at the BTYSTE 2020. Winning yet again, the award of “Best School in Ireland” is something that we are particularly pleased about.

‘The competence and confidence required to compete at this level is a learned skill, taught by each teacher. This award as the “Best School in Ireland” reflects on each teacher in our school.’