Congratulations: Longford pupils among finalists for prestigious Our World Awards

5th and 6th class pupils from St John’s National School, Longford have been named a finalist in the 2025 Our World Awards.  The school will join 14 other national finalists from across Ireland at a ceremony to be held at Dublin Castle on Friday, May 30.

St John’s National School is one of just 15 schools in Ireland to be in the running for one of nine prestigious Our World Awards comprising the Global Goals, Irish Aid Programme, Rising Star, Creative Star, STEM, School and Community Impact, Global Citizenship Education, an Iontráil Ghaeilge is Fearr and Outstanding School Engagement Awards, as well as the coveted School of the Year Award. 

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The school has made an inspiring debut in this year’s Our World Awards, with 5th and 6th class pupils diving into global citizenship education through an impressive and wide-ranging project focused on Mozambique.

In their first year participating in the awards, the pupils fully embraced the challenge, producing a creative and informative body of work that included large wall posters, digital slideshows, and contributions to their school garden, all inspired by what they learned about life and development work in Mozambique.

Their learning extended well beyond the classroom.  As part of their project, the class took their ideas into the community, engaging with Longford County Council and providing thoughtful input on the design of a new playground at the Longford Mall. Their involvement offered a real-world opportunity to connect their global learning with meaningful local action.

The project was praised for its hands-on, global-to-local approach, showing how young people can take the lessons of international development and apply them to their own environment — not only learning about change but helping to create it.

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Congratulating St John’s National School on making it to the national final, Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Neale Richmond TD said:

“I am really looking forward to meeting the pupils from St John’s National School and their teacher at the national final on May 30th.  I know that there is a great sense of excitement around the event in Dublin Castle.

“I am also looking forward to personally thanking our primary school teachers for their continued commitment, not just to participating in the Our World Awards, but also for nurturing an ethos of global citizenship amongst our young people. It is important that as global citizens we all play an individual and collective part in making the world a better place.

“Each of the projects submitted by the 15 finalists demonstrate an impressive level of insight and understanding of what are complex global issues that have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable in our world.” 

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Now in their 20th year, the Our World Awards are the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s flagship programme with primary schools which, over its lifetime, has seen thousands of young people become inspired to engage with global issues and take action for a fairer, more sustainable world.