Primary schools challenged to shape Ireland’s Sustainable Future

An exciting new national digital skills competition which will challenge primary school students to use Minecraft: Education Edition to help shape Ireland’s sustainable future, has been launched, with both Microsoft Ireland and RTÉjr joining forces this week.

Every primary school in the Republic of Ireland will receive a unique code in the post so they can register for a Minecraft: Education Edition account to take part in this exciting initiative.

Throughout the six weekly online episodes, students will be learning how to use Minecraft: Education Edition through the medium of fun challenges! These challenges will be aligned to both the Republic and Northern Irish curriculums covering subjects from English, Maths, Science, Geography, SPHE and more. Microsoft’s Dream Space team will also provide each school with comprehensive teaching guides to ensure that participating schools are supported throughout the episodes and for their competition submission.

Primary schools nationwide are invited to tune into rte.ie/ learn from 30th September where they will be able to watch Dream Space TV which features amazing Minecraft: Education Edition lessons that will run for six weeks, delivered by the teachers of Microsoft’s Dream Space, the lessons are designed to support teachers to deliver digital learning experiences in the classroom.

With the necessary skills to participate in the competition developed during the first five episodes in the sixth and final episode details of the nationwide competition will be revealed.

It is during this episode on November 11th that full details of the competition will be revealed, and students will be challenged to shape Ireland’s sustainable future through the medium of Minecraft.

To participate in the competition schools will need a Minecraft: Education Edition account. Microsoft will be making accounts freely available to participating primary schools in the Republic for a nine-month period to allow pupils to take part.

Minecraft: Education Edition is a gamebased learning platform that allows teachers to deliver a variety of curriculum lessons to promote creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving.

The learning platform offers teachers an alternative teaching and learning tool to engage pupils and ignite their passion for learning.

Schools will go head-to-head with the finals expected to take place in April 2022.