Digital School of Distinction Award in Dublin Castle

In Feburary we announced that Eyrecourt NS was now a Digital School of Distinction. 
We were invited to Dublin Castle on Friday 20th May to receive the prestigious award. The ExcitED conference which was being held over the two days of Friday 20th and Saturday 21st invited the Eyrecourt Examiner to be the main media for the EA Sumo Robotics competition. 20 teams of secondary students had designed robots to "wrestle" in these national championships.  This was an "all expenses paid" trip for the Eyrecourt Examiner staff. Transport and lunch was paid for and we stopped in Apple Green enroute for an extra treat.
The atmosphere in the main auditorium of Dublin castle was electric. We were shown into the media room and set ourselves up for the day. The reporters were dispached in groups to interview the various schools. On return they dictated their stories to chief editors Lauren and Libby who typed them up. Lorna was in charge of the blog and social media. She transferred the stories to the blog and linked each story to twitter. The hashtag of the day was #ExcitedIRL16 and #EARobotGames. Check out our twitter @Eyrecourt_News
We were the only primary school on the day and we were the centre of a lot of attention. The pupils were called up to the stage a few times by the MC of the event Paul Sleem and even did some dancing onstage!
At 2pm it was time for our presentation. We are now part of the 10% elite Digital School of Distinction family. Bernard Kirk of Galway Education Centre and ExcitED along with Neil O'Sullivan from Digital Schools presented us with our plaque. Alan, Thomas, Lauren, Libby and Lorna were interviewed about how ICT is used in the school. Ms Treacy was also interviewed about the Digital School of Distinction process and the implicatons for the school. 
After watching the EA Robotics semi-final it was time to pack up the media room and head home. 
Tired but happy and very ExcitED!

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