Project Overview

MY BIG FRIENDLY GUIDE TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

A Teaching and Learning Programme about Ireland and the European Union

Visit the website: www.bfgtoeu.ie 

Co-funded by Erasmus+, My Big Friendly Guide to the European Union is an innovative teaching and learning programme. It aims at developing awareness, knowledge and debate at primary school level on the European Union and Ireland’s role within it.

It is children friendly allowing the students to learn about but also question the European Union.  It contains lessons which are class appropriate, including lots of active learning.  For teachers the programme has detailed lesson plans and accompanying resources.  Crucially, it is carefully slotted into the current Social Personal and Health Education curriculum, particularly when discussing citizenship.

Whether children want to stay in the European Union, change its rules or leave it altogether, they need to understand what the E.U. does and does not do.

This programme is about empowering them to make informed decisions to improve the world they live in. A teaching and learning programme was developed for Juniors/Seniors, 1^st/2^nd and 5^th/6^th classes and was piloted in 2018 in three schools in County Cork: Kilmurry NS, Gaelscoil de hÍde in Fermoy and Gaelscoil Peig Sayers in Cork City. In May 2018, we organised a Graduation Day in UCC for the 239 students who had completed the 6-week programme and Ryan Tubridy delivered the graduation speech.

In 2019, the project is expanding further:

• We are developing a teaching and learning course for 3^rd and 4^th classes which will be piloted in Kilmurry NS, Scoil Nomh Iosaf in Riverstown and Gaelscoil Mhachan in Mahon.
• We are launching a website with free access to tailor-made resources to teach, learn and play on Ireland and the European Union
• We are organising another Graduation Day in May 2019 in UCC for the children who will have completed the 3^rd and 4^th class 6-week programme.
• We are presenting our work on political socialisation of primary school children at the PSA/ECPR Teaching and Learning conference in Brighton from 17 to 19 June 2019.
• We are delivering a training course from 1 to 5 July in UCC for all primary school teachers interested in learning about Ireland and the EU and how to practically deliver it in their class.
• We are finalising a paper on primary school political socialisation in the field of the EU for the Journal of Political Science Education.

The BFGtoEU website will be officially launched in UCC early April 2019.

In the meantime, you can follow our progress on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BFGtoEU/ and on Twitter @bfgtoeu

If you have any questions, please email us on bfgtoeu@gmail.com.