2021

UCC academic launches EU TV Junior

9 May 2021
Trish Collier, APII, primary school teacher, Kilmurry NS and Dr. Emmanuelle Schön-Quinlivan, University College Cork.

· The first EU-dedicated TV resource for school children across the EU

· A European YouTube channel on European Affairs made in Cork

· The brainchild of a UCC Politics lecturer and a primary school teacher in County Cork

Primary school children across Europe will soon be able to tune into a new EU TV Junior channel to be launched in Cork on Monday, May 10th.

The EU TV Junior offering will be available on a dedicated Youtube channel and feature animated reports voiced by children for children – with plans to develop a sister channel for secondary school students.

The brainchild of Emmanuelle Schön-Quinlivan, a UCC Politics lecturer and primary school teacher Trish Collier, the innovative channel builds on the pair’s award-winning work to develop the Big Friendly Guide to the European Union (BFGtoEU) in-class learning programme.

EU TV Junior will focus on European Affairs featuring some headline topics and a new update will be produced every two-weeks.

It’ll cover everything from the Covid19 Vaccine roll out to Brexit – carefully explaining topical news stories for young minds.

Features will include a ‘Guess the European City’ challenge and topics impacting the European Union institutions but also in countries across the continent including Ireland.

And already there has been keen interest amongst educators in France Greece, Denmark and Belgium to adapting the EU TV Junior.

“The reaction so far has been incredible. EU TV Junior is an innovative approach to bringing the EU into the classroom and the children who’ve seen it so far have really bought into it,” explained Schön-Quinlivan.

She added: “It makes the EU relatable and alive. Already several teachers across the EU have been interested in using EU TV Junior in a cross-curricular perspective to teach citizenship education and English. This channel is a creative way to engage young people transnationally to democratise understanding of the EU.”

And Trish Collier, a primary school teacher at Kilmurry National School in Cork, said the TV reports will be an invaluable addition to teaching resources – “These reports are written with primary school children in mind. They explain what’s happening across the EU in a way young minds can digest. The reports are about five-minutes-long so they are concise, colourful and memorable. And voiced by children for children.”

The launch of EU TV Junior will coincide with Europe Week and be carried out by MEP Barry Andrews.

A series of events are in the calendar each day next week by those behind the BFGtoEU programme (which created the EU TV Junior channel) including a Europe Day Zoom Quiz with 7,000 children taking part from Ireland, France, Greece, Romana, Moldova, Poland, Spain and Armenia).

University College Cork

Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh

College Road, Cork T12 K8AF

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