News and media
SPRING in action: Developing reproductive health and pregnancy loss education for Irish schools - Year 2
This week, Transition Year (TY) students at St Angela’s College, Cork completed their final SPRING class, marking the end of a year that has played an important role in preparing the programme for schools across Ireland.
SPRING (Supporting Pregnancy & Reproductive Health Information for Teenagers) is a school-based educational programme developed by the Pregnancy Loss Research Group (PLRG) at University College Cork in collaboration with teachers and students at St Angela’s College, Cork. Designed for senior cycle students, the programme focuses on improving reproductive health literacy through age-appropriate learning on topics including reproductive health, fertility, and pregnancy loss, topics that are rarely addressed in formal education despite affecting many people throughout their lives.
The students completed the full SPRING programme during Term 1. Across six structured lessons, they explored topics including healthy pregnancy, reproductive health, fertility and fertility treatment, fertility preservation, and pregnancy loss, including miscarriage and stillbirth. Lessons included reflection activities, discussion, case studies, and myth-busting exercises designed to support open and informed conversations around reproductive health.
While this particular cohort joined SPRING in September 2025, St Angela’s College has been involved since the very beginning of the project. Earlier TY students helped develop the twelve key messages at the centre of SPRING and worked with illustrator Amy Lauren to bring the programme visually to life.
This year’s TY group became the first students to test and complete the newly developed six SPRING lessons in full. Working closely with TY teacher Ms Shelly Whelan, Dr Therese Leahy PhD from the PLRG used student feedback after each lesson to refine the slides, activities, and teaching resources, directly informing the teacher resource packs and lesson plans ahead of the SPRING pilot in schools next year.
SPRING Awareness Week, 13 to 17 April 2026
Building on the lessons, students went on to design and deliver SPRING Awareness Week from 13 to 17 April, bringing what they had learned to the wider school community.
Activities across the week included daily year-group assemblies, vox pop videos, a podcast series featuring Dr Laura Linehan, Dr Brendan Fitzgerald, and student contributor Jannat (available to listen on Spotify), student-designed awareness posters displayed throughout the school and shared on social media, and a no-uniform-day fundraiser in support of Féileacáin.
Reproductive health, fertility, and pregnancy loss are topics that affect many individuals and families, yet they are often not openly discussed. Through assemblies, posters, conversations, and social media, students helped create space for these topics to be spoken about more openly within the school community.
What the students said
At their final class this week, students took part in a reflection on what they had learned and why it matters. When asked whether it is important for young people to learn about these topics, they said:
Absolutely, it’s important for young people of both genders to understand pregnancy loss, what it is and how it can affect them as this isn’t something we learn about often and this way these people can teach others for many generations and older generations.
Yes because infertility can happen to anyone so it’s good to have the important and correct information. even if it’s not you, if a friend or family member is struggling with infertility its handy to know the information to help them emotionally and be there for them.
Students also shared reflections on how their views had changed over the course of the programme:
Before SPRING I thought there would be an air of awkwardness about these topics. Now I know it isn’t awkward and we should always be more open.
Before SPRING I thought that pregnancy loss wasn’t as common and I didn’t really understand it….but now I feel so much more educated on it.
Thank you
We would like to sincerely thank the TY students, their teacher Ms Shelly Whelan, and the wider staff and school community at St Angela’s College for everything they have contributed to SPRING over the past two years. Their involvement has been central to preparing the programme for the SPRING pilot rollout to schools across Ireland next year.
We would also like to thank the three sixth-year groups and their teachers who contributed to testing refined versions of individual SPRING lessons during the development process.
For more information or to get involved, please email springproject@ucc.ie.