The Department of Education and Youth is pleased to announce the opening of a new round of Creative Clusters. The deadline for receipt of applications is 20^th April 2026.

Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project 2026–2028. 

• 3 schools would receive €9,000
• 5 schools would receive €15,000 

In addition to financial support above each Cluster will also receive: 

• A Creative Cluster Facilitator 
• Teacher Substitution to attend Workshops and Meetings
• Room hire, travel & subsistence

Please see the following link for more details: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/publications/creative-clusters/ . Applications are to be completed online using the following link: Creative Clusters 2026 - 2028 Application .

Should you need assistance, please contact your local full-time Education Support Centre (list at Appendix 1 of Guidelines document on DEY website) or use this link Appendix 1

If you have any queries, please contact your local Education Support Centre or email the programme administrators at National Arts in Education, Tralee Education Support Centre: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Eligible Schools - The following schools are welcome to apply to participate in Creative Clusters:

• Schools that have not yet participated in Creative Clusters.
• Schools that have not yet participated in the Arts Council led Creative Schools initiative and those who will complete Creative Schools Year 2 in the 2025/26 school year. Schools cannot simultaneously participate in Creative Clusters, and the Arts Council led Creative Schools initiative.
• Schools that will complete Creative Clusters Year 2 in the 2025/26 school year can only apply to lead a cluster of schools who have not yet participated in the initiative.
• The local Education Support Centre will have a key role in identifying and supporting a Creative Cluster for their local area.
• 42 Creative Clusters will be selected nationally - 2 per Education Support Centre.

Creative Clusters is an initiative of the Department of Education and Youth, led by and in partnership with the 21 full-time Education Centres (Education Support Centres Ireland - ESCI).

Dual Language Application Form

Saibhriú: A Strategic Initiative for Exceptionally Able and Gifted Learners

Saibhriú represents a strategic collaboration between primary and post-primary schools designed to establish effective partnerships that support exceptionally able and gifted learners. Through this initiative, we facilitate the identification and dissemination of staff expertise and evidence-based collaborative teaching methodologies across our network.

Programme Structure

Each community of practice comprises nominated lead teachers from four schools within the Cork Education Support Centre catchment area. Operating as professional learning networks, these communities will engage in sustained collaboration throughout the academic year, commencing March 2025 and concluding March 2026.

Strategic Objectives

Under the guidance of an academic advisor and in partnership with Department of Education and youth, our communities of practice pursue clearly defined objectives centred on enhancing educational provision for exceptionally able and gifted learners. Themes are strategically selected based on identified needs and priorities, and may include:

• Supporting effective practices in identifying exceptionally able and gifted learners
• Supporting the exceptionally able and gifted learner with the transition from primary to post-primary school
• Supporting learners with double/ triple exceptionality
• Supporting teachers to provide exceptionally able and gifted learners with high quality and challenging learning experiences within the mainstream classroom
• Supporting exceptionally able and gifted learners in immersive education contexts / Gaeltacht schools / Gaelscoileanna agus Gaelcholáistí
• Supporting exceptionally able and gifted learners in discrete subject areas where there are traditionally fewer supports available for enrichment
• Supporting exceptionally able and gifted learners in their social interactions within the mainstream class setting and within the school

Programme Funding

The Saibhriú initiative is funded through the Dormant Accounts Fund. The Department of Education provides a grant to each participating school to support resource acquisition and programme implementation.

Supplementary funding enables teacher participation in professional development activities, including inter-cluster networking sessions. While the majority of academic advisor engagements will occur through online platforms to maximise accessibility, the programme includes strategic face-to-face sessions, culminating in a system-wide shared learning symposium for all participating schools.

Cork Education Support Centre receives designated funding from the Department of Education and Youth to coordinate and deliver the Saibhriú initiative at regional level. Dr Niamh Stack from Mary Immaculate College, Limerick serves as academic advisor to our four participating Cork schools. Dr Stack has commended our schools for their exemplary commitment to developing sustainable, long-term strategies for supporting gifted education.

The four Cork Schools are the following:

Terence MacSwiney Community College, Cork

Gaelscoil Mhachan, Cork

Nagle Community College, Cork

St. Mary's on the Hill N.S., Cork

Ficheall 2025/2026

Ficheall.ie is the national network of primary teachers promoting chess in their schools for the social and cognitive benefits it has for primary school students. Ficheall teachers use chess as a tool to teach through and an opportunity for their students to develop new skills and values, as well as representing their school at Ficheall tournaments called Féile Fichille (chess festival).

The Ficheall.ie website contains many excellent resources created by fellow primary school teachers such as:

• A series of 10 beginner chess lessons (with optional integration to the SPHE curriculum)
• List of CPD chess courses for teachers (summer, evening and online courses)
• Chess numeracy puzzles
• Ficheall newsletters with chess updates
• Online Teacher Chess Club

Ficheall Summer Course

Cork Education Support Centre have hosted the Chess for Social Skills summer course previously with great success. Upon completion of this course teachers can play chess (most attend the course having never played chess before) and can teach the basics of chess to students in their class while also teaching key SPHE curriculum objectives from 1st to 6th class (all of this without worksheets).

Féile Fichille Chess Tournaments

Féile Fichille tournaments are non-competitive chess tournaments organised annually in Term 2. No medals, prizes or trophies are presented. Instead, the day is a celebration of the students learning chess and social skills as well as their teachers’ leadership skills to introduce the initiative in their school. For many students it is their first opportunity to wear their school jersey and represent their school. More details about Féile Fichille Tournaments can be found here (including a checklist to ensure students are ready for the Féile Fichille)

Féile Fichille Timeline

• September: Registrations Open
• October: Registrations Close
• November: Schools informed of tournament date and venue
• January/ February/ March: Féile Fichille tournament will be scheduled in term 2. Registered schools will be allocated one Féile Fichille tournament to attend. Schools are required to be at the venue at 9.30am with the event concluded by 2pm

Contact Us

If you have any queries regarding the Féile Fichille Tournaments please contact Ficheall using the Contact Us link here.

The Learning School Project has been a very successful collaborative project for the past number of years between Cork Education Support Centre and Limerick Education Centre.  Many schools have benefitted from participation in this project and we would again like to invite schools to get involved in the latest LSP project - LSP 13.  Schools will be supported by a number of webinars/hub meetings which will take place in person in CESC and LEC but will also be available via Zoom.  

We invite you to participate in this year’s cycle of the Learning School Project - LSP-13.  The framework for this project is the development of the school as a self-evaluating school, which is a key element of current national policy with particular reference to Looking at Our School (LAOS) and School Self-Evaluation (SSE).  Participation in LSP-13 will offer your school an opportunity to explore LAOS and decide on an aspect of the Teaching and Learning Dimension to focus on in terms of SSE, school development and school improvement.  Schools that have participated in the Learning School Project over the years have benefitted hugely from their own individual, context-based innovation and development and from their participation in the LSP Community of Practice.

To register please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

1st Hub meeting on September 19th 2022

Dr Joe O’Connell will facilitate our first session