A group of pupils from St Josephs National School, Culleens, Co Sligo enjoyed a great day out recently in celebration of their achievement of joint first place in the National "Something Fishy" schools competition.

The small 2-teacher school scooped the prestigious award for a DVD which they made following participation by their school in the programme. "Something Fishy" is an educational resource programme which was developed for national schools by the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards in conjunction with Blackrock Education Centre, Dublin. In recognition of the school’s achievement, the Regional Fisheries Board arranged a day’s fishing for the pupils who had won the national award. The children and their teacher, Rita McHugh, enjoyed a fishing trip to a lake in the grounds of Mount Falcon Castle followed by a barbecue. The school was also presented with a cash prize of €400 by Fisheries Board CEO, Vincent Roche, who congratulated the pupils and their teacher on their tremendous achievement.

The "Something Fishy" programme is aimed at 5^th and 6^th class national school pupils and comprises nine double sided activity cards for pupils to explore different aspects of fish life including the life cycle of the salmon, issues relating to water quality, conservation etc. It is supported by an interactive web site http://www.somethingfishy.ie . The programme was introduced in eight County Sligo Schools last year by staff of the North Western Regional Fisheries Board who visited the school, made presentations to the pupils and brought them to visit a local stream where various aspects of fish life and the environment were explained to them. As a result of their experience, the pupils made their own DVD using the knowledge they learned from the trip and highlighting the need for protection of water quality, conservation etc. The DVD scoped joint first place in the national competition.

The programme is to be launched in Co. Mayo schools in September in conjunction with Mayo Education Centre.