SIP PROJECT SPONSORS

1. Fibrepulse sponsor our school - click here

2. Information Age Committee Sponsor Project - below

The Castlebar Information Age Committee on a recent visit to St. Patrick's B.N.S. to view the work being carried out on a local history project.

Back Row : John Culhane, Joint SIP Project Co-ordinator, Dr. Vincent McHale, Principal, Adrian Keena, Joint SIP Project Co-ordinator.

Front Row: Richard Wynne, Chairperson CIAT (Castlebar Information Age Town), Regina McGarrigle and Rory Casey, CIAT Committee.

St Patrick’s B.N.S. Castlebar, are currently involved in a major local history project involving the use of information technology. This project is jointly funded by Castlebar Information Age Town and the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) who have responsibility for implementation of IT2000, announced by the Department of Education and Science some years ago. The project centres on teaching children research skills to enable them to explore different aspects of their own local history and from this exploration producing a CD of children’s work using a multimedia authoring software package called Hyperstudio. Phase One of this project has been completed and the results have been on display at the Young Scientist Exhibition where the school had a stand as an invited guest of the NCTE. Phase Two is currently in full swing with three separate historical plays being produced and recorded, sections of which will appear in the form of audio and video files as part of the school’s website.

Castlebar Information Age Committee have fully supported the school every step of the way. They invited all the schools in the Castlebar area to submit detailed plans of technology projects they would like to pursue. St. Patrick’s received a guarantee of funding on the basis of their submission and work began in earnest in September. CIAT also accepted to host the school website and to offer recording assistance for one of the plays – an audio play called "Coranna". John Culhane, joint co-ordinator of the project in the school, thanked the committee for their ongoing support: "We are delighted with the support that CIAT have given us over the last two years. We have worked well together and the boys in our school have been the real winners. We wish the committee every success with their many other projects"

On behalf of the CIAT committee, Regina McGarrigle responded by thanking the school for their excellent use of the funding received and their proactive approach to integrating technology in education. "St Patrick’s has become one of the leading schools in the province in the integration of information and communication technologies into the curriculum and we are delighted to have been able to play our part in helping the school reach this position. The local history project is an excellent example of how children can utilize technology to assist their normal studies"

Fibrepulse supports local school

Pictured above is Adrian Keena (ICT Co-ordinator, St. Patrick's National School) accepting the sponsorship from Rory Casey, Fibrepulse.

St. Patrick's N.S. are currently completing another ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) project. This involves the provision of networking facilities to all classrooms on the ground floor. Classrooms on the first floor were networked previously, affording Internet and email facilities to the senior classes. This was so successful; currently three classes are involved in email projects, that less than six months later the rest of the school has been added to the network. The school also has a very successful webpage as part of the castlebar.ie website. The web address is www.castlebar.ie/education/stpats

Adrian Keena, ICT co-ordinator at St. Patrick's, expressed his delight with the great local support for the work underway. He said "We have worked consistently over the past number of years to maintain our position as a leading school in integrating technology into the curriculum and it's very heartening to have such great local support when we need it. This is an expensive undertaking. We are delighted with the sponsorship and technical support from Fibrepulse. We are aware of the success that Fibrepulse has achieved worldwide and the high standards that they have set in the production of fibre-optic cable will now benefit the boys at our school. Long may they keep the Castlebar flag flying"

Managing Director of Fibrepulse, Rory Casey said "Fibrepulse is very proud to be associated with this superb project. St. Patrick's National School is very progressive in the IT area, and the fibre optic network allows them to communicate internally at very high speeds. The school is using the technology in the best possible way, and we are thrilled to offer our support.
Our production team were delighted that the cables which they built will be used by the young boys of Castlebar, as they use the new high-speed network to further their education."

Fibrepulse is involved in the design and manufacture of high-performance fibre optic interconnect devices, including cable assemblies. It has recently changed it's name from Fibrewave.
The company was selected "Company of the Year" by the Mayo County Enterprise Board in 1999, and currently has a workforce of 30 employees. All indications are that it will continue it's rapid growth.