County Donegal Education Support Centre - Week 43 Newsletter (20/10/25 to 26/10/25)

Week 43 2025 - Weekly Event Newsletter

(20/10/25 to 26/10/25)

‍Dear Principal/Teacher,

Included below are a summary of all CPD events for the upcoming week beginning 20th October 2025 aswell as some other highlights for the rest of October and November.

You can also review all of these CPD events in either the Primary or Post Primary courses section of the centre website.

Here is a summary of some other great events/initiatives your school may be interested in: 

• Oide Events - Details of any upcoming Oide Teacher Professional Training can be found here. To register for any of this training please click here.
• NCSE Events - Details of any upcoming NCSE Teacher Professional Training can be found here. To register for any of this training please click here.
• Wainfest Children's Art Competition - Glenveagh National Park - competition open to all children and young people in Donegal, click here for further information.
• Concern Primary Debates Programme 2025 / 2026 - there has been fantastic interest in this programme to date so we have extended our deadline for applications to Friday 31st October 2025, click here for further information.
• Ficheall - Feile Fichille Chess 2025 / 2026 - deadline for registration is Friday 17th October 2025, click here for further information.
• Introduction to VEX Robotics - to help prepare any interested schools, Dr Gary Cullen and John Conaghan from ATU Letterkenny have kindly offered to provide an information session in the Donegal Education Centre on Wednesday 5th November 2025 from 10am to 2pm (Lunch will be provided), click here for further information.
• Spotlite Student Voice Programme 2025 / 2026 - the official launch of the St. Aidan's Community School SPOTLITE Student Voice Programme by Professor Laura Lundy will take place on Thursday 6th November 2025  at 2pm in St. Aidan's Community School, Brookfield, click here for further information.
• Scriobh Leabhar 2025 / 2026 - we have received a number of applications for this project to date so we have extended our deadline for applications to Friday 31st October 2025, click here for further information.
• EU Code Week 2025 (11th to 26th October 2025) - Further information on this initiative can be found here. Details of all programmes can be found here. Oide also have created a coding and computational thinking hub for teachers which includes additional information about this initiative and how they are helping to promote it. This hub can be accessed here.
• 2nd Annual 'Waterford' Competition - 2025 - deadline for registration is 15th November, click here for further information.
• National Write a Poem Competition - 2025 (Post Primary) - deadline for registration is 12th December, click here for further information.
• All-Island School History Competition - 2025 - deadline for registration is 5th December, click here for further information.
• Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literacy Festival 2025 - this year's festival runs from 15th October to 19th October with events planned for each day. Further information on the festival programme can be found here.
• Duais Basho Haiku Poetry Competition - deadline for submitting entries is 17th October, click here for further information.
• Active School 2025 / 2026 - the Term 1 initiative called 'Skip Around the World' is due to run for three weeks from 6th - 24th of October, click here for further information.
• Meet The Scientist Webinar Series 2025 / 2026 - these individual webinars are free and designed for kids in 4th, 5th and 6th class, click here for further information.
• START (Schools Teaching Awareness of Randomised Trials) Competition 2025 / 2026 - this competition is for Primary Schools (4th, 5th and 6th class) and registration opens on 10th November 2025, click here for further information.
• European Commission callout for examples of projects on Democracy and Civic Engagement - click here for further information, the deadline for submissions is 31st October 2025.