Creative Connections - Peace and Solidarity

Coláiste Cholmcille are delighted to announce that we have been accepted into the cross-border pilot initiative, ‘Creative Connections’. This All-Island initiative partners both primary and post-primary schools from both Ireland and Northern Ireland to promote and develop creativity in education.

Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee and Northern Ireland Education Minister Paul Givan have invited primary, post primary and special schools to apply to take part in Creative Connections, a pilot creative partnership programme. Part of the Shared Island initiative on tackling educational disadvantage, alongside the previously announced RAISE programme, Creative Connections aims to promote collaboration, encourage creativity and enhance educational outcomes for children impacted by social disadvantage in Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Building on the success of the Creative Schools Partnership Programme in Northern Ireland and the BLAST (Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers) and Creative Clusters initiatives in Ireland, Creative Connections gives children and young people the unique opportunity to work with creative practitioners, bringing creativity and the arts directly into their learning. It will provide creative and collaborative learning opportunities for 20 schools in Northern Ireland and 20 schools in Ireland to work together in clusters, enabling students to weave creativity into their lives and learning.

About Creative Connections

The pilot programme will see schools work in clusters of four, with two schools from each jurisdiction collaborating on bespoke creative learning projects. Each school will be paired with a professional creative practitioner, involving 40 practitioners in total. Participating schools will include primary, post-primary and special schools. Joint professional learning for teachers and artists will begin in the coming weeks, with school projects set to commence in the 2025/26 academic year.

Shared Island Initiative

The Government of Ireland’s Shared Island initiative harnesses the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement to enhance cooperation, connection and mutual understanding on the island. The Shared Island initiative is backed by the government’s Shared Island Fund, for delivery of all-island investment commitments and objectives in the Programme for Government and the National Development Plan As part of existing cooperation, the Department of Education and Department of Education in Northern Ireland are developing and introducing a pilot cooperation programme on educational underachievement, comprising elements on teachers’ research exchange, creativity in schools, and supports to address educational underachievement - gov.ie - Shared Island.