Two weeks ago the Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Competition took place at Croke Park. The competition is typically aimed at transition year pupils and those at senior cycle in mainstream schools, studying agricultural science. It’s run by the Irish Angus Producer Group, along with its processor partners ABP Ireland and Kepak Group. Over 120 schools entered the competition. Of those just 28 make it to the finals in Croke Park.

From the schools that did make it to the GAA headquarters, one drew particular attention. Not least because it is the first school for children with special needs and learning difficulties to make it to Croke Park for the final. Actually, St Ita’s School in Drogheda is the first special school to enter the competition full stop.

The fact that the team of three students and two dedicated mentors made it all the way to the finals in Dublin highlights a certain will and desire.

Who are St Ita’s?

St Ita’s is a school for children with mild learning difficulties, educating kids with down syndrome, ADHD, autism and a wide range of other learning difficulties. The school is co-ed and facilitates students aged from five all the way up to 18.

The three students in question who made it to Croker are Connor Belton, Alisha Crosbie and Michael McQuillan, while the teachers are Michelle O’Mahony and Mandy Fitzpatrick. Connor (17), Alisha (16) and Michael (16) were chosen to take part based on their interests and skills. Pioneering the school’s entry was Michelle O’Mahoney, with the process kick-started by a request from principal Miceál Moley in April 2017 to find new programmes to offer the students.

“When I got the request in April I began researching and looking into different things the students may be interested in. I read the Irish Farmers Journal and saw the Certified Angus Competition and that planted the seed in my head,” O’Mahony said.

That seed would grow and transform, with the three selected students at St Ita’s becoming the first special school entrants in the competition, but that process did not happen overnight.

The process

“It took a lot of work to get it all off the ground. We went to the Ploughing Championships in September and the kids got to see the presentation of last year’s winners with their Angus calves. That was a big motivator for them. Once they saw that, they wanted to enter the competition.”

“We sat down and brainstormed with the three students and came up with ideas as to how to move forward,” O’Mahony said.

The first obstacle, a three-minute video outlining the details of their project, was successfully entered to the judges in November 2017. Mandy Fitzpatrick explained that while this seemed a basic step for mainstream secondary schools, it pushed St Ita’s students.

“The video was a big step for our students. We had to really help them with this and they really pushed themselves. The way it developed their communication skills was fantastic,” she said.

From the original 120 schools, the video whittled this down to 80. A presentation in Mullingar after Christmas led the school to qualify for Croke Park for the final and in the process become the first non-mainstream school to do so. A feat both mentors took great joy in.

“The look on their faces when we told them that they qualified for the final in Croke Park was amazing. No money in the world can buy something like that. As a teacher, you are so proud of them,” Fiztpatrick said.

However, more than one seed was planted in O’Mahony’s head after the request from her principal in April. As well as entering the competition, the Louth native developed the bovine care course. This is an expansion of the already existing QQI life sciences-life cycles course, however O’Mahony “incorporated bovine care into this existing course by looking at the life cycle of Angus cattle and the ragwort plant. Additional learning outcomes which are not accredited, such as farm safety, dairy farming and the role of the farmer in the community, were also included in the course”.

After a lot of work, time and approvals, bovine care is now taught at St Ita’s. As well as this, O’Mahony also developed a short bovine care course, which can be used by both mainstream and special schools offering the level two junior cycle programme.

The students who take bovine care at St Ita’s spend all Thursday doing so. So far, they have travelled to Ballyhaise, UCD’s Lyons Farm and to the Ploughing Championships, to name a few. Michael, Connor and Alisha have all seen the benefits of the new course.

“Learning is not just something done in a classroom,” was a motto the mentors stuck by. They are right. It is the hope of its creator that other schools will see the benefit from the course into the future.

The Angus competition

The winners of the competition will be announced in early April. However, for the teachers of St Ita’s while winning would be great, O’Mahony and Fitzpatrick have emphasised that the journey has been successful either way, paving the way for other similar schools, rural or urban, to enter such a competition.

One can only admire the determination to get as far as they did. Whether they will be one of the winner remains to be decided.

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