Spicy chicken feed wards off rats and scoops top prize in junior enterprise competition

Scoil Mhuire National School in Schull received ‘Class of the Year’ in this year’s national Junior Entrepreneurial Programme (JEP).

Emily Drinan and Sarah Hurley 5th class pupils from Scoil Mhuire, Schull, Co Cork, whose class won the Junior Entrepreneur Programme Class of the Year Award, for their project, Birdy Bites.

Fifth class students at a West Cork primary school have taken home top prize in a young entrepreneurs programme for a classroom business they developed and launched during lockdown.

Scoil Mhuire National School received ‘Class of the Year’ in this year’s national Junior Entrepreneurial Programme (JEP).

The students received the accolade for their classroom business ‘Birdy Bites’, a novel chicken treat containing chilli to repel rodents.

With many of the students having chickens of their own at home, they wanted to solve the problem of rodents stealing chicken feed. 

Through their research, they discovered that chickens don't have spice receptors but rodents do - and they hate it. 

Class teacher Johanna Fitzmaurice said that she is immensely proud of her class.

“A lot of people I’ve spoken to can’t believe that children so young can take on a project like this, but primary school children are well able to take on these projects, and they have skills we might not ever realise they have until they get to take part in something like JEP.” 

To add to the school’s entrepreneurial credentials, teacher Lorraine Whelton's sixth class successfully launched ‘The Mini Kitchen’, a cookbook filled with recipes featuring locally produced ingredients from West Cork that pupils and their families cooked at home during lockdown.

5th Class pupils from Scoil Mhic Easmainn, Tralee, winners of the Junior Entrepreneur Programme Community Champions Award, with their class project, An Nead. The class came up with the idea during lockdown when they became more aware of the importance of nature and wanted to help biodiversity. They sold 330 units and made a profit of €2,040.

More than 3,500 primary school children began their entrepreneurial journey with JEP this year while learning remotely, brainstorming ideas over Zoom.

On returning to their schools, they worked in teams carrying out market research, calculating costs, sourcing materials and designing products.

They went on to launch approximately 100 classroom businesses, with schools working on their projects right up until the end of the school year.

Children also had the opportunity to submit a 60-second video and compete for the ‘Bright Spark’ award. 

This award recognises the many ideas that children develop that are too complex or ambitious to become the JEP classroom business.

Twin brothers Eamonn and Cillian Cowan from sixth class in Ardfert Central National School were runners-up with their board game, 'Medal of Valour'.

More than 80,000 primary school children have taken part in JEP since its inception. 

The pandemic provided an opportunity to experiment with new ways of supporting teachers and their pupils, according to Marie Lynch, director of the programme.

“In the absence of teachers being able to invite a local entrepreneur to the classroom, we remotely delivered live entrepreneur interviews.”

Children relished the opportunity to put their questions to successful entrepreneurs, she added. 

“Teachers could also book a live ‘class check-in’ mentor sessions with JEP.”