Mayo winners in Someone Like Me schools art competition

GEESALA National School in north Mayo and Carrakennedy National School, Westport, have been named county winners in the prestigious Someone Like Me national art competition.

Geesala and Carrakennedy schools won junior and senior county awards respectively, and will now join 46 other schools to compete for the national title at an online awards ceremony on Thursday, January 28.

The competition, which is organised by the National Disability Authority, attracted more than 1,500 entries from national schools across the country. Now in its fifth year, Someone Like Me aims to foster more positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities by highlighting the similarities that exist between all people.

During the last school term of 2020 teachers and their pupils worked through special lesson plans which challenged them to respond artistically and creatively to the theme of Someone Like Me, while, at the same time, appreciating and respecting similarities and differences in people, developing a shared understanding of how we should treat others in a caring, sensitive and inclusive way, and promoting a sense of belonging and connectedness.

The judges were particularly impressed with the submissions from pupils and teachers at Geesala NS and Carrakennedy NS, selecting them as county winners based on their insightful and inspirational responses to the theme.

The Geesala NS winning entry was by second class pupil Bridget O'Sullivan who did a coloured drawing of a loveheart with a short poem titled 'We're all different'. Her teacher is Ann Gaughan.

The senior county winners, Carrakennedy NS, comprised fifth class pupils Maria McDonnell, Ciara Hoban, Chloe Hegarty, Emma Conway and Darragh O'Hanlon. Their teacher is Aideen McPaul.

Their project comprised of a large collage poster of various items, signals and signs coloured in black, making the people drawn in colour stand out. They are all of different abilities and the piece was titled 'Inclusion is key'.