St Patrick’s National School, Kyle Park, Co Tipperary, has been crowned national winners of Agri Aware’s farm safety programme for schools, Safe Farm Futures.

In a prizegiving ceremony recently, Minister for State with responsibility for farm safety Martin Heydon presented the prize to the school.

“I want to congratulate the pupils of St Patrick’s NS, Kyle Park, for the passion and commitment they showed to farm safety.

“I was blown away by their projects, the artwork on tractor blind spots and how they went about educating themselves on machinery safety and safety around livestock.

“They can be extremely proud of their efforts and I am confident the wider farming community will benefit from them,” he said.

The minister added that the Safe Farm Futures programme plays a vital role in educating primary school pupils of the need to keep safe on farms.

“This programme is an opportunity to ingrain a lifelong culture of farm safety from a young age.

“This programme is making an important contribution to changing the culture of safety on Irish farms by empowering every generation to play their part,” he said.

Top prize

The Tipperary primary school, located near Borrisokane, came out on top, with almost 330 primary schools participating in the programme, winning €2,000.

The school intends to put the prize money towards student wellbeing and learning.

The purpose of the Safe Farm Futures programme is to deliver a rounded guide to farm safety.

Agri Aware executive director Marcus O’Halloran said pupils from St Patrick’s prepared an excellent project as part of the programme.

“From excellently created and informative farm safety posters, through engagement with our farm safety webinars and to visiting a local dairy farm to put the knowledge learned in class into practice, their engagement with the programme really shone through in their project and the school is thoroughly deserving of first prize,” he added.

O’Halloran also congratulated third class in Killnaleck National School, Co Cavan, who won the top prize for a class submission, which is a VIP trip to a local farm of the school’s choice.