Athy schoolkids win national award as entrepreneurs
Aoife Flynn and Grainne Lawlwer with some of their winning teddies.
TWO classes from Gaelscoil Átha í were last week honoured with one of the major awards in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme 2025.
The young students from fourth and fifth class received the Digital Maestros Award for their JEP business, Teidí le T-Léine – a customisable teddy bear kit.
The project was one of just 12 category winners out of over 200 projects submitted.
Challenged with developing a classroom business as part of the programme, the students, aged 10-12, brainstormed as many ideas as possible.
“We came up with 183 different business ideas” said a class representative. “We found it easy to think of things we’d like to do.”
They had a ‘Meet the Dragons’ event in the classroom and presented their top five ideas before finally deciding on Teidí le T-Léine” Teidí le T-léine are soft teddies with a white t-shirt which come with a set of fabric markers. The children provided suggested designs for the t-shirt and also held a design workshop to help customers design their own.
Customers can also choose from one of four natural essential oil scents to promote mindfulness and wellbeing.
The children who completed the entire project in Irish conducted extensive market research to ensure they were on the right track and adapted their business idea in response to customer feedback.
To get the project off the ground the finance team negotiated a loan of €300 from the student council.
Following a successful sales drive in the school, Shaws Department Store invited the budding entrepreneurs to set up a stand.
The product had sold out, but the class displayed true entrepreneurial spirit and decided to re-invest their profits to buy more stock, so by the end of the project they had achieved sales of €2,365 and a profit of €1,052.
With the support of their teacher, Aislinn Nic Phaidín, the students incorporated the use of technology and digital tools in every aspect of the project.
They created logos for their initial ideas and branding and packaging for their final product.
They used Google Forms to carry out their surveys, and also designed a set of posters and social media ads, and made a video ad to promote their project.
The Digital Maestros Award recognises classes that excel in the use of technology and digital media in sales & marketing, communications, or production.
