Primary education programmes

We offer four innovative and engaging programmes for both teachers and students along with personalised school visits for your class. Each programme has been carefully designed to inform students of global issues happening in the world today whilst linking to the current primary school curriculum. They are perfect projects to undertake throughout the school year and are a great way for students to naturally develop their skills and talents through fun and interactive activities.

Want to introduce your students to some of the most important issues facing the world today? Help them acquire the skills needed to formulate an argument, deliver a speech, stand up for their point of view and challenge an opponent’s opinion? Look no further than the Concern Primary Debates!

Schools can enter a team of six students – with three students speaking and the other three acting as subs and researchers. All the motions will be based on development education topics such as climate change, hunger and even issues here in Ireland. We can help support teams with tips on how to research and debate with tailored school workshops.

This year the primary debates are going online!

Interested in the Concern Primary Debates?

The Hunger Heroes programme consists of a series of lesson plans, case studies and classroom activities that have been uniquely tailored for senior primary school students (3rd to 6th class pupils) around the theme of Hunger.

The activities have been designed so that multi-class teachers and teachers of junior primary students will also be able to find activities suitable for their class. There will be a cross-curricular approach in the pack with activity suggestions covering everything from literacy and numeracy to drama and art. Use our Teacher’s Packs to learn more about Hunger, Nutrition, and Development.

We encourage teachers to complete a Hunger Heroes action project or fundraiser with their class in order to deepen awareness and understanding and to become Hunger Heroes!

Interested in becoming a Hunger Hero? 

We offer free development education workshops and talks for 4th to 6th class in primary schools on a range of challenges facing the communities which Concern work in around the world. The themes that we cover include hunger, water, gender equality, refugees and climate change. In an hour long workshops, students will consider why these problems exist in the world today, how they impact on people’s lives and reflect on how they can take action on this issue.

This year, all of our workshops are moving online! We will work with individual schools and the context that you are working in to provide workshops on a platform of your choice and in a way that works best for your students.

Interested in a Concern workshop or talk?

Agents of Change is our annual end-of-year student event which celebrates primary and secondary students taking local action on global issues! In the past, these have included awareness campaigns about conflicts in the world, practical action on food waste in schools and communities, fundraising actions and speaking out about injustices. This event gives students the opportunity to showcase their projects and meet like-minded peers from around the country.

Interested in taking part in Agents of Change?

Project Us is Concern’s movement for change in Ireland. It is a space (online and off) for communities to gather together to discuss the global and local issues that matter most to us.

For teachers, we are organising World Café’s online to explore how issues at the local level connect to the Sustainable Development Goals. These are beneficial to teachers of any subject and of any age group to reflect on issues which may come up in Global Citizenship Education, how to tackle inequalities both locally and globally, as well as a chance to boost your knowledge and understanding of issues such as hunger, gender equality and climate change.