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The Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton TD, presented the Blue Star Award to a primary school in Dublin this morning (Monday).

Schools from across Ireland will be awarded the Blue Star in this first year of a new EU awareness Programme that sought to foster better understanding and knowledge of the European Union and how it affects the lives of Irish primary pupils and their communities

Speaking this morning Minister Creighton said: "I am thrilled to present the Blue Star Award to the students and teachers from Star of the Sea Primary School in Sandymount. This school launched the Blue Star programme with the Taoiseach and I in February and it is wonderful to see they have embraced it with such enthusiasm and success."

"We need to cultivate an interest in and understanding of European history, culture and the EU institutions amongst the Irish people. The first step is getting children involved and I believe that the Blue Star programme, which I have pioneered through the Dept of An Taoiseach, provides and excellent formula for this. I have visited many of the schools involved and I was so impressed with the creativity they demonstrated as they engaged with the programme."

Noelle O’Connell; Executive Director of European Movement Ireland, the National Coordinator for the Blue Star Programme, congratulated all the successful schools and praised the hard work put in by pupils, teachers and the wider school communities. "We have received an overwhelmingly positive response to this pilot programme from all the participating schools, it was really encouraging to visit the schools taking part to see the hard work that was put in."

"It was particularly heartening to hear how popular the Blue Star Programme was amongst pupils from outside Ireland who were able to teach their class mates about life in countries such as Cyprus, Latvia and Spain."

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Note to editors:

The Blue Star Programme is a Pilot Programme for primary schools across Ireland. The Programme is a venture of the Communicating Europe Initiative, supported by the Office of the Minister of State for European Affairs in the Department of the Taoiseach and the European Commission Representation in Ireland.

The Blue Star Programme introduces participants (pupils, teachers, parents and the wider community) to the EU; what it means and how it works. All schools that have successfully completed the Blue Star Programme will be awarded an EU Flag and a Blue Star.