Cannistown’s ‘Cannisfest’ wins national entrepreneur award
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Pictured in the Cannisfest puppet theatre is Layla LynchImage 2 of 3
Pupils from 6th Class, Scoil Bhríde, Cannistown, Navan, Co. Meath who won the Finance Wizards award for their classroom business, Cannisfest as part of the Junior Entrepreneur Programme 2024. The pupils invested in the business which created a spectacular festival event in the school grounds. Pictured from left are pupils Blathín Farrell, Faye Lynch, Hannah Sherlock. Photo: Jerry Kennelly.Image 3 of 3
Cathal McCarthy, Niamh Maguire and Aaron Fitzpatrick.Sixth class in Scoil Bhríde, Cannistown, Navan received the Finance Wizards Award for their JEP business Cannisfest in the All-Island Junior Entrepreneur Programme Awards announced today. The project was one of just 12 category winners out of 200 projects submitted.
The class brainstormed several business ideas before deciding on creating a fun festival day for the whole school to enjoy. They carried out market research in the school to learn about the activities people would like. Research complete, they broke into 5 teams - marketing, sales, design, production, and communications and rolled up their sleeves to begin creating the festival.
Cannisfest took place on April 17th and 18th. The school grounds were transformed into a festival site with bunting and colourful signage for the launch. Fully embracing the festival theme, wristbands were required for access - regular and gold VIP options!
The children put together an incredible festival programme with games, challenges, and entertainment and designed promotional posters to display in the school. Activities included ring toss, penalty shoot-out, races, crazy golf and musical statues. There was also a puppet show, face painting, a story area and, of course, a DJ. To further boost income, they had a bake sale stand and created knitted teddies for sale. Cannisfest proved to be a very profitable venture, making a profit of over €2,000. The class treated themselves to a school trip and a pizza party with their earnings.
Sixth Class, Robinstown NS, Navan with their project, 'Happy Hats' and 5th & 6th Class, Scoil Eoin Báiste, Nobber, with their project 'Allium Grow' were both named in the JEP Top 30 for 2024.
Marie Lynch, the co-founder and MD of the JEP, said that over 12,000 Irish primary school children have launched classroom businesses this year as part of their participation in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme.
“JEP has become a rite of passage for children in primary schools before they move on to secondary school.”
The JEP is a real-life, immersive entrepreneurship skills programme for 5th and 6th-class primary schoolchildren; it nurtures confidence, resilience, creativity, problem-solving and teamwork and engages pupils of all abilities. It is offered free of charge to schools on the island of Ireland.
The programme started in Kerry in 2010. Over 112,000 pupils have participated in the programme since its foundation. The businesses created by the participating pupils have achieved sales of over €3 million. Profits belong to the participating class who frequently opt to donate a proportion to charity. JEP was co-founded by entrepreneur Jerry Kennelly to promote entrepreneurship in primary schools and was developed in collaboration with Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.