Bright sparks from Cork school make an impact with two AIB awards   

A Cork school has been honoured with two awards and €10,000 in prize money at the AIB Future Sparks School Impact Awards 2025.

The ceremony, which took place in Dublin’s Croke Park, saw Kinsale Community School announced as the overall winner of the AIB Future Sparks School Impact Awards

The school also won the Senior Small Group Environmental prize.

Electronic waste 

The winning project, which was selected out of 124 submissions, focused on reducing electronic waste through the refurbishment of old laptops and targeted the dual goals of minimising e-waste and enhancing educational resources in a partner school in Tanzania.

The awards aim to celebrate schools creating positive outcomes for their communities, centred on the three key pillars of environmental, social, and financial impacts.

These pillars encompass a wide range of activities that contribute to the betterment of communities - including volunteering, fundraising, awareness campaigns, mentoring, peer education, skills-sharing, and environmental conservation.

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“It’s absolutely amazing, the children worked so hard, so it’s great to see it acknowledged by everybody,” said Aaron Bowen, who is a teacher at Kinsale Community School.

“The plan is to donate a portion of the prize money to Terretta Foundation Tanzania — [and] we’ll put some of the money towards tools that we use to repair the laptops and [towards expanding] the programme for next year.

“€10,000 is huge for the school and we will be reinvesting that back into future projects.”

Chief customer officer at AIB, Orlaith Ryan, said that the annual awards aim to inspire students across Ireland to continue making a “positive impact” on their respective communities.

“We are delighted to celebrate the outstanding contributions made by schools and young people across Ireland through the AIB Future Sparks School Impact programme,” said Ms Ryan.

“These awards not only offer students a chance to engage in a new form of learning outside of the regular syllabus, but also inspire students to continue to make a positive impact on their local communities.”