Cork school principal whips up interest among students with ice-cream van

In his role as an educator, Aaron Wolfe, principal of Coláiste Éamann Rís, is expected to wear many hats.

However, the role of an ice-cream man was never anticipated.

While school bells were once a sound commonly associated with the school, children are now more accustomed to the jingles coming from their principal’s ice-cream van.

It follows a generous donation of an ice-cream van from Ó Crualaoí Butchers, which has supplied the school with lunches for a number of years.

The van, which has already been booked for communions and other special events, will operate like any other ice-cream business.

Run by transition year students, Mr Wolfe hopes it can generate some much-needed revenue for the school.

“The school is always thinking outside the box,” said Mr Wolfe.

“I’m a firm believer that school should be fun. A few other schools have been buying coffee trucks, so we thought we would go one better and buy an ice-cream van with a coffee and slushy machine.

“We didn’t use any school funds to make this possible. The idea is to use it as an earning opportunity for the kids.

“In fourth year they’ll go out on the road and sell ice creams. At the moment I am the one driving it, but others can drive it too. There are people who do a double take when they see me on the road with the van.

“A principal I know from a local primary school stopped me and asked what I was doing driving an ice-cream van.”

Mr Wolfe said he enjoys the reaction of students when arriving at the school in the ice-cream van.

Making school fun

“The kids find it very funny, which is great, because life is miserable enough,” he said.

“We want to make school fun. The laugh that the children have when I drive in in the morning with the jingles on makes it hard to be miserable.

“I am conscious that not every child likes school. What I love is seeing people doing things outside of their comfort zone and the norm. There is far more to education than sitting in a maths class.”

Mr Wolfe is extremely passionate about the project.

“This isn’t a gimmick, but rather a genuine learning opportunity for everyone involved,” he told The Echo.

“There is so much involved. Students are learning to use the generator. We are showing them how to fix batteries and even teaching them about the maintenance and cleaning it out. 

The kids are being trained up as baristas. I have a queue of students asking if they can work in the van, which is great because you are trying to encourage a work ethic and inspire students to be entrepreneurs.”

He is confident the project will benefit other schools too.

“We are hoping to run this as a positive behaviour strategy,” he said. “If you are a teacher and you want to reward a student, we’ll bring our van down, and transition year students will serve the ice creams.”