Meath County Council is to develop a model for science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEAM) teams, which will be rolled out in National Schools in the county by the end of 2026, thanks to a donation of €299,000 from the Facebook company, Meta.

This pilot aims to bring together the whole school community of management, staff, parents, and children to work collaboratively to co-create a future model for fun and sustainable engagement with STEAM.  This work builds on the model for parental involvement in STEAM developed by OurKidsCode, a research project based in Trinity College Dublin.

This donation from Meta, who have been part of the community in Meath since breaking ground on their Clonee Data Centre in 2016, enables Meath County Council to build on work already being delivered to support coding and other STEAM programmes in the county.

The Council has been working with OurKidsCode to successfully develop Family Coding Clubs across Broadband Connection Points in Co. Meath Over the last two years. In collaboration with the Department of Rural and Community Development, they have successfully created family led clubs aimed at increasing the digital skills of children and parents alike.

The OurKidsCode programme builds confidence in parents to support their child’s development of creative technology skills. By inviting parents and children to work together in a fun and safe way, families are supported to develop projects that build coding, crafting and collaboration skills.

Funding of this scale enables Meath County Council and OurKidsCode to work with local schools to build a truly sustainable and scalable model that will have a long term and wide-reaching positive impact.

Commenting on the launch of the programme, Cathaoirleach of Meath County Council Cllr Sharon Tolan said: "This excellent initiative partners perfectly with the previous STEAM and coding programmes in Meath, and I am very pleased in particular to see such a focus on family involvement. Fostering such a collaborative spirit while increasing important digital skills will undoubtedly yield fantastic benefits for the children, parents, and schools involved."

Dara McGowan, Director of Services and Deputy Chief Executive of Meath County Council said: “Meath County Council understands the demand to improve digital skills across the county. From supporting children and families to understand coding and digital technologies to supporting our older residents to stay connected, engaged and safe, we hope that this will be the start of a new model of support through the county’s schools.”

Aoife Flynn, Head of Community Development at Meta Clonee Data Center said: “Meta is committed to playing a positive role and investing in the long-term vitality of Meath, and we are proud to partner with Meath County Council and Our Kids Code to support a new STEAM Team pilot that will help bridge the digital divide for families. This community-based model of connecting families, children and schools as one ‘STEAM Team’ creates a space for people to learn together, and to support one another as they learn. It has the potential to create lasting local impact, and we are excited to see where it leads.”

Éadaoin McGovern, Director of Navan Education Centre said: “I am really excited by this new programme and the opportunities to help its delivery in County Meath’s national schools. The role of the parental involvement in education, supporting children in their learning is an important step forward to bring in new ways of teaching with more playful, sensory and creative approaches. The programme will help parents to learn about their child’s learning experience creating a much more collaborative environment in our schools.”