Search
12 Nov 2025
Search
12 Nov 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Offaly County Council’s Dean Hodge and Ray Bell present a class set of VEX robots to Banagher College TY studentswith Ms Kinahan (Principal) and Mr Coughlan (Coding Co-ordinator).
Offaly County Council’s Ray Bell (Broadband Officer) and Dean Hodge (STEM Engagement Officer) paid a visit to Banagher College’s famous STEAM room to present a full class set of state-of-the-art VEX IQ robot kits to the school.
The council has rowed in behind the school’s new TY Coding course, which has been launched in the school this year, by providing both expertise and equipment.
The robot kits will support the VEX Robotics module, a central part of the new course. VEX Robotics is a hugely engaging and very popular extra-curricular outlet for hundreds of students across Offaly, thanks to the pioneering work of Offaly County Council. The VEX programme is key to developing a range of 21st century skills.
The six robot sets will form a key part of the new TY Coding course, which also includes a module on First LEGO League coding. This is another international programme where students develop complex code to conquer different challenges, leading to both regional and national competitions.
The new Banagher College course also includes a module on Mobile App Development, where students learn to build their own mobile phone apps, with the potential to make their app available for other students in the school, or even commercially. As part of the course, the students also have the chance to work with both programmable Micro:bits and VR coding.
The new course is being led by experienced Banagher College teacher Mr Ian Coughlan and supported by the Digital Learning Team in the school. It’s part of a number of TY digital programmes at Banagher College, including the Dig Tech course, Microsoft Dream Space Ambassadors and the new LOETB Digital Arts Programme, which covers filmmaking, podcasting and Virtual Reality.
READ NEXT: Offaly businesses facing commercial rates hike for very specific reason
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
