"The euro: What does it mean to us?" photo competition

Organised by the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission.

This year both Post 16 enrichment programmes have been collaborating to broaden the content and opportunities open to the pupils, to provide them with a wider range of cross-curricular and transferable skills.

As a Cross Curricular activity Pupils are entering a photography competition organised by the European Commission; “The Euro: What does it mean to us?” The competition is aimed at encouraging young people to take an interest in the process of European integration, understand it better and creatively express what impact they think the Euro has on their country (even if it is not their currency).

We decided to visit Newry as this is a border region between the North and South of Ireland. The project heightened pupils’ awareness of the impact of different currencies north and south of the border. Recent media has focused greatly on the economic boom in Newry and pupils were able to capture the impact of the Euro in a varied context in this location. Moreover, the project raised pupils’ economic, creative and political awareness.

We were delighted to recently receive news that one of our group entries won the Northern Ireland section of this competition. We then progressed to the UK and the VCB Year 13 group Europa Euphoria (Katherine Ritchie, Shannon Knox and Laura Gordon) won the overall prize in this category! They were chosen by a jury of 7 people including two representatives from the European Commission, a representative from a national ministry, a communications expert, a teacher, a photographer and a youth organisation representative.

Well done Team Europe Euphoria!