Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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41. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will consider further development of excellence funds to promote innovation within schools and between clusters of schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44990/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits to increased funding to the Digital, STEM and Creative and other School Excellence Funds.

Launched in 2018, the School Excellence Fund Digital and STEM Programme involved 265 schools together in 41 clusters to explore how digital technologies can transform teaching practices and improve student learning experiences. The programme sought to create collaborative environments where teachers could work jointly on innovative projects that integrated digital tools into their teaching methods. Of the clusters, 33 had a digital focus, while 8 were STEM specific. The 41 clusters comprised 14 post-primary clusters, 12 primary, 8 led by a primary school involving post-primary schools, and 7 led by a post-primary school involving primary schools. A number of DEIS schools were involved, as well as all-Irish schools, and special schools.

The Department engaged H2 Learning to conduct an evaluation of the programme in 2019 but the evaluation was delayed due to the Pandemic. The evaluation report has now been received by officials in my Department and is currently being reviewed, including consideration of the findings and recommendations, to inform future developments in this regard, recognising that schools are modelling excellence and innovation on an ongoing basis.

Also launched under the umbrella of the Schools Excellence Fund, the Creative Clusters programme was piloted as an action in the first Creative Youth Plan 2017-2022 and supported clusters of three to five schools to work together on building capacity in innovation and creativity with the support of a specialist facilitator.

Following a positive independent evaluation of the pilot programme in 2022, Creative Clusters continues to be an important programme in promoting and providing innovative and creative collaboration amongst clusters of schools. The Creative Youth Plan 2023-2027, which was brought to Government in 2023, commits that the delivery and expansion of Creative Clusters will continue to give children and young people the opportunity to experience creativity and to facilitate creative collaboration between schools. To date 591 schools in 168 clusters have had the opportunity to work together to develop creative projects and collaborate on new ideas based on their local experience and unique perspective. In February of this year, I invited further schools and YouthReach centres across Ireland to apply to take part in Creative Clusters for the two years commencing September 2024.

In support of a continued focus on evaluation, the gathering of data on participants' experience is now a core feature of delivery of Creative Clusters as is the case across the Creative Youth programmes and will enable continued learnings to support innovation and creativity across clusters of schools.