The Fred O'Connell NPC Innovation Award recognises innovative partnership work between schools and parents which supports children to have the opportunity to reach their full potential. 

Fred O'Connell was involved with NPC in the early years of the organisation's development, and was the first paid employee of NPC. Fred believed that parents have a vital role to play in their children's education. This Award is in honour of Fred.

The very first Award ceremony took place at the NPC Education Conference on Saturday the 13th of June 2015 in the National College of Ireland, Dublin 1. Fred's widow Nan presented the Award.

The winner of the 2015 NPC Fred O'Connell Award was the Parents’ Association of Gurraneasig National School, Kilbrittain, Co. Cork with their project
‘What Parents know that Kids would love to learn’

Purpose of the project:
To open children’s worlds and minds to different interests and professions. For children to learn extracurricular skills and have access to a big group of parents who can and want to teach children fun stuff.

Parents get the opportunity to connect with a group of children who are genuinely interested in learning from them.
Workshops were organised to take place during the last week before the school summer holidays.

Click here to download information on the winning project