Downs NS wins Bord na Móna National Upcycling Competition

Junior Infants, Senior Infants and First Class students from The Downs National School have been crowned the overall winners of the 2025 Bord Na Mona Recycling Primary Schools Upcycling Competition.

The students were inspired by the Storm Éowyn, during which they saw a flying trampoline. Following that, they discussed it with their teachers and decided to turn it into a safe environment for chickens to lay eggs. The students called the project Hen Home from Waste.

The materials used in creating the chicken coop consisted of discarded and damaged waste, along with the wood being repurposed.

The nesting boxes were made from old drawers, the door of the coop came from an old unit, and the ramp into the coop was made from an old wooden step ladder.

The school will receive a prize fund of €3,000, along with a guided sustainability tour of Lough Boora Discovery Park and Mount Lucas Wind Farm.

Shane Mackey, brand marketing manager at Bord na Móna Recycling, praised the project: “From trampoline to chicken coop, this is upcycling at its best.

"The Downs NS showed incredible vision, turning household and construction waste into something functional and educational.

"It’s a blueprint for rethinking waste and can provide insights and inspiration to others on how they look at and view it.”

Dr John MacNamara, head of Sustainability at Bord Na Mona, said: “The ingenuity, imagination and inventiveness of this year's projects emphasised that these pupils have fully grasped the core message of what it means to recycle and upcycle.”

The competition had more than 300 entries and was split into three age categories, with the Downs NS taking home a win in their own category and the overall national title.