Gaisce - The President's Award
Gaisce is Ireland's National Challenge Award for young people. It is the country's most prestigious and respected individual Award programme. It is a challenge from the President of Ireland to the young people of Ireland.
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Gaisce works on the basis of a personal challenge set by the young person. You will set your own challenge and agree it with a President's Award Leader (PAL). There are two PALs in Edmund Rice College, Ms McDonnell and Ms Connolly. You won't be competing with other participants, as each challenge is completely individual. So the only person you will compete with is yourself.
Students can begin the President’s challenge when they are 15. As it is a completely voluntary programme, students decide on and complete their challenge in their own time! Students must dedicate a minimum of 13 hours at each area of the challenge. There are three areas within the challenge; Community Involvement, a Personal Skill and a Physical Recreation. One of these areas must be continued for an additional 13 weeks e.g. you might choose to do 13 weeks of your Community Involvement, 13 weeks of a Personal Skill and 26 weeks of a Physical Recreation. In addition to these three areas, students partake in an Adventure hike. As part of the Bronze award, Edmund Rice College plan to travel to the Wicklow Mountains and stay overnight in a youth hostel, cook our own meals and hike for at least 25km.