My Big Friendly Guide To The European Union

Prepare for our EUROPE DAY FESTIVAL on 7 May 2023 in Cork City Concert Hall, Millenium Hall and throughout the city

A family fun day for the all above 3 – treasure hunt, simulations, face painting, drawing, badge making, multilingual singing and reading, debates

Click here for details

My Big Friendly Guide to the European Union is an innovative 6 -week teaching and learning programme. It aims at developing awareness, knowledge and critical thinking at primary school level on the European Union and Ireland’s role within it.

It offers teachers all the lesson plans, lesson slides, knowledge quizzes and under 5 minute explanatory videos to feel confident and engaged in the teaching for active European citizenship.

We also offer a fantastic eTwinning project run by Aoife Hegarty.

It is children and teacher friendly, allowing the students to learn about but also question the European Union.  It is about empowering the children to make informed decisions to improve the world they live in. Crucially, it fits perfectly into the current Social Personal and Health Education curriculum, particularly when discussing critical thinking, active citizenship and media education.

Since its creation in 2018, BFGTOEU has grown from being a pilot project in County Cork to being the only national educational programme on the EU grounded in a unique collaboration between primary and third level education. In July 2019, 35 teachers took part in our very first CPD course in UCC.  In November 2020, we took part in Cork Discovers, a Europe-wide event connecting researchers and society.

In 2021, we held our very first Europe Week! Click here to see 1st class students rapping on the EU.

So let’s spark debate with Seamie Shamrock!

Take a look at the explanatory video to hear what my BFGtoEU is all about!

Check These Out!

Explainer Videos

Explainer Videos

Explainer Videos

Programme Categories

Juniors and Seniors

Junior & Senior Class Lessons This programme is about developing an understanding of Ireland being part of a bigger club....

1st and 2nd Class

1st and 2nd Class Lessons This programme enables the children to discuss why the EU club was created. It focuses...

3rd and 4th Class

3rd and 4th Class Lessons This programme enables the children to debate the place of Ireland within the EU club....

5th and 6th Class

5th and 6th Class Lessons This programme enables the children to debate what are the functions of the European Union....

News and Media

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  • Media
  • News

Transnational Europe Day quizzes 2021

7,000 children from Ireland, France, Greece, Spain, Romania, Poland and partner countries Moldova and Armenia took part in giant quizzes...

Launch of EU TV Junior in Newstalk Breakfast

On 10 May 2021, Barry Andrews MEP launched a new YouTube channel called EU TV Junior. This new channel for...

Drivetime Europe Day 2019

On 9 May 2019, my BFGtoEU decided to celebrate Europe Day with 100 children from Kilmurry NS. We organised a…

Graduation Day 2019

For the second year in a row, my BFGtoEU was delighted to organise a graduation day on 28 May 2019…

BFGtoEU website launch

On 5 April 2019, MEP Deirdre Clune, Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr John Buttimer and UCC President Professor Patrick O’Shea officially…

The Ryan Tubridy Show Radio 1

The day after Ryan Tubridy came to University College Cork to deliver the graduation speech to the very first cohort…

Drivetime 2

In May 2018, the very first graduation ceremony for my BFGtoEU took place. Drivetime was there and took the opportunity…

Drivetime 1

In March 2018, Drivetime from Radio 1 did an item on this pilot programme. It interviewed the developers of this…

This programme is financially supported by: