General
1. The competition is open to students in primary and second level schools in Ireland. There is also an independent category for students who attend coding clubs outside of school hours or wish to enter independent of school.
2. Entries can only be accepted if the school/club has been registered by a teacher/mentor using the official registration form on https://ics.ie/scratch-2024/
3. Projects must be developed using Scratch (you must create an Scratch account on https://scratch.mit.edu). Projects created using the Scratch 3.0 offline editor, when finished, must be uploaded to an existing Scratch account on https://scratch.mit.edu.
4. Projects will only be accepted if they are accessible on Scratch website (https://scratch.mit.edu). Please be sure to share the project before submitting it!
5. The unique URL link (this link must direct judges to the exact project) must be added to your entry alongside the corresponding registered project at https://ics.ie/scratch-2024/
6. Upon registration, teachers/mentors must make sure that all information has been entered for their projects, including names of students, as certificates of participation will be emailed after the competition.
7. When an entry is submitted, permission is granted to the organisers of the competition to make unrestricted use of the entry in the future for publicity or educational purposes. In such use, the organisers will make sure that the author/school is clearly acknowledged.
Projects
- The project can be about anything – the only limit is students’ imagination.
- Project entries can be from an individual or from a team of not more than three students per team.
- There is no limit on the number of project submissions from Schools/clubs. No student can be involved in more than one project in each category i.e. a student may enter a project in the Schools category and in the Clubs/CoderDojo category. Schools/Clubs are welcome to run their own competition to determine the best projects to submit.
- Entries must be original works created by the team or individual submitting the entry.
- If your entry incorporates music, sound, text or images, you must own the rights to use that material or attribute credit to the appropriate sources.
- The competition organisers reserve the right to disqualify any entry based on inappropriate or copyrighted content and any entries, which do not adhere to the competition rules and guidelines.
- There are 6 categories of entry including a Special Needs category:
- a. Primary School (Junior infants to 1st Class)
- b. Primary School (2nd Class to 4th Class)
- c. Primary School (5th Class to 6th Class)
- d. Junior Cycle (1st Year to 3rd Year)
- e. Senior Cycle (4th Year to 6th Year)
- f. Special Needs category
Prizes and Awards
Each registered Scratch competitor will receive a certificate of participation
There will be separate awards for:
• Judges Award
• Best Animation Award
• Best Technical Sophistication
• Best Educational Content Award
• Best Social Project
• Overall Scratch Winner
Judging
Each entry will be reviewed by a panel of judges. The Judges will award points according to the judge’s scorecard, which provides detailed information in relation to what the Judges will be looking for. The Judges will use these score sheets during all stages of the competition. Due to the number of entries, the first two rounds of the competition will be judged remotely i.e. online.
The top teams from each category will be invited to compete with other teams from around the Country at the National Final which will be held at the University of Limerick in May 2023.
The decisions of the judging panel are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
In support of Scratch and the benefits it offers to students, teachers and schools, the following organisations in Ireland work together to sponsor the Scratch National Competition:
