If you've sat in a parent-teacher meeting lately and felt the weight of how much teachers are being asked to manage, you're not alone. Classrooms across Ireland are increasingly diverse in the ways children think, learn and experience the world. The science around neurodiversity has moved fast. But the everyday reality inside schools hasn't always kept pace, and many educators are doing their best without nearly enough support.
That's exactly the gap that Project All Rise is trying to close. The new Irish social enterprise officially launched this morning in Dublin, and it's already generating real buzz among educators, school leaders and anyone who cares about how neurodivergent children experience school.
What is Project All Rise?
Founded by Sarah Colgan, the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland awardee behind the acclaimed 20x20 movement for gender equity in sport, Project All Rise is a cultural companion for schools. It's not a training course, and it's not adding another folder to a teacher's already overflowing desk. Instead, it offers short films and live events where educators hear directly from neurodivergent people sharing their own lived experience, alongside expert insight and practical examples from real classrooms.
The thinking behind it is the same principle that made 20x20 work. When something becomes culturally familiar, people feel empowered to act on it. As Colgan herself puts it: "Educators are asking for more support on neurodiversity, and we want to offer something that feels accessible, not like more to take on. Through short films and stories of lived experience, educators build understanding by feeling it, not just learning about it. This is about building fluency and confidence, not just awareness."
The statistics that prompted the initiative are hard to ignore. Only 10% of educators feel adequately equipped for the diversity of needs in their classrooms, according to an IPPN survey of over 1,000 respondents. And 92% of young people who find school too upsetting to attend are neurodivergent. Those are numbers that deserve a serious response.
Sarah Colgan - Founder of Project All Rise
What does it actually offer schools?
From today, educators can register at www.projectallrise.com to join the founding group of schools. Registration gives immediate access to a taster film and a place at the first Project All Rise Live event, which takes place on 20th May 2026, co-hosted with Clare, Navan and Tralee Education Centres.
Project All Rise Bitesize is the self-paced, short-form film-based content designed to slot into real school life, and it's set to begin with the new school year in September 2026. Season One is free to access, made possible through the initiative's sponsorship model and its Access Ally partners, which include Distilled (the company behind Adverts, Daft.ie and DoneDeal) and MML Ireland.
Official sponsors include EY as Futures Sponsor, SumUp as Value of Diversity Sponsor and Irish Life as Wellbeing Sponsor. Their support is what makes the free access model work, at least for this first season.
The response from educators who've already had early access to the content has been striking. Of over 400 educators who engaged with pre-launch material, 95% said they want more. 96% said they felt more inspired to take action in supporting neurodiversity at their school. And 100 or more schools are already on a waiting list.
Why this matters for your child's school
As a parent, you don't need to be told that every child processes the world differently. You see it every morning on the school run, the child who thrives on routine, the one who struggles with noise, the one who needs a moment longer to transition between tasks. Whether your child is neurodivergent or not, they share a classroom with children who are, and the way their teacher understands and responds to that shapes everything.
Susan O'Donoghue, principal of Ballygown National School in Cork, put it plainly: "I am a principal in a small, rural school with increasing additional needs and decreasing resources. This is where Project All Rise came in. It would have taken months of reading for each staff member to access all that information. The most valuable resource I have encountered in a long time."
Eileen Pike, principal of Tullyallen National School in Drogheda, which has over 400 pupils and three special classes, said engaging with the films was "a powerful experience" for her staff, and that she believes Project All Rise will provide an invaluable resource for stimulating professional conversations and enhancing schools' approaches to neuroinclusive classrooms.
The framework underpinning Project All Rise is called RISE: Relationships, Inclusive Culture, Spaces and Expectations. It was developed through a scoping review of peer-reviewed academic literature and refined through consultation with 30 school leaders, so while the content feels accessible and human, the foundations are genuinely solid.
If this is something you'd like to see in your child's school, the best starting point is sharing the website with your principal or the teachers you know. Registration is open now, Season One is free, and the initiative is actively welcoming schools to join the founding group.
