General Information:
Staffing Changes- Every Spring, the Department of Education issues the Staffing Schedule to schools. This document essentially dictates the number of mainstream class teachers we will have to teach the children for the following year and is based on pupil numbers in the school along with the current Pupil-Teacher Ratio. Due to a decline in our pupil numbers and failure to reduce the Pupil-Teacher Ratio over the last two consecutive Budgets, our mainstream teaching staff will be reduced by one teacher next September. We will continue to have 2 full time Learning Support teachers. This means that we will have 7 class teachers to teach 8 classes. Unfortunately, this is completely outside of our control and it is worth bearing in mind that decisions taken at Government level directly impact upon the everyday education of our children. The logistics of this will be communicated to the relevant parents early in June.
First Penance– Congratulations to the pupils of Second Class who received the Sacrament of First Penance recently. It was a beautiful ceremony and the children are now busy preparing for their First Holy Communion which will take place in May.
Aladdin Frame & X- We have made the decision that we will no longer be using the platform X to share school news and photographs. Going forward, each class teacher will send out a monthly update of pictures showing activities for their class throughout that month using Aladdin Frame.
Handball Wall- A huge thank you to the Templeudigan Handball Club who erected a new handball wall for us over the mid-term break and donated lots of balls for us to get started with! This is a great addition to the school and we are delighted to have Micheál O’Neill coaching pupils from 1st to 6th class on the skills of the sport.
Re-Turn- We were delighted to support the Rathnure Community Development Group to raise funds for the new Reflective Garden by holding a Re-Turn bottle drive in the school. Thank you to all those who brought in bottles and in the end, we managed to fill four full bins!
School Committees:
Student Council– Book Swap Shop & Dress Like a Book Character Day – March 28th!
Our Student Council are excited to be hosting a Book Swap Shop on March 28th, coinciding with our Dress Like a Book Character Day! Students are encouraged to bring in a book suitable for their age group to exchange for a new read. This is a great opportunity to share books and celebrate our love for reading. Please bring in books for the book swap by Wednesday 26th March! Don’t forget to come dressed as your favourite book character! We can’t wait to see everyone’s creativity and participation!
Green Schools– The Green Schools committee is continuing to collect old batteries as part of the WEEE Ireland recycling initiative. Please keep bringing them in as we could be in with a chance to win a fantastic cash prize for our school!
We’re also delighted to see so many wonderful entries for the upcycling competition. A huge thank you to everyone who took part.
This March has been a busy one for our Green Schools team! We’ve been hard at work planting a wonderful variety of vegetables and flowers around the school. Keep an eye out over the coming weeks as our seeds begin to sprout and blossom.
Sport:
Rackard League/Mini 7’s
Camogie- Well done to the Rackard League Camogie team who won both of their games beating Horeswood and Cushinstown and now contest the Roinn A closing stages of the competition. They will play Blackwater in the quarter final stage next week..
Hurling-Well done to the Rackard League Hurling team who also progress to the quarter finals stage of the competition beating Ferns, Bunclody and Cushinstown. More details on this will follow
The Mini-7’s competition starts off next week and we are looking forward to some competitive games ahead!
Curriculum Information:
Basketball Court- We are currently in the process of creating a new basketball court and hoops. The Active Committee along with the 6th class pupils and Mr. Wright have been busy measuring, calculating, planning and digging over the last few days and we look forward to seeing the final result!
Science– 6th class completed a two day workshop from the Marine Institute. On day one we explored the seas around Ireland that we are responsible for. Eoin our tutor also gave a great presentation about squid and set us a list of jobs to complete including a project on squid. During the second visit we presented our projects and then got to dissect our own squid! It was a great experience and we learned a lot about squid and how science dissection works!
Parents Association:
The Parents’ Association are holding the annual Easter Raffle again this year. Raffle cards have been sent home with the oldest in each family and your support is greatly appreciated.
Dates for your diary
- Friday 11th April– School will close at 3pm for the Easter holidays. The school will reopen on Monday 28th April.
- Friday 3rd May- School will close at 12pm to facilitate staff training in new Anti-Bullying procedures.
- Saturday 17th May 2025- First Holy Communion @11am in Rathnure.
Staff Email:
| Class | Teacher | |
| Junior Infants | Ms. Úna Hayden | uhaydenrns@gmail.com |
| Senior Infants | Ms. Susan Stafford | sstaffordrns@gmail.com |
| First Class | Ms. Lisa Murphy & Ms. Rachel Bradley | 1stclassteacherrns@gmail.com |
| Second Class | Ms. Eimear O’Connor | eoconnorrns@gmail.com |
| Third Class | Ms. Michelle Doyle | mdoylerns@gmail.com |
| Fourth Class | Ms. Ciara Banville | cbanvillerns@gmail.com |
| Fifth Class | Ms. Róisín Murphy | ramurphyrns@gmail.com |
| Sixth Class | Mr. Dean Wright | dwrightrns@gmail.com |
| SEN | Ms. Sinéad Doyle | sdoylerns@gmail.com |
| SEN | Ms. Leanne Hore | lhorerns@gmail.com |
| Principal | Ms. Alice Keogh | akeoghrns@gmail.com |
| Secretary | Ms. Clodagh McDonald | info@rathnurens.ie |
