News
We now have our idonate up and running. Caheragh National School is a registered charity. If you are in a generous mood and feel like donating to our school then click on the idonate icon
Our final clothing collection of this school year takes place in the school on Monday, May 19th. We encourage you all to spread the word to grandparents, family, neighbours and friends who would like to spring clean their wardrobes. Please have all bags of clothes in to the school by 9.30am on that day. They accept all unwanted clothes, paired shoes, bags, belts, household linen, towels, blankets and soft toys. Please note that phones, books, cds, dvs, pillows and duvets are NO LONGER ACCEPTED. The money raised will go towards funding educational resources and sports equipment for the school. As always, thank you for your generous support with these collections.
The school is closing for the Easter holidays on Friday, April 11th at 12 noon and re-opens on Monday, April 28th. Enjoy the break.
Gymnastics with Ms. Anais O'Donovan will commence on Tuesday, April 1st for all classes. These classes will run for 6 weeks.
Swimming lessons for 2nd - 6th classes will start on March 26th. These will run for 6 weeks at Dunmanway Swimming Pool.
Rock Your Socks event for World Down Syndrome day is on March 21st. This date represents the three copies of Chromosome 21, which define Down Syndrome. We are asking everyone to wear your brightest, most colourful, funky mismatched socks to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day 2024. #rockyoursocks #wdsd24#worlddownsyndromeday
The school is closed on Monday, March 17th for the St. Patrick's Day.
The school closes for mid-term on Wednesday, February 20th and re-opens on Monday, February 24th. Enjoy the break.
The annual Credit Union Quiz will take place in Skibbereen Community School on Friday, February 7th at 6.30pm. More details to follow.
The school is closed for St. Brigid's Day Bank Holiday on Monday, February 3rd.
We have received some wonderful news here in Caheragh NS. Our Active School status has been renewed for another 3 years.
Well done to all the boys and girls for their hard work maintaining this award. A special word of thanks to our Active School Committee: Allie, Bríd, Luke, Tomás, Charlie, Conor O’S, Conor CJ, Lily, Donnacha and Cara and to our Active School Coordinator: Mrs Foley for all their fantastic work.
The school will close for the Christmas holidays at 12noon on Friday, December 20th. School will re-open on Monday, January 6th.
Our school draw took place this afternoon. Congratulations to the winners of our raffle listed below:
- Abigail O'Sullivan
- Tiarnán Hamilton
- Zach Casey
- Peggy O'Sullivan
- Holly Connolly-Jeffrey
- Charlie Murphy
- Luke Kingston
- Carmel O'Donovan
- Rosie Kingston
- Luke Kingston
- Eilish Dempsey
- Conor O'Sullivan
- Fionn O'Driscoll
Thank you to all who bought tickets and/or donated prizes! €684 in total was raised. A massive thank you to our Parent Association for all their hard work.
Tickets for our mega Christmas Raffle will go on sale from Wednesday, December 12th. Tickets can be purchased from the school. €2 per strip and 3 strips for €5. We have some amazing hampers up for grabs. A massive thank you to all who donated to the hampers and an even bigger thank you to Sonata for putting them together.
A massive thank you to all who donated to our recent Pyjama Day in aid of West Cork Rapid Response. A cheque for €559 is winging its way to them as we type. A huge thank you to our 6th class for organising the day which was enjoyed by all.
We will be having our Christmas Concert on December 20th at 11.15am in The Church of the Holy Family. Everybody is welcome to attend. each classroom will be performing a few songs/poems etc. followed by some whole school group numbers to finish. We hope that it will be a lovely, happy event to kick off the Christmas holidays.
Our Enrolment Day for Junior Infants 2025, will take place on Wednesday, December 11th from 2-3pm. Fliers will be distributed to pupils in Bright Beginnings but if any parent is looking for an enrolment form, please contact the school 02831647 or caheraghns@gmail.com.
Fr. O'Donovan invites families and children of all ages to bring along the decoration/bauble that they made in school to hang on the Christmas tree in the church during mass on Sunday, December 8th as part of the Children's Christmas Mass.
The children from second class have enrolled their names to receive their First Holy Communion this year. Charlie Murphy, Michael O'Donovan, Liam Óg Glanville, Martynas Lukse, Aoibhinn O'Sullivan, Lily Mortimer, Laura Murray, Johnny Mortimer, Colm Bohane and Charlie O'Sullivan who will journey with them.
We are having a pyjama day in aid of West Cork Rapid Response on Friday, December 6th. We encourage everyone to come to school in their PJs (but maybe wear leggings or something warm underneath to combat the cold on the yard!). The 6th Class pupils will be organising lots of fun activities for the pupils in all classes. All donations received on the day will be lodged directly into the WCRR bank account.
Our fantastic parent association are organising a Christmas raffle to fund raise for the school. Any donations for hampers can be dropped to the school. We really appreciate your support with this. Tickets for the raffle will be on sale in December. More information on this will follow later.
We are having a used clothes collection on Thursday, December 5th. All bags of clothes/bedding/shoes/bags etc. can be dropped to the school in advance of this date. Thank you so much for your continued support. All money raised will go towards funding educational resources and shared toys for the school.
The school is closed on Friday, November 29th, as the school is used as a polling station.
We had a very successful Team Hope Shoe Box Appeal this year. Thanks to all who donated online and show boxes to this very worthy appeal. We collected 42 boxes. Well done.
A huge well done to our quiz team of Charlie, Bríd, Luke and Allie who took part in the Library Quiz in Skibbereen Library on Monday, November 19th. Some tough questions but you did yourselves and the school proud. A massive congratulations to the winners (Rath NS) and the runners up (Leap NS).
Science Week took place from November 10th - 17th. We had a busy week in Caheragh NS conducting experiments on density, growing gummy bear experiment and butter making to name a few. The Senior Room did salt art for Science Week.
Drama classes with Ms. Karen Coppinger will start for all classes on November 7th. These classes will run for four weeks.
The school is closed for mid-term break from Monday, October 28th - Friday, November 1st inclusive. The school re-opens on Monday November 4th.
The Junior Room, have recently signed up to the Picker Pals programme (primarily a 1st & 2nd class programme). Picker Pals is an environmental action programme for primary school children, their families, schools and communities. It seeks to develop children’s awareness and community responsibility around the issue of litter.
The active part of Picker Pals involves children taking it in turns to bring home the “Picker Pack”. We were very lucky to receive our beautiful recycled "Picker Pack" containing adult and child picker-uppers, gloves, hi-vis vests, Safety Information and rubbish bags. This pack contains all the tools needed to do a short litter-pick with a parent or other trusted adult. This can be as short as 5-10 minutes and take place in a park, beach, green, playground or woods. The idea is not to clean up the whole neighbourhood but to pick up a few items of litter and engage in conversation around the issue of littering. Thus, Picker Pals seeks to encourage children to participate in and lead change in their own families and local areas, and by extension join a community of environmentally aware people, and hopefully leading to a lifetime of positive environmental action. Most importantly however, both adults and children should enjoy the activity and the feeling of being part of the solution together. Please see the gallery for photos of our first class picking litter in their community.
The Senior Classroom went to the West Cork Hotel on Wednesday, October 23rd to attend a very informative Bible Exhibition. They really enjoyed it and found it very interesting.
On October 22nd Mrs. Clíona Paterson called to the school for story time in the Junior room. The children were enthralled listening to her reading 'Winnie the Witch', 'Room on the Broom' and 'Halloween Surprise'. She also talked about the different Hallowe'en traditions in Ireland and America.
Congratulations to the pupils in fourth, fifth and sixth classes who finished Maths Week at the top of the leader board in the Junior Target Boards Maths Challenge 2024. What a huge achievement to compete against hundreds of schools in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and come up with 11,623 sums throughout the week.
Fr. Ben recently called to the school where he enacted a drama of the Last Supper with the Middle Room. The children really enjoyed it.
Maths Week is in full swing this week. It is an initiative promoting positive attitudes towards maths and highlighting the importance of maths in our lives. The Senior room are taking part in the Target Board Challenge again this year.
Due to the adverse weather conditions, our Flag day had to be cancelled from 2pm onwards on Saturday, October 5th. Thanks to all the parents and staff who braved the weather on Saturday morning. Any person who wishes to make a donation to the fundraiser may do so using the link above. Click on the idonate icon.
Tin whistle lessons are starting on Monday, October 14th with Mr. Tom O'Sullivan. These classes will run for 6 weeks.
Our new Parent Association of Caheragh National School is as follows:
Chairperson: Sonata Dilbe
Deputy Chairperson: Eoin Murphy
Secretary: Trish Kingston
Deputy Secretary: Agne Pink
Treasurer: Nicola Hourihane
Deputy Treasurer: Christine Murnane
The first event planned by the Parent Association this year is the annual Flag Day in Skibbereen. This will take place on Saturday, October 5th. As is done every year, each family and staff member will be assigned a location and a one-hour timeslot on the rota. If you are not available to cover that slot, you may contact other parents to see if they are willing to switch. If you are unavailable that day to cover any slot, perhaps a grandparent/uncle/aunt/older sibling would be available to cover it for you. Once you have been assigned a slot, it is your responsibility to get it covered. This is the fairest way we have found to do this fundraiser where every family and staff member plays their part to support the school.
All funds raised will go towards the purchase of new playground equipment for the school. Please see our idonate link/icon is at the top of this page if you would rather donate online.
On Thursday, September 26th, we had a visit from three volunteers from West Cork Rapid Response, Mrs. Betty Hennessy, Ms. Kate Crowley and Mr. Liam Slattery. It is an entirely voluntary group working in partnership with and supporting the existing HSE National Ambulance Services. It was set up 14 years ago and saved numerous lives since then. The children learned about all the equipment onboard and the importance of fundraising to keep this wonderful service on the road. Also the importance of having the family home Eircode displayed in a prominent place around your home and to memorise it. In an emergency call 999 or 112.
Congratulations to our U10 girls, Vivienne, Gabriele, Isobel, Katie, Eve, Hannah and Anna who played on the winning Tadgh MacCarthaigh team at the recent Eilish Collins U10 Memorial Blitz. Well done girls.
Caheragh N.S. Parent Association AGM
Tuesday 24th September 2024 at 7.30pm in the school. Come to get to know more about being part of your school community. It would be fantastic if each of the 35 families in our school was represented by at least one parent at the meeting.
We look forward to seeing you all next Tuesday!
The Parent Association Committee.
Another new school year has arrived so welcome back to all our pupils. A very special welcome to our nine new Junior Infants: Eimear, Hannah, Rhiannon, Alice, Hannah, Cillian, Ruby, Maura and Eoin. We hope you will have eight very happy years here with us in Caheragh NS. We would also like to welcome Charlie who joined sixth class.
Closure for Maths Curriculum Training Day
The school will be closed on October 3rd as the staff will be attending a mandatory training day on the new Primary Maths Curriculum in Dunmanway.
Note and permission slips
Please check your child’s bag daily for any notes or permission slips from the school. These cannot be sent by email as they usually require a parent’s signature.
Homework
Please check over your child’s homework daily to ensure they have completed it, especially the learning work. Please also encourage your child to complete their work neatly, using the appropriate pencils/pens as this helps foster and develop good practice for later life. Once you have checked over the homework, please sign their homework journal. This also applies to children attending Curious Minds Afterschool as we are finding that the homework is not always completed in its entirety.
Uniform
We have been noticing that some children are coming to school wearing the incorrect uniform. The school does not own the copyright to the school crest and any use of an iron on crest is in breach of the copyright with the owners of the crest design (Tragumna Knitwear and Designs and Signs Bantry). Furthermore, our school jumper has a mustard stripe around the collar which makes it stand out and showcases our school colours. Plain black jumpers are NOT part of our uniform and were only a short-term, hygiene measure allowed during the pandemic.
The tie must be worn at all times (except on PE days).
Our PE uniform is a plain navy sweatshirt/hoodie and tracksuit pants and must be not display any brand/logo.
The majority of our uniform (grey trousers/skirt/pinafore, white polo shirt, white shirt, PE uniform) can be purchased very cheaply in Penneys/Tesco/Aldi/Lidl/Dunnes etc, leaving only the correct school jumper and tie to be purchased in Skibbereen.
Pupils may wear any shoes they feel comfortable in but we would advise they wear runners as they give them better grip and stability when running in the yard at breaktimes. The shoes can be whatever colour you wish.
Upcoming events and activities
This school year we will continue our work towards maintaining and achieving our Green Flag, Active Flag, Health Promoting Flag, STEM award, Cinealtas Award and Amber Flag.
Our Senior Room will be taking part in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme so keep your eyes peeled for updates on that!
Tin Whistle for 2nd to 6th Classes will continue this year with Tom O’Sullivan so please ensure your child (in these classes) has a ‘D’ tin whistle and a display folder for notes.
As part of the Say Yes To Languages Programme and in preparation for the new foreign language element to the Primary Curriculum coming on-stream in the next few years, 2nd to 6th classes will be learning French for 1 hour per week with Trish Elwood for 10 weeks starting on Tuesday, 1st of October.
In the 2nd/ 3rd Term, all pupils will be having gymnastics classes with Anais O’Donovan for 6 weeks. These classes will commence on Tuesday, April 1st. Also in this term, 2nd to 6th will be having 6 weeks of swimming lessons in Dunmanway, starting on Wednesday, March 26th.
Eugene Daly will be coming to the school to teach GAA skills to all pupils on Friday, September 20th at 9.30am.
We will continue to take part in Maths Week, World Book Day, dressing up for Halloween, designing our own Christmas Cards, hosting our Christmas Concert in Caheragh Church, having a pyjama day organised by the 6th class (to raise money for a worthwhile charity), Cork Primary Sports, Sciath na Scol and many more events that we will keep you informed of throughout the year.
Parent Association
Our Parent Association will be organising their annual Flag Day in Skibbereen on Saturday October 5th. Each family will be given a one hour time slot to cover on that day. Further details of this will be handed out nearer to the time.
School Garden
We are happy to tell you that there has been huge progress in the development of our school garden.
Last April, we applied for a community fund grant to do up our garden. We received confirmation that we would be receiving the grant in June. Patrick Crowley has been doing a wonderful job over the last number of weeks, digging out the old wilderness of a garden, extending it, fencing it, creating 3 raised beds (one for each classroom) and is now beginning to pave the pathways around it so it will be accessible for all. We already have some fruit trees in place and will also have a clover meadow to encourage biodiversity. We cannot wait to show you the finished project when it is complete!
It is shaping up to be another busy year here in Caheragh NS but as always, if you ever need to speak to any of the staff about any issue that may arise, please feel free to make contact with us during school hours and we will be happy to help you as best we can.
We hope you all have a wonderful year!
Anyone wishing to enrol a child in Caheragh N.S. for 2024 please contact the principal, Ms. Mary-T. Minehane at 028-31647