Our vision is to develop the skills and character in every pupil empowering them to meet, with assured confidence, the challenges of life now and in the future.
We actively promote the values of responsibility, perseverance, kindness, honesty and fairness.
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Our mission is to provide a model of primary education that reflects Ireland in the 21st Century. We celebrate the uniqueness of each child as expressed in each child’s personality, intelligence and potential for holistic development. We are committed to:
helping pupils develop a lively enquiring mind,
developing a sense of fair play, tolerance and respect towards other people and their views,
creating a happy, stimulating and creative environment where children are keen to learn,
developing a school in which the members of the community have confidence and feel welcome,
providing high quality learning opportunities for all.
SCHEDULE OF A CATHOLIC SCHOOL
As a Roman Catholic School (which was established in connection with the Minister), Caherea National School aims at promoting the full and harmonious development of all aspects of the person of the pupil: intellectual, physical, cultural, moral and spiritual, including a living relationship with God and with other people. The school models and promotes a philosophy of life inspired by belief in God and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Catholic school provides religious education for the pupils in accordance with the doctrines, practices and tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and promotes the formation of the pupils in the Catholic Faith.
In the spring of 2023, percussion artist, Brian Fleming, introduced the school to the world of drums. The pupils learned West African rhythms on drums that came from a host of different countries. These included bougarabou, djembe, bongo and cajon drums. We also learned all about our traditional drum, the bodhrán, and learnt some rhythms and songs using this instrument. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the experience and performed their rhythms and songs at our 60th anniversary celebration in May.
Thank you to the Clare Arts Council and the Artist In Schools Scheme for facilitating the project.
School Mosaic
In early 2022, Clare artist, Nathalie El Baba, spent several weeks with the pupils of the school designing and creating the most amazing mosaics for our school. We were one of only 400 primary and post-primary schools nationwide to be selected for this BLAST: Arts In Education initiative.
The pupils drew inspiration from the beautiful stained-glass window in Our Lady of the Wayside Church in Lissycasey to create their own artistic heritage of the area at this time. Themes centred around the community, the environment, music and sport and the pupils worked in teams to create their own mosaic pieces for the overall project.
Nathalie taught the pupils all the skills of working with mosaics and also gave us a special treat of working with glass, where the pupils got to create their very own pendants. It was a wonderful initiative to be involved in and adds another bright and welcoming element of creativity to our ever developing school.
Junior Yard Mural
In June 2021, the school received a burst of colour and vibrancy. Local artist, Marie Connole, came to the school and helped the pupils paint an incredible mural on the front wall of our school yard.
In January and February the design process took place. All of the pupils brainstormed ideas and Marie came up with a number of potential designs. The pupils gave their feedback on these and the overall design was decided upon. It included elements of their hobbies and interests, historical elements of the community and images from the day-to-day lives of the pupils.
We are so thrilled with the outcome. It provides such a welcoming presence to the school and is the first topic of conversation for all who visit.
In Caherea National School, we are delighted to accept all applications for enrolment. We enjoy welcoming new families and pupils to our wonderful school and making them feel part of our community.
Our Admissions Policy and Enrolment Forms can be found below. Please feel free to contact the school if you have any queries. You can reach us by email at principal.cahereans@gmail.com or by phone on 065 683402.
We have a fantastic before and after school club in Caherea National School. The service is run by Sinead Dillon who has over ten years experience working in childcare.
The service begins at 8:00 and ends each school day at 18:00. The children do a wide variety of activities including art, sports, games and homework. A snack is also provided and the children really enjoy attending the service.
For all queries, please contact Sinead on 086 1079888.
Congratulations to our two pupils who represented Caherea in the Interschools Showjumping Competition. The arrived back with medals and rosettes after a very successful day!
The pupils of Caherea National School love playing basketball. We train after school in January and February in preparation for the Marion Keane tournament in Spring. Each year we take part in this tournament playing other schools in Clare. In recent years, we have won our blitzes and qualified for the latter stages of the competition. The boys and girls really enjoying playing and represent the school with such pride. As always, a big thank you to all those who make the tournament possible.
The school is very proud of all those who represent us in the Cumann na mBunscol and Parish Football competitions. The boys and girls teams do very well each year and represent the school superbly. We always have a large participation from all the children. It was wonderful to see them all enjoying being active and playing as a team.
Cusack Park Cumann na mBunscol Finals
In recent years, we have joined forces with Clondrinagh N.S. and Ballynacally N.S. for the Cumann na mBunscol games and have achieved some great success. In the past number of years we have had both boys’ and girls’ teams represent the school in the Cumann na mBunscol finals in Cusack Park. They are wonderful occasions and a great opportunity for the whole school to attend to support their team. A huge congratulations to the girls’ football team who won their final in a thrilling match and brought the first ever Cumann na mBunscol cup back to our school.
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Parish Football
During the summer term, the Parish Football competition takes place. The four schools in the parish join for the boys’ and girls’ competitions. There has been tremendous success in recent years with both teams winning the competition outright. There is always great excitement amongst the players and supporters as future stars are on show for all to see.
The children in Caherea really enjoy playing soccer at lunch breaks and we get involved in soccer tournaments organised by the FAI. The participation-only futsal blitz was a great tournament to include everyone in soccer and has been enjoyed by our girls’ and boys’ teams. The Primary 5-a-side Games is a competition that our pupils look forward to and did very well to get past the first round in recent years. Well done to everyone who takes part!
Science Blast is an excellent science project that the Senior Room take part in on a regular basis. It challenges them to take on a scientific investigation to answer a question that was puzzling them. They hypothesize possible solutions, undertake investigations and come up with results and conclusion that are all presented in May at the Science Blast exhibition in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. It is a tremendous event to be involved in and we will be back again in the future!! In previous years, they have figured out why the Senior Room is so much older than the Junior Room, and also managed to build their very own self-propelled vehicles from recycled materials.
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Junior Entrepreneur Programme
Every couple of years we take part in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme. The pupils come up with their own business proposals, meet local entrepreneurs, decide on a product and, ultimately, create their own business. The business involves the creation, marketing and selling of their chosen product. In recent years the pupils have sold room signs and created their very own vegan hot chocolate kits. These wonderfully businesses were a great success. The pupils really enjoy the whole process of the JEP programme and learn a great deal from the experience.
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Climate Action In Primary Schools
In October 2020, the pupils in the senior class took part in the CAPS project. Artist, Evelyn Sorohan, with the assistance of STEAM Ireland and Clare Education Centre put together a fabulous programme that taught the pupils all about climate change through practical activities and art. The project ran over ZOOM for a course of six weeks and the pupils thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Some pupils completed art projects to show their view of climate change while the class built a village of the future that included a small wind farm, solar powered vehicles, homes and farms of the future and a shelter for endangered animals.
History Project
Thanks to our local priest Fr. Joe, the pupils embarked on an incredible journey learning all about the amazing stained-glass window in our local church. The pupils contacted people involved in building the church and had a visit from the church’s architect. The untangled the meaning behind the images which gave them an insight into the heritage of the area at that time. They then created their own mosaics to reflect a modern heritage of the area which can now be seen on the school wall. They created a wonderful video to showcase all of their work.
STEPS Young Engineers Award
We love trying to build and make things in Caherea. The STEPS Award challenges pupils to come up with engineering solutions to local problems. Pupils have to identify a problem and then plan and create their solution. We have had environmental solutions such as litter picking drones and energy generating playgrounds, while solar powered tractors and wind, hydro and solar powered cars which aim to reduce pollution in our areas. Recent ideas of speed sensing traffic lights and emergency wrist bands for the elderly are further solutions to some of our local problems. Watch this space!!
Fiddle with Music Generation
We have been fortunate to have taken part in the West Clare Strings Programme with Music Generation for the past few years. The pupils receive a 25 week block of fiddle lessons and it has been wonderful to see their musical talents blossom. They are allowed to take home their fiddles each week to practice and did a wonderful performance at our 60th anniversary celebration.
French with Primary Languages
We have been selected for the Primary Languages Initiative for past number of years. Pupils receive a 6 week block of lessons with our French tutor Rhona Gomez. Their French has improved so much over the years and has given some a real boost before taking up the language in secondary school.
Seashore Safari
Thanks to the Marine Institute of Ireland, the pupils of Caherea had a wonderful day on White Strand investigating marine life. We found so many different creatures and learnt so much about the importance of protecting our marine habitats. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the sand castle competition too!
We have a fantastic time during Maths Week every year. The children really enjoy all the puzzles and challenges that they were tasked with. We do morning challenges, maths relays in PE, puzzle sessions and a fun maths trail. The children also went all out taking very creative photographs for our Extreme Maths competition.
Well done to all of our young mathematicians!!
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Seachtain na Gaeilge
Seachtain na Gaeilge gives us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our Irish culture and use our Gaeilge throughout the week. Each year, we have a lively Céilí with lots of singing and dancing, and a tense Tráth na gCeist that all the pupils enjoy. Bainimid an-taitneamh as an tseachtain!
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Active Week
The school becomes alive during our annual Active Week held in June. We have running and skipping challenges, lots of dancing, extra games on yard and, the highlight, Sports Day. The novelty races are always a joy to watch while the competitive team challenges make sure that everyone works up a great sweat. The day finishes with the staff/parents v sixth class basketball match.
We are very fortunate to have such an active community in Caherea and this week is a celebration of all that!
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World Book Day
We love books in Caherea and celebrate World Book Day every year. The pupils share their favourite books with one another and some years we dress up as our favourite characters. The Book Fair also generates great excitement when it comes to Caherea.
Christmas Week
Christmas is an exciting time in Caherea as we have our Christmas Concert, a Christmas Jumper Day and some other fun activity. There is a real buzz around the school as the pupils prepare for their performances and it is wonderful when the school community comes together to see all of their hard work.
Caherea National School 