Help Us Build Our Play Collection!

St. Paul’s National School is developing a collection of high-quality, open-ended play and learning resources for children across the school. We are looking for new or gently used items in excellent, complete condition that encourage children to build, create, imagine, problem-solve and play together. We are particularly interested in magnetic tiles, building and construction sets, vehicles, animal and people figures, role-play resources, puzzles, threading and fine-motor activities, small-world play, resources, games and story props.
As a Green School, this is also a wonderful opportunity to give good-quality toys and resources a second life, helping to reduce waste while providing valuable learning opportunities for our children. We welcome suitable donations for both younger and senior classes. Please note that we are unable to accept broken, incomplete or unsuitable items, and we are not looking for electronic toys, devices, teddies, dolls houses or play kitchens.
Donations can be dropped into the school hall on Thursday 1st or Friday 2nd October, from 8:15–9:00am or 1:40–3:00pm. A member of staff or the Parents’ Association will be there to welcome you. Donations are completely voluntary, and every suitable item, large or small, will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you to our wonderful school community and Parents’ Association for supporting this initiative and helping us create richer opportunities for our children to learn, play and grow!

Thank you to the parents / guardians who took part in the recent nationwide Primary School Survey conducted by the Department of Education and Youth. The purpose of this survey was to find out the type of school that parents / guardians prefer. The three areas of preference that were investigated were 1. Co-educational or single sex; 2. Patronage / ethos and 3. Language. Attached is the preference results for parents / guardians of children currently in our school and the second part is preference results for parents / guardian of children not yet enrolled who indicated an intention to enrol in our school.

As part of this research parents are welcome to give feedback on the survey results. Please send any comments or feedback to us at office@stpaulsratoath.ie by the 30th of September.

Survey results can be viewed here.

Well done to our new Junior Infants as they settle into life in St. Paul’s. They have been exploring the Outdoor Play area, constructed earlier this year. Jobs like building huts, dens and houses, climbing trees, cooking in the mud kitchen and showing off their digging skills to Friday’s visitors from 2nd Class, were all sorted out! Maith sibh!

Have a look at the video below of our new 3D printer in action. 

We are absolutely delighted to announce that, through our recent Re-turn Drive in May and June, our wonderful school community raised an incredible €628.05! 

A huge thank you to all of our families and members of the St. Paul’s community who got behind the initiative and returned their cans and bottles to our orange bins. Your fantastic response shows what can be achieved when we all work together.

As promised, the money raised has already been put towards new IT and STEM equipment for our school, including exciting resources such as micro bits and a 3D printer. We are already looking forward to seeing the children explore, create, problem-solve and bring their ideas to life using this new technology!

Mr Duffy already has some amazing ideas for how our children will get to experience and use this equipment, so we can’t wait to see where their creativity takes them.

Keep an eye on our website for STEM and IT in action in St. Paul’s! We look forward to sharing examples of the wonderful learning and creativity that will come from these new resources.

We are also incredibly grateful to our amazing Parents’ Association and our outgoing Green Schools and IT Committees, who worked collaboratively to make this initiative possible. David our caretaker worked tirelessly to make sure our bins were available to families as well as keeping us updated when they needed to be emptied! Thank you also to Ms. Begley for over seeing the drive and ensuring it all ran smoothly. Their time, energy and commitment have helped us take another exciting step towards bringing IT and STEM learning to life in St. Paul’s.

Every bottle and can really did make a difference!

Keep an eye out for details of our next Re-turn Drive — and once again, a heartfelt thank you to you, our school community, for making this happen.

Together, we are helping to make St. Paul’s an even more creative, innovative and sustainable place to learn! 

Have a look at our photos here for a sneak peek of how the children are enjoying the 3D printer so far!! More experiences and photos to come!