At St. Paul’s National School, we are always striving to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for all our students. We are thrilled to share an exciting new addition to our school grounds: communication boards that have been placed at key locations around the school grounds. These boards are designed to support both speaking and non-speaking pupils in expressing themselves and engaging with others.

Sourced from the renowned company Charlie’s Voice, these communication boards are a valuable tool for fostering communication, independence, and inclusivity. Charlie’s Voice specializes in creating visual communication aids, and we couldn’t be more delighted with the quality and functionality of the boards we’ve installed.

The communication boards feature clear, easy-to-understand symbols and images, allowing students to express their needs, thoughts, and ideas in a way that is accessible to everyone. They serve as a bridge for our non-speaking and minimally verbal students, enabling them to interact with their peers, teachers, and staff in a meaningful way.

The impact of these communication boards has been immediate and heart-warming. In particular, our students from the two autism classes have expressed great joy in using the boards. It’s been inspiring to see how the boards have sparked conversations and helped our pupils feel more connected to the community around them.

The installation of these communication boards is part of our ongoing commitment to promoting inclusion and communication across the entire school. We believe that every student deserves the chance to be understood, and these boards are a fantastic step forward in making that happen.

We look forward to seeing the continued positive impact of the communication boards, and we are excited about the future possibilities for helping our students connect and thrive in our school community.

Best of luck to our boys ‘and girls’ basketball teams as they begin this year’s Meath basketball tournament. We think you’ll agree they look like quite the pros in the new basketball kits. These are with thanks to you our parents for your recent donations on our Movie Day before Christmas and also to Complete Office Equipment for sponsoring the jerseys.

Ms. Begley and Ms. Burke’s children have started horse-riding lessons and as you can see from the pictures below they’re having great fun! 

We had 2 teams take place in the Ashbourne Credit Union School Quiz in the Pillo Hotel in Ashbourne on Monday, the 10th of February. The Junior Team (Kaiden, Jacob, Evan and Senan) came 2nd out of the 8 teams in their category and the Senior Team (Cara, Conor, Niamh, Alexa and Patricia) came 3rd out of the 8 teams in their category. Please see pictures of both teams below – including their trophy presentations on the night. Comhghairdeas leis an dá fhoireann!

There was great excitement in the school on Thursday when we had a visit from Santa himself! 

Congratulations to all of the athletes who competed in a Cross Country event in Fairyhouse in November. We had some wonderful individual and team performances on the day. Well done to all involved. 

The residents of Ratoath Manor were treated to a wonderful performance from the school choir this week. The choir performed a selection of classic tunes and a few Christmas favourites too. There was a lovely atmosphere in the room full of smiles and good cheer. 
Huge thanks to Ms. Gogan, Ms. Nangle, Ms. Kieran and all of the students in the choir. It was a memorable day for all. 

The Student Council are absolutely delighted to say that our LEGO Drive was a massive success thanks to you all. It’s so nice to see a new generation of children playing with old LEGO that was once loved by someone else.

We raised awareness by putting up posters around the school and going around the classes asking for any old LEGO. We also mentioned the LEGO drive at Assembly. Once we got all the LEGO we were amazed by how much we received. We sorted all the LEGO into many boxes and that almost took 2 days! We divided all the LEGO between all the classes and started to hand them out. When we brought the new LEGO to the classes the children looked like they were opening their presents on Christmas morning! They were so happy .

Now on rainy days when we can’t go out on the yard the children will have lots of LEGO to keep them busy. So we just wanted to say thank you all so much. This wouldn’t have been accomplished without all your support.

Kind Regards,
Student Council.