As Principal I am very proud of the friendly and supportive environment that we have created here in St. Patrick’s National School. 

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We see examples everyday of confident, kind and imaginative children working well together within their school and local community. 

Each child is valued and encouraged by our team to explore and develop their own personal and academic skills. 

My primary role as Deputy Principal is to support Ms Harper in the daily organisation and supervision of the school’s activities in addition to specific administrative and pastoral responsibilities. I am the teacher nominee to the Board of Management and Deputy Designated Liaison Person for Child Protection and Welfare. 

 I co-ordinate Learning Support and Special Needs Education in our school. I have a long teaching career and have experience teaching as a class teacher at all levels from Infants to 6th Class. For the last 10 years, I have taught mainly in the area of Learning Support, earning a Graduate Diploma in Special Education in 2016. As head of Learning Support, I co-ordinate the caseloads of the Learning Support Team. We have 5 SET teachers, and we work closely with the class teachers in tailoring the support given to each class and to individuals. St Patrick’s also have 5 SNAs who provide a vital support to the specific children under their care as well as to the whole school community. 

In addition, I am part of a small Profession Support Team on the staff who work collaboratively to support and mentor the NQT (Newly Qualified Teachers) during their school-based induction. 

I have a particular interest in utilizing IT in our school. This year we were delighted to install 2 new Promethean Activ panels in the classrooms with the generous assistance of the PTA. This is part of our roll out of new interactive boards to the classrooms. All teachers have had training in the new technology and are finding the boards to be a tremendous resource in their classrooms. If any parent has an interest or expertise in IT and would like to be part of our team of advisors, I would be delighted if you would get in touch. 

Lynne Cashell is covering this post. 

My area of responsibility is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). The main focus for my time in the role is to promote the areas of STEM learning in our school by encouraging and assisting the teachers to provide the children with a variety of opportunities to explore STEM.  

As part of the promotion of STEM in the school we will be registering for the Discover Primary Science and Maths Awards where we will be recording our involvement in STEM activities and submitting our records at the end of the year for evaluation and hopefully be awarded a plaque recognising our efforts!  

 We have some great theme weeks coming up that will provide exciting resources and opportunities for the children in STEM. Next week sees the stat of Space week (4th-10th Oct) followed by Maths week (16-24th Oct) and Science week will take place in November. Keep an eye on the school website for updates!  

 I am part of a small Profession Support Team on the staff who work collaboratively to support and mentor the NQT (Newly Qualified Teachers) during their school-based induction. 

My AP2 post covers languages and I am also responsible for ensuring there is new content on the school website. 

I am the teacher’s representative on the Library Committee and help co-ordinate World Book Day, Seachtain na Gaeilge and other associated events.  

 I also oversees the programmes in use in the teaching of languages within the school, updates the school plans where applicable and organises opportunities for the staff to develop their skills in languages. This can take the form of arranging CPD, giving presentations on various aspects of the language curriculum or creating social events like the Ciorcal Cómhrá (a mini pop-up Gaeltacht for the teachers once a week after school) which it is hoped can get up and running, dependent on restrictions, after the mid-term break. Over the past few years the roll out of the new Primary Language Curriculum has been central to my roll and this work continues through guidance and resources from the PDST, representatives of whom will be working with us this year in support of adapting to this new curriculum. 

I am part of a small Profession Support Team on the staff who work collaboratively to support and mentor the NQT (Newly Qualified Teachers) during their school-based induction.
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If you have any questions or queries please contact me on admin@stpns.ie and I'll be happy to help where I can. I love working in such a happy, welcoming school where every day is completely different. I like to be the joker of the team!