Wishing everyone a very happy and safe Christmas .
From all our crafty kids and staff.
And the Winners are…..!
RatheniskaThe winners of our Christmas Draw are as follows:
1st – Mattie Fingleton (Conor and Abbie Sugrue’s card)
2nd – Sé Ramsbottom (Brian Ramsbottom’s card)
3rd – Dan Mortimer ( Millie Sydes card)
4th – Alan Roberts (Valérie Mahé’s card0
5th – John and James Fingleton (Fingleton’s card)
We would like to express our gratitude to all those who organised the draw and to all those who contributed so generously. 
Christmas Draw 2020
RatheniskaMany thanks to our Parents Association for organizing this year’s Christmas Draw to raise much needed funds for the school. The draw was conducted by 6th class on Friday and the lucky winners were announced. A huge thank you to everyone for their generosity to this fundraiser.
Head over to the Parents Association page to see photos and details of the winners.
Board of Management Report
RatheniskaPlease click here to read the latest report from our Board of Management.
Thank You!
RatheniskaWe would like to express our gratitude to Patrick Miller (Miller’s Hardware, Portlaoise) for his very kind donation of Christmas trees to our school. They are adding hugely to the sense of festive spirit in the run up to Christmas.
First Class Gingerbread Houses!
RatheniskaFollowing on from the theme of houses in 2nd, 1st class got in on the act and decided to make gingerbread houses. Their teamwork and enthusiasm ensured that the houses they created were definitely good enough to eat!
Homes around the world
RatheniskaSecond Class explored the theme of Homes in recent weeks. The children have been busy researching, gathering and constructing, with the end product being some very impressive igloos, tribal homes and floating homes amongst others. A comment was made by one of the children that “Each house is so different”, as our selection of photos certainly proves true.
Parents’ Association AGM
RatheniskaDue to the current Covid-19 restrictions the Parent’s Association decided to host their first ever virtual AGM on Thursday last, Nov. 19th.
AGM Report Ratheniska Parents Association
RatheniskaRatheniska Parents Association held their first ever virtual AGM on Thursday 19th November 2020 and we are delighted to report no technical problems arose!
The following officers were elected:
Chairperson: Chris Knowles
Vice Chairperson: Evelyn Roberts
Secretary: Dawn Kavanagh
Vice Secretary: Claire Downey
Treasurer: Maeve Conroy
Vice Treasurer: Ronan Fingleton
We welcome all new and returning officers and thank the outgoing officers, namely Teresina Dermody who has served as secretary for the past 3 years and Sara O’Hara who was vice treasurer last year.
It was discussed that a factor in the poor attendance in Parents Association meetings might be a lack of awareness of what a Parents Association does, so to this end we refer you to the National Parents Council website and a detailed description of same http://www.npc.ie/
On the financial end of things our income for the school year 2019/2020 included €800 from Halloween Disco, €809 from the Christmas Cards and €256 from the Table Quiz. We thank you most sincerely for your continued generous support. A contribution total of €2000 has been made to school, with €1000 paid Dec 2019 and a further €1000 November 2020.
It what has been an unprecedented year we wish to express our most sincere thanks and offer our support to the Principal, Board of Management and all the staff for their tireless efforts in making our school a safe and happy place for our children to enjoy their education in.
We understand that the financial demands on the running of the school are heightened this year with all the costs of covid compliance. To this end a fundraising subcommittee has been established with representatives from Board of Management and Parents Association. We extend the invitation to anyone wishing to get involved to just contact ourselves or the school and we will be delighted to hear fresh voices and ideas on same, as it will require a bit of different thinking on our traditional fundraisers.
Our contact details are: ratheniskaparents@gmail.com
We look forward to 2020/2021.
Science Week 2020
RatheniskaAll classes celebrated Science Week with a very varied range of discussion, video calls and experiments. All strands of the Science Curriculum were explored and experiments were researched, planned and collaborated on by pupils in all classes from Juniors right up to 6th.
Rang 5 and Rang 6 also tuned in to a Science Week Special Zoom chat with Dr Caitriona Jackman from DIAS. They heard about her amazing research using I-LOFAR to study planets in our Solar System, what makes them different to Earth, and they had an opportunity to ask questions about what they learned!
Click on the picture below to see velocity in action and click here to go to our Gallery page to see lots of action and excitement!