News
We now have our idonate up and running. Caheragh National School is a registered charity. If you are in a generous mood and feel like donating to our school then click on the idonate icon
We had a very successful Team Hope Shoe Box Appeal this year. Thanks to all who donated online and shoeboxes to this very worthy appeal. We collected over 60 boxes. Well done.
Curious Minds is a primary school STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) program run by Research Ireland (formerly SFI). It plays a major role during Science Week in Ireland.
Science Week 2026 Overview: November 8–15, 2026. Theme: "Water: From Molecule to Ocean" (exploring water in climate, biodiversity, health, and energy). We have a busy week planned with virtual science shows, experiments, science art and science documentaries to watch.
The school is closed for mid-term break from Monday, October 26th - Friday, October 30th inclusive and re-opens on Monday November 2nd.
Skibbereen Community School open evening will now take place as an open afternoon as follows: Skibbereen Community School – Open Afternoon, Thursday November 5th, 1:45pm - 3:45pm.
Rugby Coaching
Rugby coaching (non contact!) for all classes will commence after Midterm Break on the following dates (weather permitting):
November 3rd and 10th. December 1st, 8th and 15th.
We ask that pupils wear their school tracksuit on these dates, in addition to the days they normally have PE.
Tin Whistle Lessons for 3rd-6th Classes
Tin whistle lessons with Tom will continue after Midterm Break on the 4th, 11th and 18th of November.
Talk on the Lusitania for 3rd-6th Classes
Mr Robert Plant will return to Caheragh National School again this year to give a talk to pupils on the history of the Lusitania on Monday, 9th of November.
Christmas Annuals
Final day to order Christmas annuals is November 4th.
Team Hope Shoeboxes
Final day to bring in your completed Team Hope Shoebox is November 4th.
Scholastic/Setanta Book Orders
Final day to place book orders is November 4th.
Parent/Teacher Meetings
Our Parent/Teacher meetings would normally take place just after Midterm Break, however with the Trade Union Directives still in place, these have been postponed until further notice. Once we have set dates for these meetings, we will let you know.
Clothes Collection
Our next clothes collection will take place on Friday, November 27th. We encourage you all to spread the word to grandparents, family, neighbours and friends who would like to clean out their wardrobes. Please have all bags of clothes in to the school by 9.30am on that day. They accept all unwanted clothes, paired shoes, bags, belts, household linen, towels, blankets and soft toys. Please note that phones, books, cds, dvs, pillows and duvets are NO LONGER ACCEPTED. The money raised will go towards funding educational resources and sports equipment for the school. As always, thank you for your generous support with these collections.
Enrolment for September 2027
Our Enrolment Day for incoming Junior Infants for September 2027 will take place from 2-3pm in the school on Wednesday, December 2nd. Pupils and parents will be able to see the school and meet the staff on the day.
Christmas Concert 2026
Our School Christmas Concert will take place on Friday, 18th of December at 1pm in the Church of the Holy Family. Family members and members of the community are all welcome to attend.
Parent Association Update
The Parent Association of Caheragh NS AGM took place on Thursday, October 1st. We were delighted to see such a huge turn-out for the meeting so thank you to all those who attended.
At the meeting, a new committee was elected, which is as follows:
Chairperson: Bryony Horvath
Deputy Chairperson: Charlotte Casey
Secretary: Katy Wareing
Deputy Secretary: Sonata Dilbe
Treasurer: Rosie O’Sullivan
Deputy Treasurer: Kevin Bohane
Other Committee Members: Damien Daly, Eoin Murphy, Louise O’Sullivan, Tricia Kingston.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing committee for their hard work and dedication this past year, up to and including the organising of our Flag Day which took place in Skibbereen on October 3rd.
With that in mind we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the parents, staff and families who supported, gave of their time and took part in our school's recent Flag Day fundraiser.
Thanks to your incredible generosity, kindness and support, we raised a fantastic €1,957.10!
We are so grateful to everyone who gave their time, helped out, donated and contributed to making the day such a wonderful success.
Your continued support means so much to our school community and is truly appreciated.
Thank you all for helping us achieve this amazing result!
Ethos of Caheragh NS
At a recent Board of Management meeting the board discussed at length the results of the Primary School Survey and in particular, the results of the preference for religious ethos question. The BOM read and discussed letters received from parents, submitted as part of requested feedback from parents on this topic. The board discussed the viewpoints and lived school experience of members of the Board who are or are not of the Catholic faith.
The BOM discussed the 50/50 results of the survey and came to the conclusion that due to the fact that only 24 out of 43 families responded, the result is not a valid 50/50 vote with regard to the ethos.
Also, some families were sent two links to the survey upon request which makes the number of families (43) an inaccurate number and therefore we can deduce that less than 24 families actually responded due to the duplicate responses.
Upon discussing all of this information, the board decided to look at the breakdown of the number of families enrolled and their declared religion based on their enrolment forms.
We then decided to break that down further based off of how many of the Catholic pupils enrolled who choose to partake in religious instruction and the sacraments.
What we found is that 85% of our school enrolment is made up of practicing Catholics who actively take part in religion classes and opt to receive the sacraments through the school.
Therefore it is the decision of the board that the school will continue to uphold its Catholic ethos but if the religious demographic of the school changes in the future, we are open to discussing a change to the ethos should the need arise.
Congratulations to our Senior Room pupils who came second in the Junior Target Boards Maths Challenge this week as part of Maths Week 2026. Our pupils were competing against schools from all 32 counties and clocked up an unbelievable 16531 sums over the week. A great achievement by these 20 fantastic boys and girls.
We had a visit from Tom and Trevor from Skibbereen Fire Service as it is National Fire Safety week on the 12th – 18th October. The theme this year is “Know your Room, Know the Risk, Know the Person” It is about empowering people in the community to look after themselves and others. This Fire Safety Week, “Know Your Room, Know the Risk, Know the Person” highlights the importance of understanding the fire hazards that may exist in the spaces we use every day. Also it is very important that all members of the home know their eircode.
Maths Week is in full swing this week (October 12th- 16th). It is an initiative promoting positive attitudes towards maths and highlighting the importance of maths in our lives. The Senior room are taking part in the Target Board Challenge again this year.
Space Week is taking place from October 5th to 9th inclusive in Caheragh National School. Space Week is Ireland's newest national STEM week, in parallel with World Space Week. The 2026 theme, “Rocket Revolution,” focuses on the rapid advancements in rocket technology that are making space more accessible than ever before.
Space Week Events in Chaeragh NS
1. Space Art- Hubble Telescope Images
2. Space Science- rockets
3. Space Music - Reach for the Stars
4. Space story- Zoo in the Sky- Jacqueline Mitton
5. Space Writing- Create a constellation and story
6. Telescope Demonstration
7. Space Quiz
8. Space Drama- a Trip to the Moon
9. Paxi Videos
10. Space Show
We are taking part in the Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal again this year. The filled shoeboxes are to be returned to the school between now and November 4th. They will then be distributed to vulnerable children affected by war, poverty or disease in Africa and Eastern Europe. This is a very worthy cause as it may be the only present these children will receive this year. If you wish your child/family to take part, we would be delighted but, as always, this is a voluntary appeal so if you do not wish to take part, there is no pressure. Thank you for your continued support.
The first event planned by the Parent Association this year is the annual Flag Day in Skibbereen. This will take place on Saturday, October 3rd. As is done every year, each family and staff member will be assigned a location and a one-hour timeslot on the rota. If you are not available to cover that slot, you may contact other parents to see if they are willing to switch. If you are unavailable that day to cover any slot, perhaps a grandparent/uncle/aunt/older sibling would be available to cover it for you. Once you have been assigned a slot, it is your responsibility to get it covered. This is the fairest way we have found to do this fundraiser where every family and staff member plays their part to support the school. Further details of this will be handed out nearer to the time.
All funds raised will go towards the purchase of new playground equipment for the school. Please see our idonate link/icon
is at the top of this page if you would rather donate online.
Tin whistle lessons are starting on Wednesday, October 7th with Mr. Tom O'Sullivan. These classes will run for 6 weeks.
Our Re-turn bin has arrived and is located by our main door under the CCTV cameras. If anyone in the community has any unwanted Re-turn marked cans or bottles that you just won't get round to returning yourself, please feel free to pop them in our Re-turn bin and help us raise funds for our school. Thank you as ever for your continued support of our school.
The Parent Association AGM will take place on Thursday, October 1st at 8pm in the school. All parents are welcome to attend. We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all the Parent Association Board members for their hard work and the amazing support they have shown to the school over the last year. We would really appreciate if a parent from each of our 55 families could please be present at the AGM, even if you do not wish to be on the board, your voice is still very important.
The 2027 enrolment night for Skibbereen Community School is on October 22nd in the SCS. POSTPONED
Closure for STEM Training:
The school will be closed on October 16th, 2026 and April 22nd, 2027, as the staff will be undertaking assigned curriculum training in the area of STEM.
Closure for Language Awareness Training Day:
We have received a date for one of our whole school training days on Language Awareness (English/Gaeilge/French) as part of the new Primary School Curriculum. This will take place on April 9th, 2027. The school will be closed that day as the staff will be attending the course in the West Cork Education Centre in Dunmanway.
The school is closed for mid-term break from Monday, October 26th - Friday, October 30th inclusive and re-opens on Monday November 2nd.
On Friday, September 4th as we will have coaches from School Fitness Ireland coming to our school to do fun fitness and aerobics classes with each classroom. This company were due to come to the school last June as part of our Active School Week but had to cancel at the last minute so they have rescheduled their sessions for this week.
Another new school year has arrived so welcome back to all our pupils. A very special welcome to our seventeen new Junior Infants: Alice, Alex, Archie, Áva Leigh, Ellen, Indie, Oisín, Poppy, Libby, Sarah, James, Daithí, Pearl, Saoirse, Siún, Hugh and Shauna. We hope you will have eight very happy years here with us in Caheragh NS. We would also like to welcome any other pupils who joined our school this year.
Note and permission slips
Please check your child’s bag daily for any notes or permission slips from the school. These cannot be sent by email as they usually require a parent’s signature.
Absences
As we are mandated persons, we need to keep a record of all student absences and report them to TUSLA at the end of each school year. Due to this, we need to have proof of said absences so if your child is absent from school for any reason, please either send in a note with them when they return or send an email to the school stating that they will be away and include the duration of their absence.
Homework
Please check over your child’s homework daily to ensure they have completed it, especially the learning work. Please also encourage your child to complete their work neatly, using the appropriate pencils/pens as this helps foster and develop good practice for later life. Once you have checked over the homework, please sign their homework journal. This also applies to children attending Curious Minds Afterschool as we are finding that the homework is not always completed in its entirety.
Uniform
We have been noticing that some children are coming to school wearing the incorrect uniform. The school does not own the copyright to the school crest and any use of an iron on crest is in breach of the copyright with the owners of the crest design (Tragumna Knitwear and Designs and Signs Bantry). Furthermore, our school jumper has a mustard stripe around the collar which makes it stand out and showcases our school colours. Plain black jumpers are NOT part of our uniform and were only a short-term, hygiene measure allowed during the pandemic.
The tie must be worn at all times (except on PE days).
Our PE uniform is a plain navy sweatshirt/hoodie and tracksuit pants and must not display any brand/logo.
The majority of our uniform (grey trousers/skirt/pinafore, white polo shirt, white shirt, PE uniform) can be purchased very cheaply in Penneys/Tesco/Aldi/Lidl/Dunnes etc, leaving only the correct school jumper and tie to be purchased in Skibbereen. Grey shorts (Next brand or similar) can be worn on warmer days. No other colour shorts are permitted.
Pupils may wear any shoes they feel comfortable in but we would advise they wear runners as they give them better grip and stability when running in the yard at breaktimes. The shoes can be whatever colour you wish.
Upcoming events and activities
This school year we will continue our work towards maintaining our Green Flag, Active Flag, Health Promoting Flag, STEM award, Cinealtas Award and Amber Flag.
Tin Whistle for 3rd to 6th Classes will continue this year with Tom O’Sullivan so please ensure your child (in these classes) has a ‘D’ tin whistle and a display folder for notes.
In the 2nd/ 3rd Term, pupils from 3rd to 6th will be having 6 weeks of swimming lessons in Dunmanway, details to follow.
We will continue to take part in Maths Week, World Book Day, dressing up for Halloween, designing our own Christmas Cards, hosting our Christmas Concert in Caheragh Church, having a pyjama day organised by the 6th class (to raise money for a worthwhile charity), Cork Primary Sports, Sciath na Scol and many more events that we will keep you informed of throughout the year.
It is shaping up to be another busy year here in Caheragh NS but as always, if you ever need to speak to any of the staff about any issue that may arise, please feel free to make contact with us during school hours and we will be happy to help you as best we can.
We hope you all have a wonderful year!
Anyone wishing to enrol a child in Caheragh N.S. for 2026 please contact the principal, Ms. Mary-T. Minehane at 028-31647