Ethos & Vision

Our school motto is Ar Aghaidh le Chéile. This motto reflects the reality of the whole school community working together. Pupils, Staff, Board of Management, Parents, Parish and the wider community together help make St. Conleth’s National School, Derrinturn, a better place for learning and teaching.                                                                                                

Our school is part of the local community; the community is part of our school. We give life to the community and the community gives life to the school, all enriched by mutual respect and by the commitment of individuals working in partnership. Such a community knows how to hold each other accountable for education by continually giving of itself courageously, knowing how to start again when mistakes are made, and by leading its young people on the road of hope, ‘ar aghaidh le chéile.’  While respecting and maintaining the great tradition of education in Derrinturn, the school also moves forward with modern approaches in education, interweaving the traditional and progressive strands  gradually, but steadily, ‘de réir a chéile.’.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Ethos

St. Conleth’s National School, Derrinturn operates under the patronage of the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. It is a Roman Catholic School.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

“Being a Catholic means …being united to others, it means helping one another, learning from the qualities of others and generously giving our own qualities; it means seeking to know one another, to understand one another and to esteem one another.”

Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI).

The school welcomes other Christians, people of other religions and all people of good will. Gender Equality and Inclusivity are both part of our school life. In St. Conleth’s National School we teach ‘Grow in Love’, the Religious Education programme approved for Roman Catholic Primary Schools in Ireland. Working together with parents, priest and parish, we help to prepare children for the Sacraments of Penance, First Holy Communion and Confirmation as part of their faith journey.                                                                                                                            

Our school promotes a climate of respect, trust, caring, consideration and support for others. This is the characteristic spirit of our Roman Catholic School based on the Gospel values of, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. St. Conleth’s National School recognises the importance of developing the full potential of the child. We seek to develop children both spiritually and morally and to foster in each child an ethical sense that will enable him or her to acquire values on which to base choices and form attitudes, that will serve them not only in their lives as children, but later as adults..”       

Mission Statement

St. Conleth’s National School celebrates the uniqueness of each child in our school, as it is expressed in each pupil’s personality, intelligence and potential for development. Our school strives to nurture each child in all dimensions of his or her life – spiritual, moral, cognitive, emotional, imaginative, aesthetic, social and physical. By celebrating children being children, and enriching the child’s life we see foundations being laid for happiness and fulfilment in later education and in adult life.                                                                                                                                                                          

We acknowledge that children are deeply affected by their relationships in the home, with each other and with other people in society. We seek to balance individual and social development, and help the child to work co-operatively with others. We try to enable our children to meet, with self-confidence and assurance the demands of life, both now and in the future.                                                                                                                                                                           

We are concerned with developing the full potential of each of our pupils:-  spiritual, moral, emotional, physical.  Interpersonal skills and skills in communicating are essential for personal, social and educational fulfilment. Our school aims to instil a love of learning that will remain with the child through life and that will express itself in an enquiring mind and a heightened curiosity.