School Facilities

St. Louis N.S., Rathkenny, is a small, rural school, with thirty nine pupils on its roll, two teachers, a shared learning support teacher, a resource teacher and a secretary. The school celebrated its centenary in 2005 with a visit from the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese.

Despite its age and size, the school is very modern and well-resourced. In the last few years, the school has been totally revamped and refurbished, inside and out, and its amenities, services and resources continue to be developed and expanded.

The school has two classrooms, a fully-equipped computer room, a learning support/ resource area/ staffroom, a well-stocked children's library and a newly-developed cloakroom/storage area. The school had huge fundraising events and in 2008 two interactive whiteboards were introduced, one in each classroom.

The spacious grounds, located behind the school, are a wonderful asset to the school. These are the setting for an excellent football field, a large grass-surface playing area, a newly developed school garden and composting site, a basketball court and a hard-surface playing area. It is planned to develop the outdoor area further in the next two years.

The school is very well maintained and always kept clean; the whole school community takes great pride in its neat appearance throughout. Building on the above, the new school garden was entered in The Pride of Place Competition, run by Meath County Council, and the school registered with An Taisce to take part in the 'Green Schools' Environmental Programme.

St. Louis N.S. offers many extra curricular activities, during and after school. It has the services of fully-qualified Music and French teachers weekly. Coaching in sports, namely football, basketball, hurling and Olympic handball (the latter 3 being new to our school), is provided too. Further extra curricular activities are being investigated.

In November 2008, fundraising facilitated the purchase of three laptops and, in January 2009, yet a further laptop was acquired. It is now possible to work on the laptops more immediately within the classrooms, with access to the internet thanks to wireless broadband.

A particular strength of the school has been the parental involvement in many school activities, ranging from sports to gardens to refurbishment.

BEST NEW GARDEN (2007) link to pictures

Award (June 2008) link to pictures