Clontuskert Christmas Newsletter 2025

Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir! 🎄✨
Tá áthas orainn ár Nuachtlitir Nollag a roinnt libh, lán le nuashonruithe, ceiliúradh agus spiorad na féile ó gach cearn den scoil. Cliceáil ar an nasc thíos chun tuilleadh a léamh.

Check out the photos and videos of the wonderful work that has been happening in Clontuskert below.

We look forward to reconnecting in person with everyone in the New Year on Monday 5th of January 2026 at 9.00am.

It has been an extremely busy term and we hope that everyone will enjoy the time
to rest and recuperate over Christmas and New Year.

Guímid sonas, sláinte agus áthas oraibh go léir don Nollaig agus don Athbhliain nua!

#ClontuskertStrong

Oíche Shamhna faoi mhaise dhaoibh! 🎃

Click on the link to read Clontuskert’s Halloween Newsletter 2023

Oíche Shamhna faoi mhaise do gach duine i gCluain Tuaiscirt! We wish you all a happy and safe Hallowe’en break.

Thanks to our Staff, Board of Management, Parents and Students for a very successful half term. Clontuskert is a school ‘Where Learning Comes Alive’.
‘Ní neart go cur le chéile – Strength in Unity’

It has been an extremely busy half term and we hope that everyone will enjoy the time to rest and recuperate over the break. We hope you all enjoy a well deserved break.

We look forward to reconnecting in person with everyone after the Mid Term Break on Monday 6th November 2023.
Bain taitneamh as an saoire!

Mrs. Kate Murray.
27-10-2023

Clontuskert is a Microsoft Showcase School for 2023-2024

We are delighted to announce that Clontuskert National School is once again a Microsoft Showcase School for 2023-2024. We are very proud of our dedicated team- we have received this award each year for the past 10 years!

We are the only primary school to have achieved this award in the country, joining nine secondary schools and a Further Education college in receiving the accolade in Ireland.

The list of global Microsoft Showcase Schools can be found here.

Congratulations to our dedicated staff who are all MIE educators and all of our staff who have been awarded MIEExpert and Microsoft Certified Educator (MCE).

#ShowcaseSchool
@Microsoftirl @MS_eduIRL

SFI Curious Minds Award

We are delighted to announce that Clontuskert has once again achieved a SFI Curious Minds Award (formally Discover Primary Science) This is the 17th year in a row the school has achieved this award which demonstrates our sustained commitment to STEM learning in the school.

Read feedback from the judges here:

Congratulations – your school has achieved an SFI Curious Minds Award. We have evaluated your Log of Evidence and we are satisfied that you have met all the criteria for the Gold Award.
Your school has provided evidence of children’s engagement with STEM in the following areas:
1. Science
2. Technology
3. Engineering
4. Maths
5. STEM Showcase
Here is some feedback on your Log of Evidence:

Congratulations to everyone at St. Augustine’s N.S. Clontuskert on achieving the SFI Curious Minds Gold Award 2023. Your submission clearly shows the amazing work you have done throughout this year in STEM. It was great to see your learners in different classes engaged in a wide range of exciting activities and projects. We really enjoyed reading about the work that you did for STEM this year. Your work on technology during the year was really impressive. We loved seeing the photos of your investigations on designing and coding your robot, wind turbines, nature walk in your local area, and materials investigation and your video from the Galway Science Festival. It seems like there are lots of budding engineers and scientists in the making at your school!

Check out our Log of Evidence here:

Top 20 Winners Ireland’s Future Is MINE Project for 2022

Clontuskert is a Top 20 Winner of the Ireland’s Future Is MINE Project for 2022.

We were invited to DreamSpace in One Microsoft Place today for the Prizegiving from Microsoft and RTÉ.

Feedback from the Judges-
We knew you guys would do incredible things (as always) but you and the class should be really proud of yourselves for placing so highly with the judges scoring 😊

Thanks to Corey and Neeve for a super day. Check out the fun day we had!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For Ireland’s Future is Mine we have made our school even more sustainable. We already have solar panels on our school. This produces 42% of our school’s electricity. In Minecraft we installed LED lighting all around the school which will save energy and funds. We have recycling, landfill and compost bins everywhere. We have an environmentally friendly sewerage treatment plant. At our school garden we sow vegetables, flowers and have composters and bee hives. This is part of our outdoor classroom. Our school bus is electric and runs on solar energy. We have installed a safe cycle path from the church to the school so that we can start a Cycle Bus for our students. We have electric charging points for teacher and visitor cars.

Our world is built in a flat world. This meant that we needed to code a 4 block height grass tower that we stretched across the whole parish to give us more build options. This meant we could build down as well as up. The other world landscapes would have interfered with what we wanted to build. We used a slash fill command which quickened this build.

Old Clontuskert school was closed but still occupied in 1958. Our modern school opened in 1959. There were two class rooms and two toilets in the school at that time and was also used as a local youth club. There were 120 boys and girls in the school at the time of its opening. In 1970 the school free transport system started but only applied to people two miles from the school.
An extension to the school was built and opened in 1999. Now we have three modern classrooms, two SEN rooms and a large general purpose hall. This year we started a Breakfast and Afterschool Club. We have a huge playing space, games courts and pitches around the school. For the road we used an agent to code so that it would be built faster.

Check out our twin Wind Turbines.
They are taller than the average wind turbines and are vertical axis to generate more electricity so that they supply not only the school but the whole parish with electricity. The extra energy is being sold back into the national grid. The money we earn from this is being donated to charities to help students across the world to receive an education under Sustainable Development Goal 4- Quality Education. The turbines move using 49 Command Blocks.

Welcome to Clontuskert Parish Church
This is our Sustainable church and community pitch with solar panels, charging points, playground, coffee shop, walking track and flower patio. There are wind turbines here too.

Welcome to Clontuskert Pitch:
We have a new modern clubhouse for the community to gather.
We built irrigation pipes under pitch. This both drains the pitch and supplies water to our community allotment gardens which supply vegetables and fruit to each family in the parish.
Wind turbines supply the energy for the lights here.

This is Clontuskert’s Old School:
The old school is in Chapel park near the Church. It was opened in 1836. There is a plaque on the wall that says Clontuskert National School AD 1833. Helena Coen, a great granny of a current 4th class student was the principal of the old school and some of the teachers were Mrs. Eileen Fenton, Mrs. Coen and Mrs. Kitty Bleahen.
There were at least three hedge schools in Clontuskert before they built the school building. This school was built on a ringfort. The people called the school Crossconnell school but the name was changed to Clontuskert National school on September 21st, 1852.
The school started as a mixed school on the 1st of July 1836. There was an old staircase near the door of the old school. There was a stage in it made from old doors.

To rethink how the old school can function for the future we have turned it into a kids museum where the community can gather. Clontuskert’s history is told at the museum with VR and AR experiences. We also have a library underground. We built an aquarium filled with beautiful fish and visitors can learn about the fish here.
There is an attic with large windows to maximise the views of Clontuskert parish. This is our new Clontuskert Observatory. At night the balcony can be used for stargazing. Because Clontuskert is in the country it is the perfect place for astronomy, away from the light pollution in towns and cities.

Clontuskert’s Future is Mine

For Ireland’s Future is Mine we have made our school even more sustainable. We already have solar panels on our school. This produces 42% of our school’s electricity. In Minecraft we installed LED lighting all around the school which will save energy and funds. We have recycling, landfill and compost bins everywhere. We have an environmentally friendly sewerage treatment plant. At our school garden we sow vegetables, flowers and have composters and bee hives. This is part of our outdoor classroom. Our school bus is electric and runs on solar energy. We have installed a safe cycle path from the church to the school so that we can start a Cycle Bus for our students. We have electric charging points for teacher and visitor cars.

Our world is built in a flat world. This meant that we needed to code a 4 block height grass tower that we stretched across the whole parish to give us more build options. This meant we could build down as well as up. The other world landscapes would have interfered with what we wanted to build. We used a slash fill command which quickened this build.

Old Clontuskert school was closed but still occupied in 1958. Our modern school opened in 1959. There were two class rooms and two toilets in the school at that time and was also used as a local youth club. There were 120 boys and girls in the school at the time of its opening. In 1970 the school free transport system started but only applied to people two miles from the school.
An extension to the school was built and opened in 1999. Now we have three modern classrooms, two SEN rooms and a large general purpose hall. This year we started a Breakfast and Afterschool Club. We have a huge playing space, games courts and pitches around the school. For the road we used an agent to code so that it would be built faster.

Check out our twin Wind Turbines.
They are taller than the average wind turbines and are vertical axis to generate more electricity so that they supply not only the school but the whole parish with electricity. The extra energy is being sold back into the national grid. The money we earn from this is being donated to charities to help students across the world to receive an education under Sustainable Development Goal 4- Quality Education. The turbines move using 49 Command Blocks.

Welcome to Clontuskert Parish Church
This is our Sustainable church and community pitch with solar panels, charging points, playground, coffee shop, walking track and flower patio. There are wind turbines here too.

Welcome to Clontuskert Pitch:
We have a new modern clubhouse for the community to gather.
We built irrigation pipes under pitch. This both drains the pitch and supplies water to our community allotment gardens which supply vegetables and fruit to each family in the parish.
Wind turbines supply the energy for the lights here.

This is Clontuskert’s Old School:
The old school is in Chapel park near the Church. It was opened in 1836. There is a plaque on the wall that says Clontuskert National School AD 1833. Helena Coen, a great granny of a current 4th class student was the principal of the old school and some of the teachers were Mrs. Eileen Fenton, Mrs. Coen and Mrs. Kitty Bleahen.
There were at least three hedge schools in Clontuskert before they built the school building. This school was built on a ringfort. The people called the school Crossconnell school but the name was changed to Clontuskert National school on September 21st, 1852.
The school started as a mixed school on the 1st of July 1836. There was an old staircase near the door of the old school. There was a stage in it made from old doors.

To rethink how the old school can function for the future we have turned it into a kids museum where the community can gather. Clontuskert’s history is told at the museum with VR and AR experiences. We also have a library underground. We built an aquarium filled with beautiful fish and visitors can learn about the fish here.
There is an attic with large windows to maximise the views of Clontuskert parish. This is our new Clontuskert Observatory. At night the balcony can be used for stargazing. Because Clontuskert is in the country it is the perfect place for astronomy, away from the light pollution in towns and cities.

Happy Easter from St. Augustine’s National School Clontuskert

School closes today for the Easter holidays. Thank you to our wonderful school team, who have cared for, nurtured and kept our students safe since the beginning of the school year. They have provided some wonderful learning experiences for our students.

It has been an extremely busy term and we hope that everyone will enjoy the time to rest and recuperate over Easter.

We look forward to reconnecting in person with everyone after Easter on Monday 12th of April at 9.00am.

Bain sult, suaimhneas agus sochair as Saoire na Cásca!

Click here to view our Easter Newsletter.

Clontuskert features in Powerful Primary Geography- A Toolkit for 21st Century Learning by Anne M. Dolan

The staff and students of Clontuskert National School were delighted to feature in Powerful Primary Geography- A Toolkit for 21st Century Learning by Anne M. Dolan and to participate in the launch of her book this evening.

As a past pupil of Clontuskert school, Dr. Anne Dolan’s place within Clontuskert parish and community is deeply rooted and has been cemented by her generous collaboration with the school on various projects over the past few years such as the Keep on Track project, where we linked schools on the Dublin-Galway rail-line and most recently during our long term Climate Action work.

Congratulations Anne on your wonderful achievement and thank you for supporting us during our work.

Watch our presentation from the launch of Anne’s book here:

Highlights of Remote Learning in Clontuskert- January 2021

Well done to all of the staff, students and families in Clontuskert who have worked so well to ensure continuity of education for all during Remote Learning in January 2021.

Microsoft Teams & OneNote have provided the backbone of our digital provision with a sprinkling of magic from our innovative and hardworking staff.

Thanks to our Board of Management and Parents for their unwavering support.

Check out our Highlights of Remote Learning in Clontuskert- January 2021 here:

Clontuskert- a School Where Learning Comes Alive!
#ClontuskertStrong