Community Awareness

St Patrick's NS has a tradition of encouraging its community to be aware of the special needs of others around us and to respond positively to such needs. This is supported by regular fund-raising projects, recent examples being the Irish Youth Foundation's Denim Day, Barnardos Spellathon, the Irish Cancer Society's Daffodil Say, GOAL's St Patrick's day badges, the Irish Heart Foundation's Skipathon and MS Readathon.

Rutland Street National School

During 1999, the school began a cross-community inter-school collaborative programme with Rutland Street NS in Dublin. The two schools are situated in contrasting locations and cater for diverse socio-economic communities. While each school values its own character and independent spirit, both schools share the same vision with regard to the value of extra-school communication and experiences in the development of children's confidence, independence and social development.

As hoped, the collaboration between the schools carries significant benefits for the children of both schools. The inter-school collaborative programme is believed to be constructive for the children by gradually developing mutual cross-community social and cultural appreciation, confidence and respect. The success of the programme to date has been most encouraging.