There has been some encouraging progress towards Carrigaline Educate Together National School having its own school building.

The details of the steps made by Cork County Council in preparing a site in Kilnagleary, Carrigaline for sale to the Department of Education and Skills is available at councilor Paula Desomond’s website.

CETNS has grown to over 100 enrolled children during a very short space of time and is looking forward to another large intake of Junior Infants in September 2011.  It is becoming more and more urgent that the school is provided with a purpose built facility to meet the demand from parents wishing to enroll their children.  We welcome the progress to date by both Cork County Council and the Department of Education and Skills and look forward to a planning application being lodged in the near future.

In conjunction with the running European Mobility Week 2010 (September 16-22), the Carrigaline Educate Together NS is launching its new Green Travel Plan. (11.5MB)

This policy was initiated by the Cork County Council and aims to raise awareness among the school community to use green modes of transport for the journey to school. As good alternatives to the private car, there are five different strands to the plan.

In the window of the school building in Heron’s Wood, colourful posters motivate to “Go green” and “Come along on Walking Wednesday” or “Cycling Friday”. They invite to “Park & Stride”, “Be cool – Car-Pool to School!” and encourage to “Take the Bus – It’s here for Us!” CETNS is also seeking to be included in the local school bus route soon.

With the launch of the Green Travel Plan, the primary school hopes to motivate 40-60% of its members to use green transport for the school-run. Any initiatives in relation to green travelling are welcome and encouraged.

The Carrigaline Educate Together National School is holding a Pancake-Day with the children in school on Tuesday, 24^th February from 11 o‛clock.

Included in actualising the multi-denominational approach of the Educate Together ethos is the teaching about many different events during the year in relation to various religions.

Pancake-Tuesday, also known as Shrove Tuesday, is before the beginning of the Christian season of Lent. Lent includes a forty-day fasting period  towards Easter-Sunday. The day before its start, all rich food items, like eggs, milk and sugar must be used up. Thus it has become traditional in many countries with Christian denominations, to have pancakes on the day before Ash-Wednesday, the start of Lent.

In relation to this, on Pancake-Tuesday from 11 a.m., the children of Carrigaline Educate Together National School baked their own pancakes. In rotation they mixed the ingredients, while former chef and current SNA, Angela, showed each child how their pancake was cooked. The biggest fun for everyone was tossing the pancakes high up in the air and back into the pan. Seeing the joy of the children tasting their own productions was the final highlight of CETNS Pancake-Day .

In this practical way, a tradition, that has become very strong in Ireland, is being passed on to our next generation. And as a holiday of religious origin, the children will learn about the background of the day, while Lent is the topic in class.