Congratulations to our boys’ football team on their fantastic victory in the Corn an Ath S O'Caolain final! They are Louth Small Schools Champions 2026.
The team showed tremendous skill, determination, and teamwork throughout the competition and were crowned champions after brilliant performances across all matches. Their hard work and commitment paid off as they proudly brought the cup back to our school.
A huge well done to all the players for representing our school with such pride and sportsmanship. Thanks also to the staff, parents, and supporters who encouraged the team every step of the way.
This is a wonderful achievement for our school community and one that the boys will remember for many years to come. Maith sibh, a bhuachaillí!

Active Schools - Water Safety Week

National Water Safety Awareness Week in Ireland runs from May 18 to May 24, 2026. Led by Water Safety Ireland, the week focuses on reducing drowning rates through education, in-person training, and daily digital resources. This morning our students joined a webinar on Water Safety.  We would like to thank local lifeguards Ciara and Andrea who provided the children with some lovely gifts to celebrate water safety week.

Active Schools - Achievement

Another week, another student proudly displaying their achievements, well done Aoife.

Bike Week 9th - 17th May

Bike Week is in full swing here in Rathcor - our students have all been making the most of the good weather and cycling to school, look at our full bike shelter!

Our students have been embracing the excitement of Bike Week by imagining what it would be like to cycle around the world. Using their creativity and imagination, they designed the ultimate bikes for the adventure — take a look at their fantastic creations below!

Active Schools - Achievement

Congratulations to Fiadh who recently took part in a  Cross pole horse riding competition where she won 2nd place - AMAZING Fiadh, well done!

Soccer Coaching

Our soccer coaching has been completed for the year and WOW did our students embrace it..  They have shown great improvements in balance and co-ordination while having fun and playing together.  Keane their coach from The Klaaskickz Academy Soccer has been fantastic and the students really enjoying working with him.  Here are some photos of our Junior & Senior Infants and First Class enjoying their last sessions.

Active Schools - Soccer

Soccer coaching has been ongoing in Rathcor NS for the last couple of weeks, our students have been enjoying learning new skills from Klaas Kickz coach Keane.  Here are some of them in action.

Active Schools - Rugby

The spirit of our Active School Flag is very much embraced by all here in Rathcor NS and we are very blessed to have strong links with lots of the sports clubs in our area.  We were recently very lucky to have the CCRO (Club Community Rugby Officer) from Carlingford Knights, Patricia Tavares, come into our school and provide some wonderful rugby coaching to our 4th, 5th and 6th classes.  For some of these students it was a chance to learn all about a new sport and for others, who are already playing with Carlingford Knights, it was a chance to improve their skills.  The students then participated in a rugby blitz in Carlingford Rugby Club where they got to showcase their new and improved skills. We would like to thank Leinster Rugby, Carlingford Knights and especially Patricia for this wonderful opportunity, the children really enjoyed the coaching and Patricia was a wonderful ambassador for the sport. 

Representing at Croke Park

Congratulations to Evie and Dara who got to play in Croke Park with their GAA club Cooley Kickhams, these girls train every week and are working hard to hone their skills and talents, we are very proud of your achievements girls.

PAWS - Water Safety

Lifeguards Andrea and Ciara McKevitt visited us in Rathcor N.S. on Tuesday, June 10th to make us more safe aware when it comes to the Water. With Summer just around the corner, the allure of pools and water activities is undeniable, so that's why water Safety awareness is so important to us here in Rathcor N.S. The lifeguards spoke with us about water survival skills, the different types of water flags there are, how to throw and catch a life buoy, we learned the importance of wearing a lifejacket and we got to take part in CPR training. All the children got fun leaflets about being Safe in the water to take home helping us to ensure we look after ourselves and others in the water. Thank you Andrea and Ciara!

Delaney Cup Visit

On June 3rd we were really honoured to have the Delaney Cup visiting our school, the Leinster Senior Championship Trophy was very welcomed in our school, it was hard to see who was more excited to get their hands on the silverware - the students or the teachers!!  Many Thanks to Louth GAA and Brian Og Corr for organising the visit.

Active Schools Flag Awarded

Wednesday 4th June 2025 was another amazing day for us here in Rathcor N.S., we were awarded with our very first Active Schools Flag.   The Active Schools Flag (ASF) is awarded to schools that can fulfil criteria across 4 areas:

1. Physical Education
2. Physical Activity
3. Partnerships
4. Active School Weekk

The ASF Committee led by Ms. White did an amazing job of leading the project, coming up with wonderful ideas and keeping us all motivated but we could not have achieved our flag without the incredible work of all the children, staff and of course our amazing families here in Rathcor. We continue to be amazed by the support, generosity and co-operation of the entire community here in Rathcor, our initiatives are supported by all our families and the wider community and we are so grateful for this kindness and support.  We are immensely proud of all our students who continue to do amazing work.  Massive Congratulations to Rathcor NS.

Bike Week 10th - 18th May

National Bike Week took place last week during ASW. Our students created posters to promote cycling and lots of them took advantage of the good weather and cycled to and from school.  They all practiced safe cycling, making sure they wore their helmets and hi-vis vests and that their bikes were in a safe, roadworthy condition.  Well done to all our students.

Active School Week 12th - 16th May

The Active School Week (ASW) initiative is about providing fun and inclusive physical activity opportunities for all members of the school community. It allows us, as a school, to reinforce the message that not only is physical activity good for you but it can also be very enjoyable. It provides us with an excellent opportunity to raise awareness about the physical activity opportunities that are available in our locality and to work collaboratively with students, parents and members of the community. Our Active Schools Week took place from Mon 12th - Friday 16th May, Ms. White and the Active Schools Committee organised a timetable of events to ensure that we fully embraced all that the ASW can offer,  and boy did they deliver, Active Schools Week had it all, basketball, scavenger hunts, obstacle courses, teacher v student challenges, a disco, morning Wake and Shakes and a visit from some past pupils to show off their silverware.  A great week of physical activity, fun and enjoyment was had by all.  The sun shone on Rathcor NS all week and the students and staff took full advantage of all that ASW had to offer, even allowing for a little rest and relaxation to enjoy the merits of being outside.  Active Schools Please enjoy some of the photos!  Remember "If we want our children to move mountains, we first have to let them out of their chairs," said by Nicolette Sowder. ​

Daily Wake and Shakes

Monday – Whole school basketball

Tuesday – Scavenger Hunt

Wednesday – Obstacle Course

Thursday – Teacher v Student Challenges

Friday – Disco

Visit From Cooley Under 15 Louth Feile Winners & Embracing Our Tuesday GAA Coaching

Rathcor NS - ASF Committee

Our ASF Committee are ready to lead the way in out ASF iniaitives. They represent our student voices as we strive to attain our ASF.

Active School Slogan

Well done to all the children for their creativity in coming up with an Active School Flag Slogan for Rathcor National School.  There were a lot of entries and they were all very impressive! Congratulations to the winning slogan -
You can run and hop but just don't stop !

Active School Playground Leaders

Our Active School Playground Leaders have a very important role in encouraging the younger pupils to be active during lunchtime.  They are responsible for organising the equipment, setting up the games in the yard and packing up afterwards. They have introduced a great selection of games such as obstacle races, parachute activities, skipping challenges and activities with hula hoops. They are all very motivated individuals who have been working great as a team, encouraging and inspiring our students to make the most of an active lunchtime. We are extremely proud of their efforts, the laughter at lunchtime resonates around the school reflecting the fun and enjoyment being had by all.  

Active Walkway

Here in Rathcor NS we are so blessed with having lots of outdoor space to enhance our active school.  We recently used this space to set up our active walkway, there are 14 stations along the walkway where various active learning activities can be carried out.  This walkway helps to energise and motivate our students, we can use it in the mornings to help energise our minds and get us ready for the day ahead, we can use it in the afternoons to help keep us focused and motivate us to continue our learning.  It is a great enhancement to our school grounds and plays a key role in our active school. It is accessible to all classes and is a fun activity for our students.

 The P.E. Curriculum

There are 6 strands in the P.E. Curriculum:

• Athletics
• Dance
• Games
• Gymnastics
• Outdoor Adventure
• Aquatics

5 out of the 6 strands are covered each year.  Physical Education is allocated 1 hour per week of overall teaching time.  All teachers in our school are working off the same calendar for the teaching of the Physical Education curriculum.  Each month, there is a focus on a different strand, and on a different Fundamental Movement Skill.
Attached are some photos of our P.E. lessons we have Jewel Thief Game, Athletics, Gathering Cones, Beanbags, musical statues, gymnastics, rugby, Gaa, etc.  As you can see the classes are having great fun while learning the importance of physical activity. 

Links With The Community

Here in Rathcor National School we are extremely lucky to be situated in the Cooley Peninsula, surrounded by wonderful community groups who actively give up their time to create relationships with our school.  We would like to acknowledge the fantastic support that we have built up with so many clubs and organisations in the locality.  Partnerships include:

• Cooley's St. Patrick's Day Parade - our wonderful Parent's Association made sure that the school and our Active Schools were well represented, marching with our students on the occasion.
• Cooley Credit Union Races with Glenmore AC - this is an annual competition where our students take part in everything from sprints, long jumps and turbo javelin to essay and poetry writing.  Glenmore AC happily provide our students with coaching in the various events.
• Gaelic Training - Louth GAA and our local club Cooley Kickhams provide coaching to our students, with Brian Og joining us on Tuesdays to put the students through their paces.
• Cumann Na mBunscol - our students participate in various GAA competitions organised by the Cumann
• FAI 5-A-Side Soccer - our students annually participate in their 5-a-side soccer competition held in DKIT
• LLSP (Louth Local Sports Partnership) - the LLSP work closely with the schools encouraging the students to get involved in physical activities, we complete their Daily Mile Challenge annually and the LLSP also provided us with movement stencils which we painted around the playground encouraging different movement challenges from our students
• An Taisce Green Schools - our participation in the Green Schools project has meant that our students are actively pursuing greener ways to travel to and from school, our WOW/SOW/COW days mean walking, cycling or scooting to school and our participation in these activities has seen us win scooters and helmets. We actively participated in the Walk To School week from 7th-11th October 2024
• Picker Pals - keeping our surrounding area clean and litter free has meant that our students walk regularly in their areas picking up litter as they go.
• Clean Coasts Big Clean - Annually we take part in the beach clean on Rathcor Shore, helping our environment and getting physical while doing so!
• PAWS - As part of Water Safety Awareness week June 17th-23rd 2024 our local lifeguards  Andrea and Ciara McKevitt visited the school teaching the students about water safety, a repeat visit is scheduled for June 2025
• Cycle Safe with Louth County Council - our students participated in a Safe Cycle course funded by Louth County Council and facilitated by Joei from 'On Yer Bike' Carlingford.
• Carlingford Knights and Leinster Rugby - our school has been lucky enough to receive rugby coaching  in association with Carlingford Knights and Leinster Rugby Association.

Active Schools -What Clubs Do Our Students Participate In ?

The relationship with local groups continues in our students extra curricular activities, there are a huge variety of clubs in our locality which offer our pupils a number of ways to keep active.  Our senior students recently conducted a survey to see what clubs our pupils are members of and the Active Flag Committee compiled the results into a graph.  We are delighted to see our students active both inside and outside school!

Recognising Achievements Outside The School

As is clear from our survey our students participate in numerous extra-curricular activities from boxing to horse-riding, dance to golf, rugby to GAA, athletics to self defense,  we are so proud of all our students achievements in all of these areas and they are regularly recognised and celebrated both within their class and at our regular school assembly.  The students are extremely proud to have the teachers and their peers celebrate their successes.

Celebrating Achievements 

Cooley Coast Run 17th May

The 14th annual Cooley Coast Run took place on Saturday 17th May 2025. There were two race distances available, a 10k and a 5k, this run is a beautiful run along the Cooley Coast. The route takes competitors along Cooley's famous coast line, taking in the wonderful scenery. We in Rathcor NS would like to congratulate Senan  who participated in the 5km Cooley Coast Run this year, completing it in a PB of 44minutes - Well done Senan on a wonderful achievement.

Cooley Credit Union Races & Rugby Coaching

April saw our students focus on athletics and rugby.  Our students participated in the Cooley Credit Union Athletics competition, taking part in various running events, relay races, jurbo javelin and long jumps.  We had some super results, with several of our students picking up trophies and it was amazing to see all our students taking part and having fun, well done to all.  Leinster rugby has been providing rugby coaching to our students on Wednesday afternoons and our students have really enjoyed learning a new sport (for some) and improving on their skills (for others),

FAI Schools 5-a-side Soccer Competition

On Tuesday 11th March some of our senior students took part in the FAI 5-a-side soccer competition in DKIT.  The students showed great sportsmanship throughout the competition and were a great representation of our school.  Well done to all.

Representing at the Aviva

2 of our young students had their dreams come true recently when they, along with their Carlingford Knight team-mates, got to play in the Aviva Stadium.  We're very proud of you both Patrick and Michael.

We are so proud of our students achievements in all of their extra curricular pursuits, over the last few days some of our students brought in a sample of some their medals, rewards, etc to celebrate.  Here are some pictures of some of our wonderful students showcasing their achievements.  Well done to all, you are amazing!

Learning On The Move

All children and young people need 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity every day (WHO Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health, 2011).  At Rathcor NS, we firmly believe that the more active our students are, the more they can learn and grow.  We promote Learning on the Move regularly at school.  Children are able to take their learning outside - from Maths challenges to Literacy work. Check our some of our galleries below - who knew learning could be such fun!

Using Our Football, Beanbags and Hoops to Count

Nature Walks - Learning As we Move

Scavenger Hunts

Challenges and Activity Breaks

Skipping Challenge

The month of March saw our Active Schools Committee focus on a Skipping Challenge, this ranged from learning to skip to challenges involving how long can we skip for, how many skips per minute, how long to skip from A to B, etc.  Our students had a wonderful time learning a new talent, enjoying a little friendly competition and having fun while being active - well done everyone.

Seachtain Na Gaeilge

Seachtain na Gaelige takes place during the month of March, and this year it was a very active week of celebrations.  The whole -school took part in a ceili and a disco on 14th March.  The children proved themselves to be excellent dancers and let's just say the teachers could do with a little more practice! 

Daily Walk A Mile Challenge

As part of our Active Schools, our children took part in the Louth Local Sports Partnership Daily Mile Lú.  The LLSP Daily Mile is a  resource to support children in our school to be physically active for fifteen minutes during the school day alongside their classmates.
 Daily Mile Lú is a social physical activity, with children running, jogging, skipping, or simply just moving at their own pace in the fresh air with their classmates. And look how amazing our students did ! From our youngest Junior Infant to our oldest 6th class student, our pupils embraced the challenge and were amazing. We are so proud of you all.

Active Break Every Day Challenge - November

As part of the 'Active Break Every Day' Challenge classes are encouraged to take indoor/outdoor movement breaks everyday.  These breaks are a great way to restore concentration/focus, not to mention get everyone active, and should form part of the school day every day for everyone.  We've got some great resources to help us along the way, such as Cosmic Kids Yoga, The Irish Heart Foundation Bizzy Breaks, Wake and Shake with DJ Raphie and Movement in the Classroom from the PDST

Relay Takeover September 2024

On September 27th 2024, the whole school took part in the Active Schools Relay Day.  We split into groups and did a few relays in the yard. Great fun was had by all.  We were thrilled with our performance and we definitely learned new skills - passing the baton is tricky business! Thank you to Ireland's amazing relay athletes who inspired us to take up this challenge.