Green Schools

Rathcor N.S. Green Schools
Green-Schools is Ireland’s leading environmental management and education programme for schools. Promoting long-term, whole-school action for the environment, Green-Schools is a student-led programme with involvement from the wider community. The programme is operated and coordinated by the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce (FEE member for Ireland).

Batteries for Barretstown

Our latest Green Schools' Initiative is Batteries for Barretstown, send all your used batteries into school and deposit them in our Battery Rocket where your used batteries will go on a new adventure where recycling raises money for Barretstown, a charity who help battle childhood cancer. Our batteries were collected at the beginning of June and we would like to thank all the families for the great response to our appeal, the collection driver was very impressed with all the batteries that we had collected. Well done to everyone !

New Flags

How wonderful do our new Green schools' flags look flying proudly outside our school. Many thanks to our Parent's Association
for purchasing and hanging them.

Bike Week 9th - 17th May

There’s never been a better time to get on a bike! The purpose of Bike Week is to encourage new, occasional, and seasoned cyclists to make cycling part of their lifestyle, making both you and the environment healthier people and places.
Bike Week 2026 will run from Saturday 9th – Sunday 17th May 2026. We encourage as many of our students as possible to cycle more this week and remember to wear your helmet and hi-vis. Be Safe, Be Seen!

Thank You Parents

Rathcor National School is very lucky to have an amazing Parent's Association, they continue to go above and beyond to help make our school the best that it can be. On Saturday 18th April they organised (as part of our Green Schools and An Taisce National Spring Clean) a major clean up of our school. Flower beds were installed, rubbish was removed, the roof was cleaned, windows and velux were repaired, weeds were removed, car parks and footpaths were power hosed, mud kitchens and buddy benches were replaced and repaired - the list is endless. It is truly special to be associated with such a wonderful school blessed with such amazing parents. Our students are so lucky to have such wonderful support behind them. Thank you to our amazing Parent's Association and all the parent volunteers and check out some of their wonderful handiwork in the gallery below.

Our new mud kitchens have been getting lots of use - thank you parents!

XOCEAN and Green Schools

Our school is very lucky to be situated beside the company XOCEAN. Using Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs), XOCEAN provides turnkey ocean data. From mapping the seabed to environmental monitoring, XOCEAN offers a safe, economic and carbon neutral solution to ocean data delivery. XOCEAN counts many of the world’s largest energy companies and government agencies as their customers. With a global footprint, they are supporting cleaner, more sustainable supply chains in the offshore industry. We have been lucky enough to have visited their Rathcor facility and while there got to learn all about their USVs and the important work that they do. Our students have created drawings of their own USVs and below are some of them proudly displaying their artwork. Who knows maybe XOCEAN will get inspiration for their next model!

Coill Na nOg - Prizewinners

Our Parent's Association and Rathcor NS were prizewinners in a recent Coill na nOg competition winning a 'mini woodland' for our school garden. Our wonderful parents also came and planted some of these trees for us in our school grounds. Many thanks Michael. We hope that these trees will grow as our students grow and will be here for many years to come.

Green Schools - Swap Challenge

Our students have been taking part in the Uisce Eireann/Eir Grid Green Schools Swaps Challenge and Wow have they embraced it. Whether it's swapping your full kettle to boiling just the water you need, or swapping your long shower for a quicker one or walking/cycling to school rather than taking the car or returning our cans & bottles rather than throwing them out or cleaning our school and planting flowers rather than causing mess, our students have attacked all areas to make our school a greener place. They have motivated fellow students, staff, parents, family members and community members to go that extra mile to help nurture and care for the world we live in. Here are some pictures of them in action and promoting a different way of life.

Green Schools Big Travel Challenge

Weather permitting and where possible, walk, scoot or cycle to school as often as possible for the next few weeks as we participate in the Big Travel Challenge as part of our ongoing commitment to the Green Schools.

Green Schools - A Reminder to Recycle This Christmas

It's amazing what can be achieved with a little imagination and some recycled materials. Here we have reminders from Green Schools what is possible and then look out for the amazing creativity shown by our students in recycling. Be Green This Christmas!

Green Schools

Our students have embraced the Green School ethos here in Rathcor NS, check out some of their amazing Halloween creations made using recyclable materials, masks, a Taco costume and even an owl cage. Such an amazing show of creativity and imagination while looking after our planet.

Prizewinner

2nd Class student , AJ achieved 2nd place in the Junior Category of the Louth County Council Sustainable Development Goals Artwork Competition 2025. This is an amazing achievement for AJ, to come 2nd in the entire county is wonderful work and we are so proud of him and of all our students who entered. All the entries were fantastic and we appreciate your participation. Congratulations AJ - You're a star!

Picker Pals Booster Box

The Picker Pals Scheme, which inspires and equips children to become the next generation of environmentalists by leading their families on local litter picking adventures, continues in our school and we recently received our Picker Pals Booster Pack, we hope that this will continue to motivate our students to continue the good work of keeping our area litter free.

Deposit Return Scheme

Reminder: We continue to do the Deposit Return Scheme here in Rathcor N.S - please dispose of any of your unwanted "returnable" bottles and cans in out recycle bin located at the front of the school.

Picker Pals

Our students continue to embrace the Green Schools Ethos of our school community and have been out and about cleaning the areas they live in and participating in our Picker Pals programme. We are very proud of you all, well done Harry, Mark and Emily!

Green Schools - Solar Panels

As part of our ongoing Green Schools, the school recently had solar panels installed in line with the recently launched Schools Solar PV Programme. The successful applicant for the installation was local company Sav Electrical and they did an amazing job. Paul and his team were a pleasure to deal with, their professionalism and attention to detail led to a very smooth, effective and efficient installation. The solar panels are now helping to power the school and keep electrical costs down with any excess power created going back to the grid.

Can/Bottle Recycle Bin

Our Parent's Association continue to support our Green Schools mission. From Monday 24th Feb a yellow bin is available at our school gates for cans and bottles to be returned. Our families, staff and community can return their recyclable cans and bottles to our bin, the money raised from returning these cans and bottles will then be used towards school funds. Its a win/win for Rathcor NS - help protect our environment, only one vehicle going in and out to town so less carbon emissions and we make money for our school.. We hope you will all continue to support our Green Schools Mission

Reminder - only cans and bottles that have the return logo on them are to be placed in our bin.

Green Schools Posters

Look at some of the amazing poster work done by our 1st and 2nd class students for our Green Schools. Mark, Aoife and Alice you have done amazing work.

New Green School Initiative - Recycle Your Cans & Bottles

Our Parent's Association are so supportive of all our school efforts, this new initiative combines Green Schools and fundraising - well done to all.

Picker Pals

A big shout out and well done to Evie, keeping her area clean and safe. Well done Evie, what a fantastic job!

The Safe Cross Code

The Green Schools Committee would like you to remember the Safe Cross Code and to take care when walking on our roads, always remember to look out for traffic and to heed to Safe Cross Code when crossing our roads and streets.

Picker Pals

Here's another of our wonderful students helping to keep the area they live in clean. Well done Dara, you are amazing!

Picker Pals

Our school has recently signed up to Picker Pals. Picker Pals is an innovative primary school programme inspiring and equipping children to become the next generation of environmentalists by leading their families on local litter picking adventures. Keep checking our website to see what litter picking adventures we get up to over the next couple of months. One of our students Oisin, who along with his sister Fiadh recently spent time on our local beach, they did their part for our environment and our beautiful area by collecting all the rubbish that people had thrown on our beautiful beach. Well done Oisin (and Fiadh) you are amazing!!

Beach Clean 2024

A huge well done to our students who, along with their teachers Ms. White, Mrs. O'Reilly and our SNA Yvonne, completed a shore clean up as part of the Clean Coasts Big Beach Clean. Our students take great pride in the area that they live in and were happy to help keep our beautiful Rathcor beach in pristine condition. Well Done All!

Green Schools At Home

Some of our students have been putting their Green Fingers to work at home. Emily has been busy working in her garden over the summer and look at what she has managed to grow - "Giant Carrots". Well done Emily, hope they tasted as good as they look.

National Water Safety Awareness Week June 17th-June 23rd 2024

National Water Safety Awareness Week takes places between June 17th-June 23rd 2024.
Water Safety Awareness is very important to us here in Rathcor N.S. as our school is situated so close to our beautiful Rathcor Beach. We were delighted here in Rathcor N.S.,to welcome Lifeguards Ciara and Andrea McKevitt who communicated important water safety messages to the children.
The children learned about Safety at the Beach, Water Safety at Home, Water Safety at the Swimming pool. The children got the opportunity to throw a life buoy and learned about what to do if they or others get in to difficulty in the water.
The children were delighted to receive Water Safe Swim hats and a (PAWS) Primary Aquatics Water Safety Activity Book.

Enjoying Our Day In Our Wonderful School & All The Nature That Surrounds Us

Working Hard

Some of our hardworking students carried out some maintenance in our garden this week - well done all who helped!

Biodiversity Maps

Some of our students with their brilliant biodiversity maps.

Biodiversity Week 2024

World Bee Day

World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20. On this day Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, was born in 1734. The purpose of the international day is to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators for the ecosystem. As part of our celebrations for World Bee Day our students created some wonderful art work. The students artwork reminds us of the important work done by bees. These colorful and creative posters were chosen from a selection of submissions to be displayed on our website. Well done to all our students.

No Mow May Competition Winner

The winner of our No Mow May Poster Competition is Tommy McMahon, well done Tommy!

National Spring Clean 2024

Donation of Gardening Equipment

Louth County Council recently paid our school a visit and kindly donated lots of gardening equipment which we can't wait to use on our school garden boxes. Thank you so much Louth County Council, we will be sure to make great use of these wonderful tools.

Annual Beach Clean September 2023

Rathcor National School were awarded our third Green Schools Flag - the Water Flag in June 2023. A very proud day for our school was celebrated by all our community with the raising of the flag, many thanks to all in our school, our past students and our wider community for helping us achieve this.

Art Competition Prize Winners 2023

As part of our water awareness day in school we held an art competition for all the students, there were some wonderful drawings and paintings submitted and it was a really difficult job to pick the winners, everyone did so well but here are the winning entries from each class as chosen by their fellow students.

Our Blue Flag Beaches

We are really lucky to live beside the most beautiful beaches in Louth, both of which are Blue Flag Beaches (Blue Flag is an international award and it therefore has one minimum global standard for water quality).