St. Finbarr’s National School caters to girls and boys from Junior Infants to Sixth Class. We are situated on Kilkieran Road, Cabra West.
St. Finbarr’s is a DEIS Band 1 school which allows for smaller class sizes, School Completion Programme and increased supports and resources. The ethos of our school is to foster the full potential of all our students in a caring and supportive environment. The school was opened in 1943 and is under the patronage of the Archbishop of Dublin. We celebrated our 75th birthday in 2019.
School Ethos
We are a catholic school and promote the development of our girls and boys both academically, spiritually, emotionally and socially. While St. Finbarr’s is a school with a Catholic ethos, it also gives due recognition to all other religions and cultures. Our aim is to provide our students with the tools they need to participate fully in society. Sacramental preparation, involving the home, the school and the parish is undertaken by the teachers and Sr. Philomena, who is based in the parish.
Staff
We have 9 teachers, an administrative principal, four Learning Support/Resource teachers, a Home School Community Liaison teacher, who supports parents, 7 SNAs and a School Completion Coordinator.
Links
As a feeder school for many local secondary schools, sixth-class pupils usually transfer there for their secondary school education.
We have a Dublin Bus bursary, which is awarded to our Student of the Year annually. This bursary is awarded each year to our pupils who remain in secondary school, as we strongly encourage all of our pupils to complete their education in secondary school. EBS awards are given to the pupil of the year in each class, and we celebrate this in June at an Award ceremony in the school.
Pastoral care is a core element of our school, and parents are always welcome to actively participate in school life.
We have forged a number of links with industry over the last number of years, such as Intel and IBM. Our school has benefited greatly from these links, being awarded a number of very high-spec computers for the children.
Other strong links that we have maintained are with Dublin City University. A number of our students have participated in the Centre for Talented Youth learning programme. We have regular contact with their Access programme also.