St Clare’s project advancing

St Clare's National School in Cavan Town is requesting donations from the public to fund a new recreational area for their school - the largest national school in the county. It's hoped the area can be developed as part of the wider new school build underway.

The €30,000 project envisages a sand pitch, allowing students of the school, and the wider community, to play their desired sports all year round, regardless of the weather.

“Generations of students and the wider community will benefit for years to come,” says principal, Alma Leonard.

“Our new build has a grass playing field but with the Irish weather, we feel that it is necessary to develop a multipurpose sand based pitch that the pupils in our school and the wider community can avail of all year round.”

While there is no public funding available for the recreational project, the principal is hopeful donations from the local community will fund its completion.

They have also organised other fundraising incentives such as a sportathon, raffles, bag packing at local supermarkets and lots more.

“Our ambition, as a school, in developing this facility, is that we want to leave a better place for future staff, students and the community. We are asking the community to come together and get behind our efforts to create a facility that will benefit the area for years and years to come.

“The benefits of the facility will be available to the wider community outside of school hours, at weekends and during the holidays. We’re located in the heart of Cavan town, so it’s a great area in terms of accessibility.

To-date, the project has benefited from very generous donations from lots of local businesses and individuals, for which the school is extremely grateful.

St Clare’s is currently undergoing a new build, which consists of 10 mainstream classrooms, together with resource rooms, offices, library and staff room. It's scheduled for completion in September of this year.

Thereafter the contractors will move into the old building and refurbish each area, phase by phase, and begin the building of the new gymnasium.

“Our new premises will include provision for our new after school care. We hope that the project will be completed in the summer of 2024,” concludes Ms Leonard.