Our art lesson on Friday was full of colour, creativity, and a real sense that spring has arrived! The children created beautiful Cherry Blossom tree paintings, using a mix of watercolours, poster paints, brushes, and cotton wool.

To begin, the children painted the sky and grass using watercolours, carefully blending colours to create soft spring backgrounds. Once these were complete, they added the tree roots, trunk, and branches, thinking about shape, line, and detail as they worked.

​The most exciting part came next! Using pink and white poster paint and cotton wool balls, the children gently dabbed blossom onto their trees. This technique created a lovely textured effect and brought the paintings to life. There was great concentration, creativity, and lots of smiles as each tree bloomed.

​The finished artwork is bright, cheerful, and full of springtime joy. Our classroom is now blooming with Cherry Blossom trees — a wonderful celebration of the new season and the children’s fantastic artistic effort. 🌸✨

A huge congratulations to our fantastic Credit Union Quiz team, who finished an impressive 4th place out of 34 teams in this year’s competition — just 2 points off 3rd place! What an amazing achievement and something to be very proud of.

The team represented our school brilliantly at the Credit Union Schools Quiz, which took place in St. Mary’s Hall. The quiz was held over one day on Saturday, 7th February 2026, and the standard was extremely high throughout.

Our pupils showed great teamwork, knowledge, focus, and determination, answering a wide range of challenging questions across many topics. To come so close to the top three in such a large competition is a fantastic result.

​Well done to all involved — you did yourselves and our school proud! 👏✨

Cloonlyon NS Open Day – Friday 13th | 9:30am–4:00pm

We are delighted to invite families and members of the community to our Open Day this Friday, 13th, from 9:30am to 4:00pm.

Cloonlyon NS has been part of local life for over 140 years, and we are proud to offer a warm, caring school environment in our new, modern school building. We have excellent facilities, including modern technology, large outdoor play areas, and a wide range of learning, wellbeing, and creative initiatives that support every child’s development.

Our small school setting allows children to be known, supported, and encouraged every day by an enthusiastic and dedicated staff team. Cloonlyon NS is located just over 8 minutes from Charlestown, making it an easy journey for families in the area.

If you are a parent of a young child, know someone starting school, or simply want to support local education, please call in, have a chat, and see what makes our school so special.

​We look forward to welcoming you on Friday.

Today we were delighted to welcome Rosemary from Mayo Mental Health Association to our school to talk with the children about something very important — looking after our mental health and wellbeing.

Rosemary spoke to the children in a gentle and engaging way about how we can take care of our minds and feelings, just like we take care of our bodies. Together, we explored the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, which help us stay happy and healthy every day:

💛 Connect – talk and spend time with family and friends
🏃 Be Active – move our bodies and get outside
👀 Take Notice – slow down and notice the world around us
📚 Keep Learning – try new things and build new skills
🤝 Give – help others and show kindness

​Through stories, discussion, and simple examples, the children learned that small daily actions can make a big difference to how we feel. There were lots of thoughtful questions and great ideas shared about ways we already care for our wellbeing at school and at home.

It was a really valuable and meaningful session for everyone. Learning about mental health helps us to understand ourselves and support one another. After all, our mental health is just as important as our physical health.
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A big thank you to Rosemary for visiting and sharing such important messages with us.

To celebrate Lá Fhéile Bríd, the children took part in a lovely hands-on tradition — making their own St Brigid’s Day crosses using fresh rushes.

We began by learning about St Brigid and how people in Ireland have been weaving these crosses for many years to welcome spring and bring protection and good luck to their homes. The children were very interested to hear the story and excited to try making their own.

Using bundles of rushes, the children carefully folded, twisted, and tied the stems to create the familiar cross shape. This activity called for lots of different skills — careful weaving, fine motor control, patience, and teamwork. There was great concentration as everyone worked step by step to build their cross.

Most of all, there was plenty of chatting, helping hands, and smiles. Each cross turned out unique, and the children were very proud of their creations.

​It was a wonderful way to connect with Irish tradition, celebrate the season, and enjoy some creative fun together.