Our Amenities
School Amenities
St. Finbarrs is situated on a large campus with separate junior and senior yards. We also have a playing field for our Soccer and GAA team practice sessions. We have a large hall which is used for indoor sports and also for hosting school events such as our annual Christmas concert, and also our end of year awards day.
In 2007 we started our own school garden, which is very popular with the boys and has been a great success. It has promoted healthy eating and is a great teaching resource for all classes and abilities.
We have a large dedicated school library in our building and we have built up strong links to our local library in Cabra.
ICT
Each classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard. There are also computers for the children in each class. The Junior Infants and the Senior Infant classes are equipped with IBM Kidsmart computers.
St. Finbarrs won the Intel eplanning competition in 2012. The school was awarded with 30 fizzbook laptops and a mobile trolley which is used in all the rooms. We are striving towards digital school status.
SPORT
St. Finbarrs have a very active sports programme, with activities taking place both within school and in after school clubs. We participated in the FAI schools league last year for the first time and got through to the semi-final stage.
We also participate in Cumann na mBunscoil and run after school sessions for our team with the help from the local GAA club and our parents.
During the year we have qualified basketball coaches coming in to improve our basketball skills. We also have Bohemian footballers training our boys in their soccer skills. Tennis 4 kids is another programme which we run during the summer months and is run by trained tennis coaches.
Dublin City Council Community Sports have forged strong links with our school through Paul Quinn, and boxing is another skill being taught here. Some of our boys participated in boxing competitions in the national stadium.
We have a fully equipped photography room on site. The pupils are taught photography skills from a professional photographer as part of the after school club activities.
There is a full kitchen on the premises which is used for cookery classes for parents and children. It is also used to run a breakfast club which is open to all of our pupils from 8:15 am. and runs from October to June.
Sited on our premises is St. Finbarrs playschool which is a community based non-profit playschool catering to children from 2yrs10mth to 4 years. The playschool participate in the ECCE scheme which provides free playschool places to children age between 3yrs2mths and 4yrs. The manager is Marianne Rooney . The opening times are 9:00 – 1:00 . Their phone number is 01-8380323
HSCL
We have a HSCL coordinator in our school and a number of activities and free courses are provided through this such as, Gaeilge for beginners, computers, cookery (with a focus on healthy, cost-saving meals), literacy skills and flower arranging. There is a parent and toddler group also. Parents are involved in Maths for Fun and Story Sacks to improve literacy and numeracy. Some parents have trained as tutors for Incredible Years programme and Better Basics literacy and numeracy programme.
In coordination with the SCP programme a school transition programme was launched in 2010, and has proved to be very successful.
After School clubs
There are numerous after school clubs which are free to our boys. Some these include: homework club, photography club, maths club, cookery club, book club, gardening club, literacy & numeracy games club, story writing club, computer skills club.
This year we also ran a summer camp for our boys through the school which was free to all who participate and was run by teachers in the school.
Some of our children participate in an after school club run by the Cabra for Youth scheme.
School Completion Programme
The School Completion Programme (SCP) is an initiative that aims to have a positive impact on retention for young people. This is achieved in a number of ways utilising a range of innovative, creative as well as tried and tested interventions. Many different supports have been developed, adopted and are reviewed regularly, under the four SCP headings: In-school support, After school support, out of school support and holiday support. The school completion coordinator is Sylwia Kazmierczak Murray and her office is based in our school.