Our School
Threen N.S. is situated on the Galway road, 7 km from Castlerea, County Roscommon.
It is in the village of Trien beside Saint Caolin’s Church and across the road from what was the village post office, now closed.
The school was built in 1873, extended in 1931 and later extended in 2007.
The school now has two large classrooms, a learning support/resource room, a front hall, a community room and kitchen to the back, toilets for boys and girls, junior and senior a staff toilet, a staff room, a principal’s office, a secretary’s office and two storage areas.
Most of our pupils come from the local catchment area and indeed there would be a strong family tradition attached to the school with many pupils having parents and indeed grandparents who would have attended the school. We also have pupils from outside the catchment area enrolled.
Our school is very much part of the local community and indeed is always welcoming to people outside our community as well. Our pupils are encouraged to participate in community led initiatives; Community Games, Credit Union competitions and Rose of Castlerea Art Competitions. Many of our pupils play football with the local Saint Kevin’s GAA Club and Castlerea Celtic Soccer Club. We encourage them to join our local library, swimming club, Brownies and Girl Guides. Pupils are encouraged to support the local Trien Drama Group and we take our pupils to see Castlerea Musical productions when possible and also to children’s productions in Roscommon Theatre and Backstage in Longford.
These initiatives help children to make links with the wider community. This can be very beneficial in their transition to Secondary School and indeed also provides them with a wide range of interests for life in general.
Our school welcomes pupils with special education needs. We work with our children through the Staged Approach as outlined by the DES and incorporated in the school’s Policy on Special Education Needs. We have requested assessments where necessary and applied for recommended resources.
We provide resource teaching where it is recommended and class teachers differentiate for our pupils’ learning needs. We as a school community are very mindful in our planning and organisation of the holistic social and emotional development of the children with special education needs in our school. We are assisted in our work by NEPS, the Brothers of Charity and the HSE.
Since the extension to our school in 2007 we have continued with the development of our school environment. We have ample yard play space and in 2009/2010 the BOM put in an infant play area with the help of funding from Clár. In 2010/2011 an area for a school garden was developed and we have now developed a school pitch. Classrooms are very well resourced with most of the resource input in last three years being in IT.
There are now interactive boards in the classrooms, visualisers, broadband, wireless broadband, digital camera camcorder and a supply of laptops and I Pads for the pupils.
Our greatest resource in Threen N.S are our human resources.
Our pupils are a joy to teach, kind, respectful hard working and fun. The staff of teachers, SNA, secretary and caretaker all work together for the good of the school. Each and every member of staff shows genuine care and commitment in their role.
The teaching staff are very aware that their role in the school is a very demanding one and that policies and text books that are issued are not always suited to a two-teacher multi- class situation . However they strive to adapt and introduce new changes and initiatives.
This is achieved in many ways
- Planning their work carefully for the classrooms.
- Consulting with each other, sharing their ideas, expertise and difficulties.
- Good staff relationships
- Good pupil teacher relationships
- Good school community relationships
- Attending courses
- Keeping classrooms well resourced
The combination of the above factors are very important in all schools but especially in a small school and have a very positive influence on the teaching and learning process in Threen National School.