Gaelscoil Chill Dara (GSCD) is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

primary school situated on the Green Road in the Curragh, County Kildare in Ireland. The school was founded in 1995 with the vision of delivering

primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...

through the medium of Irish (a

Gaelscoil A Gaelscoil (; plural: ''Gaelscoileanna'') is an Irish language-medium school in Ireland: the term refers especially to Irish-medium schools outside the Irish-speaking regions or Gaeltacht. Over 50,000 students attend Gaelscoileanna at primary an ...

) while following the standard national school curriculum, allowing pupils to gain full proficiency '' as Gaeilge''. Gaelscoil Chill Dara was originally based in Herbert Lodge on the Curragh, moving to a much larger purpose-built premises at Curragh Grange in the early millennium due to the increasing demanding for primary Irish-speaking education in the County Kildare region. The school serves the surrounding urban centres of Newbridge, Kildare Town,

Naas Naas ( ; ga, Nás na Ríogh or ) is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. In 2016, it had a population of 21,393, making it the second largest town in County Kildare after Newbridge. History The name of Naas has been recorded in th ...

Kilcullen Kilcullen (), formally Kilcullen Bridge, is a small town on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Its population of 3,473 at the 2011 census made it the 12th largest settlement in County Kildare and the fastest growi ...

and Rathangan. Gaelscoil Chill Dara has a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

religious ethos and is under the patronage of An Foras Pátrúnachta na Scoileanna LánGhaeilge Teo. "Chill Dara" (singular ''Cill Dara'') is the Irish name for Kildare, meaning " church of the oak". Pupils range in age from 4 to 13 years of age. Its main education focus is on English, Irish, Mathematics and Drama subjects. The number of pupils enrolled in the school for the 2015/16 school year was 444, with an even breakdown in the number of girls and boys, and 16 classes spanning the 8 years from junior infants to sixth class. The school has been oversubscribed for a number of years. The current principal is Niamh Uí Chadhla, who was appointed in 2019 after the resignation of former principal Seán de Paor, who had been principal since the school's establishment in 1995.

References

{{Coord, 53.1587, -6.8084, region:IE_type:edu, display=title 1995 establishments in Ireland Roman Catholic schools in the Republic of Ireland Educational institutions established in 1995 Gaelscoil Irish-language schools and college Primary schools in County Kildare

See also

References