‘Meet Our Local School’

Ratheniska National School

With so many people coming to live and work in Laois their children need to be schooled locally. To help these newcomers find out what schools are out there for their kids the Laois People are running a ‘Meet Our Local School’ series. First up is a lovely country school near Portlaoise.

Ratheniska National School is a mainstream, co-ed primary school, located approximately 3kms to the south east of Portlaoise. The earliest records for a school in Ratheniska dates back to 1824 (188 years ago!) Our school has a Roman Catholic ethos. The school operates under the patronage of The Kildare & Leiglin Dioscese in the Parish of Portlaoise. Currently there are 232 children in school at present, 114 boys and 118 girls. The school building houses 8 spacious classrooms (90 sqm), 2 support rooms, offices and store rooms. We are very fortunate to also have use of the local community hall and the nearby GAA grounds (17 acres) for all our recreational requirements. Visit our gallery page to see some photographs of our school. Visit our Calendar page to see important dates of this school year.