Reading routines that build confidence from the start.
Small-group support, take-home materials, and family-friendly reading habits.
Learning With Community
Education rooted in care, culture, and local belonging.
Scoil Iosagain works with children, families, and partners across Ballybunion to create practical pathways into literacy, wellbeing, creativity, and long-term confidence.
Why We Exist
Local challenges deserve local, relational support.
Families need spaces where learning feels welcoming, dignified, and practical. Our work combines school-day support, after-school creativity, and family engagement so progress can happen both inside and beyond the classroom.
We focus on continuity: trusted adults, familiar spaces, and programmes that meet young people where they are while building confidence over time.
Shared routines and visible support help young people feel ready to participate.
How We Work
Every programme is designed to move from access to agency.
From reading circles and breakfast support to creative workshops and parent navigation sessions, each intervention is built to reduce barriers and strengthen a child’s sense of possibility.
The result is a model that values measurable outcomes without losing the warmth, flexibility, and trust that community work depends on.
Place-based work becomes stronger when education, family life, and local partners stay connected.
Programs
View all programs
Practical supports that travel with families through the year.
Daily structures that help children feel safe, settled, and ready.
Breakfast support, mentoring, and routines that improve attendance and participation.
Arts-led projects that unlock expression, teamwork, and pride.
Music, visual arts, and storytelling programmes shaped with local artists and facilitators.
Support that makes schools easier to navigate for parents and carers.
Workshops, check-ins, and community events that deepen trust and participation.
24
weekly sessions delivered
5
local partner schools and services
1,300+
meals and take-home supports each term
87%
students showing stronger participation
42
volunteers and mentors engaged
Featured Case Study
A family support pathway that changed one student’s year.
A coordinated response connected reading support, attendance coaching, and parent check-ins.
When the adults around a child start moving in the same direction, progress stops feeling fragile.
Last autumn, one upper-primary student was missing regular classroom time and disengaging from reading tasks. Scoil Iosagain linked school staff, home support, breakfast provision, and a weekly creative workshop into one steady plan.
Within a single term, attendance improved, reading participation increased, and the student began taking on visible leadership during group work. The family stayed engaged because support felt consistent rather than fragmented.
- +22% attendance improvement over one term
- 3x more voluntary reading participation
- 1 plan shared across school, family, and mentors
Team Preview
Meet the full team
The people holding the work together.
Diarmuid Lynch
Director
Aoife Kelleher
Head of Programs
Niamh O'Donnell
Family Partnerships Lead
Seamus Harty
Learning & Wellbeing Coordinator
From The Journal
Recent stories from classrooms, families, and community partners.
How our reading mornings are shifting confidence in junior classes.
What changed once families began borrowing story packs every Friday.
Attendance improved when support started before the first bell.
A look at the routines behind our breakfast and mentoring approach.
Why arts workshops are now part of our core support model.
Creative practice is helping children express ideas they do not always say out loud.
What parents told us after the winter community open evening.
Three recurring themes are shaping the next phase of our support work.
Building programmes that feel unmistakably local to Ballybunion.
How place, memory, and local partnership shape stronger education outcomes.
A new partner network is making referrals faster and less fragmented.
Schools, volunteers, and local services are now working from the same map.
Locations
Grounded in Ballybunion, connected across the wider community.
Church Road Centre
Our main contact point for family sessions, planning meetings, and volunteer coordination in Ballybunion.
School-Based Delivery
Programme delivery happens across classrooms, shared learning spaces, and partner venues throughout the school year.
Community Outreach
Pop-up events and seasonal programmes extend support to families who need flexible local access.
Take Part
Choose the way you want to stand behind local learning.
Support can look like funding, time, collaboration, or staying informed about what families need next.
Donate
Help fund learning materials, meals, transport, and hands-on support for children and carers.
Make a GiftVolunteer
Offer time in reading support, events, logistics, or behind-the-scenes community coordination.
Join InPartner
Work with us on programme delivery, referrals, sponsorship, or place-based community initiatives.
Start a PartnershipSubscribe
Receive updates on programme milestones, events, and emerging needs from Ballybunion families.
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