Kildimo National School 50th Anniversary
Kildimo National School 50th Anniversary
25 April 2026
Homily Notes of Bishop Brendan Leahy
The Fiftieth Anniversary is one of the “times” or “seasons” mentioned in the First Reading Today. It is a time for us to give thanks for all good work of the past 50 years in Kildimo National School. And a time for us to reflect on who we are and what we offer the local community and beyond. There were those who planted the seed as the new school opened on land in Ballyvareen donated to the parish by the O’Shea family. There were those who watered that seed over the years in the form of pupils, staff and families who each contributed in their own unique way to this school that is so deeply embedded in this local community. And there are those who will continue to foster growth in the years to come.
When this school officially opened in 1975, schools under Catholic patronage were undergoing many changes in the way of education. The school was no longer to be seen as an institution for simply teaching the three Rs as they were called (reading, writing and arithmetic), but rather it was to be a community of learning where teaching wasn’t just about teachers imparting knowledge to passive children, but rather it was to be a community of love for one another where each one helped each other to grow constructively and in creative ways through engagement in a wide variety of subjects that were considered as all interconnected in an integrated approach to education. Children were encouraged to be more confident in public speaking. They were helped to take initiative in small projects in history or the arts. They engaged in various forms of physical exercise or nature walks. And there was an emphasis on problem-solving together.
In a Catholic school, the model teacher is Jesus who himself guided his disciples as they journeyed with him among them into unity with God and with one another. Jesus issued an invitation to them to “remain” in him. And that continues today in schools as communities gathered in the name of Jesus. Pope Leo underlines three priorities that I would like to recall today as we mark the 50th anniversary of this school that today has 6 mainstream class teachers, 3 Special Education Teachers and 2 Additions Needs Assistants along with a school secretary, caretaker and facilities manager.
A first priority is that a good education in a Catholic school will aim to help the children not just to listen to and learn from the teachers in front of them and the children alongside them, but education is about helping them to listen to the inner voice of the Interior Teacher, as St. Augustine put it, that good inner teacher, the Holy Spirit, who guides us to do what is right and avoid what is wrong. To bring children to be attentive to the good inside teacher happens by presenting high ideals and instilling good virtues, cultivating practices of silence and prayer, and promoting a style of dialogue and selfless generous living for others.
The second priority has to do with the centrality of the unique dignity of each child and the care of the planet. With the rise of AI and algorithms and technological in general – all good things in themselves, there’s a risk that we forget the wholistic development of a child and our care for the planet. The word “Catholic” means “whole” and resonates with holistic or doing things “according to the whole” vision not just the partial vision of life. A good Catholic education will seek to harmonize technical and emotional, social, spiritual and ecological intelligence. It will cultivate in children a recognition that everything is interconnected.
A third point, one that is so relevant today. We remember that education has a purpose. It is about creating a better world, a new world of universal fraternity and peace. Pope Leo encourages us to recognise our calling to educate in non-violent languages, reconciliation, building bridges and not walls, working for social justice. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Mt 5:9), as he puts it, has to become the method and content of learning.
In congratulating you all here today, I join with you in offering this Mass, thanking God for the past fifty years and entrusting the next years ahead. Let’s commit ourselves to “remaining” in Jesus the Teaching, following his example, learning from him and forming our school community around him who has given us the great Commandment “love one another as I have loved you”. Here we have for our school the norm of norms, the basis of every other rule.