St Patrick’s National School, Celbridge

MOLA is part of a multi-disciplinary consortium which won the NDFA Devolved Schools Building Programme 2 in 2024 for a much-needed educational campus in Celbridge.

The brief provides for an integrated campus comprising St Patrick’s National School, Celbridge Community College and St. Raphael’s Special School. The concept of a shared campus allows infrastructure, roads, parking, landscaping, playing fields, sensory gardens and walking trails to be utilised collectively by students and staff, while each school maintains its own autonomy. MOLA, together with McAdam Design, is designing St Patrick’s National School which contains 24 classrooms, four large SEN classrooms, an enlarged GP hall and associated library, staff room and SET facilities. Our concept is to provide an efficient three-storey primary school focused on inclusivity through shared activity spaces and bright collegiate circulation routes. Rooflights and a dynamic central staircase form a light-filled ground floor waiting and seating area, with borrowed light filtering into the corridors above. Particular emphasis has been given to the SEN cluster, organised around a central activity space and outdoor play area.

At the wider campus scale, the masterplan provides a coherent spatial framework that supports active travel, legibility and shared outdoor amenity. Landscaped routes connect the schools with play spaces, sports pitches and sensory gardens, fostering a sense of community while supporting independent operation. The project represents a significant investment in contemporary learning environments and will address sustained demand for school places in Celbridge and surrounding areas.