Scoil Chlann Naofa was established in 2016.  Scoil Chlann Naofa is situated in Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim.  Ballinamore, Béal an Átha Móir in Irish means "mouth of the big ford”.  The town got this name as it was the main crossing point of the Yellow River, between St. John’s Lough and Garadice Lough, now known as the Ballinamore-Ballyconnell Canal built to link the Rivers Erne and Shannon in the 1840’s. The Ballinamore and Ballyconnell Canal was opened in 1860 but it was not a success and fell into despair. In 1994 it was restored as the Shannon - Erne Waterway. 

The town is situated in drumlin country at the foot of Sliabh an Iarainn and dates from the 1621 plantation of Leitrim with English and Scottish settlers. In that year a grant of 600 acres of land was made to Sir Fenton Parsons who undertook to build the nucleus of a town. In the 19^th century the town changed very little. It consisted of one short business street, Main Street and three side streets Chapel Lane (St Brigid’s Street), Church Lane (Church Street) and Pound Lane (High Street was known as Cannaboe). Between 1900 and 1930 the town took on the layout it has today.

Our school was established as a result of the amalgamation of Scoil Náisiúnta Bhríd Naofa and St. Patrick’s Boy’s National School. 

Scoil Náisiúnta Bhríd Naofa was founded in 1889 by the Irish Sisters of Mercy.  The original school building was located in the front section of the old RIC barracks which had become the Convent building in 1871.  In 1969, a separate junior school building was built as the original building was unable to provide for the capacity needs of the school.  Junior Infants to First class were educated in this building while second to sixth class remained in the original building up until 1985 when the senior girl’s school building was opened. 

St Patrick’s Boy’s National School was built in 1962 and was extended in 1978.  Three classrooms were added to the school and the older room became a multi-purpose room.  The school catered for boys from 2^nd – 6^th class.  The site was parish owned land previous to this.   The yard had originally been where the new classrooms were built.  After the extension in 1978, additional land was given to the school from the parish and the playing field and school yard was constructed. 

A closing ceremony was held in St. Patrick’s Church, Ballinamore on Thursday 14^th June to celebrate the closing of the three school buildings and the memories they held. 

The final stage of the amalgamation saw the two schools move into the Meán Scoil Fatima building following extensive restoration work in September 2018.  We are now in the process of a new building project which we hope to see brought to fruition very soon.