Everyone dressed in green and brought in green food to share; for a gold coin donation that will go to the Caritas Project Compassion.

Addressing the school at the fortnightly assembly, principal Mrs Belinda Burton said the school spirit is epitomised by the effort everyone made to dress up and eat green.

"Saint Patrick was a very patient, kind and devout man and our school community aims to follow the example he set," she said.

Saint Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland.

Legend has it that when he was about sixteen years old, he was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland, looking after animals; by his account, he lived there for six years before escaping and returning to his family in Britain, where he became a cleric.

Patrick eventually returned to Ireland, probably settling in the west of the island, where, in later life, he became a bishop and was ordained a subordinate cleric.

Saint Patrick's Day is observed on 17 March, the supposed date of his death.