This Sunday 1st December marks the First Sunday of Advent.  Today Canon Colm called to school to bless our Advent Wreath.  During our Prayer Service we had a number of special readings.  To conclude the service our Year 7 pupils sang a beautiful rendition of Silent Night.  

The Advent Wreath was then moved to the foyer of our school.  Afterwards the Year 7 Faith Group met to discuss the proper upkeep of our Advent Wreath and to share responsibilities for delivering our whole school Advent messages to each class during the month of December. 

Congratulations to the Girls' Gaelic Football Team who travelled to Antrim Forum to take part in the SW Antrim Indoor 5-a-side Football Tournament. 

There was great team work, determination and skill displayed and the girls did St. Joseph's proud and won the Allianz SW Antrim Cumann na mBunscoil Cup.

Thank you to Mrs. Rogan, Miss Rogan and Mr. McMullan for the work which they do in promoting and developing Gaelic sport in St. Joseph's.  Also thank you to St. James'  GAC Aldergrove and Gaelfast for all of their support and for the provision of coaches to assist with the coaching of these girls and indeed the development of Gaelic sport throughout our school.

Well done girls - Congratulations!

Nothing brings us more joy and pride than seeing you shine!

As part of their participation in the Dream Space Ambassadors Program our Digital Leaders led a very practical and informative staff development session on the use of micro:bits.  Our Dream Space Ambassadors Program is led by Miss Walsh our ICT co-ordinator.

A very confident and knowledgeable group of children they were and staff had a wonderful time learning all about what micro;bits, what they do and how they can be used across the school.  The session provided opportunities for staff to experiment with aspects of coding to include creating loops, sequences and using conditional statements.  The sessions finished with a Kahoots interactive quiz just to check that everyone had been paying attention!

All staff in attendance would like to thank our Digital Leaders for this unique and inspiring professional development opportunity.  Well done Digital Leaders - you are a credit to your school!

#MSDreamSpace #DreamSpace #STEM #Microbits #CodingForKids #LearningIsFun #FutureCreators

The Wheelie Big Challenge educates about the 5 Rs – Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle -and helps young people to tackle the issues of plastic, paper, and food waste at school and at home.

Today our Eco Council took part in a workshop to educates them about the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling. 

The workshop facilitator challenged the pupils to take a close look at what happens to their waste by guiding them through an initial waste audit.

At the end of the workshop the Eco Committee considered what actions they can take to tackle litter and waste problems at school and have decided to:

• Complete two Waste Audits and record their data.
• Enter the Wheelie Big Competition by submitting their audits along with some photos and a written explanation of what they have done to reduce, reuse and recycle waste at school and at home.

This week we celebrated the beginning of Advent at our November Golden Assemblies.  Mrs. Haughian's Year 4 class led our Assembly on the theme of Advent which focused us all on how we can use this time in the build up to Christmas to prepare for the special day.  It reminded us of the importance of love, joy, hope and peace during this festive season. 

In addition to this some important messages were delivered and there was lots to celebrate with the presentation of our monthly awards, some fabulous achievements in our Accelerated Reading Programme and lots of the children shared with us success they had achieved outside of school.  We certainly have a lot of very talented boys and girls.  A massive well done to everyone involved!

Today the Pupil Council met for the second time to discuss the importance of these 5 steps: Connect; Be Active; Take Notice; Keep Learning and Give as part of their Take 5 campaign.  In attendance were Mr. Traynor and Mrs. Wray.   

It was a busy meeting.  The boys and girls completed the Take 5 steps to wellbeing star in addition to their Take 5 steps to wellbeing pledge.  They plan to meet again before the Christmas Holidays to plan how best to highlight the Take 5 message and promote the Take 5 pledge.  The girls and boys finished off the meeting with a breakfast treat in the canteen after a morning's work well done!

Our Take 5 Steps Pledge

I pledge to look after my mental health and wellbeing by finding ways to:

CONNECT - with the people and the environment around me.

BE ACTIVE - in a way that suits me and that I enjoy.

TAKE NOTICE - and be mindful of my surroundings.

KEEP LEARNING - new skills and developing myself.

GIVE - what I can when I can.

#UnlockThePowerOfWellness

Today our Eco Council held their Christmas Jumper Swap in school. 

There were a variety of jumpers to choose from and indeed a bargain to be hard.  We were amazed at how quickly the jumpers sold with only a few left at the the end of the session. 

Congratulations to the Eco Council on some great Christmas recycling and on helping others save a few pounds and we fast approach the festive season!

They will use their work in this area to help support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

#plasticfreechristmas2024

Many thanks to Joe from The Gathering Drum Workshop who entertained all of the children in the nursery unit today with a one hour session of music, rhythm and rhyme.  The children enjoyed playing the African drums, listening to the guitar and learning new chants and songs.  Thanks Joe - we look forward to next week's session.

Nature Rangers Club continued on a Friday afternoon.  Lot's of great fun to be had and very creative thinking from the girls and boys in attendance.

The school orchestra members attended the Ulster Orchestra Concert in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast. It was a fabulous morning of musical entertainment and as usual the children represented the school so well.  They were treated to a range of beautiful musical pieces.  Thank you to the Ulster Orchestra for giving us such a memorable day out!