Safer Internet Day is the UK’s biggest celebration of online safety. Each year we cover an online issue or theme that speaks to the things young people are seeing and experiencing online.

Safer Internet Day 2025 is due to take place on Tuesday 11th February.  However as we will be closed for Mid Term we marked Safer Internet Day on 4th February 2025, with celebrations and learning based around the theme:                                                                              

‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online’.

To mark Safer Internet Day,  please find a link below to a parent information session on online safety which we receive as part of our annual subscription to Knowsley Council

 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BxcZWQ4XcUonNO8C1v-auZq65-AZx9gH?usp=sharing

A copy of the video/presentation is also available on their website for those who would prefer to watch it via a browser:

https://www.knowsleyclcs.org.uk/online-safety-parent-session-jan-2025/

We hope you find this useful and informative.

Today we held our January Assemblies.  Our assemblies provided us with an opportunity to talk about Safer Internet Day,  the theme of 'Know Yourself, Grow Yourself' for Children's Mental Health Week and our new Character Trait of 'Diligence' for the month of February.  We also celebrated achievements in school and through participation in a variety of extra-curricular activities.  Congratulations to our January Award Winners - keep up all those wonderful and varied talents.  Well done!   

A big thank you to all our Year 3 Grandparents, extended family and friends who came into school today to hear the beautiful singing, storytelling and poetry of our children.  Visitors enjoyed some light refreshments and were then invited to spend some time with the children in their classrooms.

Also, a big thank you to the Year 3 teachers and classroom assistants for the beautiful gifts the children made for their Grandparents.  This was indeed a very fitting conclusion to our celebrations for Catholic Schools Week.

Today Year 7EA came together with our partner schools to celebrate the diversity in our culture.  Members from the Ulster Scot’s Society joined us today to explore the musical and costume traditions and the history of the language and how it is incorporated into how we speak today.

They played the bagpipes and showed us the traditional costume for parades and special events.  They also explained the history of the Ulster Scots settlements, origins of the language and how we use these words nowadays.  Our very own Miss Hannon even performed an Irish dance for everyone!  We had great fun learning and playing together.

Our Girls' Soccer Team embraced their four games during the first week’s round of the Antrim and Newtownabbey Girls’ Soccer League with enthusiasm, sportsmanship and skill!  Over four hard fought games our hard-hitting strikers scored 7 goals in total securing two wins and two narrow losses.  Well done girls - we look forward to Round 2!

We were delighted to receive so many new books to support our literacy programme and the Year 5 - Year 7 pupils with the Accelerated Reading Programme.  We were also able to order sets of dictionaries for our Year 3 and 4 classes.  We were able to purchase these books and dictionaries with the £2,400 commission we received from our latest Book Fair purchases.

We would like to thank all those who supported the Book Fair which had enabled us to acquire these additional reading and literacy resources.  They will certainly be put to good use.  Members of our Pupil Council will showcase the new books purchased to all the pupils at our school assemblies next week.

Our Year 4HW pupils enjoyed their second very informative Shared Education ICT session this morning.  Today it was St. Joseph's turn to host with Crumlin Integrated Primary having hosted last week. 

The workshops focus on the use of the programme Scratch and are led by computer programmer Mrs. Shona Ward.  Scratch is a visual programming language that allows students to create their own interactive stories, games and animations.  The children were engaged throughout and produced lots of very creative work.  Many thanks to Shona for leading the sessions and we look forward to continuing with the workshops next week.

Thursday 23^rd January will go down as a very special day in the history of St. Joseph’s Primary School and Nursery Unit as we were joined by the biggest prize in all of Irish sport - The Sam Maguire Cup; the most iconic trophy in Gaelic football,

On what was a truly unforgettable day, the atmosphere in our school was electric as we welcomed Sam with a guard of honour from representatives of our school’s Gaelic teams, members of staff and representatives from St. James’ GAC.

We would like to thank Roise’s mum for arranging the visit which has enabled us to create and capture many special moments and lifelong memories.

#WhereWeAllBelong

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

A wonderful achievement on the day the Sam Maguire Cup came to visit St. Joseph's!

Well done girls - Congratulations!

Today we welcomed back to school our friend and former teacher Miss McAuley.  During Catholic Schools Week Miss McAuley has visited our school each year since her retirement to work with groups of Year 6 children making St. Brigid's Crosses.  Today she also gifted each child in Year 6 a beautiful medal medal and rosary beads.  The children had a very enjoyable time and learned a very traditional Irish weaving skill.  Many thanks for your time Miss McAuley!