Congratulations and thank you to everyone who made a shoebox for our recent 'Drop Inn' Appeal.  The 'Drop Inn' charity were delighted with your generosity when they called today to collect the shoeboxes.  Well done to Mrs. Loughran and our Faith Group for organising this very successful charity event - there will be lots of boys and girls delighted with their gifts just in time for Christmas.  Thank you!

Mrs. Campbell's Year 5 class were very excited to host their second meeting with this year's Roots of Empathy baby and 'tiny teacher' Nora.

Along with Mrs. McDonnell they spent time during this visit learning about all the things she can do and how she can tell her mummy how she is feeling. It was a lovely afternoon in addition to helping the children learn about empathy and dealing with emotions.  

We look forward to our next visit from Baby Nora and her mum, Mrs. Kealey!

This week all classes have been taking part in activities and events to mark Maths Week Ireland.  We have been taking part in online quizzes, problem solving tasks, outdoor activities, ICT tasks, visit from the bank and researching mathematicians all in an effort to promote a positive attitude towards the learning of maths!  

We will be hosting a Hallowe’en Capers and Fancy Dress in school on Friday 25th October. Pupils will partake in a number of Hallowe’en activities to include artwork, storytelling, and party games. Pupils will also be watching a short presentation to alert them to the dangers of Fireworks and Sparklers and how to stay safe over the Hallowe’en Holidays.

Our ’Name the Witch’ competition will start on Monday 21st October and run until Thursday 24th October. Our Pupil Council will visit the classrooms on this days. It is 20p per guess with a Hallowe’en Sweets Hamper for the winner!  Name of witch to be announced on Friday 25th October.

#WitchWayToTheSweets

Congratulations to the Year 7 boys and girls from our Shared Education Partnership who as part of Community Relations Week worked alongside Tesco Crumlin on Saturday 14th September to help raise awareness of the work of Air Ambulance Northern Ireland (AANI). 

In total a fantastic £1289.13 was raised for this very worthy cause.  Today Miss Agnew (Shared Education Co-ordinator) and some of our Year 7 pupils, along with other pupils from our Shared Education Partnership, went along to Tesco's Crumlin for the cheque presentation to representatives of the AANI charity.  Well done everyone!

#WorkingTogetherForABrighterFuture

We were delighted with the response to our Hallowe'en Costume Swap whereby used costumes that are ready for a second life are given a new home.  In addition this gives everyone a chance to save some money all while keeping waste out of our landfill sites.  It's a win-win situation both for the pocket and the environment.  Everyone certainly got into the spooky spirit!   

The money raised from our Costume Swap will be used to purchase some plants to enhance our outdoor science classroom.  There are still some costumes available for those who still want to have a look. Well done and thank you to everyone who donated a costume and helped with this project.

It was a spook-tacular success!

Well done to those boys and girls who represented St. Joseph's at the first Cumman na mBunscol event of the year; the Year 7 Mixed Camogie & Hurling Event held at TÍr na nÓg GFC in Randalstown.

Today our Eco-Council had the opportunity to attend a Lough Neagh Drop-In Event organised by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in St Clare's Community Hall, Glenavy. 

Pupils had the opportunity to find out about good bugs and bad bugs and see these through a Microscope.  There was an interactive app on Blue Green Algae, and NI Water hosted a very informative and interactive talk for the children.

The talk covered the journey through the water cycle, exploring the role NI Water have in cleaning our water and wastewater using simple experiments.  Pupils were informed about simple things we can all do to help protect this vital resource using interactive displays and visuals.

Our Eco-Council will reinforce these important messages to all pupils at our next assembly.  Thank you for a very enjoyable and informative afternoon.

Our Digital Leaders embarked on an exciting journey as they participated in the first training session of the Dream Space Ambassador Program. 🎓💻  

The Dream Space Ambassador Program is a flagship Dream Space Student Leadership and training program, supported by the Dream Space Team in Belfast. This program will provide our Digital Leaders with an opportunity to support, train, and mentor others in STEM education.  As part of this program, Dream Space Ambassadors will become Dream Space Specialists, offering assistance to fellow pupils and educators in the form of demos, training, leading small groups, or one-on-one sessions.  This program is a win-win for both the pupils and teachers, providing them with a valuable opportunity to develop leadership and 21st-century skills, while helping to bring the benefits of STEM education to the entire school community. 🎓💻

During todays interactive session, they dived into the world of Micro:bits, exploring the wonders of creating code using MakeCode. Our budding technologists learned the intricacies of loop and variable blocks – vital skills for the digital age! 🌐✨

The enthusiasm was palpable, and we can’t wait to witness them share their newfound knowledge with all our pupils! Stay tuned for more updates as they continue their training and inspire their peers! 📚🤖

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

Year 4 children visited our local Crumlin Library on Tuesday 15^th October.  Both classes enjoyed their walk to the library.  We all met Claire the librarian who read us some 'spooky' and 'funny' stories.  She told us all about what Crumlin Library has to offer.  She encouraged us all to become members of the library and told us that every boy and girl could borrow up to nine books at one time to read.  

We had a great visit and Claire gave us some forms so that we could join the library and begin to borrow books, use the computers and go to the library clubs. We all really enjoyed our visit. Thank you Claire.