Today we celebrated our Year 1-3 September Golden Assembly with our Year 1 pupils joining us for assembly for the first time - they were amazing!

Mr. McGrattan's Year 2 class led our Year 1-3 Assembly on the theme of  'New Beginnings'.  The children focused on many of the new things which come our way as we embark on a new school year and how we should embrace all of these and enjoy these new experiences.  The boys and girls in Year 2 spoke so confidently and their singing was just wonderful.  A lovely assembly indeed to mark the end of our first month back to school.

Pupils were presented with certificates, birthday badges and we also had a number of children who brought in medals, certificates and trophies from home to celebrate achievement outside of school.  

Well done to all our boys and girls - a great start to the school year.  We are very proud of you all!

Thank you!

Many thanks to the Friends of St Joseph's for their cheque presentation of £4,000 towards our school funds!  We are delighted with the total presented and will put it to good use. So far we have purchased a new Interactive Whiteboard for Mrs. Campbell's Year 5 classroom and license rights for the access to the online Jolly Phonics Scheme and staff training on the speech and language programme, Talk Boost.

Friends AGM

The friends of St Joseph's will be hosting their AGM on Tuesday 24th September at 6.00pm in St Joseph's.  This is a great opportunity to become actively involved and help build  upon much needed resources which will benefit all the   children in the school.  Our PTA is a fun and lively organisation who have successfully raised thousands of pounds to purchase equipment and learning resources for the children in our school.  At the meeting the committee will be selected and plans for the  upcoming year will be discussed.  Please come along and support your school!

First Fundraiser of the Year - Smarties Challenge!

This September ‘The Smarties Challenge’ is back!

Each child will be given a tube of Smarties to enjoy. Once the tube is empty we ask that you  start collecting those 20p coins and place in the  Smartie tube.

Please return your Smartie tube to school  on or before        

Friday 27th September.

Let’s raise some money towards school funds which will be used towards the purchase of Interactive

Whiteboards.

And please remember it’s not only Smarties who have the answer ….. St Joseph’s has the answer!

In addition to some lovely plums and blackberries, we've had a bumper crop of cooking apples this year.  Today some of our Primary 7 pupils picked some of these apples from the trees in our forest school area. 

The pupils then took a selection of apples to our canteen manager Rick and asked if he could use them to create a tasty dessert.  Rick thanked the boys and girls and told them to call back on Monday promising that he'd have a tasty treat for the children to try made from our school grown produce!

#Having some qualitree time with my besties.

#We couldn't have picked a better day!

Election fever hit St Joseph's this week with the first of out two election campaigns for Pupils Council and Digital Leaders.  Next week we have elections for Eco-Council and the Faith Group.

Congratulations to all those who have been elected so far and good luck to all next weeks candidates!

Our Year 5 pupils enjoyed a visit from the NI Waterbus.  The Waterbus is a double decker bus, which has been transformed into a mobile education unit.   On the Water Bus today our Year 5 pupils met H20, our Water Wise Super Hero, who introduced children to the Wonderful World of Water.

Pupils learned through presentation and demonstration about a range of water issues such as the water cycle, water for health, water sources, water and wastewater treatment, water conservation and water in the developing world.  There was an interactive presentation on the lower deck explains how NI Water collects and cleans water and wastewater and explores how we can all help to look after this vital resource.  On the upper deck of the bus there was a small cinema used to show videos and presentations. Year 5 watched as Flo and her friends explained the water cycle and how this amazing cycle never ends. They also discovered simple ways to save water at home and school and compare how we use water here in Northern Ireland with people in the developing world.

It was a great way to introduce the topic to the Year 5 boys and girls.  Thank you Waterbus NI. 

Many thanks to Canon Colm for celebrating our beginning of the school year mass with our pupils from P4-7, our staff and wider school community this morning. 

During the Season of Creation which begins on 1st September and ends on 4th October Canon Colm spoke to the children about the beauty all around us and how on this glorious sunny day we can reflect on new beginnings and look forward to the future.  The newly appointed Year 7 Mini Ministers of the Word also read the Readings of the day and Prayers of the Faithful so confidently and reverently. Our Mass was indeed a very fitting way in which to ask for God's blessing on our school community as we embark on another school year.   

We pray that it will be another successful year in St Joseph's which brings good health and happiness to all.

Choir practice has commenced again in St. Joseph's under the expert guidance of our two very talented teachers and musicians, Mrs. McDonnell and Mrs. Matthews.  The boys and girls from Year 5 - Year 7 will meet each Tuesday afternoon to rehearse a variety of hymns and songs which will enhance many of our school services and events throughout the year.  What a talented bunch they all are!

To mark Community Relations Week a selection of our Year 7 pupils from the four schools in our Shared Education Partnership will be working alongside Tesco Crumlin on Saturday 14th September to help raise awareness of the work of Air Ambulance Northern Ireland (AANI).  The children were excellent representatives for our Shared Education partnership.  Tesco will be in touch in the near future to announce the final total raised and the children will present a cheque to the Air Ambulance charity.

Today our Primary 1 pupils looked super smart as they had their first official photographs taken in the Minor Hall by Flashart photography.  The smiles on their faces were just a delight and we hope that by capturing this moment in time, the children and their family and friends will have a lovely memory to look back on! 

Our Year 7 pupils will begin their prefect duties next week.  Today they met with Mrs. Wray our Prefect Co-ordinator to discuss how the prefect system will work and the duties they will be responsible for. 

Pupils heard about the importance of:

• Showing good example towards other children in the school
• Wearing full school uniform and showing responsibility towards other children
• Carrying out the various daily duties carefully, properly and with respect.

Some of the many duties carried out by the Year 7 Prefects on a rotational weekly basis include monitoring lights and doors, computer/laptop duty, Year 1 Courtyard/Infant Playground duty, litter picking, checking music and PE resources and library duties.  We know our Year 7 pupils will do a great job and develop many new skills along the way!