Many thanks to all the family members who joined our boys and girls in Mrs. Haughian / Ms. O'Brien's Year 4 class for a beautiful meal in the canteen.

For the third Wednesday in a row Rick and his staff in the canteen had prepared a beautiful feast for everyone to celebrate and eat together before we celebrate the Sacrament of First Communion together on Saturday 18th May.

During May we remember Mary in a special way. In school we make a May Altar in the foyer of our school with pictures of Mary, a candle and beautiful Spring flowers collected from the grounds of our school. We would add some Rosary Beads and we would say the Hail Mary or a Decade of the Rosary - 1 Our Father, 10 Hail Mary's and 1 Glory be to the Father. 

Thank you to the children in Mrs. Lawlor's Year 6 class for creating the lovely art work for our May display in the foyer of our school.  Our Faith Group will be working hard to ensure that our outdoor Sacred space reflects this theme for the month of May.  We look forward to lots of sunny weather to be able to enjoy this very peaceful space in our school.

As part of our Nerve Partnership Programme we were delighted to welcome Ruth and Donna from Nerve Belfast into our school. Ruth and Donna worked with 5 different classes and provided support to class teachers to host a variety of lessons centering on the desirable feature of Digital Art & Design. 

Our Primary One children were treated to a fabulous picnic with so many new foods to try at their caterpillar's picnic. The boys and girls had a wonderful time nibbling at all the tasty pieces of colourful food on the table. What a wonderful way to spend a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon in school!

Well done to this fantastic group of girls who travelled to Portglenone today for the annual INTO 7-a-side Camogie Tournament.  The girls played their hearts out and did themselves proud finishing Runners-Up in the Shield Section of the tournament.  A great day was had by all in attendance.  Many thanks to St. Mary's PS Portglenone for hosting today's event.

Congratulation to all those girls and boys on who have made fantastic progress on their accelerated reading journey.  We had a number of pupils who received certificates for 100,000 and 500,000 words read.  We had 7 new Word Millionaires and 2 Multi-Word Millionaires, Scarlett with over 2,000,000 words and Aoife with 3,000,000 words read - our first ever triple word millionaire! Keep up the great work boys and girls - you are doing so well! 

Well done to our pupils today who represented St. Joseph's at the SW Antrim Cumann na mBunscol Quiz 2024 hosted today by St. Brigid's Ballymena.  The children performed very well and showed a wonderful knowledge in Irish culture, politics, history, geography and Gaelic games.  Our attendance at the quiz does indeed show the commitment of St. Joseph's to supporting the ethos and events of Cumann na mBunscol both on and of the pitch. 

At the end of the quiz the pupils were presented with a book celebrating 50 years of Gaelic games in primary schools.  This book will be placed in our school library for all to read and enjoy!

Many thanks to Mark from Trócaire who came along to school this morning.  We presented Mark with a cheque for £800 which was raised from our Lenten Copper Coin Challenge.  This challenge was part of our Trócaire Lenten Campaign for 2024.  We know that the money raised will be used to good effect and look forward to supporting this very worthy charity in the future.   

Many thanks to all the family members who joined our boys and girls in Mrs. Loughran's Year 4 class for a beautiful meal in the canteen. Rick and his staff had prepared a beautiful feast for everyone to celebrate and eat together before we celebrate the Sacrament of First Communion together on Saturday 18th May.

We had a very special performance in school this morning thanks to M & M Theatrical Productions.  They enchanted us with their adaptation of the classic children’s novel ‘The Secret Garden’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  Frances Hodgson Burnett's wonderful story 'The Secret Garden' beautifully depicts the sheer delight that children take in nature and its positive effect on their mental and physical health.

The children loved having the opportunity to experience the wonder of a live theatre performance.  Thank you M & M Theatrical Productions for putting on this wonderful show for us.