An amazing experience for the last night with our visitors celebrating with a fantastic Ceili dance with music from Raymond Loney and dance calling from Oonagh Phillips.  Thank you so much to everyone who came along and to all our host families for their invaluable support with this project.

It simply could not have happened without you!

#verygrateful

On Tuesday 14th March Year 4 (COB/RH)  visited Crumlin Library. There are two very nice people called Claire and Iris who help you when you go the library. Claire told us all about the library and what you can do there. We found out that there are two computers just for children to use. You get a special PIN and you can even use them to do research homework or make powerpoints. You can bring a memory stick and save your work to bring to school or show your granny or grandad what you are doing.

There are lots of books that you can borrow from the library. You can take nine books in one go! You can also visit the libraries website and read magazines and newspapers or listen to audio books.

Claire told us that there are events and activities at the library for children. She is going to have a Lego club, so call in and find out when it is going to start. It will be great fun!

We guessed that it would cost a lot of money to join the library. Someone said it would be £20, someone else said £150 or even £300 to join, but the best thing about joining the library is that IT IS FREE for everyone! You even get your own special children’s library card with a fancy design on it and you can check out the books that you want to borrow using their special machine.

Claire read a story to us and then we were able to pick different books to look at and read for ourselves while we were there. Some of us chose fact books and some chose story books and we got to sit on soft chairs while we were reading.

On our way back to school lots of hailstones came down, but luckily we didn’t get too wet. 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 Lego club. We all really enjoyed our visit. Thanks Claire and Iris.

Congratulation to our Year 5 pupils whose poems have been selected by Roseanna Caswell, editor at Young Writers, for publication in 'The Big Green Poetry Machine - The Future Is Ours'.  This is an amazing achievement for the boys and girls and they were presented with a bookmark, sticker and certificate to mark their achievement. 

The collection will be published on 5th May 2023 and each of the children will ttreceive their very own copy. 

Well done folks - future poets in the making at St Joseph's!

An amazing concert for St. Patrick's Day from our Year 2 children and Irish Dancers. The atmosphere over the four shows was unbelievable and really made us feel very proud to come from Ireland and celebrate our national saint in style.

Well done girls and boys - what dancing, singing, reciting and acting ..... what a show! 

#superproudofyouall

Congratulations to our Year 7 pupils who celebrated the sacrament of Confirmation in Mater Dei Church on Thursday 9th March.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will bless and guide them today and in the days and weeks ahead as they continue on their educational journey.  Many thanks to the Year 7 team for ensuring the children were so well prepared for today, to the boys and girls in the Year 5 and 6 choir for the beautiful singing, to Mrs McDonnell and Mrs Matthews for the wonderful music and to Canon Colm for delivering the service.  Well done everyone!

Following Confirmation the pupils celebrated with Confirmation cake on their return to school.

Year 7 were treated to a participative workshop today to showcase I.T. and help them understand the importance of digital skills and the opoportunitiies which will be open to them in the future.  We would like to thanks Sentinus for comomg along to deliver the workshop and the merchandise for our pupils. 

Congratulations to our Credit Union Group B Competition Winners who travelled to Malond Lodge in Belfast on Sunday to take part in the next round of the CU Competition.  The girls did exceptionally well representing their school and finished in joint third place on the day.  Well done girls .... great representatives for St Joseph's!

On Thursday 2nd March we celebrated World Book Day in St. Joseph's.  For us in St. Joseph's, EVERY DAY is World Book Day.  We have been so busy this Term with our Silent and Accelerated Reading, pairing up with Reading Partners in Primary 3 and Primary 7 and reading with our teachers in class.  

On World Book Day, the children participated in a variety of events. For example,   some classes joined the BBC Live Lesson and are working so hard retelling some stories and characters with a TWIST.  Other classes created comic strips of their favourite books, read their favourite stories in class or listened to audio stories and tips from famous authors.  

We hope the children enjoy spending their World Book Day  tokens and treat themselves to a new book.

Beginning Monday 6th March and running throughout Lent until Monday 3rd April we hope to operate a Copper Coin Challenge between each of our classes.

Each class will have a sweet jar and we would like them filled with as many copper coins as possible, with all monies raised going to support Project Zambia. 

Today we launched our Lenten Copper Coin Challenge for Project Zambia.  Two of our past pupils who currently attend St Dominic's in Belfast will be travelling to Zambia in July of this year to work on a number of ongoing projects.  The girls launched the Lenten Copper Coin Challenge with our Year 3 pupils today.  They delivered a presentation explaining what the project was all about, what they would be doing whilst in Zambia and how the money raised would be used.  Next week they will present their presentation to our Year 4-7 children.

Hopefully everyone will join in and we can raise as much money as possible to support this worthy cause.  The class which raises the most money per child will be rewarded with a Movie afternoon, with a film of their choice and popcorn, all supplied by Mr Traynor!

Please take a look in pockets and purses and down the back of the sofa! All copper coins will be gratefully received!