The end of the school year at St. Joseph’s sees one of the most hotly anticipated events of the year: the teacher’s versus 6th Class rounders match.

Well done everybody!

And the Oscar goes to………

The whole school got involved in making an iMovie. The theme had to be based on History, Geography or Science. I was great fun. Watch out Hollywood…!

Our end of year Concert

The cast of Robin Hood: Hood winked performed brilliantly twice today for parents and the rest of the school. Everyone enjoyed it so much.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRINCIPAL

A chairde,

We are coming to the end of another at St. Joseph’s C.B.S.  From the 30^th of August to the 28^th of June we have worked, we have played, we have learned and we have grown. I thank each and every one of you for your help and support throughout the year. It was my first year in the role of principal and relied on the support of the pupils, staff and parents as well as the Board of Management and Parent’s Association to help me learn, grow and develop.  It was a year of great change here at St. Joseph’s when history was made as we welcomed junior infants to our school for the very first time. It is with great pride that we watch those junior infants progress to senior infants after such a successful year.

June is always a very busy month in schools and St. Joseph’s is no exception. As the end of the month draws near it is a good idea to reflect and draw breath and think about our achievements throughout the year, our achievements as individuals, as classes and as a school community. Some of the achievements are academic, some are sporting, or musical or artistic, some about how represent our school, how we conduct ourselves and how we treat each other.  All of this learning is important and some of the best lessons we learn cannot be found in our copies and in our school books.

This week we said goodbye to a wonderful group of sixth class students and we were happy in the knowledge that they were ready and prepared to move on to the next stage of their education.  Every year we say goodbye to some students and staff who will start next year in new schools in the Drogheda area and beyond. To those of you who are leaving us we thank you for your company, your service and your friendship and we know that wherever you are next year you bring something special with you.

We will welcome new students to the St Joseph’s family in August in junior infants and third class and in other classes throughout the school and I know that our boys will help them to feel at home.

During the Summer holidays I ask pupils and their families to remember three things:

1. Read – Read for pleasure and for fun, read what you like, read to others and listen to others read to you.
2. Be Safe- at home, with others, on-line, on bikes or near water, take care of yourselves and others
3. Have Fun- Summer is a time to make glorious memories. Come back in on August 29^th and tell us all about it.

Míle buíochas agus beannacht Dé oraibh go léir

SPORT

The Peter O’Reilly Memorial Cup

 A great day was had in United Park this June in memory of our dear former colleague Mr. O’Reilly. Over 100 pupils from 12 local primary schools took to the soccer field in the 3rd Annual Peter O’Reilly Memorial Cup. A brilliant St. Joseph’s team topped their group, only to be defeated in the semi-final by the eventual winners St. Mary’s who, in an epic final, beat a fantastic St. Patrick’s NS, Harestown team to lift the trophy for a second consecutive year. The tournament was played in a great spirit befitting of Mr. O’Reilly’s name.

A huge thank you to all our school staff who made the event possible and a special word of thanks to Drogheda United for the venue and Moneymore F.C. for the use of their goalposts.

GAA

The Under 13s Gaelic Football team finished off the year on a high by reaching the final of An Corn Bhrian Mac Craith. Unfortunately our boys came up just short against a very strong and skillful St. Paul’s N.S. team. The 22 strong panel, led by joint captains, Eoin McCoy and Joe Clarke, showed the hallmarks of all St. Joseph’s teams – determination,  teamwork and sportsmanship. We loose alot of fantastic footballers this year but the future is bright with some very talented players emerging from both 4th and 5th class. Well done to all the boys who worked so hard all year!

CLASS NEWS

R9 Google Visit and Easter Rising Walk

The boys in R9 were treated to a trip to the European Headquarters of Google in Dublin this June. They received a guided tour of the offices, took part in a virtual reality experience and listened to a fascinating career talk from a number of the Google staff. The trip was truly inspirational and many, if not all the lads, came back with aspirations of working in Google or a similar company.

In addition to this, R9 who read the novel ‘The Guns of Easter’ this year went on a 1916 Rising history walk, taking in many of the sites from the book, including: Beggar’s Bush Barracks, the houses on Northumberland Road which were occupied by the Irish volunteers and Mount Street Bridge, where over a four day period during the Rising, 28 British soldiers were killed and over 200 badly injured – two thirds of the total British casualties of the Rising!

The behaviour of the lads was exemplary and this was mentioned to teachers by many of the Google employees. They were blown away by the maturity, respect and excellent questions directed to them from our pupils.

R11

The boys from R11 in  sixth class recently had a cooking lesson from Tara Walker who appears frequently on Ireland am. They learned how to cook quesadillas, sticky chicken drumsticks and a delicious chocolate biscuit cake.

R11 and R12

Recently our sixth classes R11 and R12 took part in an art programmer in conjunction with the Highlanes Art Gallery. The boys had to make mini chairs which will be on display in the gallery throughout the summer and were also treated to some traditional and classical Music as part of the project. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all the boys.

G1 had a great Sports Day in the sunshine! The traditional egg and spoon race was reinvented into the spoon and potato/onion race! Well done boys!

The boys in R9 had an amazing day in Dublin today. We went on a 1916 Rising history walk, taking in Beggar’s Bush Barracks, Northumberland Rd. and Mount St. Bridge. After that the lads were treated to a guided tour of Google’s European headquarters followed by a career talk from Google staff and a virtual reality experience.

We had great fun today in G2 printing our fingerprints and studying them!

All the students at St. Joseph’s attended and listened attentively to a Water Safety talk recently. One of the key messages the students learned is to NEVER SWIM ALONE. Always be supervised and be safe!