It’s that time of year again when we say goodbye to our Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Applied students, before we do, we acknowledge their contribution to our school community and the many other year groups who have been busy this term representing the school in various events.

St. Joseph’s Spanish Point Receive National Award for Literacy

St. Joseph’s Secondary School Spanish Point have received a ‘Well Read’ national award in recognition of commendable literacy standards among their school body.

The ‘Well Read National Award’ is an initiative designed and organised by the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST). It aims to create heightened awareness about the importance of creating a culture of reading in school communities for young people as part of their personal and academic development.

Throughout the year, the school has been engaged in several initiatives in an effort to increase literacy standards, largely through the promotion of reading for pleasure. The school has engaged several stakeholders in this initiative including students, teachers, parents and the local community.

Collaborations with the Clare Library Service and locally, with the Miltown Malbay Library have taken place in an effort to increase the number of students availing of library resources. Through guest lectures at the school and visits to the local library, students have been able to familiarise themselves with the broad range of services offered and have enjoyed the broad selection of novels available.

Within the school, several initiatives were rolled out including a designated ‘Reading Zone’, Literacy Week, ‘Book in the Bag’, ‘Drop Everything and Read’ and Book Clubs. Staff took part in a book swap of novels, while staff with young children exchanged children’s books and ideas about fostering a love of reading from a young age. Parents were also kept in the loop with regular updates as well as book recommendations through the school’s social media channels.

In May 2019, a portfolio of work was submitted to the PDST WellRead committee for adjudication. This week, St. Joseph’s learned they had been successful in their efforts and will receive their award later this year in an awards ceremony in Athlone. The school would like to thank staff, students, parents and the wider community for their very willing engagement and continuous efforts with the initiative throughout the year. A special thank you to teachers Mary Thynne, Roisin O’Sullivan and Caoimhe Flanagan for all their hard work on the initiative.

Student Enterprise Programme

May began with our TY students Joseph Murphy, Sean Kelleher and Kamil Mrowiec representing the school and County Clare in the Student Enterprise Finals held in Croke Park on May 3rd. We are very proud of the boy’s achievement at this event.

TY European Tour

Our TY students enjoyed an action packed four days away in Europe visiting many countries and sites, these included Belgium,Holland and Germany. Some of the places they visited included Bruges, Breendonk Labour Camp and Cologne.

Trocaire Fast

We were delighted with the contribution made by our 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students who raised €692 for Trocaire. The students were moved by Annemarie from Trocaire who spoke to them before Easter about the great work Trocaire carry out worldwide and the impact our purchases have on the developing world. The students organised a 24 hour social media fast and got sponsorship for their efforts. Well done to all those who got involved.

Mental Health Essay Competition

The North Clare Mental Health Association essay competition was held this month in which our TY students excelled! A huge thank you to Ms Mary Thynne and Ms Deirdre Comber for guiding the students through the competition. The school won 6 of the 13 prizes and also won best overall school! 1st place went to Lorraine Malone, joint 3rd to Alison O’Loughlin and runners up were: Andrew Skerritt, Caoilin Gleeson, Katelyn Hehir and Anna Maloney.

First Year Golf

Ms Bergin has been sharing her golf skills with some of our first year students each Friday at our local Spanish Point Golf Club. The programme is called ‘golf4girls4life’. The Irish Open here we come!!

Fun Day

The St Joseph’s Spanish Point Fun Day was held on the 22nd of May and we were blessed with a great day! The students were thrilled with the surprise guest appearance by Marty Morrissey to cheer them on. A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make the day so enjoyable for our students. A special thank you to our past students and parents who gave up their time to help carry out and supervise some of the events.

Graduation Mass

The Graduation Mass was held on the 24th of May for our Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Applied Class of 2019. Fr. Donagh our school chaplin officiated the mass. Mr Reidy and Ms O’Loughlin handed out certificates and students were joined by their families to celebrate this milestone in their journey of life. Students created a memory wall of their class group and of their journey in St. Joseph’s Spanish Point. We are sad to see our students leave us after 5-6 years but know that each and every one of them have a bright future ahead of them. We wish them every success in their forthcoming exams.

Finally, we would like to wish all in our Ceist community a lovely and restful summer!