School starts back for all pupils next Wednesday. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all parents and children back to school, especially our new parents and children. There is information for new parents and children starting school under the admissions tab on the school website. The calendar for the year is also on the website.

I would like to welcome Ms. Ciara Delaney to the teaching staff of St. Joseph’s N.S.. Ms. Delaney will be teaching Junior and Senior infants for the coming year. We are delighted to have Ms. McGree back with us again this year. Ms. McGree will be teaching 1st, 2nd and 3rd class this year. We are also delighted to welcome Ms. Meany back this year.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and I look forward to seeing everyone on the 27th August.

John Dermody

I would like to congratulate Ms. Curran on her retirement from teaching. She gave 15 wonderful years service to St. Joseph’s N.S. and her workrate, dedication and experience will be sorely missed. She gave her time to schools camogie teams, swimming teams, setting up the school garden, preparing children for the sacraments and leading the green schools initiative in the school as well as many other initiatives.

On the day of our holidays we had a beautiful ceremony in the school lead by Fr. O Gorman. We had blessings for Nuala and the children sang Nuala a beautiful song. We had a presentation from the Parents Association and from the children of the school to Ms.Curran. We finished the occasion by planting a tree in her honour in the school garden which she set up. There was beautiful sandwiches and cakes supplied by parents to have with our tea afterwards. A big thank you to everyone who contributed in making it such a special day.

Congratulations to Caoimhe Hennessy on the success of her entry in the Irish Pride Acrostic Poetry Competition. Caoimhe didn’t collect first prize but she was the only pupil from 4th class in Ireland who had her poem published in the June edition of Primary Planet. She competed against pupils from 4th, 5th and 6th class from all over Ireland, so to be one of only 8 poems selected for publication is a great achievement and we are all very proud. Well done to Caoimhe and to all the other students who entered the competition from the school.

We are delighted to announce that we have an All Ireland Champion in our school. That’s right, Ciaran Rice won the 5th class National Mathletes Final in Dublin last weekend and was crowned All Ireland Champion. He competed against the top 30 students from all over Ireland in various maths exercises which involved problem solving, a team event and a maths time trial. He has worked very hard both at home and in school, with the help of Khan Academy, in preparation for this event and deserved his success. Ciaran received a trophy, a medal and an ipad for his efforts. We are all very proud of his efforts and we hope to have one or two more representatives in the regional and national finals next year as we continue to promote maths in our school

The school will be closed on Friday 23rd May because of the Local and European Elections.

A huge congratulations to Liam Healy and Ciaran Rice who represented the school and Kilkenny in the provincial finals of the MATHletes challenge 2014. Liam was awarded the Kilkenny MATHletes Champion medal for 6th class while Ciaran was awarded the Kilkenny MATHletes Champion medal for 5th class. Ciaran also went on to come 2nd in Leinster in the MATHletes Challenge and will now go to the National Finals on May 24th in Dublin where he will compete against the top 30 5th class students from all over Ireland. We are very proud of the achievement of the 2 boys and wish Ciaran the best of luck in the National Finals.