St. Joseph's BNS Scoil Naomh Ioseph

Yesterday in the beautiful Santry Demense park we had our first run of the year in the Clonliffe Harriers schools cross country. 45 boys from 4th, 5th and 6th classes represented St. Joseph’s and all ran very well especially the boys from Mr. O’Flynn’s class. The 5th class boys were 3rd in the team event with Ben finishing 5th and Cillian, Eoghan and Sean all finishing in the top 25 against around 200 boys from 20 other schools, including some from as far away as Armagh and Belfast! There will be several more of these cross country runs during the school year and every boy from 3rd to 6th will get an opportunity to run so get out running and get fit! Photos here.

Our Cumann na mBunscol school football season is well under way and the four school teams will be in regular action up to Halloween. We are also continuing a long tradition in St. Joseph´s by running a 3rd and 4th class football league in the first term. Our thanks to the teachers who give their time and energy coaching and supervising after school. Senior team photos. Junior team photos.

We wish to thank Tommy O’Mahony of Faughs(and Paddy O’Brien who sponsored the medals!) for organising hurling blitzes for all classes from 1st to 4th this week. Well done to all the boys and remember to keep practicing your skills over the summer! More photos here.

The work that Rang a 3 (Ms Maher’s  and Ms Rooney’s) have done in the garden this year is beginning to bear fruit.

The early potatoes (in bags) are almost ready for harvest. The tomato plants have grown very tall and needed staking. They are gradually finding new homes ….. hopefully in the ground or very large pots, where they will thrive and produce many juicy red fruits. The beginnings of tiny courgettes have been seen, as the boys weed the vegetable bed… we anticipate cooking them in September. Rhubarb is picked periodically to allow new growth. It will be in the freezer for us to enjoy at a later date. Spicy mizuna leaves insist on re-appearing to enhance our lunchtime sandwiches and salads.
Our sensory garden is looking quite lush: We can touch, smell, see and taste mint, thyme, sage, lavender, chives, dogwood, fuschia and a recently re-discovered apple blossom.  Click here for more photos.

It´s not every day we have an Olympic medallist(and his medal) visiting us here in St. Joseph´s so Mr. O´Flynn´s class were delighted to welcome John Tracey yesterday. They listened in wonder as he told of that summer´s evening long ago when he ran his first marathon against the best in the world in the Southern Californian sun and finished with a silver medal. John was also happy to sign the boys´ homework diaries! This week our own champions were in energetic action on Sports Day. You can see some photos here.