Hi everyone, hard to believe it but we are nearly at the end of another year at St Joseph’s.
It has been one with plenty of challenges and bumps in the road, but hopefully we are moving towards some type of normality now.
Unfortunately, many of the events that we in the PTA enjoy organising had to be cancelled this year but fingers crossed there will be a full programme of events next year that we can all enjoy. It will be great to see everyone again at the discos, cinema nights, communion/confirmation teas, quiz nights and the Community Fun Day.
All was not lost though, and with Zoom technology, ingenuity and some newly acquired IT skills we were able to deliver a number of successful events with your help and support. Read on to see how close we are to meeting our target for the year, and how your donations get spent!
What a year...
We started in October with the “Ballyhuntamore” treasure hunt taking us all out for a nice dander around the Comber Greenway and Newtownards Road. December brought our annual Christmas card fundraiser and the Christmas raffle.
Given the hard time many businesses were having this year we sought prize donations from parents/carers and we have to say we were bowled over by your generosity meaning the raffle was a great success (I’m sure many of the hair /beauty vouchers were gladly put to good use once lockdown eased!)
The New Year brought Jog January, a great initiative with support from the Public Health Agency to get us outdoors and enjoy some fresh air in what was a more challenging January than usual! Prizes were awarded for best selfies as well as most activities undertaken over the month. We loved seeing the selfies come in every week and we hoped you enjoyed catching up with the weekly videos, there are definitely some budding photographers out there!
Easter brought the Spring Challenge that encouraged us to get outside and get our thinking caps on with some serious brainteasers. I think only an engineer could have asked how many Cadbury’s crème eggs would fit in the school fish tank…..and only an engineer could probably have answered it!
May then brought what seems to be turning into a highlight event of the year with “St Joe’s Got More Talent”. We had over 40 entries and over 150 households dialling in to watch the event. The talent on display was amazing, well done to all our performers and artists! Special thanks as well to the slick presenting skills of Ben, Thom, Karen and Livia.
Whilst normally we would be preparing for a Community Fun Day now, unfortunately it is just too risky at the moment. However we still have a few fundraising events before the end of term such as Dance with Duffy. We also we plan to run a Uniform Recycling Programme over the summer and a Cash for Clobber early in the new term. We will keep you posted via the usual channels.
FUNDRAISING TARGET
Our aim at the outset of this academic year was to raise £7,500 and to date we have raised approximately £6,500 which is phenomenal given the year we have had - thank you!
If you would like to help us meet our target for this year you can donate here:
HOW YOUR DONATIONS GET SPENT
All donations really do make a difference to the school and enhance your child’s learning experience. Over the past five years, your support has helped the school to buy resources such as IT equipment; additional reading books; PE and play equipment and annual subscriptions to online programmes that supported home-learning during lockdown. Funding has also supported school trips such as the P7’s recent trip to Airtastic. You can find out more from Mr Donaldson here:
JOIN THE PTA - MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR OUR SCHOOL
In the new term we will be in touch again with some of our plans for 2021/22, however if you have some good ideas for raising funds, providing social activities for children and parents/carers or building community spirit within and outside the school and would like to join the PTA,please let us know at stjospta@gmail.com. Even if you would like to volunteer at some events please drop us a line too. There are lots of different roles that you could be involved in from updating the website, communications, running events, coordination, creating graphics etc., (we should be back to physical meetings come September).
Finally, we would just like to say to all the parents, carers and pupils a BIG thank-you for being so supportive this year, through your donations and taking part in our events. It is your participation that makes our school a community.
Best of luck to our P7 leavers and have a lovely summer everyone.
St Joe’s PTA
P7 Leavers enjoying a trip to Airtastic:
