Page 4 - LOTN Autumn Issue 54 2023

DIOCESE
St Joseph's Catholic Primary School,

Inverness, celebrates its 80th birthday

The whole school turned out for a memorable group photograph
BY HESTER McMILLAN literacy skills. P5 looked at the history of the school building
and staff. All pupils got the chance to see extracts from the
e had a whole week full of celebrations to archived logbooks of the school dating back as far as 1873!
celebrate our 80th year in this school building. Our whole school community including past staff, pupils
WAs Father Laurence Gambella wrote in his and parents gathered for a celebration Mass on Wednesday
weekly bulletin, we are not really celebrating a building, 4th October 2023. It was so special for so many of the priests
we celebrate everything that is encompassed within the from the Deanery supporting our school and concelebrating
building, everything we value and work hard for as a the Mass alongside Father Laurence and Father Justin. The
school community of faith and learning. We celebrate our Mass was then followed by an open afternoon where the
core values of respect, honesty, care and determination wider St Joseph’s family could come along and look at the
and it is wonderful to take a step back and feel proud of children’s brilliant work on display and also to look at photos
our school community from the past, to the present and and archives from the past. It was very special to speak with
onwards to our future. Christine, one of our P7 pupils said, so many people about their fond memories of their time at
“I was excited about all the events we got to experience St Joseph’s and the one thing that shone through strongly is
in the week of celebrations. I am proud of my school, St that feeling of ‘family’ and ‘belonging’. We have started our
Joseph’s, and I think it is great that it is still doing so well own logbook and we hope that in years to come, people will
even at 80 years old!” look back at what has been written in this year 2023.
The pupils have had the chance to experience history first- What a week we had! Drumming, banquet, ice cream van,
hand throughout our preparations for our celebrations. It dance workshops! We also had guest speakers coming to
has provided a wonderful real life context for learning. You share their experiences including Derek Martin, Care and
can see some examples of literacy and artwork that our Learning Manager for the Mid Highland area and Christine
pupils have enjoyed creating. Primary six drew portraits of all Cameron, past head teacher. Past pupils and staff sent videos
current staff members and quizzed passers by if they could to the children to share what St Joseph’s was like when they
identify staff from their artwork. Primary six also wrote about were in school.
what a day in St Joseph’s might be like in 2103, in another All in all, we feel incredibly blessed to work in such a
80 years. 80 years is an ‘oak’ celebration so the whole school successful, kind school. When we do something we love,
created an oak tree with comments. P2/3 wrote a recipe for work is full of joy and in a school such as ours and with our
what makes a St Joseph’s cake a brilliant cake. The recipe pupils and families, it is an absolute pleasure!
includes ‘700g of sharing, 0g of fighting and 707 handfuls
of love.’ Primary seven used their Chromebooks to create Hester McMillan is acting head and depute headteacher of
some examples of information leaflets using digital and St Joseph's Primary School

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