St. Joseph's Secondary School

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St. Joseph's Secondary School

Golden Jubilee Celebrations

From little acorns great oaks grow! All the more special because the 13 girls were divided between four year groups!

When thirteen students (all girls) began their secondary education in the convent across the road from the present school in 1961, little did they think that 50 years later we would be celebrating our Golden Jubilee as a school of 500 plus, meeting the needs of the entire community in Rush. As a school that moves with the times, and recognising the need to provide an education for the boys of Rush

, St Joseph’s became a co-educational school in 1981. It is a privilege to be principal of the school during the Golden Jubilee following the footsteps of Tom Loughnane, Sr Caitriona O’Hara(1983), Sr Kathleen O’Keefe(1975), Ms Teresita Durkan (1972), And Sr Patricia Finucane(1961). They have all left their mark on the character of the school leading committed and dedicated staff. A feature of St Joseph’s has been the close contact between past pupils of the school and the local community. My thanks in advance to those members of the Golden Jubilee Committee for their work in celebrating the life of the school and showcasing the school today.

2011 is a very special year for the St Joseph’s Community and our celebrations begin with the visit of President Mary McAleese on 28 January 2011. We are honoured that the President has found time in her busy schedule to launch our celebrations. In September we will hold a special Mercy Day Mass to mark the beginning of the academic year. Past pupils will be welcome to attend this very important day in tWe have planned many other events including:
· An Open Evening when past pupils can meet up with old friends, teachers and Sisters of Mercy
· A book celebrating ’50 Years of Golden Memories’
· Quiz
· Golf Classic
· Trad Session and Ceile
· Pamper Night
· Sculpture
· Christmas Carols

As you can see from the above, we want to provide past pupils with as many opportunities to visit the school and reminisce with old friends and colleagues. The Parents Association (many of whom are past pupils) is keen to set up an exhibition of memorabilia. Please drop anything of interest into the office with your name and contact details so that the items can be returned to you after the exhibition. Please leave your name, the year you started at St Joseph’s and your email address so that we can keep you posted about up coming events. Use our page to keep up to date with other past pupils.

13/09/2026

Here’s what’s happening this week in St Joseph’s 🗓️

10/09/2026

We’re delighted to be hosting students from Germany and Spain who are here for one month as part of our TY Exchange programme! Living with their host student, they attend classes in St Joseph’s and participate in all aspects of school life. Our TYs will be heading back over to their families and school in Madrid and Munich later this year for four weeks to improve their Spanish and German 🇪🇸✈️🇮🇪✈️🇩🇪

09/09/2026

We’re looking forward to welcoming 6th Class Pupils and their Parents and Guardians to our Open Evening, tomorrow Thursday 10th September from 5pm - 7pm. You’ll get to see our school, talk to our dedicated and talented staff and speak with our amazing students who’ll be there on the night! ‼️IMPORTANT ‼️ there is no parking at the school - please do not park on Convent Lane or St Joseph’s Road. The Strand Bar and Restaurant have kindly agreed to visitors using their car park. Alternatively, park at the Church Car Park or on the Main Street -we encourage you to walk. Thanks for your full cooperation with this. Looking forward to showing you our school and what we have to offer tomorrow evening 🏫📚✏️

07/09/2026

Last Friday, we held a ‘Welcome to St Joseph’s’ social evening for our new 1st Years, giving them time and space to get to know one another over pizza, Zumba, table tennis, board games, table football, penalty shoot-outs and origami. Huge thanks to our Parents Association for organising this for the second year in a row and to the many staff and parents who volunteered their time on a Friday night to make it happen! We were inundated with student volunteers to help out, so huge thanks to our 4th, 5th and 6th Years for being there too! It was a great evening designed to help our 1st Years transition from Primary to Post Primary! There was a lovely atmosphere and lots of new friendships were made!

06/09/2026

Our Weekly Updates are back 🚨🗞️🚨 Our parent and guardian clubs and classes are starting back soon too - details about Bookclub, Zumba, Spanish and Yoga are included here - register your interest 📚💃🏻🇪🇸🧘🏼‍♂️! It’s a lovely way to connect with the school and other parents and guardians. This Thursday, we’re holding our annual Open Evening for students and their parents and guardians seeking a place in 1st Year for September 2027🏫! 🚫 Please note that there is no parking at the school - do not park on St Joseph’s Road or on Convent Lane 🚫 The Strand Bar and Restaurant have kindly allowed access to their car park on Thursday night

02/09/2026

We’re delighted to share details of our Open Evening for enrolment into 1st Year in September 2027. It will take place in the school next Thursday, 10th September. We’re looking forward to welcoming pupils in 6th Class and their parents and guardians. Details are in the attached flyer 📚✏️🏫

21/08/2026

Huge congratulations to our 6th Year Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied students who received their results this morning. It was great to see so many of you, along with your teachers and parents in the school today to mark your success! We’re extremely proud of you all! Key dates for the next few days have been sent on TYRO. Well done to you all again, and to your teachers, SNAs and parents and guardians for supporting you throughout your time in school! We’re looking forward to hearing about all that awaits you as you embark on your new journey! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

23/06/2026

The Leaving Cert is finally finished - it was a hard wait for those who had Japanese and Politics and Society today! Well done to all our 3rd Years, 6th Years and LCA students on completing their State Exams 🎉🥳🎉 Enjoy your well deserved summer 😎 Another year done ✅ and what a year it has been 😊 Check out our summer newsletter which was sent to all parents and guardians on TYRO last Friday, including to those of incoming 1st Years! It’s been an action packed year full of learning, experiences and opportunities which you can see from some of our highlights included here from our newsletter 📰🗞️🚨 Also included are some suggested books for some summer reading for Juniors, Seniors and Adults 📚 It would be great to keep up the momentum of reading for those students who took part in our Let’s Read programme this year 📖 Enjoy if you do end up reading one from our list 😎

Wishing all of our staff, students, parents and guardians and followers a very happy summer - we’ll be back posting in August ☀️☀️☀️

22/06/2026

As they say in Luganda, ‘mwebale nnyo’ - thank you very much!!!! We are delighted to announce that, as a result of your support, our donation to Aidlink Ireland from our 2026 Immersion Project is a fantastic €30,811 🇮🇪➡️🇺🇬 The proceeds will go towards supporting Aidlink’s work in some of Africa’s poorest regions. We would like to express our thanks to everyone who supported us through our fundraising and a particular word of thanks to our sponsors - Razor Spire, educate.ie, Adrian Dunne Pharmacy Rush, Dalmac Language School, Philanns Skerries, EBS Liffey Street, Red Island W**e, The Milbank Theatre Rush, The Educational Company of Ireland, Olive Deli Skerries, The School Tour Company, Computex, Conversation Piece, The ASTI, Bodibro, Kiral Consulting, O’ Donnell’s Bar Kilkenny and Mahony Group Ltd Electricians. Some of these companies have been supporting this project since we started back in 2016. In the ten years of working together, St Joseph’s has now donated more than €130,000 to Aidlink. Our students presented the attached report at all student assemblies, to staff at a staff meeting, to the Board of Management and our Ember Team spoke about our work with Aidlink to other CEIST schools at the CEIST Student Leadership Conference. The report has been sent to our sponsors. A number of weeks ago, we held a wrap up session when each student spoke about their highlight in front of their parents and teachers! The variety in their reflections was inspiring. On the night, we presented Aidlink with a token of our appreciation, marking ten years of partnership and friendship! The students and staff involved cannot thank the school community, local community, donors and sponsors enough! It is very clear that this project is very much part of who we are as a school - it is so embedded in our culture and in our school identity and instils a belief in our students that they can and do make a difference in the lives of others through their collective actions. Having been there, we know how far this donation will go and the difference that it will make to communities and people on the ground! Mwebale nnyo 🇺🇬🇺🇬🇺🇬🇺🇬

17/06/2026

The Board of Management of St Joseph's congratulates Ms Majella Murphy on her retirement! Ms Murphy has worked as a Learning Support, History and English teacher in St Joseph's for the last 2️⃣4️⃣ years! We wish her all the best as she begins this new chapter in her life! Thank you Ms Murphy!

Address

Convent Lane
Rush

Website

http://stjosephsrush.ie/

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