A meeting of all P6 parents' will take place on Thursday 17th May at 7.30pm in the school assembly hall. This is an important meeting and all parents of P6 pupils are strongly encouraged to attend this meeting.

The meeting will last 45 minutes and we look forward to seeing you there.

Holy Family Win County Derry Title

Holy Family have just received the Co. Derry Spelling Title after the success of P7 pupil, Terence Mc Laughlin, in winning the Eason sponsored competition in St. Anne's PS.

Terence, a top speller from Mrs Higgins' class, produced an excellent performance to come out tops against pupils from Derry, Limavady, Mayogall and other areas of Co. Derry. Now he will proceed to the Ulster finals in Belfast and we send all the best wishes from everyone  at Holy Family.

Nursery Induction Meeting

A meeting of parents who have children due to commence our nursery in September 2012 will take place on Tuesday 22nd May 2012 at 7.30pm in the school assembly.

This is a very important meeting when parents will be introduced to nursery teachers and nursery assistants, find out about the nursery curriculum and visit the nursery classrooms. We look forward to meeting all our incoming nursery parents then.

P1 Induction Meeting

A meeting of parents who have children due to start P1 in Holy Family in September 2012 will take place in the school assembly hall on Tuesday 29th May 2012 at 7.30pm. This is a very important meeting and all relevant parents are urged to atted this meeting.

Parents will have an opportunity at this event to meet the P1 class teachers and to visit the P1 classrooms and find out about our P1 curriculum.

More Success at the Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April proved to be a fantastic month for the talented pupils of Holy Family with our singers and actors experiencing great success at the Derry Feis and at the Bangor International Choral Festival.

The success commenced with our young choir achieving a double first at the Derry Feis as well as securing a second at that event. This was followed by our P3 pupils securing first place in the Action Song competition. The Feis success continued with the school being awarded the Susan Browne Cup for the highest performing primary school at the Derry Feis.

The school choir then travelled to Bangor to take on a very strong field of renowned musical schools in Ballyholme, St. Brides and St.Joseph's to name but a few in a highly competitive event in the seaside venue. Following outstanding performances by a number of schools, Holy Family returned home with a first place in the sacred music competition and second place in the free choice event.

Well done to all staff and pupils involved.

Congratulations to the Mc Colgan's

Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Jim Mc Colgan, went home very happy after the 25th Anniversary Indoor Fottball competition when a team made up entirely of his sons won the competition held in the Templemore Sports Complex. The event which attracted a large turn out of past pupils was highly enjoyable with the only complaint coming from the ageing Mr Doherty who could not keep up with the more sprightly teenagers and twenty year olds.

Thanks go to Mr Mc Dermott for organising the event though question marks were raised over the quality of his decision making as referee for the tournament. We look forward to our next big celebration in 2037.

Thank You

The quality of provision and the range of educational experiences available at Holy Family would not be possible without the support of some many agencies and organisations. Accordingly, as we enter the final term of this academic year it is appropriate to thank all the staff from:

Musical Pathways                            Derry City Council

Irish Football Association                 Foyle Language School

WELB peripatetic services                 St Vincent de Paul society

North West Counselling                   Fr Paddy O' Kane

Hope North West                            Nerve Centre

University of Ulster                         Doire Cholmcille GFC

for all their support. Thank you.

Bookstart for Pre-schoolers

Our nursery pupils are really looking forward to taking part in the Bookstart for preschool children programme. This programme gives the pupils access to beautiful books as a starting point before entry into P1.

As part of the programme, local broadcaster and writer, Anita Robinson, will be visiting the school and the children on Friday 30th March 2012 to take part in some story telling magic.

Thanks to Mrs Cogrove for organising our participation in this event.

Schoolympics

Holy Family are delighted to welcome staff from the Foyle Hospice to our weekly assembly on Friday 16th March 2012. The staff will explain the activities that will occur at the Templemore Sports Complex when our pupils participate in the upcoming Schoolympics.

Thanks to Mrs Higgins for organising the visit and our participation in the event.

Holy Family Moves to the Forum

As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the school, it has been decided to hold our annual summer show in the Millennium Forum this year. In addition, the show is not confined to the Key Stage Two pupils but will involve every single pupil from Nursery to Primary Seven. The entire school community is very excited about this new venture and look forward to our pupils putting on a stunning show for a packed audience.

Further details about this anniversary concert will appear on this website and in the school newsletter very soon.

What a record!!!!!

The pupils at Holy Family must be truly unbeatable!!!!!! As part of the celebrations for World Book Day, Mr Mc Dermott set the children a challenge of reading as many Accelerated Reading books and completing the associated quizzes as possible.

The children surpassed all expectations by reading the books and accurately completing 819 associated  quizzes. This equates to almost 2 books/quizzes per pupil.

Well done to everyone involved especially our super readers. Thanks also to Miss Boyle, Miss Gallagher and Mrs Fulton for organising everything.

What will next year's target be, Mr Mc Dermott?

Catholic Schools' Week: Grandparents' Day

A very big thank you to all the grandparents who visited the school today to take part in a special assembly and then take part in class visits to mark Catholic School's Week. The huge turnout of grandparents was greatly appreciated by the pupils and staff of Holy Family.

Mrs Donaghy would like to remind all grandparents that they are very welcome to join Holy Family's Grandparents Club. The club will be meeting in the very near future and Mrs Donaghy will be circulating details soon.

Thank you to Miss Mc Carron, RE Co-ordinator, for organising the grandparents' day.

Parental Audit

As a self evaluating school, committed to always trying to improve our practice and our provision, we consistently look for feedback from parents related to our service.

This term we shall be conducting a parental audit and every parent of a pupil at our school is strongly encouraged to respond to this audit. All feedback will be used to further inform improvements and developments at the school.

More After School Clubs

A number of new clubs will be starting this term in order to ensure that our pupils have an even greater range of clubs than was available last term. This term every Friday there will be a P6 - P7 indoor football club from 3 - 4.15pm and a gaelic football club will run every Wednesday afternoon from 3 - 4.15pm. The gaelic football club is also for P6 - P7 pupils.

In the event of under subscription to either club, the available places will be offered to P5 pupils.

Further details are available from the school office.

Well Done to Primary Four

Big congratulations to all our Primary Four pupils on their excellent attendance and participation in their recent First Communion preparation mass.

Thank you to all the Primary Four teachers, Miss Walsh, Mrs Mc Swiggan and Mrs Boggs for all the preparatory work during recent months and we look forward to continuing this preparation during the remainder of this term.

Is your child starting school or nursery in September 2012?

If your child is due to start either nursery or primary school in September 2012, it is very importnat that you get an application form from your school of choice and return it by the closing date.

The closing date for nursery applications is Wednesday 11th January 2012 at noon while the closing date for P1 applications is a week later on Wednesday 18th January 2012 also at noon.

Further information is available from our school office, tel: 71267798

Confirmation / First Communion preparation

During the next few weeks there are a number of services and meetings for the children preparing for First Communion and Confirmation. These are very important meetings and an integral part of the preparation for the sacraments. All parents are strongly encouraged to attend these events with their child(ren).

Any queries regarding the services should be directed to either Miss Mc Carron, RE co-ordinator, or the class teachers.

Student Council for 2011 - 2012

Congratulations to all the pupils who have been elected to our new student council after the recent elections. The new councillors who will serve for the academic year 2011 - 2012 are:

Katie Devlin, Niall Mc Cartney, Callum Gallagher and Zara Houston

Caolan Boyle, Shannon Mc Glinchey, Jennifer Devlin, Eoghan Devine, Aimee Reid and Ryan Boyle

Aoibheann Mc Glinchey, Dylan Mc Monagle, Sean Doherty and Demi Ryan

We wish the councillors every success in their important role.

Congratulations

Congratulations to the boys of Holy Family PS Football Team who defeated St. Brigid's PS, 3 -2 in the first match of the Derry Primary Schools' League. The marksmen for Holy Family were Ben Wilson, Evan Mc Laughlin and Dylan Harkin.

The next match up is against Long Tower PS and we wish Mr Doherty and the boys every success.

Updated School Development Plan

The updated school development plan covering the period 2011 - 2014 has now been placed in the school development section of this website. Please visit this section so that you are aware of the school priorites over the next three years.

 Any questions in respect to the plan should be directed to the school office.

Thanks to Mrs Parke

Thanks go to Mrs Parke, Extended Schools co-ordinator, who has organised a broad and varied extended schools programme for our pupils this year. The programme caters for pupils from P2 - P7 and runs every day of the week.

Further information is available from the school office about any of our Extended Schools' clubs.

Clubs for the new term

A list of the new after school clubs for this academic year can be seen in the clubs' section of this website. Any queries in respect to the clubs should be directed to Mrs Parke ( Room 2 ).

Welcome to the Family

Welcome to the website of Holy Family Primary and Nursery School, Derry. Holy Family was opened in 1987 to cater for the pupils of the parish of Holy Family and through the excellence of the educational provision at the school, the school grew to cater for pupils from many other parishes in Derry City and beyond.

The work of the school is focused on providing a broad, engaging education for all our pupils in a caring, warm setting. This focus ensures that our pupils are happy, secure, engaged and provided with a broad range of learning experiences.

Holy Family is a school with a wide range of strengths and to the forefront of these are high academic standards, quality pastoral care, extensive after school provision, excellent musical opportunities, foreign language provision, as well as a child - centred and highly professional staff.

Enjoy your visit to our website and if you wish to find out more about the school please contact us either in person or by email.

School Opening Times

Holy Family Primary and Nursery School opening times for the academic year 2011 - 2012 are as follows:

Nursery 9am - 1.30pm

P1 - P3 9am - 2.30pm

P4 - P7 9am - 3pm

A breakfast club operates from 8.30am until 8.55am in the canteen and all pupils/parents are welcome to utilise this facility.

In order to facilitate parents, pupils can be dropped off in the assembly hall where they will be supervised from 8.30am each day.

Outstanding Inspection

Congratulations to all pupils, parents, staff, governors and wider Holy Family community on the achievement of an outstanding inspection report following our inspection by the Education and Training Inspectorate in November 2010.

An electronic version of the report can be accessed by clicking here or by visiting the Education and Training Inspectorate website at www.etini.gov.uk 

Well done once again.

Building Leadership Capacity

Every organisation if it is to be successful needs to build future generations of leaders and Holy Family is no different in this regard. Accordingly as a follow on from the school's Shadow Senior Leadership programme a number of staff will be taking part in the RTU Emergent and Senior Leadership Pathways programme.

The staff taking part in the RTU programmes are Mrs Mc Crory, Mrs Boggs, Mrs Parke and Mr Doherty.

We wish all staff involved every success with their endeavours and look forward to these efforts having an impact on the outcomes of pupils.