All the primary 7 pupils and staff are looking forward to the upcoming Confirmation service at Holy Family Church on Saturday 25th February at 11am. The pupils are finishing off their preparations and the staff are ensuring that all the details are concluded expertly.

Thanks go to Miss Mc Carron, Mr Mc Dermott, Mrs Higgins and all the classroom assistant staff who supported the pupils through their preparation for Confirmation.

All pupils and parents will have an opportunity to meet the Monsignor and recieve some refreshments in St. Eithne's PS after the ceremony on Saturday.

Holy Family PS 1 Steelstown PS 1

In a very hard fought table top game at Prehen, Holy Family were fortunate to come away with a point against their more experienced opponents. The draw continues a long run of unbeaten games for Holy Family and the boys can now look forward to the run in for the league title.

Holy Family were very well served by the excellent Shane Wallace in goal, the competitive Blaine Daniels and top goalscorer, Ben Wilson.

Mid Term Break

Holy Family will close for mid term break at 3pm on Tuesday 14th February and reopen for all pupils at 8.30am on Monday 20th February. We wish all pupils and their families an enjoyable and relaxing break.

Holy Family PS 2 St. Anne's PS 0

Holy Family continued their fine form in the Primary "A" League with a hard fought victory over local rivals, St. Anne's PS. The game was evenly matched with two committed and hard working teams battling it out for two precious league points.

The game was settled by two well taken goals by Dylan Mc Monagle and top scorer, Ben Wilson. This victory ensures Holy Family's continued place as table toppers.

Good luck to the boys and Mr Doherty for the rest of the season.

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 ).

New Term

The new term commences for pupils on Thursday 1st September 2011 at 8.50am for all P2 - P7 pupils.

Nursery pupils and Primary 1 pupils should commence at the pre-arranged dates and times arranged with the class teachers.

All nursery pupils and their parents are invited to attend the nursery open day on Thursday 1st September 2011 any time from 9am until 1.30pm.

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.