OUR FAITH

We are a Catholic State Integrated School.

 

What does this mean?

That means that we take students who are deemed to have 'preference' for attending a Catholic school.

Our Parish priests, Fr Andrew Antonio and Fr Tuli Paulo are the two people that sign off 'preference' forms. If a child has a preference form from another Catholic priest or if a child is being enrolled as 'non-preference' we still ask that an appointment is made with Fr Andrew to discuss enrolling your child. 

We are allowed to take up to 15 non-preference students. This limit cannot be breached.

 

Who is 'preference' and non-preference?

There are a few categories of 'preference':

1. The student has been baptised into the Catholic Faith;

2. A brother or sister has been baptised into the Catholic Faith;

3. A Parent or legal guardian are baptised Catholic;

4. A significant adult in the child's life is a Catholic who will be able to influence the child's deeper understanding of the Catholic Faith;

5. A parent is undergoing preparations to become Catholic.

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How we live out our faith:

We know that our Catholic faith is the strongest part of our school. The whole intention of Holy Family School from its inception was to serve the Catholic families of Porirua East.

 

We aim to live out God's word in our everyday actions, in how we treat one another. This is a key foundation of who we are, we understand that we must walk our faith. This includes our teachers and support staff modelling this behaviour, and our parents too...

 

We teach between 100-150 minutes of Catholic instruction each week (depending on age). In these lessons, which are taught by the classroom teacher, the students will learn about the Gospel Values, aspects of Bible study, the traditions of the Church, faith development and much more.

 

We start and finish each day in prayer and bless our food before we eat. All students take an active role in leading class and school prayer.

 

We attend mass with our parish community 2-3 times a term and observe all Holy Days of obligation. 

 

We have a Director of Religious Studies (DRS) - Penny Ashby.

 

If you would like to discuss any of the above, feel free to speak with us at school.

 

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