Anne-Marie Doran, the Athlete Mentor delivering the Lidl #SeriousSupport Programme visited our school on Tuesday the 30th of January to deliver her programme to the lucky 1M class group, supported ably by a number of our LGFA engaged athletes in Transition Year..

The Lidl #SeriousSupport programme is a new schools programme funded by Lidl and delivered in partnership with the LGFA and The Youth Sport Trust.

Anne-Marie is one of the Athlete Mentors, a team of elite LGFA Players who use the lessons learnt through sport to help young people reach their full potential. She is an All Ireland Winner 2011, 2 time Leinster Winner 2010 & 2011, and Players player of the year 2011, to name but a few of her achievements.

The programme consists of two workshops delivered during two visits to the school this year. Over the course of those sessions students explore the value of participating in sport and the role of healthy eating and physical activity in our overall wellbeing and life chances. Students will look at the values of Respect, Recognition, Responsibility and Trust and how as an elite athlete these have helped Anne-Marie to achieve success and be the best version of herself.

Anne-Marie will pay us a return visit following the Easter Break to assess the progress of the 1M and to share her message with the rest of the first year group.

Well done to all involved and for more information you can access the following link: https://www.lidl.ie/c/serious-support/s10020006

Our Catholic Schools Week began on Monday with a lovely reflection from Sr. Kate over the intercom. The ‘Thoughts for Each Day’ were also called out over the intercom every morning by some of our 1st and 6th year students. 

The daily themes for Catholic Schools Week were as follows:

o   Service in Our Community of Friends

o   Service in Our School Community

o   Service in Our Family Community

o   Service in Our Local Community

o   Service in Our Faith Community

Our first HFSS Wellbeing Week of 2024 was a tremendous success! We delved into the power of kindness, explored mental health awareness, and experienced the ripple effect of our actions. Our symbolic Paper Chain of Kindness beautifully illustrated the impact we can make, setting off positive chain reactions. 

On Friday, we celebrated with a vibrant Civvies Day, where students adorned themselves in wellness colours - pink, purple, blue, green and grey. This not only raised awareness but also raised 675 euro for Jigsaw, an Irish charity providing essential mental health support to young people aged 12-25. Another step on our journey toward a healthier, kinder community. 

We recently supported Kildare Disability Week by raising awareness among our school community about making Newbridge more accessible and inclusive and emphasising that not all disabilities are visible. We had a whole school tutor time focus on Newbridge Access Group, their work and aims. We also flew the County Kildare Access Network purple flag outside the school to increase knowledge and promote awareness. 

The HFSS Drama Club meet twice a month at lunchtimes and have a lot of fun! The students explore new worlds, become people from different times and places and learn about different perspectives and ways of thinking. Our improvisational activities and games can yield some very interesting and hilarious results! There are many theatrically talented students in the HFSS so watch this space for 2033 Oscar buzz - you saw them here first!

Holy Family U19s travelled to St Mary's Edenderry to take part in a tournament in memory of Mike Franz, who used to coach in HFSS.  We played both St Mary's and Geal Colaiste Cill Dara, winning both games and recieving the Mike Franz trophy, presented by his wife Catherine.  A great way to finish the term, thanks to St Mary's for hosting.

Some TY students from the Spanish classes are visiting the nuns as part of the Spanish Community Link. There are 4 groups of girls organized to visit. The first group started in October and finished last Monday. The girls handed the nuns Christmas cards which had been made by the students in the TY Spanish classes. 

This is what one of the girls wrote about their experiences: 

For the last few weeks we have been visiting the sisters in the convent. At the start we played games with them like “La Mona” a Spanish card game, and they all gave us a great laugh and they really enjoyed it . We learnt Spanish and Irish songs and they were very interactive and enthusiastic. They loved “La Macarena” dance most of all . They all had amazing stories to tell and it was a great experience for us ️. Wishing you all Feliz Navidad, Próspero Año y Felicidad

Ellen Mallon, Cara O’Brien and Amy Farrell 

The Transition Year students with the help of our HFY group are donating Christmas gifts and letters to local nursing homes this year. TY students got assigned a person in a nursing home to buy a gift for or to write a Christmas letter to. The three local nursing homes that will be receiving these are Willowbrook, Curragh Lawns and Holy Family Convent. Well done to our TY students on the great effort they put into this very kind gesture.

Well done to our HFY ( Holy Family Youth ) students for organising a whole school collection for the local charity 'The Dining Room'. All the students in the school were encouraged to donate items that teenage girls would use. The students were very generous with their donations this year. All of these donations will be going to people in Newbridge. Pictured here are the HFY group with Ciara from the Dining Room.