Introduction

Holy Family Catholic School is a popular Catholic school to the south of Birmingham City Centre. The school is located next to Holy Family Catholic Church in Small Heath. We have strong links with our parish church and community.

We are a Catholic school serving the diverse community of Small Heath since 1904. The children who attend our school come from the immediate community and beyond. Gospel values are at the heart of our school but we celebrate diversity with many of our children coming from many different backgrounds and faiths.

Our Early Years provision offers a wide variety of experiences and opportunities for our pupils to express themselves and learn. Our pupils’ personal, social and emotional development is key and our dedicated team of EYFS staff ensure pupils’ needs are met every day. Child initiated learning is a fundamental part of our practice in EYFS enabling our pupils to develop quickly into independent learners.

In Key Stage 1 a high emphasis is placed reading and phonics. This is crucial to success in both writing Maths and the wider curriculum we offer. We follow the Letters and Sounds programme to develop phonic skills.

In Key Stage 2 we focus on building skills and knowledge from KS1 and offer an exciting curriculum. One of our fundamental aims is to prepare the children for secondary school, getting them ready for the next stage of their education.

Our curriculum is broad and balanced and sequenced across all curriculum areas so children build on skills and knowledge and are able to make links in their learning. We place reading at the heart of our curriculum. Reading permeates throughout our school day and throughout the curriculum. The children share and read books every day and we have opportunities during the year to take part in workshops with authors and illustrators to promote reading for pleasure.

“One of the school’s top priorities is helping pupils to become enthusiastic, competent readers. The teaching of reading throughout the school is strong. Pupils are excited about reading for pleasure. They read with confidence, fluency and understanding. Younger pupils grasp new phonic sounds rapidly.” Ofsted, March 2020

Our children benefit from a weekly PE lesson with staff from Bishop Challoner’s PE Department. We place great emphasis on being a ‘physically active school’ and as such we host a number of sporting activities throughout the year.

We have numerous clubs after the school day. These change every term to give everyone an opportunity to take part in the club of their choice.

School Opening Hours

• Gates open from 8.30am and close at 8.45am.
• School finishes at 3.00pm.

• Breakfast Club opens at 8.05.am.
• After School Clubs run until 4.00pm.

Holy Family is open for 32.5 hours per week.