Holy Family Convent Kalutara the first school to go ‘GREEN’
View(s):Holy Family Convent, a land mark in Kalutara, is a vision that blossomed into reality in 1934. It bears witness to the total commitment, dedication and above all the love and concern of the pioneer Irish religious nuns had, to uplift the social standards of the girls in the vicinity and those from the fishing community living in and around Kalutara. The main reason was to build up the woman spiritually, mentally and physically and to give them the firm confidence to become stable personalities. Since a woman and a mother, is the foundation of any society.
Principal Rev. Sr. Mangalika Fernando
Today, with a proud history of almost 80 years, the school has extended its guiding hand to 1500 Familians who are nurtured by a dedicated staff consisting of 60 members. Their aim is to guide the students to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and to successfully face the risks and the ever changing challenges and become strong through their own efforts. At the same time, the students are assisted in order to engage themselves in extra curricular activities in order to become balanced personalities, and good visionaries who will work for the betterment of the society that they live in.
Rev. Sr. Mangalika Fernando assumed duties as the 8th Principal on January 24, 2010. Under her leadership and guidance the school has added several stars with regard to educational, co-curricular and extra curricular activities.
The 600 little Familians in the primary section are guided by 15 teachers whose aim is to make their early years enjoyable, while inculcating good values in them. They have their annual sports meet, exhibitions, Avurudu celebrations etc. to highlight their creativity. A few young writers are awaiting the comments from the critics after which their work will go into print.
The little ones have achieved excellent results at the Year 5 Scholarship Examination 2012. These tiny tots have brought honour to the school by winning the Divisional and the Zonal Competitions in both Sinhala and English, Speech, Copy writing, Recitation, Spelling ‘Bee’ and Story Telling. They have been placed in the Zonal English Drama Competition and are 
waiting for the Western Province results.
The upper school too has done well at examinations. At the G. C. E. (Ordinary Level) Examination 2013, students achieved best results from schools in the Kalutara Division. In the same year out of the students who sat for the G.C.E. (Advanced Level) Examination from the Science, Arts and Commerce streams, 68 students were eligible to enter universities.
Board of Prefects – Senior
With the aim of producing balanced personalities, Holy Family encourages them to participate in several extra curricular activities designed for them. Holy Family Children, Holy Family Youth, Arts Club, Sinhala Literary Society, Media Unit, I.T. Club, Monitors, Stewards and Prefects’ Unions and Leadership Camps, Month of May Reflections and Retreats, assist them in their endeavours to a great extent.
Giving prominence to religious activities, annually they celebrate the Feast in Honour of “The Queen of the Holy Rosary” in the Month of May. This year their Theme was “Let’s Decorate Our Friendship and Brotherhood with the Virtues of Mary our Mother.”
The Senior Choir of the school too has won several competitions.
Students have the opportunity to participate in Chess, Table Tennis, Badminton, Netball and Athletics, to their hearts desire. The athletes have consecutively become champions at the Circuit and Zonal Meets. At the Schools’ All Island Athletic Meet 2012 the Relay Team bagged the 2nd place in the 100 x 4 metres relay. This year at the All Island Relay Carnival organised by the Schools’ Athletic Association, the Relay Team emerged winners in the same event.
May Feast - 2013
The under 14, 16, 18 teams participated in the Kalutara District Milo Netball Competitions and the Under 14 Team won the Championship. It must be mentioned that one of their talented netball players has been selected to the Sri Lankan Junior Pool.
At the Western Province Competitions 2012, their players won 3rd place. This year they became runners-up in the same competition. One of their players represented the school at the “Hope Championship” 2011 held in Austria. In 2012 at the Western Province Chess Competitions the HFC team won 3rd place.
One of the players represented the school at the National Youth Chess Championship and became the under 18 girls champion. She has been selected to represent the country at the Asian Youth Chess Championship to be held in Iran and at the World Youth Chess Championship in Dubai
Primary-Exhibition
this year.
Giving serious thought to the present environmental destruction and the Green House Effect becoming a world problem, Holy Family have made their contribution even in a little way towards the sustenance of the environment by constructing their new school building as an energy saving and an environment friendly structure. They are proud to mention this as being the first school to go GREEN.
It should be remembered, that, since the inception, the tedious task to guide the school fell on the Irish Reverend Mothers of the Holy Family Community from Bordeaux.
Since, the school has kept its forward march, today they can speak with pride at the large number of students who serve the society in top positions. They honour their pioneer Reverend Mothers with this valuable gift.
- Sujitha Miranda
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