Minister for Education & Skills, Jan O’Sullivan TD, made her first visit to Holy Family SNS to present the trophies for the Dublin, Leinster and All Ireland Primary School ‘MATHletes’ Challenge to the pupils and staff of the school. Speaking to the pupils Minister O’Sullivan congratulated them on their fantastic achievement in sweeping the boards at the Khan Academy based competition, becoming the best overall Mathletes school in Dublin, Leinster & Ireland and scoring a fantastic 104,781 Maths Mastery Points, more than 15 times the national average for competing schools. With more than 300 schools competing and over 13,000 students involved in the competition, this was a tremendous achievement for the school.
Minister O’Sullivan commended the pupils and the teachers for their terrific successes not alone in the academic field, but also in the Sporting, Creative and Musical areas and complimented them on the great reputation that their school was gaining throughout the country. The Minister said that the success of Holy Family Senior National School in the Primary School challenge and the major part many of our past pupils played in the similar secondary school success of Fingal Community College was ensuring that “Swords was fast becoming the Maths Capital of Ireland.”
The Minister also commented on the great work displayed by pupils throughout the school and the excellent levels of maintenance of the school buildings and grounds. During a visit to the recently built school extension the Minister complimented the Board of Management, Staff and Parents Association on the quality of the new building and the huge commitment to fund-raising by Staff, Board & Parent, which had enabled the school authorities to add extra facilities to the building on top of those grant aided by the Department.
This was a great day for all involved in Holy Family SNS and a fitting way to recognise the terrific achievements of our pupils and school.