Holy Family Catholic School

Drama classes were taken out of the school day & now solely run for upper class-men as extra curriculum by a nonprofessional unseasoned teacher boosting her resume & unwilling to help/guide younger students with great interest in drama. .The sports field has been closed over a year with no outdoor home games/track PE or field days. There is no confirmed time for a field to be reopened. Parents must speak Spanish to be welcomed in this Catholic community. Little to no attempt is made to communicate with those that cannot speak Spanish. Very Mean Girl environment. My husband & I attended a formal dinner last year to meet others & the lady Ann that “runs” it was unwelcoming and offensive. There is a very low bar on science and math. Lab and its experimental time is greatly lacking. The arts seems to be mostly “free drawing”. There are no science and/or art shows. I would have had my kids shadow for a day or two prior to moving if we had that luxury.

HFCS is a wonderful school with a strong and vibrant community surrounding it. The staff love and care for the children.

First of all, I'm a hard grader as I believe there is always room for improvement. I moved to Orlando in 2020 and enrolled my child in Holy Family.Previously my child attended public school and I wanted a smaller school with Catholic education. We had and continue to have many adjustments to this new environment. Sister Dorothy has personally bent over backward to ensure that my child and my family are adjusting. The teachers showed great compassion for my child and this continues to be the case.The children in my child's class are really good children. They are polite and welcoming. I love that my child attends mass every Friday and Father Martin makes the Friday mass and the homily relatable and relevant for the children.Sister Dorothy runs a tight ship, but she deeply cares about the children in her care.Since I don't believe that any school can achieve a "perfect" ranking, I haven't given one here. The homework is quite a lot, but that is the expectation for a rigorous academic curriculum. I do think one area of improvement overall would be for improved communication. As a new family we had to do a lot on our own in order to figure out what we were missing and how to do things right. We are catching on. I'm glad we chose Holy Family. I feel that my child is safe, learning, and making friends. Is the school perfect? No, but we have found a home here and it has made our adapting to Orlando and much easier transition.

As many of the other reviewers warned read the high rated reviews with caution because the principal of the school lets the family earn 2 hours of community service for writing a review. I confess I wrote a good review on a different website when my child attended there for the hours too. It says a lot about the school if the principal has to bribe the parents for high ranking reviews. Homework: A ridiculous amount even for a Catholic school. What I learned since we left is that so many students have tutors just to keep up with the workload, not because there is a learning deficiency or struggle, or even to get ahead. Teachers: Nice despite the fact of being overworked with up to 35 students in a class. Classes were too large.Character: Most of the parents were rather snobby and so were the kids, but teachers and front office staff were always kind.Bullying: This school definitely has their share of bullies and mean girls. Teachers were ineffective in supporting bullied victims although they are very aware it is taking place to the point that one of my child's teachers was begging my child to not let the bullies run them out of the school when the teacher was informed we were leaving and it was not because of academics my child had all A's and one B. Religion: Very conservative Catholic to the point that they pray quite often including but not limited to a decade on the rosary every day. I understand it is a Catholic School (and we are Catholic) so of course prayer is not only expected but encourage, however, the focus was too much on prayer and not enough on living out the Christian values by actually being kind. Previous Catholic Schools we have been involved in pray 2-3 times a day briefly, but Holy Family takes it to another level. Leadership: The principal, a nun who opened the school, seems nice at first, but is inaccessible and is very guarded by her parent posse made of volunteers and part time front office staff (with a high turnover) that protect her. Think of them as the gate keepers. One of them even admitted to me on the phone when I missed the principal's call that it was too bad I missed the principal's call because she is so hard to reach. This was the call to let me know my child got in the school. I should have seen that as a huge red flag!Carpool line: Stressed me out to the max. You had a 5 minute window to arrive otherwise you were sent across the street to wait it out.Lunch: Delicious! Will end on a positive note!

Save your money…this school and its collection of teachers should be ashamed of themselves calling themselves academic and religious leaders. It’s all amount the mighty dollar. The better you are off the better, especially from the standpoint of the nun who serves as principal. She loves money and the amount any parent can throw at her. What we experienced is disgusting.