Featured School of the Month

Holy Childhood High School

Holy Childhood High School was founded on January 21, 1937 by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help of Jamaica (FMS). The School began with eight girls and two boys. The boys later transferred to Saint George’s College and the School continued as an allgirlseducationalinstitution. Thename Holy Childhood was selected by the founding Sisters with the hope that every student who graced the halls of thisinstitutionwouldmodeltheirlives ontheholychildhoodofJesusChrist.

Childhood High School has grown in both size and stature. It now boastsa population of over 1700 girls with a highly qualified staff and a curriculum covering the sciences, arts, business, and humanities. Our extra-curriculum activitiesincludeasmanyasthirty-one clubs and societies. Our Guidance Department and medical staff treat with the spiritual, psychosocial and physiological needs of both students andstaff. OurBoardofManagement, PTA and Alumnae Chapters provide well needed support to the Administrative division oftheSchool.

with a mission to exemplify the highest level of spiritual, moral and socialdevelopment.

We are very proudof our currentand past students, many of whom have distinguished themselves through their talents as well as their academic and professional achievements. We recallwithpride the Gleaner Spelling Bee Championship for 2014 and later advanced to the semi finals of the ScrippsSpellingBeein2015.

Our Basketball Teams who have successfully won the ISSA Basketball Championships each year for the last nine Championships and their Coach Mr. Oneil Brown named Coach of the Year on eachoccasion.

Dr.JoySpence;thefirstfemaleMaster Blenderintheworld.

Miss Marilyn Headley, OD; the first female Conservator of Forests in

Since its founding, Holy Childhood High School has been led by nine distinguishedPrincipals- all Franciscan Missionary“Blue” Sisters. Thecurrent Principal is Sister Maxine Marie McIntosh, FMS, JP. Under the distinguished leadership of these consecrated women religious, Holy

We have maintained our Catholic identity withtheobservanceof the annual blessing of the campus, monthly First Friday Masses, Lenten Days of recollection for studentsand staff, Adventretreatsfor our 6th form students, Advent Carol Services and Catholic Schools week activities which include Vocations Awareness Day, Adopt a School Day, OutreachDay,andparticipationinthe Catholic Schools Week Masses. We also boast a very active Catholic Club

Christmas Message (cont’d from page 1) other issues which neglects to see the plight of the poor and marginalised, who barely eke out a meagre existence on the fringes of society and are only consoled by the compassion and mercifulinterventionoftheChurch.

Thereisnogainsayingtheimportance of children in the life of every community. Children are not only the future but they are the present! Therefore in order to build a better tomorrow, we need to begin NOW. However, some events occurring in our communities that capture the headlines of the media and our own personal experiences, reveal something that we should be very concernedaboutasanation.

The acts of violence and abuse against children are to be outrightly condemned. They need to be stopped, and the sooner they are stoppedthebetteritwillbeforusasa people. Some children agonizingly have had to witness the callous murder of either of their parents, a relative or another child. Amid such situations, we are deliberately sowing the seeds of future violence and reprisals. A child’s mind is the most fertile ground on which we can influence desirable behavior but by the choices we make in life, we either sow seedsthatwillblossomintogood

Our talented students who have won medals and trophies for dance, speech, music and drama at the JCDC AnnualFestivalcompetitions.

Our talented musicians in the School’s Brass and Steel Bands who havebeen invitedeachyeartoplayat weddings, Carol Services, funerals, andbusinessevents.

Outstanding achievement awards receivedbytheRed Crosssociety,4-H club,KeyClubandInteractClub.

Our students who make the CXC’s MeritListfortheRegioneachyear. Our students who are awarded each year for their outstanding performance at the CSEC and CAPE Exams.

MissSara-BethMcPherson;winnerof behavior or sow weeds that will yield attitudes that will manifest themselvesinanti-socialbehaviors. These situations are an indictment of collective guilt on usasa society.Each one of us therefore has the moral responsibility to help change this trend in Jamaican society. AsEdmund Burke the philosopher once said: “All thatisnecessaryforthetriumphofevil over the world is for good men to do nothing”

Letuscatchthemyoung.Itwillbetoo costly for us to wait any longer. The timetoactisnow!Weeitherconfront the evils in our society headlong, and fight crime, violence, murder and other anti-social tendencies or we drownand wallow in thequagmire of anarchy. We have what it takes to do this: the will power. We can start it at

Vice-President of US Home Depot Stores.

Evangelist Dr. Michelle Richards; recipient of the Joe Biden’s 2021 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Awardforservicetoothers.

We thank God for the blessings and achievements over these past eightyfive years, and we continue to strive forexcellenceinallareasofourSchool life. “AftertheBattle,theReward!!” Sister Maxine Marie McIntosh, FMS, JP, Principal  home and rather than continuing “to curse the darkness we can light a candleandmakeadifference”. May this Christmas therefore, be one in which we all make a conscious decision to influence a change of attitude needed in our society and so that this season and beyond, becomes a perpetual celebration of thecomingofJesus- PrinceImmanuel ….The Light of the World….and the Word made flesh that dwelt among us.

SincerelyinChrist, MostRev.BurchellA.McPherson, D.D.

BishopofMontegoBay. be a scourge on our way of life. The world economic order has not changed much, if anything it has become more sophisticated,asit feeds on greed, selfishness and a power that is manipulative and disrespectful to the humanpersonandtheenvironment.

ThebirthofJesusofNazarethintothis world, our first Christmas day, is the definitive act of God on behalf of his creation. St.PaulwritesinhisLetterto the Philippians “…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men…” (Philippians2:6). Attheheart of the incarnation, God becoming man, is this “emptying” of God of all that is divine in order to become humanandinsodoingrefocusingand redirecting humanity and the created order so that it may attain itspurpose –toliveincommunionwithGod.

The mission of the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth, wasto empower humanity to choose a different path that would leadtofullnessoflifeinGod. AsJesus himself would say: “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10). Thus, Jesusinviteddisciplestofollowhimby committingtheirlivestolivingtheway of LOVE. In John 13:34, Jesussays: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another…” When we choose to live the way of Jesus, change comes about – forgiveness becomes possible; hate is turned to love; kindness and care replaces indifference and intolerance; greed and selfishness gives way to concern, gentleness and compassion; diversity and difference are no longer means for division and disunity but rather grows a unity that is beautiful; the abuseanddestructionofthecreation, our common home, gives way to living in harmony and respect for it; andwebegintoseethefaceofGodin everysister,brother,andinthewhole from page created order. As the Prophet Isaiah prophesied: “They do no hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters swellthesea.”(Isaiah11:9)

As we approach Christmas 2022 and prepare to proclaim once more the Story of Christmas, we can ask ourselves what has changed since we lastdidso? OurIslandhome,Jamaica, isstillbattlingwithcrimeandviolence, very often inflicted on innocent women and children. Our homes and communities once seen and experienced as “sanctuaries” and schools of love where all were nurtured and taught the way of love are being experienced as places of abuse and violence. Dishonesty, halftruths and lies, lack of integrity and accountability, especially in public life, disrespect, and the lack of value for life in all its expressions are but some of the negatives that our people encounter every day. And so, I ask again, what has changed since last yearChristmas?

Christmas 2022 can then be a moment of reflection, discernment,