Our Parish

Holy Family School is the parish school for Holy Family Benfleet with St Thomas More Hadleigh. Our priest in charge is Fr Eduard who is a tremendous advocate for our school.

Fr Eduard is a regular visitor to the school. Not only is he an active school governor, he frequently visits to celebrate Masses and other liturgical services. He also spends time with each class during the term and loves to engage the children about their faith and the church. He has even been known to come into our younger year groups to share how he conducts the Sacrament of Baptism.

The older children in Years 3—6 also have the opportunity to walk to Holy Family Church for Mass at different points throughout the year. In addition, we encourage all our families to attend our school/family Masses twice per term. These are held at 10.00am on Sundays at Holy Family Church.

We are very lucky to have such strong school/parish links. Many parishioners enjoy coming to morning Mass in school when it is a designated class Mass; they love to receive an invitation to our annual Christmas concerts.

The First Holy Communion programme that many of our children follow is delivered by a dedicated team of parish catechists.  There is a very special Mass each year at the end of the summer term to celebrate the lives and works of the Year 6 children as they move on to their new secondary schools.  After this Mass, gifts and awards are presented such as the Parish Priest's Award; the Sr Mary Barry Award for Religious Knowledge; the Knights of St Columba Good Deeds Award; the Poth Sports Award; the Herridge & McCarthy ICT Award; and others.

The parish website is www.holyfamily-church.org; the parish office number is 01268 799649