Academy of the Holy Family
Where friends become family, since 1874. The Academy of the Holy Family is a Catholic day and boarding high school for American and international young women. At AHF, girls may arrive quietly, but they graduate with a presence. We help each young woman find her unique strengths in a culture where adulthood does not come too soon – or without preparation. Our teachers, coaches and advisors work in harmony with families, to help each student thrive in school and in the local community. Her presence will be felt on campus, and beyond. Some voices will be bold, others will be soft, but AHF girls emerge with a self-esteem and self-reliance that rings loud and clear.
School Mission
The Academy of the Holy Family is a Catholic day and boarding high school for American and international young women. Our mission is to provide an environment in which learning is not just about the retention of information, but the application of knowledge, helping to develop both the spiritual and mental faculties of the student. Our highly tailored, student-centered curriculum is made possible because of our small class sizes. We send forth educated young women with ambition to strive for their fullest God-given potential to impact their world.
Announcements
Upcoming Events
Sisters of Charity Involvement
We have been engaged in teaching since the very beginnings of our foundation. Monsignor Zwijsen, founder of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, considered the education of women to be of great worth. He taught us that educating young ladies was of the greatest importance, as women possess great influence over the education and formation of youth. The state depends upon the woman’s role in passing on of good education to their children. When the Sisters came to the US from Holland in 1874, the first commitment was the establishment of a grade school and a girls’ high school for day and resident students in the small mill town of Sprague, Connecticut where the Motherhouse is located.
The philosophy of education that we embrace is one that involves the recognition of youth as the future of the Church and of our nation, students who need to be formed spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and physically in order to be effective witnesses of Christ to others. We regard the education of the whole person, spirit, mind and body, as a most worthy and necessary endeavor. We spend ourselves in the service of God with the aim of preparing these students to be effective members of this world and the world to come.
Today, some one hundred fifty years since first coming to America, the elementary school and the high school still exist and continue to be staffed by us. In addition, there are five other Catholic schools in Connecticut where we minister to the young in the elementary and high school grades. Qualified to do the work of God in this apostolate, we joyfully dedicate ourselves to make a difference in the lives of those we serve.
and then