Revd Sister Laurencia Daniel, SSL – Head Mistress, St. Ferdinand Catholic Church School
BRIEF HISTORY OF SAINT FERDINAND CATHOLIC CRECHE, NURSERY/PRIMARY SCHOOL, BOYS TOWN, IPAJA, LAGOS
To what shall we compare our story: it is like the story of the mustard seed in the Gospel where the gospel where the tiniest seed is sown and it grows to become a very big tree where different birds of the air take shelter in its shade ( LK 13: 19).
It all began when very rev Fr Peter Oke responded to the idea on how to help the working class mothers in the church who live within Abesan community. He then met with the confraternity of Christian mothers (CCM) in February 2012 and gave them the task to come up with the ways on how to run a day-care center. After receiving approval for the commencement of the day-care, funds were released for the purchase of the necessary items needed to begin the project.
The day-care center started on the 7th May 2012 with four babies. Namely: Charles Best Ajuah, Andrea Maduwaye, Racheal Benjamin, Emmanuel Obatomi and two care workers (Mrs Catherine Akhia and Mrs. Peace Ekpo) who were employed while the leader of the Christain Mothers and her Council became the coordinators of the care center in the persons of, Mrs. Anthonia Munis, Mrs. Lucy Onyeani and Mrs. Felicia Oloja.
More workers were employed as the number of the babies increased. At the maiden meeting of Management with the parents on December 23, 2012, a decision was reached that day care centre be expanded to a formal school setting beginning with the Pre-nursery and Nursery schools respectively. This took off in September 2013 with Mrs. Veronica Adegoke as the Acting Head-Mistress. In July 2014, three of our pupils in Nursery 2 graduated to Primary 1. They are: Chigaemezue Okaa, Elizabeth Michael and Israel Odemakinde.
At the assumption of office of Rev. Fr. Michael Etekpo, MSP as Parish Priest of St. Ferdinand in December 2013, the desire of both the parents and the Confraternity of Christian Mothers grew, and so more classes in the primary section where opened to accommodate the needs of parents who wanted all their children in one school. Presently, the school has been registered with the Ministry of Education as St. Ferdinand Catholic Nursery and Primary School. The school attracted the interest of the Sisters of St. Louis, Sisters Patricia Ebegbulem, SSL and Laurencia Daniel SSL, who have volunteered to help set up a system for running the school. Sr. Laurencia Daniel SSL was requested to serve in the capacity of the school Headmistress.
Staff strength and the population of the School: The school has thirteen full-time teaching staff and three part-time teachers in Diction, Computer studies, French and Yoruba languages. She has eight non-teaching staff comprising three care workers, two cleaners, a Driver, a Secretary and an Accountant. The population of the school presently stands at over a hundred pupils. The school will mark her third anniversary on Thursday, May 7, 2015.
