For students across Brooklyn and Queens, it’s almost here – that all-important Christmas break. And while the children may be looking forward to the gifts that will be wrapped up and waiting for them underneath the Christmas tree, they know the holiday is about much more than that.

Take, as just one example, the students at Ave Maria Academy in Howard Beach. The school, which was originally known as Our Lady of Grace, reopened in 2009 under the new academy model – allowing it to impart the Catholic faith and update it’s education approach for a new generation of young people. Ave Maria Academy is this week’s “School of the Week.”