The Sisters of Notre Dame arrived in Nigeria in 1963 and began to establish schools in the western and mid-western parts of Nigeria. The schools were later taken over by the government before the Nigerian civil war,the sisters lost the administration of those schools. Some of the sisters continued to Work in those schools as teachers. Many of the sisters returned to their countries due to moral delapidation in the school. After the Civil war, very few of the sisters remaining in Nigeria Were working in Diocesan establishments. In 1984, the congregation started accepting Nigerian Women as members, So the need to have Our own Notre Dame schools arose. This was to provide the Nigerian sisters the opportunity to practice and apply our Notre Dame educational philosophy which would enable them to share our Notre Dame heritage of giving quality education to the children of our time in Nigeria. The choice of establishing the first Notre Dame owned school at ldaw River Awkunanaw, in Enugu Diocese came from the fact that some Notre Dame Sisters lived in Gariki and worked at St, Peter's Parish. These sisters realized that there was no school for the many children living in their area, and there was no presence of an women religious Congregation. They thought the presence of the Sisters of Notre Dame would give them the opportunity to share our lives with our brothers and sisters here. The construction of the school started in September 1999 by Engr. J.C. Anochie. By July, the following year, the five classrooms were ready to take off. As God Would have it, on the 18th of September in the year 2000, the school opened its doors for pupils. Master Chukwuemeka Mac-Denis Ugwu was the first pupil of the school. Emeka was the only pupil for 8 days (you can imagine what anxiety the sisters had at the beginning of the school). On the 9th day two more pupils Kosisochukwu Ogbodo and Jesse Etta came. From that day the school's population continued increasing. By the end of the first term, the school had 27 pupils. Today the school has over 400 pupils, and Notre Dame Catholic Nursery/Primary School has given birth to Secondary School-Notre Dame Academy What a joy!