Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,

Here we are in Week Ten already and what a busy time it is. The children are all involved in interclass art exchanges, and our jump jam daily fitness programme continues for the whole school.

The senior classes are busy preparing for Stars on Stage and the Catholic School’s Choir Festival. Both these will be held next term. The senior rugby team has been competing in the Otago Full Primary Rugby Competition and the Year Seven and Eight class are preparing for our school interchange with St Josephs from Oamaru.

Last week several groups of our pupils took part in the Extra Spelling Bee in Dunedin. We are also putting in place planning for next term when the school wide theme will be the Rugby World Cup, and we will have a Year Seven and Eight group taking part in the “Kick start Golf Programme”.

Our challenge through this busy time is to keep our focus on our main goal which is off course achieving teaching and learning.

At our school we are very fortunate to have relatively small classes and a group of excellent teachers, and to support them two great teacher aides who work closely with your children. We use a proactive approach to learning at St Mary’s striving to identify any issues early and dealing with them promptly, to enable us to achieve this we also use a number of external agencies.

To ensure that we offer our pupils the best possible opportunities we also have a group of parents and parishioners who volunteer to help out in various classes. Remember that our key focus is on achieving the very best for our pupils, and the help we receive from you our community is invaluable.

Have a great week

Mike Brosnahan