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

What a busy week last week was, as we showed the Education Review Office what a great school we have. The ERO Team’s feedback was very positive and highlighted the excellent learning environment that our pupils enjoy, the great results that our pupils achieve and the strong positive relationships that permeate our school. You will receive more information on this report when the BOT get it’s final written document.

Over the next two weeks our pupils will be going on two outings. This week the Year One to Six pupils will be attending the Catholic Schools Fun Sports Day in Dunedin, this takes place of the old St Patrick’s Day sports. Next week the senior class will have their annual rafting day on the Taieri finishing at Outram Glen.

A lot of debate has gone in recently to decide what is a worthwhile education?

Is it purely academic, as measured against National Standards? Most people acknowledge that being able to read, write and perform mathematical tasks up to a certain level are vital in the modern world to achieve in life, but to go further we feel our pupils deserve more opportunities to express themselves as individuals: be it in the Arts, the field of sports or in the spiritual aspects of life.

As a Catholic school we are in a unique position to be able to discuss with our pupils these greater ideas and to stimulate rather than to settle for mediocrity.

As Felix Adlers said “An optimist is a person who sees only the lights in the picture, where as a pessimist sees only the shadows”. An idealist however, is one who sees the light and the shadows, but in addition see something else, the possibility of changing the picture, of making the light prevail over the shadows.

Have a great week, Mike Brosnahan