Thursday, April 18, 2013


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


 


One of the gifts that my son got for Christmas was a book on Bear Grylls the explorer, adventurer and television host.  The theme of the book is how to enjoy and be successful in life.  He uses a number of metaphors based on putting himself in life threatening situations and working on how to get out of them, and equating this with everyday life.  One theme that comes through strongly is to stay positive and to try to surround your self with positive people.  For many of us this maybe an aspirational goal but I know that when I work with positive people I look forward to accepting the challenge, even if I know it will be difficult.


 


I coach a cricket team with a guy who is always positive, he always sees the glass half full.  A player gets a first ball duck and Craig will find a positive.  After all the player is already feeling bad he doesn’t need any negative vibes.  Think about what happened in the cool light of day and work on it at practice.


Our team faces challenges, we have a vast range of talents.  These are mainly Year 12 and 13 boys so we have personality and attitudes to deal with, but because we have a positive environment the task never seems daunting, win, lose or draw.


Bear has a lot of points on how to maintain a positive focus, but one that I thought was really good was to look at failures as steps to success.  I think the other point is to strive to see the good in everyone and in every situation, not always easy but with practice it becomes a habit.  A great example would be the rebuild of the school, the challenges have been huge, but the gain is immense. Bear was in the SAS and their motto is ‘who dares wins’.  You can’t be more positive than this.


Have a great week.


Mike Brosnahan, Principal


 

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


 


Well here we are well into week six.  This week the junior classes have begun their swimming lessons with Swimsation; learning to swim when you live in New Zealand is not just developing a pastime but rather it is learning a potential life skill that could be life saving.


As a nation we live around the sea, lakes and rivers, not to mention swimming pools.  When we get hot we all enjoy having a ‘dip’ to cool down but the trouble is that not all of the places people choose to swim are benign.  While lessons that your children receive at school will not make them Olympic champions they will develop their skills.


 


Please remember that on Monday next week 18th March all the teachers will be attending a paid union meeting, please read the notice for more information.


 


The reorganization of our school bus routes is now being ‘re-viewed’ while there will be no change for people who live within 3.2km of our school, those who live further than this may find themselves on an adjusted route.  As soon as I have a definite plan I will contact parents directly to explain how the new bus routes will operate.


 


Have a great week.


Mike Brosnahan


Principal


 

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


Well week five of the term already, the children at the moment are busily completing their PAT test.  These tests are important as they are internationally recognized standardized tests and are a good way of moderating our reading and maths results, this ensures that our view of a pupils achievement lines up with what other people think.


 


On Monday the 18th of March the teachers will be attending a Union meeting in Dunedin, please read the accompanying note about this later in the newsletter.


A number of other events are coming up over the next weeks so please ensure that you keep a close eye on the diary of events section.


I would like to make special mention here of Jayden Grindley in Year Eight: Jayden has been


selected to take part in the Burnley Development Centre programme, this is a programme for identified talented young footballers where they receive 45 weeks of elite coaching.


Football has long since identified that to achieve at the elite level you need to put in a large number of hours of practice (10,000 hours).  So well done Jayden on this prestigious selection.


 


Also well done to all of those who took part in the Weetbix Kids Triathlon and thank you to Mrs Lisa Matheson for organizing this.


 


Have a great week.


Mike Brosnahan


Principal