Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
The flu (influenza) season is well and truly upon us. Today (Monday) we have a number of staff and
pupils ill and not at school, and over the past couple of weeks this has been an ongoing occurrence.
There are certain steps that we can put in place to limit the spread of contagious viruses. The most
important is isolation, that is if your child is sick please ensure that they take time at home to get well and
that they don’t return to school until they are no longer contagious ie not sneezing or coughing.
Another important way to limit the spread of the virus is by washing your hands using the twenty/twenty
formulae (20 seconds with soap and hot water and 20 seconds drying).
The final three weeks of the term are going to be very busy as we have a number of important activities
and functions over this time. So please ensure that you read the diary section of our newsletter to make
sure that you are aware of what events are on and when they are on.
Finally please remember to be considerate with your parking practices before and after school as we still
have people parking in an unacceptable manner. Double parking is not safe so please don’t do it.
Have a great week

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
Recently I have been reading a number of books on how best to prepare our children to be successful
citizens in this continually changing world. Key points that are recurring are: to take the holistic approach; remember that we are not entities that can focus exclusively on one aspect of our being. The skills and values that we learn at home need to be the same as those we learn at school or in our sports teams or in other social situations. Young people by definition will test the boundaries of what is or is not appropriate behaviour.
Loyalty is today a value that is often over looked. Loyalty by definition means to be faithful and true to allegiance. If you commit to someone or something (like a team) you stick to it.
Professional sport is a terrible role model in this respect. It teaches that you only focus on what is right, for you, you go to the highest bidder and the concept of the collective (team) is only a means to an end.
Team loyalty is something we attempt to develop in our youngsters, but what we do and say influences them more than what we tell them to do.
Youngsters will at times over commit themselves and as a result they will let others down. Parents need to monitor such things closely and ensure that if a commitment is made to a team, or group when time pressures occur the group that received the loyalty first (usually a club or school team) isn't blithely pushed aside in the search for greater glory. This may be only a small thing in junior sport but it teaches an attitude that youngsters will carry with them through life.
Have a great week

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
One of the questions that we must ask ourselves as parents and as educators on an ongoing basis is what will the world our children will live in look like. Be it ten, twenty or even thirty years down the track, what is the norm in: 2024, 2034 or 2044 will not be the same as it is today.
My wife’s Grandfather lived until he was 102 years old, he was born in 1896 and died in 1998. He was born in Dunedin where lamplighters light the street lights, transport was by horse and buggy and ablution disposal required the night soil man.
He fought in World War One (it took him nearly four months to get to Europe) and he lived to see: supersonic air flight, man on the moon, atomic warfare, cellular phones, automatic motorcars, penicillin, computers and microwave ovens (amongst other things).
When he was a primary school aged child, if he had told his parents or his teachers what he would
witness in his life he would have been thought at best an aimless dreamer and most likely someone out of step with reality.
We have to remember that progress is accelerating to prepare our children for the future, we must focus on the skills, the values and attitudes that will enable them to be confident, successful and motivated global citizens of their
future.
As we move into this election year I urge you as parents to listen closely to what the political leaders are promising.
Eliminate the rhetoric and note down what they are saying about their vision of the future. Are they looking to the future or the past with their policies? Are they presenting a picture of a future (both short and long term) that you want for your children?
Knowledge (Education) is power (Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est) wrote Sir Francis Bacon about four hundred years ago.
This truth must be pertinent and relevant.
So what world will your child inherit? How can you best prepare them for it? Which of our leaders are going to
guide us in that direction?
Have a great week
Mike Brosnahan

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
Well winter has struck, the change in conditions from Saturday morning and early afternoon, to late after-noon was amazing.
As I write this I am at home as the conditions of many of the roads in the hill suburbs are still marginal for safe travel.
When you live in the temperate climate zones winter weather is a factor that you expect.
Ensuring that all of the events that we timetable are completed becomes a balancing act. Ground transfers, postponements, cancellations, late starts and school closures are all realities of life and to ensure that we achieve the best outcomes we always rely on the whole school community working as a team.
We are lucky to have so many people who are prepared to put up their hands to help and it is due to this good will that St Mary’s pupils have such a range of options open to them.
The winter terms have a large number of events: The Taieri Schools Music Festival, The Year Seven and Eight camp, The Year Seven and Eight interchange with St Joseph’s (Oamaru), the South Taieri Schools Cross Country, The Haddon Shield Public Speaking competition, The school Musical and numerous inter and intra school sporting events. With all of these activities on top of the already very busy everyday life of our school, inclement weather can be an annoyance but when we look at the big picture in the end our
pupils get an amazing range of opportunities, thanks to you!
Have a great week
Mike Brosnahan

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
During the holidays my family spent a little time in Nelson. It seemed a good idea to drive up, spend a
couple of days and then drive back, but nine hour car trips, even when it is through country that you haven’t visited before can be tiring.
During our time there we managed to see a lot of the sights—one highlight for ‘some’ of our family being a visit to the Lord Rutherford of Nelson memorial. Two points about Rutherford that I didn’t know before hand stuck with me; one was his total pride in being a New Zealander. Given that he was a man who spent by far the greater part of his life outside the country and was resident in either Canada or England when he achieved his greatest feats, he always remembered where he came from.
But he was a man who given the conditions of the world in which he lived, rose far above what were the logical expectations that people had of him.
Often we as kiwis focus our adulation on what people are achieving today, such as the young singer
“Lorde”. What she has done are feats that she should be justifiably proud of. But what Rutherford did will be remembered forever. Remember he died nearly eighty years ago but he is on our highest denominated note, he has an element (Rutherfordium) and a crater on the moon, named for him. But I think we should remember Ernest Lord Rutherford of Nelson not for what he did but rather for the attributes he showed that enabled him to complete those feats—courage, perseverance, tenacity and self belief.
Have a great week
Mike Brosnahan
Kiwi

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
Over the holidays I read a book entitled ‘Outliers’ by a man named Malcolm Gladwell. The book looks at
people who succeed in life and the reasons for their success. The main conclusions that he comes to,
and he supports these points with very well reasoned arguments are:
That there is no such thing as a ‘natural’ all success comes from effort. I think myself back to an occasion
while attending a course at the university watching a first year student during lunch time, endlessly doing
chip and chases with a rugby ball by himself, up and down Logan Park. This wasn’t a one off thing, it
happened on a daily bases, so I was told. The only thing that changed were the skills that he practiced.
This young man left university soon after to focus on his sporting career. His name I found out later was
Jeff Wilson. Often over the years as I watched the ‘golden one’ win games for Otago, the Highlanders
and the All Blacks I would hear people say—that guy is a natural. But what Jeff Wilson has was a great
work ethic from a young age.
How does this apply to education? The same way as it applies to life. Anyone who says my formal
practice or my game is over, I have nothing to do until next practice/game will not achieve great things.
Anyone who you talk to who appears to be naturally talented will have developed the requisite skills
through hard work.
Schooling is just the same. The approximately 10-15% of pupils who gain NCEA with excellence work
hard, full stop! A balanced life is of course important and know how far you want to go in life is a very
personal decision. Each year about 700 people enroll in pre-law at Otago University and only 200 make
it. Those 200 will have worked the hardest.
We support our children’s education not by driving them incessantly on but by ensuring we support them
and acknowledge that the learning they do at school is only a part of the learning that they undertake on a
daily basis.
Have a great term
Mike Brosnahan
Easter Liturgy