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

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
This morning I was talking to my electrician, a man who originally hales from Aberdeen in the North of  Scotland. We began to discuss the possibility of Scottish independence and he expressed the view that the same model could develop as in the Irish province of Ulster. The Catholics want to be independent, the Protestants want to remain a part of the United Kingdom. We discussed sectarian matters for a few minutes and then he expressed the thought that he was lucky to be from Aberdeen, a city with two universities but only one football team. The reason he gave was simply that the Universities welcomed everyone but when a Scottish town (e.g. Glasgow) had two football teams they tended to be exclusive. Only certain members of society were welcome!
As we move into holy week and our final preparations for Easter, it is a good time to focus on that key Christian value of inclusivity. Jesus right throughout his mission welcomed everyone to join with him. The poor, the ill, the unwanted.
Perhaps the idea of being inclusive is best shown in our Mercy value of ‘care for the poor and vulnerable’ and the story of the good Samaritan. Remember that a Samaritan was not just an unknown member of the public, he was a member of a group of people that the Jews did not get along with. Yet it was a member of this group of people who stopped to help the injured man.
It is easy to be nice and helpful to those who you see as friends or even those who you can relate to but to be a true follower of Christ you must be welcoming to those who you don’t get along with.
Have a happy and holy Easter break.
Mike Brosnahan

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
It is hard to believe that we are already in week ten of the term. As we come to the end of the season of  Lent it is perhaps a good time to focus on what we have and how lucky our lot is, especially when com-pared to those who live in other less hospitable parts of the world.
I am reading a book at the moment written by the British survival expert Bear Grylls. It is entitled ‘True Grit” and it looks at a number of amazing survival stories.
The underlying theme is that the strongest factor we have that helps people to survive from hazardous
situations is their determination and will to live. But the other key theme is that to survive we really need so little, yet we continually put pressure on ourselves by wanting newer and bigger and better consumer items.
Lent is a time for us to consider what is really important. What do we really need to not just survive but to be content. The old prayer the Desiderata says “If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.”
To be content, we need to know ourselves well and to know what we value and what we want to achieve.
We have to be guarded about people telling us what we want or need e.g. you simply must have a new car, a bigger T.V. and trip to London. While all of these things are nice, don’t let need be confused with want. In Genesis the serpent tempts Adam and Eve by offering not what they need but by telling them what they want. Our needs to survive are simple: food, water, clothing, shelter and warmth. Our wants are too numerous to list. The people in the Solomon Islands as they struggle to survive want very little but their needs are the same as ours.
So as we come to the end of Lent please remember the three pillars of lent: Prayer, alms giving and
fasting, and keep the people who are struggling to simply survive, in your hearts.
Have a great week
Mike Brosnahan

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
In Ecclesiastes (Chapter 3:1-9) we read “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven”. This is an important learning for us to remember when we think of our aspirations for our children.
It’s highly seductive as a parent to think that your child is seen as really talented and able to play at a
higher level at a younger age, or be the youngest in their class—but still be able to work at the same level or even higher than those of an older age. But research, anecdotal evidence and my own experiences urge caution when presented with the concept of promoting children either in sport or academia.
In physical sports, such as rugby, size is obviously important but so is maturity. When I was in the old Third form at St Kevin’s I was a member of an invincible under 48kg rugby team. The stars of our team were two Seventh formers (Year 13) boys who were the same weight as everybody else but were much stronger and more mature. Size even in a physical game like rugby, is not the only way to measure what is a fair match or an appropriate team for a player to be in.
In more skill focus sports such as cricket or hockey while the physical component is not so paramount it is still a key factor. I have seen young cricketers promoted early by their parents intimidated by bowling too fast and hostile for their skill set, put off the game, mainly due to their inability to succeed. Everybody be it child or adults need to experience success.
Continual failure tells us simply that we are in the wrong place doing the wrong thing. The same rules
apply to placement for academic purposes. NCEA is form adjudicated—that is you sit Level One in Year Eleven and Level Two in Year Twelve etc. Age is not a factor. Promoting a child means that they are sitting exams with less time to prepare than others. The social component also needs to be examined, do you want your child to be oldest or the youngest in their peer group as they become young adults?
Have a great week
Mike Brosnahan