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

I was thrilled to see in the paper yesterday so many of our pupils pictured taking part in the Weetbix kids triathlon.

It is always great to see events where families can get together and support each other in a challenging, healthy and life affirming way.

We have so many events that are based around schools, clubs and representative teams that it is great to see an event where children can see their parents in a leadership and support role.

This Sunday is the PTA morning tea and games event, after family Mass.

This is a new event and one that promises to be a lot of fun, so please try to be there.

Over the next few weeks the children in the middle and senior school will be taking part in our annual PAT testing programme. This process gives us excellent information on where your child is with regards their learning, and what we and you can do to facilitate their future learning. As with all things we achieve

better results when we work together.

Have a great week

Mike Brosnahan

Principal

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
This week we have been blessed with a number of our pupils achieving excellent results in a range of activities:

Devon Scott has been selected in the Dunedin Metropolitan Gold Cricket Team. They played Southland on Sunday and he scored 17 not out.

Gracin Fraser and Sam O’Neill where re-selected in to Metropolitan teams for the third year. Congratulations to all these boys.

Pyper Johnson has been selected to represent Otago in athletics in the national

interprovincial competition.

Aarnika Bungard donated her hair to the cancer society to be made into wigs.

This is an act of selfless service to people in a challenging and vulnerable time of their lives. Acts of giving like this is the Christian message that we should all aspire to live by.

Thank you Aarnika.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Lent, like Advent is a time of prayer-ful reflection and a time to refocus. In this hyper busy world that we live in the challenge is often to allow ourselves ‘time out’ to refocus on what really is important.

Sometime it is a case of "the less haste, the more speed".

Have a great week.
Mike Brosnahan

Principal






Whanau

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

It’s always nice to start the year with good news, and our National Standards results for 2014 were certainly great news.
86.9% of our pupils are reading at or above the National Standard as compared to the
national average of 77.9% reading at or above.
 79.2% are doing Maths at or above the National Standards as compared to the national

average of 74.6%
 80% of our pupils are writing at or above the national standard as compared to 70.6% of the

national average.

I have put this information as a table below to make it easier for people to understand.

2014 National Standards Data

This is a very strong positive reminder of the great work done by our teachers and the high standard at which St Mary’s operates.

We are also lucky to have as a school so many wonderful new pupils, as could be seen in last weeks newsletter. Starting on Monday we will welcome Albie Paul and Cy Dougherty to Room One.

Tomorrow is our opening school Mass at 9am and in the afternoon is a fun whanau games after-noon. As we are in the midst of an excellent summer, the weather promises to be good so please join us for some fun in the sun.

Mike Brosnahan

Principal

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
"Nollaig Shona Daoibh" - in Irish "have a Happy Christmas".

It’s that time of the year, less than ten days to Christmas, when the focus of most of us gradually moves from the looking back at the old year to looking forward to the new.

2014 has been another year of huge developments at St Mary’s—one only has to walk around the school to notice the developments. Our national standards data has continued to be significantly above the

national average.

But the thing that we as a school remain most proud of are our graduating Year Eight class. These are a group of young adults who go out to face the future. The world is a far different place from when I walked in their shoes. In 1975 when I left Paerau Primary School; (it no longer exists as the roll got too low about two years ago) the cold war was still the largest global fear, Apartheid was still the policy in South Africa, Gerald Ford was the US President, James Callaghan was the British Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon was the New Zealand Prime Minister. My favourite T.V. programme was Bonanza and a pint of milk cost four cents.

The world has changed, we now have iphones and ipads and computers.

The world our young people are moving into is a world of new challenges not better, not worse just

different. Everywhere there are good people, people who will and can help with no thought of personal gain. Christmas is a time that teaches us to focus on what is really important.

To all of our supporters and helpers, thank you and we really appreciate all of your work.

In German Huben ein frohes und erfolgreiches neues jahr—have a happy and holy Christmas and a

prosperous New Year.
—Mike Brosnahan

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

Welcome back for the 2015 school year.

We started the new year for the pupils yesterday with a brief but enthusiastic assembly.

It was pleasing to see all the faces of the pupils (both returning and new) smiling back at me. We welcomed eleven new pupils to the school for day one and we have another four new entrants joining us during term one, this is great for the school.

Yesterday I visited all of the classrooms and spoke to a number of the pupils and everyone I spoke to had enjoyed a great holiday and was pleased to be back at school and keen to begin the school year.

We have enjoyed a summer that has been great for holidays but not so good for farmers. The warm weather over the break has enabled a number of projects to be carried out at school: new planting in the garden, our brightly painted and patched seats, the new path (by the lower car park) and the mending of some of the paving. Thank you to all of the people who worked so hard over the holidays to complete these tasks.

During the term there are a number of events and activities on, so please remember to read this section of newsletter.

I would just like to conclude this newsletter with the following quote from Henry Ford: "Coming

together is a beginning; keep together is progress; working together is success".

Have a great year.

—Mike Brosnahan

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

As I mentioned at Friday’s assembly we are now in the season of advent, our preparations for Christmas. The seasons of preparation: advent and lent, are times of reflection and

contemplation. They are a time when we think honestly about the year that has just passed and reflect on what we have achieved and on what we failed to achieve. An important focus for

people who achieve in life is to take ownership for your actions, both good and not so good. Sometimes we get it wrong and only ‘own’ the good things that we have done. Sometimes we get it wrong and only own our failures forgetting about our successes. Both of these view points can be harmful. If we only own our successes then we must blame others for all failures. If we only take ownership of our failures then we elevate others above us giving them credit for the good we have done.

People who only accept their successes and blame others for all failures struggle socially

because people around them tire quickly of being told how good that person is and being told all mistakes cannot have been made by them but must have been made by you.

People who focus on their failings become unhappy because they soon develop a sense of

never succeeding and that everybody is better than them.

Balance is the answer—accept your victories and defeats as your own. If you score the winning runs, or goal or try, acknowledge it, accept it, put it in context and move forward. If you made a mistake that led to a defeat, remember that as being a moment in a game during which you will have contributed many good things.

Success and failure is often defined by centimetres and seconds. In a hockey game that my daughter Grace was playing in this year, (the final of the national tournament) late in the game the scores were tied 2-2, with only a few minutes to go. It looked as though the game was going to ‘strokes’.

Grace had the ball, the other team were pressing hard on defense. She held the ball and drew a number of defenders to her. Then once they had committed to tackling her she turned and fired a long pass back to her full back, to enable the team to attempt a back and round. (This is a technique in hockey where you draw the opposition to your side of the field then pass the ball back and to the other side of the field to create space for your players to attack in).

Just as Grace passed their striker anticipated the move and raced to cut off the pass. It looked like she would succeed creating a one on one with the goalie—in hockey almost a certain goal. She reached for the ball, missed by centimetres and Graces team mate trapped the ball quickly pass the ball up the wing and the movement lead to the winning goal. A few centimetres the

other way and the result would have been quite different. Life is like that, we try hard, we do our best but sometimes the margin of a few centimetres or a second is the difference between

success and failure. If we accept victory by a few seconds then we should accept failure, if then we accept loss by a centimetre then we should accept victory in the same way.

Have a great week

—Mike Brosnahan

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
Well here we are in week nine of what has been a very busy term. Today the three junior classes are off to the beach, the forecast is good although the sky doesn’t look so inviting.

Over the rest of the week the other classes will also be visiting the beach to enjoy "Beach Education day". This programme is designed to teach young New Zealanders the skills needed to be safe around the beach at summer time. We present it to our pupils every two years to compliment their swimming
programme which finished last week.

Tonight the Sacrament of Reconciliation will be being performed at the Church. For one group of pupils this will be their first Reconciliation and marks the beginning for them of the year in which they will make their sacraments. We celebrate this sacrament at this time because of course, we are in the season of advent.

Advent is a season of preparations and reflection—a time of healing if you will. So taking part in the rite of reconciliation at this time allows people time to celebrate for the feast of Christmas.

As with all schools over the next week there are a number of celebrations and events so please check closely the time table sections of the newsletter to ensure that you don’t miss any of these events.

As we move into the season of "Goodwill to Man" please remember that while this is a busy time it is also a time of great joy for we celebrate the birth of Christ.
Have a great week

—Mike Brosnahan




Room