Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of

St Mary’s School, Well Week Eleven already and how the term has flown. As you can see this is a special end of the term newsletter with lots of photos to highlight the activities and experiences that the children have had access to over the term.

The weather on Sunday was excellent for our ‘working bee’ and a huge thank you to all of you who came along to help. 70m3 ofwoodchips to spread sounds like a lot and it was, but as the old saying goes ‘many hands make light work’.

Schools in these tough economic times, survive mainly through generous acts. Whether those are people giving up their Sundays to attend working bees or serving on committees or coaching sports teams or going on outings or camps. The fact is that without this help schools would find giving the best to the children that much harder. So thank you to all of you who help us, in whatever capacity your generosity is a true act of Christian kindness.

Have a great week and a happy and safe holiday.

Mike Brosnahan

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

Last Friday we as a teaching staff, attended the “Gathering Day’ for teachers in Catholic Schools from around the Diocese, held in Gore.The focus of the day was “Our place in the Church of the future in Aotearoa New Zealand”, and all of the workshops and speakers were pitched to address this topic.

As we move into the future we will face a range of new challenges—things that we had not previously thought about. The future is not always a scary place. Rather it is a place that we sometimes fear because of the unknown but also energises and invigorates us because of the human condition of setting ourselves challenges to overcome.

In the Year Eight Religious Education programme we have been studying the Beatitudes and especially the attitudes and actions that they engender. One that our group found really interesting was the attitude of honesty and the action that comes from it is owning your own weakness.

To improve yourself you have to be honest with yourself and own your own weaknesses – face up to them and then hopefully either eliminate or at least limit. To do this of course you must be honest—honest with yourself in the words of Shakespeare “… and above all things to thine own self be true!”

Have a great week

Mike Brosnahan