St Mary's School
“Every Mass in which we participate fills us with countless graces.” – St. Alphonsus Liguori
Kia ora e te whānau,
We've had a busy and eventful first full week back at school. Our Wednesday night 'Welcome Back BBQ' was such a hit that we had to send for more sausages and bread, what a great complaint to have. It was great to see so many of you there and to catch up after the long summer break.
We'd love to see just as many of you at our whole school Mass on Sunday, 9am (it's a family Mass so children don't need to come in uniform and can sit with their families rather than with their classes). Just a gentle reminder that we have 3 Sunday Masses a year which are put aside as whole school Masses for us to celebrate as a school with our parish. This totals about 4 hours across the year. At your enrolment visit with myself or Mrs Nelson, we would have made you aware that it is an expectation for all families to attend these if they are able to.
We know you love our place and how our values (alongside yours, as parents being the first teachers) help to shape the way our kids treat each other and see the world. This isn't an accident at our end. We teach these explicitly in our RE lessons as well as incidentally in class and on the playground. These values come straight from the Gospels and from the teachings of Jesus.
We hope to see you on Sunday.
At Teachers College we got taught about the 'Feedback Burger' model. The 'Feedback Burger' model works like this: The bottom bun of the burger is positive feedback/affirmation, the middle of the burger is constructive feedback/something to work on and the top bun of the burger is more positive feedback/affirmation. You may not have noticed, but I'm using that model in my message today (bottom bun - 'your kids are awesome', middle of the burger - 'don't forget to come to Church'). I'm about to drop the top bun on. I think the idea of the top/positive feedback/affirmation bun is to make sure you still think I'm an alright person?
No, but seriously, I just wanted to thank you all for your support and trust yesterday after we (along with many other schools) were thrown an unexpected and unsettling challenge involving a hoax email (more info can be found on FB or the Hero App). It's always hard to know how much to share as there's a fine line between sharing not enough and sharing too much, reassuring people or worrying them more but I just want to assure you that this was taken very seriously and extra measures were put in place to ensure our children's safety. It was a great reminder of what a privilege and responsibility it is to have 200 little people entrusted to your care - boy did I sleep well last night!
Ma te Atua e manaaki - God bless,
Mallory
Principal | Tumuaki
Contact Us
Email: admin@stmarys.school.nz
Website: https://stmarys.school.nz/
Location: 14 Ardwick Street, Gore 9710, New Zealand
Phone: +64 3-208 7733
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1407464649522913