Culture of caring in and outside class

St Mary's School sparkles with happy bright kids, smiling, caring staff and a principal who has his finger on the pulse. Chris Gullery loves his school and it shows. He is a perfectionist, from his ultra-tidy office and pristine school grounds to his evident pride in each and every pupil in his school, finds education reporter LIN FERGUSON

We were greeted at St Mary's as though we were visiting dignitaries. Our tour of the school had been carefully planned with a strict time-frame in mind.

Our two escorts were the head girl and boy each carrying a timed, itemised list of activities for us to see around the school.

Principal Chris Gullery had planned our visit like an army manoeuvre - all we had to do was follow the leaders, watch and enjoy.

With this kind of preparation, we felt as though were part of a special entourage escorted between appointments.

It was marvellous.

Our itinerary started with an extraordinary IT suite and the school's top four computer gurus.

IT students at St Mary's have a dedicated room with banks of state-of-the art computers and are the only school in Wanganui to be on the specialised programme Knowledge Net.

IT Teacher Karyn Slade said the skills these children had were invaluable and that they were even able to evaluate their own work on line.

From the group of computer whiz kids were we led off to see 6 and 7-year-olds in the midst of their daily maths lesson.

They were sat in a group around their teacher and the whiteboard getting to grips with the intricacies of fractions ... and their teacher said proudly they were even getting into multiplication and long division already.

St Marys has nine teaching classrooms and an additional special programmes classroom for learning intervention programmes and gifted and talented kids programmes.

Mr Gullery said the school has very strong links with other Catholic schools in Wanganui, which means they are part of one big spiritual family where every child benefits.

"We have a very supportive community, highly motivated and committed staff, an active and skilled board of trustees, a great PTA, but above all we have spectacular students - we really do."

An environmental award from Nestles in Marton at the start of 2010 has meant St Mary's has an area of raised gardens that would be the envy of any home gardener.

The raised beds, one for each class, are set out in a fenced area behind the school. There is even a sink with taps, a collection of small blue watering cans hanging on hooks along the fence and some small-sized, blue plastic wheelbarrows.

The gardens were all lush and thriving, with tall vines of broad beans, silverbeet with shining deep green leaves and rows of feathery carrot plants.

We were taken there to witness a carrot-pulling demonstration .

Three keen students knelt in front of their class garden bed, watched closely by their classmates as they pulled two rows of beautiful golden/orange carrots.

There was a great roar of approval from all the kids ... their harvest was perfect and the whole class celebrated.

Our next show-and-tell was the buddy reading programme.

Small children sat side-by-side with big students and each had a book.

The little pupils read to their big buddies.

One small boy aged 6, I was told, had not started reading well.

But once he became part of the buddy readers he had made extraordinary progress.

Not only was he reading his book about a pig and his friends fluently, he injected his reading with great expression.

He gave each animal a special voice and read through the story as though it was the most riveting adventure tale ever written.

His senior buddy was left with a very difficult act to follow.

A very special extra at St Mary's is their after-school programme, sKids.

This after-school care and holiday programme is one of New Zealand's fastest-growing industries and is the largest franchised provider.

They were the winners of the 2010-11 Westpac Franchise Awards Lifestyle Services Franchisor. Skids stands for safe, structured and stimulating programmes for primary school children.

The St Mary's after-school programme runs every day from 3pm to 6pm.

Teacher aid Wendy Howley said it was a programme that really helped children and parents.

"The children are happy here. They all know each other, so we're like special little family."

A different activity each day means the children are kept interested and entertained.

"We also set aside time to do homework after we've had our afternoon tea."

Small children benefited from the programme because they felt safe and cared for in an environment they knew, she said.

As we walked back to the main block for a last chat with Mr Gullery, I was stopped by a smiling young lad.

He proffered a "bouquet" of carrots with feathery tops and silverbeet done up in newspaper cone and tied with twine straight from their class garden.

As I laid it across my arm, I surely did feel like a special guest indeed.

There really was a very perky element to St Mary's the way most of the children grinned, waved and said hello as we passed by.

It reminded me of the song If You're Happy and You Know, It Clap Your Hands.

There would have been the roar of more than 200 hands clapping at St Mary's last Wednesday.

"It's exactly as it should be. We're a very special school," said Mr Gullery

ST MARYS SCHOOL

• 
  30 London St
• 
  Staff: 19
• 
  Pupils: 220
• 
  Decile: 4
• 
  Principal: Chris Gullery
• 
  Mission statement: Within Catholic belief and practice, our school will develop the abilities and special talents of each student.