The students and staff together form a loving community in the school, one in which the students of all grades know one another and know all the staff. There is beautiful atmosphere of joy and friendship amongst the older and younger students. The older students fill a natural role as leaders among the children in this community, and they inspire the younger ones with an example to emulate.
In our Merrymakers program, older students are given the opportunity to serve the “little ones” by enthusiastically leading nursery rhymes, songs, and stories, by helping the children to write their names, to colour, to play games, and by gently guiding them from activity to activity.
We all love our Reading Buddies program where older students read with a younger buddy and encourage them to delight in and love good books!
In field trips such as our visits to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, the Grade 7 and 8 students are paired with the Kindergarten students to share in a day of farm-fun. They also are team leaders on fun days such as All Saints Day and the feast of St. John Bosco! They teach the little ones to follow the prayers on their Rosaries and provide a fine example to them at our Masses.
All of these opportunities help develop a loving care and familiarity among the children. The younger students really “look up” to the older ones! These older students grow in responsibility and care, learning to attend to to the needs of others, and finding joy in loving service.
We all find great joy in sharing our experiences on special days, feast days, at our annual Christmas Pageant, in musical and dramatic presentations, at our poetry recitations, art shows, cultural fairs, Science and Technology fairs, and more. We love to gather together, to encourage one another, and to learn and grow in an authentic Christian community.
Visits to Copernicus Lodge, The White Eagle, Lakeside Long Term Care Centre, and St Joseph’s Health Centre give the students a chance to share their joy and their voices with others.
In addition to our comprehensive and rigorous academic program, the arts have a central place in our school life, inspiring the students and bringing great joy to the school community.
Mounting large musicals such as The Sound of Music and smaller musicals such as The Milkmaid Princess staged through Music class, mini-operas such as Idomeneo and Iphigenia in Tauris performed after a 3-month workshop with the Canadian Opera Company, visits and performances by members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company, dancing workshops with the National Ballet, guest performances by dance instructors and folk groups, in-class workshops by Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, concerts by The Tallis Choir Singers, visits to noon-hour recitals and concerts across the city, the Art Gallery of Ontario and smaller art galleries, the Royal Ontario Museum, dramatic presentations of plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Man For All Seasons, The Speckled Band — the students of Mary, Mother of God School are exposed to the riches of the arts – song, instrumental music, drama, dance, and visual arts – to gain an understanding of culture as a means of sharing in the creativity of God in service of the dignity of the human person.
Being located in the city of Toronto provides the school with many opportunities to enliven our academic program with field trips.
Some of the places we have been:
|
|
And the list goes on….
Before school, after school, at lunch — clubs offer a chance for students and teachers together to explore common interests and have fun together. Sports clubs for the younger students and for the older students offer a chance for floor hockey, basketball, volleyball, badminton, and other sports.
The clubs are limited only by the imagination and interest of the participants. After school, a Study Club has offered the chance for some students to stay and work on their assignments in a quiet, studious environment.
Other clubs offered have included:
The students in the elementary grades at Mary, Mother of God School are encouraged to always try their best and to enjoy the healthy competition provided by the numerous contests offered around the city, the country, and the world. Through the school, students have entered and done very well in many kinds of contests: basketball free-throw contests sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, numerous Mathematics contests such as the Gauss Contest sponsored by The Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Waterloo, essay writing competitions such as that sponsored by The Royal Commonwealth Society, and the Remembrance Day Poster and Literary Contest sponsored by The Royal Canadian Legion.
