Why St. Mary's?
Parents, teachers, students, and the overall culture of St. Mary's are the reasons we are so successful. Our parents care, our teachers are experts with commitment, and our students are interested in succeeding. This is in large part because they see the Christian, hardworking academic lives of the older students, and they aspire for the same. In addition, we have a student culture of giving, hard work, personal responsibility, respect for others, and kindness.
St. Mary’s is a hometown school where students have achieved big things: Robotics National champions, City Art Contest winners, National Reading Contest winners, top sports teams in the Archdiocese, and successful graduates who have gone on to succeed in very diverse career fields.
Academic Success
How does a small school with limited resources have so many students with such diverse successes? The secret is our drive for academic diversity and self-directed academics. We subscribe to the educational learning theory that focuses on challenging different parts of the human brain in order to increase total learning power. That is why art, reading, spirituality, mathematics, playing a musical instrument, music, technology, religion, drama, sports, reading out loud, and foreign languages are a part of the curriculum from Pre-K to 8th grade. This cross-brain stimulation results in children with incredible learning skills. In addition, from the earliest grades St. Mary’s children are taught to work independently. For example, every day our Kindergartners are responsible for working on their mathematics and language skills at academic “stations” for development each day. They do their work in the order they desire. This gives them control and develops their own drive and natural curiosity to learn new things. This continues and expands in the older grades.
Our complex curriculum is integrated and accredited by the State of Nebraska. In addition, we have outstanding electives, sports, and extracurricular activities for our students that compound on their learning variety including: band (taught with Gross High School), chess club, volleyball, basketball, robotics as a part of the STEM curriculum, WITS Clash, Battle of the Books, Spelling and Geography Bees, art education and contests, yearbook, STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics), and drama. Test scores of our students are routinely at the top when compared to students across the nation. Our students develop the academic depth and unquenchable curiosity that will allow them to continue teaching themselves for the rest of their lives.
Life Success
We've also developed a faith-based culture that teaches our children how to live a Catholic lifestyle. Our students live the Catholic life by celebrating Mass and receiving the Sacraments, as well as living the "Love Thy Neighbor" teaching by mentoring the younger students, working with the elderly, and working on projects for those in need. See it, Do it, Know it, Live it. They learn love by living it.
Living a loving Catholic life helping others also means a successful life. No matter what twists, turns, and difficulties they may face, our children will be armed with the life skills they need to succeed. Your child will have the faith, prayer life, and beliefs to keep going in the face of deep adversity. The academic and socialization skills they learn at St. Mary’s will assure them success in college, in work, and in life.
