The first time I saw my children in the church; I knew I had made the right choice in changing their education from public to private.  To see my children learn to handle themselves in church and learn to sit and listen and show respect meant everything to me.   When they read for the first time in church; I was just blown away. They felt so proud to speak in front of the church and I was in awe.  St. Mary's teaches their students the normal curriculum as does the public schools but St. Mary's also teaches so much more.   I thoroughly loved the service hours program they have set up for their students.  The students had to spend so many hours contributing to the community and/or helping others. These hours were kept track of and they were then rewarded with a pizza party or an event at the school when they were completed.   This teaches them right away how to give back and be grateful to those that help them.    St. Mary's teaches all students to clean up after their programs or meals at the school.  After every event as well, all students help set up and clean up.  The students are taught to take care of their school and they get a sense of responsibility.   The kids feel more a part of the school. Their work contributes directly to the school.  This is something I loved about St. Mary's. They were teaching my kids so much more than just the basic curriculum. They taught them to be good, helpful, respectful people. They were taught to be grateful for all they had at school.  St. Mary's also has their older students walk with the younger students to help them get to church and to lunch.  This was gigantic to me. This is a huge lesson.   The older students learn that they are looked up to by the younger students.  The older students will learn to behave so much better because of this setup. They are being directly looked up to by the younger students.  Teaching my children to pray ended up being so dearly important to me because my kids now know they are never truly alone.  If they are afraid or sad or lost, St. Mary's has taught them to pray and believe in our Lord.   Even for those that are not Catholic, teaching our youth to pray and understand there is something bigger out there is huge. I call it the pyramid.  Teaching the kids the pyramid.  Lastly, the size of the classrooms help so much for my children, especially my 2 youngest, they needed extra attention due to their IEP's.  They have hands-on tutoring during and after school.   The teachers work directly with them and also myself.  During the shut down last year, we had weekly calls for their speech therapy and extra sessions for tutoring.   St. Mary's is very flexible in its approach to teaching each student as individuals.  They will find which strategies work best based on each student's strengths and weaknesses.   They have different seating for some kids who tended to have difficulties sitting still.  St. Mary's has various equipment that supported all types of technology that could be used to adapt their teaching style.  This is why I chose St. Mary's for my children.  ~Tina