Why Saint Mary's

St. Mary's Catholic School first opened up in 1914 on Clark and 3rd St. in Livingston, Montana. The original school was across the street from the original St. Mary's Catholic Church. In 1967, a new campus was built which houses St. Mary's school today. For over 100 years, St. Mary's has been providing a high-quality Christ-centered education to the children of Livingston and the surrounding area.

St. Mary's is unlike any school in the region for many reasons, and principally among those reasons is our innovative instructional model called "blended learning." The main aim of blended learning is to personalize the educational experience for each student to meet their individual needs. This means several things. Our instructional model is mastery-based, meaning students are taught until they can demonstrate they have mastered a set of skills and they are ready to learn what comes next. Every student in the class does not move at the same pace. Our teachers are skilled in their craft, and drive their instruction with real-time data thanks to the support of educational technology. Our teachers are facilitators of each students learning through knowing and exceeding the state standards our students need to know, and then through challenging, enriching, and intervening when and how each student needs it. Our teachers also embrace project-based learning which engages students with a real world problem, and then through the problem or project students collaborate to learn what they need to in order to accomplish a task for a real audience.

Schoolwide Learning Expectations or "SLE's"

All of our students are held to the same "school-wide learning expectations." We call these our SLEs. St. Mary's students will be humble, respectful, merciful, self-directed learners of integrity.

Self-Directed Learners

An important part of what we do at St. Mary’s is forming children to become life-long self-directed learners. A self-directed learner is a learner who is driven by wonder to understand the world around them and make a meaningful contribution to it. He or she sees the value in a high-quality education and takes personal responsibility for staying on task and applying what he or she is learning to real life. At St. Mary's, students develop skills which help them to discipline and manage themselves, prioritize tasks, delay instant gratification, and appreciate their own learning style as well as those of others. This value is taught to our students and present to us always as a reminder in the symbol of the book in our school crest, and found throughout our school.

Respect

Successful people are respectful people. St. Mary's students are shown respect and are expected to respect themselves and others. Students are taught also to be respectful of resources. Students help keep their school clean and beautiful. At St. Mary's we are respectful of people's time, there is a time for learning, praying, playing, family time, etc. Students are taught not to waste their own or others time. This value is taught to our students and present to us always as a reminder in the symbol of the knight in our school crest, and found throughout our school.

Integrity

As a part of the character development of our students, we value and emphasize integrity. There is more than one definition for integrity. At St. Mary's, we teach that integrity is doing the right thing even if no one is looking. Integrity will mean different things to our students as they grow and go from Preschool to 8th grade. It can be as simple as honesty when they are young. Our older students who can dig a little deeper learn to appreciate that often the right thing to do is not the easy thing in the various situations that they will encounter as they grow up. This value is taught to our students and present to us always as a reminder in the symbol of the mountains in our school crest, and found right nearby and by looking out our windows.

Mercy

St. Mary's is focused on forming the whole person and not on just one aspect of a child’s development. Therefore, we emphasize the development of a spiritual life. As a Catholic Christian school, find prayer is a regular part of our day, and Mass or other church services is a regular part of our week. Mercy is taught to our students and displayed by all here as an example of how we are to treat our fellow man. Service to our neighbor is a big part of the educational experience at St. Mary's. All students participate in age appropriate service projects throughout the year. This value is taught to our students and present to us always as a reminder in the symbol of the Cross in our school crest, and found throughout our school.

Humility

At St. Mary's, we see the value of humility as key to a happy and successful person. St. Mary's students are taught to take pride in their work and at the same time to recognize and acknowledge the contributions and sacrifices of all those around them and those who came before them that help to make their accomplishments possible. As a Catholic school who takes its name from the Mother of Jesus Christ, we look to the example of Mary to show us how to live a humble life and to be grateful for all the blessings in our lives given to us from God. This value is taught to our students and present to us always as a reminder in the symbol of the dove in our school crest, and found throughout our school.