Mission Statement

MISSION STATEMENT

Boarding at St Mary's DSG provides a safe, caring atmosphere ideal for both intellectual and emotional growth.

The aim is to foster a lively, happy community which operates from a stable base where the feeling of belonging to a large family is important.  Boarders learn how to live, to work and to play in a community environment, sharing experiences with people of their own age who originate from many different countries and cultural backgrounds.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF BOARDING LIFE

Boarding is an integral part of life at the school.  The boarding house is located on top of the main school building.  Boarders enjoy an excellent standard of accommodation, readily available educational and sporting facilities and the chance to enjoy all the opportunities of school life to the full.  Perhaps the most important of these opportunities is the time spent building friendships, which will hopefully endure throughout their time at the school and their lives beyond it.

Following are the nine principles upon which boarding at St Mary's DSG is based.

1. The development of the whole person and the communication of values are vital.
2. Being an open and trusting school, boarding is based upon mutual respect for all its members.
3. Each boarder has the right to be able to work, play and relax free from abuse, intimidation, harassment, teasing and bullying.
4. There is equality of opportunity and respect for all boarders, regardless of ethnicity, culture, gender or disability.
5. Each boarder and each member of staff is to be treated as an individual and with respect by other pupils and by staff.
6. Although living together, staff and boarders acknowledge the right of each other to privacy.
7. Each boarder has the right to extend her intellectual growth in an atmosphere of positive encouragement and in conditions that are conducive to learning.
8. All boarders should be able to develop physically, spiritually, intellectual, morally and socially.
9. Despite the distance separating boarders from their families, links with parents are seen as an indispensable part of the support and development of boarders.