Sr. Marie Laurence Primary School

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Introduction

The Sister Marie Laurence School is currently in operation at the campus of the St. Dominic Primary School, awaiting the construction of an innovative, state-of-the-art holistic educational facility at its usual location in Middle Region. Besides having the necessary facilities to provide a privileged environment for our students and staff, it will also serve as a true community school by supporting and uplifting the community of Middle Region in various ways. Currently the Multi-Functional Recreational Park, which is located right next to the school grounds and is an extension of the new upcoming school facility, is already operational. This amazing area, which can also be used by the community of Middle Region, is comprised of a basketball court, a playground and a garden area.

21st Century Skills

In order to prepare our students to be 21st century, global citizens our school focuses on three specific skills, namely Learning, Literacy and Social Skills. By developing our students in these three areas, and building each skill within the other, we are supporting our students in mastering various multi-dimensional abilities which are required in this day and age.

Our school integrates real-life experiences and authentic learning into the curriculum, as this supports the students’ understanding of the academics that are offered in the core subjects. At school, we place student diversity at the forefront as all students have a spectrum of abilities. By offering various methods such as experiential learning and project based learning within the curriculum, we accommodate all students, including those with diverse needs.

Exceptional School

Our school is transitioning into the Exceptional School – Sister Marie Laurence, which has as its premise that each person is exceptional in his or her own way, and at school we commit to offering our students the opportunity to develop holistically based on their own learning styles, while nurturing their talents, focusing on their abilities and meeting their needs. Through a well-rounded execution of our FBE curriculum, which will include much emphasis on the non-academic subjects, our goal is to offer a structured, privileged and care-free environment which will accommodate all students, including those with diverse needs. The Exceptional School – Sister Marie Laurence is committed to bringing forth education that meets our developing world, in consideration of the uniqueness of each child entrusted in our care, with much emphasis placed on the Catholic faith.

School Tour

Our Sister Schools

St. Joseph School

Estd.-1875

In 1875 Fr. Nieuwenhuis requested the Prioress of Voorschoten, Holland, to send some sisters to St. Maarten to help with Catholic education. This request was not granted. Fr. Onderwater repeated that request and finally the Prioress decided to send six sisters to St. Maarten.

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Sister Regina Primary School

Estd.-1890

Sister Regina was the first prioress of the Sisters of the Dominican Order on St. Maarten. Sister Regina arrived on the island in 1890. She was a pioneer of Catholic education on St. Maarten. In 1897, Sunday school was started in the then newly built church in Simpson Bay.

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Sister Borgia Elementary School

Estd.-1978

Ms. Charlotte Johanna Wilhelmina Linskens was born on November 1, 1912 in Holland. Her convent name was Sister Borgia. Sr. Borgia arrived on St. Maarten in August of 1964 and became principal of the St. Joseph School. Sr. Borgia became directress of the Pastoor Nieuwenhuis MAVO. She was known to be an excellent teacher.

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Sr. Magda Primary School

Estd.-1978

The Sister Magda Primary School was founded in August 1978. Mr. Wim Scheerder was the founding principal.  The school was named after Sister Magda, a Dominican nun who spends 9 years of her life teaching in the Windward Islands.

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St. Dominic Primary School

Estd.-1987

Taking the interest of the future of St. Maarten into consideration, Mr. Voges, superintendent of the Foundation of Catholic Education, proposed to establish a new school with English as the language of instruction in all groups of the school. This was accepted by the School board in their meeting of June 1987.

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St. Dominic High School

1994

The school was a vision of the Foundation for Catholic Education and St. Dominic Primary School parents, to provide faith-based secondary education where the language of instruction was English.

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School Coordinator

Mr. Delroy Pierre

The Sister Marie Laurence School was founded in 1988. Six groups of the St. Joseph school were designated as the new Sister Marie Laurence Primary School, named after the reverend sister who served Catholic Education on Sint Maarten for so many years.

School History

The Sister Marie Laurence School was founded in 1988. Six groups of the St. Joseph school were designated as the new Sister Marie Laurence School, named after the reverend sister who served Catholic Education on Sint Maarten for so many years. At first, the school shared the premises of the St. Joseph school, but after a six years the long awaited new school in Middle Region was ready. The construction of a school in the Middle Region area was not an easy feat. School and School Board went through some tough times due to the fact there was no land available to build on. Finally, we were so far and found the family of Mr. Vacquelin Conner (former Island Secretary) willing to lease the School Board a piece of land on the Middle Region Road to build the school on. We honored the wish of the family and named the primary school after Sister Marie Laurence and named the kindergarten school after one of our local nuns namely Sister Modeste Conner.

On the 23rd of February 1994 the school moved from the old building in Front street to the new building in Middle Region. With the completion of the multi purpose playground next to the school the Sister Marie Laurence School stretched out her arms to her neighbors. The school gave back a ball field to the youth years ago. Many people came together to make this dream a reality. Special mention went out to the Juliana Welzijn Fonds for their financial contribution and Mr. Henri Brookson for realization of this project. In 1998 Mr. Henri Brookson together with his team started the implementation of a new concept ‘Experiential Education’. The team took a week out from their busy working schedule and was off to Holland for training in this new concept. Teachers as well as students were very excited about the new concept. As the group returned Mr. Brookson was called top the office of minister plenipotentiary in the Netherlands.

For two years Mrs. Duana Richardson lead the school, followed by Mrs. Lilia Aventurin-Hodge and Mrs. Vivian Roberts. At present Mrs. Karen Wattley is leading our school, which not only houses the regular 8 FBE groups, but also caters to the needs of the community school and the IE program.

Announcements

28 Nov 2023

Registration Compulsory Education for Catholic Schools 2024/2025

Dear All,

Registration date Compulsory Education for children (Catholic and non-Catholic) that will be 4 years old before October 1, 2024: On-line registration- January 8 to January 31, 2024 (Monday-Friday) Website: www.skos-sxm.org

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