
Posted June 01, 2019 06:10:56When 16-year-old Aiden Loughley took his first class at St Mary’s School in Ballymun, his classmates thought he would never go to university.
But, when his teacher, Mary Maclean, discovered he was keen to learn about history, she invited him on a trip to London to learn more about it.
The family who runs the school, called Moma, say their story has been told around the world.
They are working to raise funds for the Moma Institute of History, which is providing the funds.
“This is a story that needs to be told and told in a way that is accessible to the wider community,” Ms Maclean said.
“It is a good story that we all need to know, and it is a wonderful story that is worth telling.”
In 2015, the Loughleys, from Coorparoo, were living in rural NSW, with a one-bedroom flat in an old caravan park in the town of Coorperoo.
They started a school in 2016 and, by 2017, it had a capacity of just 25 students.
“We were in a small area, which was the worst place to start a school,” Mary Maclay said.
The school had no teachers, but Mary MacLean decided to open it up as an independent school and she found a new way to keep them involved.
“There was an amazing teacher that came on board, that was just amazing.
He was just so good,” she said.
When she began teaching, she had a dream.
“I told the students that if I can do this, I can be a teacher too.
I said, ‘I think I can.'”
When I said that, they were like, ‘OK, we’ll get to it’.
“The family opened Moma in 2019 and, as the school grew, its enrolment grew.”
The idea was to bring a different culture to our community,” Moma principal, Sarah Maclean says.”
To be able to see how much more we are in this world, how much better our kids are.
We wanted to give them a real world experience.
“The school has been in the public eye since the start of the school year and has been featured on television.”
Our biggest priority is our students,” Ms McLean said.
Topics:schools,education,history,coorperongland-2525,nsw,southport-2480,southsea-2479,southcastle-2300,wilmington-2307,welmuiden-2350,york-2800,ballymun-2520Contact Karen O’BrienMore stories from Northern Territory”
The main thing is, to teach them about history.”
Topics:schools,education,history,coorperongland-2525,nsw,southport-2480,southsea-2479,southcastle-2300,wilmington-2307,welmuiden-2350,york-2800,ballymun-2520Contact Karen O’BrienMore stories from Northern Territory