Extracurricular

Band

Students in grades 4 through 8 have the opportunity to join St. Mary’s Band. Weekly classes are held for all members during school hours. In addition to class, the Advanced Band meets once a week after school. The band performs at four concerts a year — two during school and two during the evening. For more information on joining our school band, click on www.adwband.com.

For the past few years, our band has received the highest possible rating, a Superior, at the annual Archdiocesan Music Festival and King’s Dominion’s Festival of Music.

Choir

St. Mary’s Children’s Choir is open to all students from 3rd through 8th Grade. The choir sings at Friday Masses and other special events. Practices are held before school on Fridays. This program is on hold, until further notice.

Most recently, in conjunction with the handbell choir, they were invited to perform at the National Christmas Tree in Washington DC and at the Kris Kringle Christmas Market at the Charles County Fairgrounds.

Destination Imagination

Destination Imagination has teams of up to 7 students at each level. The youngest group is K-2nd grade. This is called the Rising Stars program. The next levels are the elementary level (3-5) and the middle school level (6-8). Rising Stars are a noncompetitive team and are given a specific challenge to work on and present a skit with their solution to the problem. The elementary and middle school levels select from a variety of challenges and present their solutions at the regional competition in the spring. They are eligible for competing in the state tournament and the global finals. Challenges range from showcasing artistic talents, storytelling, and improvisation to building, design, and even community service. Students might be asked to create a device that can perform a specific function, design a structure, or even figure out a way to use music in community service. During competition students will also use team work to face an instant challenge. All of the DI challenges are designed to develop creative problem solving skills. More information about Destination Imagination can be found at www.idodi.org. This program is on hold until further notice.

In years past, our team placed in the state competition and competed in the global competition in Nashville, Tennessee.

Drama

Each year, for the last 25 years, students perform a drama production. Student directors work with Mrs. Garner and Mr. Hayes, the drama sponsor, to present performances that are always sold out. Posters hang in the school of past productions. Most recent productions include:

• The Sound of Music
• Annie
• The Wizard of Oz
• Sister Act 2
• Peter Pan
• Madagascar
• The Lion King
• School House Rock
• This year they will perform “The Little Mermaid”

Handbells

St. Mary’s has several different handbell choirs. The choirs practice both during and after school hours and perform at church liturgies and school concerts. This program is on hold until further notice.

Most recently, the handbell choir was invited to perform at the Asbury in Solomons, National Christmas Tree, and the Kris Kringle Christmas Market at the Charles County Fairgrounds.

In past years, they also performed for the Middle States Commission, the Home and School Association, Bishop McNamara High School and at local nursing homes. They were also invited to perform at Lessons and Carols, a concert that included 20 church musical ensembles in the region.

St. Mary’s is a member of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers.

National Junior Honor Society

The St. Mary’s Bryantown chapter of the National Junior Honor Society was started in 2012 when 24 middle school students were inducted as charter members of the chapter on February 3, 2012. Students must meet the cumulative GPA of at least a 3.88 and maintain academic, character, service, and leadership requirements to be accepted into the NJHS.

National Junior Honor Society By-Laws

Student Government

The Student Government Association serves as an advisory body to the school principal. They also plan service and school projects through the year in which all students can participate.

The association is made up of middle school student officers and first through grade eight class representatives.

Stem and SeaPerch

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program is a partnership between the school and the Department of Defense, Indian Head Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center. Government engineers from the center come to the school on a weekly basis and work with the 5th and 8th grade students during their science classes.  In past years, our students received 18 trophies for their accomplishments in STEM.

SeaPerch is an innovative underwater robotics program that equips teachers and students with the resources they need to build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). Students learn engineering concepts, problem solving, teamwork, and technical applications as part of a science and engineering technology curriculum in preparation for the county SeaPerch competition held in the early Spring. The Government engineers come after school on a weekly basis to work with interested Middle School students. For more information, click on www.seaperch.org. Our team placed 1st in the 2013 competition and made it to the National competition in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 2014, two teams placed in the local level and competed in the National competition in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.  In 2015, three teams placed first in the local level and competed in the National competition in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.  In 2016 one team placed second in the local level and competed in the National competition in Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  In 2017, one team placed 1st in the Poster competition and 2nd in the Obstacle Course and competed at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia for the National Competition.  In 2018, one team placed 1st Place in the Obstacle Course and 2nd Place for the Notebook.  They competed at the National Competition at the University of Maryland. This program is on hold until further notice.

Recently, our 2nd and 3rd Grade teachers won a grant from the Archdiocese of Washington’s new Teacher Initiative Grant program, they put the hands-on, Chesapeake Bay-centered experiments into action.  See the article in the Catholic Standard.

Ignite – Middle School Youth Group

Click for information on our Middle School Youth Group.  Contact Karen Krechman for more information or to join the group.