McAuley Catholic College Tumut eNewsletter

Dear McAuley Families

This will be my last communication for this year as I head off on my Churchill Fellowship to New Zealand and the USA. Claudia and I are very much looking forward to learning about best practice in Virtual Learning from leading education providers. It is even more exciting to be able to bring back a vision to support the future of education for our students.

As I wind up for 2024 and hand over there are a few items I need to clarify:

For the period 18 November to 23 December David Turnbull will be Acting Principal of the College. David has all the financial, compliance, governance & legal delegations for his time in this role. Thanks to Anita Mason who has accepted the role of Acting Assistant Principal (Secondary) for this time.
The position of Acting REC will be announced as it is finalised.
We have recruited and settled on a College Leadership Structure for 2025. In line with 2024 CECG Staffing Guidelines we have been able to confirm the following roles and allocations. Thank you to our staff who have made themselves available for these positions of support and leadership. Our aim is to provide solid student support through academic and pastoral care, which is best practice and compliant with current methodologies.

Position 2025	Staff Member
Principal	Eamonn Moore
Religious Education Coordinator K -12	Anita Mason
Assistant Principal Secondary	David Turnbull
Assistant Principal Primary	Mark Harmer
Inclusive Learning Coordinator K-12	Libby Black
Curriculum Coordinator Primary	Liz Place
Learning & Teaching Coordinator 7 -12	Anthea Kinny
Curriculum Coordinator Stage 4	Jeanette Dumbrell
Curriculum Coordinator Stage 5	Jo Dougherty
Curriculum Coordinator Stage 6	Sarah Lu
Pastoral Coordinator Years 7, 8, 9	Robyn Ryan
Pastoral Coordinator Years 10, 11, 12	Kirsty Roche

We continue to advertise and recruit for teaching staff for next year with some new people coming on board – which is great news. As you are aware staffing in this climate is very challenging, but the college’s reputation is such that people are seeking us out to come and work here with our great team. Recruitment and staffing is likely to continue into the new year.

Can I take this chance to wish you all well for the rest of this year. We have had another massive year in terms of change and growth. Our college continues to be an educational leader in our area and a place that is safe and happy for our students and staff.

On Thursday evening we celebrated the ‘last of our firsts’ as we celebrated the graduating class of 2024 at their formal event. This was the last gathering for our Year 12 students and a chance to wish them well as they forge a life beyond the College. They have set a high standard for our future college leaders, and I was proud to wish them every happiness in life.

I know that our community will be supportive of David and Anita in the coming weeks. I thank them for their leadership and care of our wonderful college. See you in 2025!

Mary our mother look after us.

Eamonn Moore

Principal

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There have been confirmed cases of Whooping Cough on both campuses.

Whooping cough is an illness that usually starts like a cold. It spreads very easily between people. It can cause a bad cough which gets worse and may last for many weeks.

While anyone can get whooping cough, newborns and babies are most at risk of getting very sick. Whooping cough caught at school or childcare can be spread to family members at home.

People with whooping cough can infect others for up to 3 weeks. Early treatment with antibiotics can reduce how long it can be spread to others.

Vaccinated children can still get sick, although their illness may be less severe.

What you can do

If your child has whooping cough:

let your school or childcare centre know
keep your child home for 5 days after they start antibiotics, or 21 days after their cough starts
keep your child away from babies and pregnant women. Whooping cough can make babies very sick.

Please read the fact sheet from NSW Health attached.

whooping_cough_pertussis.pdf

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A book of 20 tickets will be sent home with the youngest in the family on Monday. Sold and unsold tickets to be returned to school by Friday 13 December.

Tickets can also be purchased at our stall outside of Tumut Coles on Saturday 23 November and Saturday 7 December.

McAuley leaders Eadie and Fletcher McKay honourably represented our college community at the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Richmond Park War Memorial Cenotaph on Monday. Students laid a wreath in respectful remembrance for those who sacrificed and those who serve for our peace and freedom.

Orientation number 3 for our 2025 Kinder students was another fun and busy day. We read 'A Squash and a Squeeze' and did some farm animal story writing. We had fun counting and making shape crowns and then, finally, we met our buddies. Thanks for a great 3 days families, we look forward to having you join our community properly next year.

Whilst our 2025 Kinder class was busy meeting their new buddies, our 2024 Kinder class had some of their own buddy time with Year 6 students. They read a book 'Wombat Goes to School' and 'Diary of a Wombat' and then made their own wombats. They had the best fun.

The McAuley boys basketball team competed at the Basketball NSW School Tournament in Wagga last week.

Their first game was a nail biter against Wagga Wagga Christian College, but the boys played amazingly and came through with a win, 35-33! Next up another win against Mater Dei, 25-6 taking them through to the final against Tumut Public School.

Both teams played some amazing basketball! McAuley went down to Tumut Public 31-15 and came second overall. They should be very proud of their effort and sportsmanship and the way they represented our College. A very special thank you to Jed Masters for coaching the boys and joining them in Wagga.

Our Primary girls went to Wagga last week to compete at the All Schools Primary competition. Their first game was a loss to West Wyalong and the second was a win against Anglican College. The third game was another win against Mater Dai which saw them move into the playoff for third place against Holy Spirit Lavington. They won and finished the day third overall. Well done team, we're so proud of you!

The Years 7/8 girls team travelled to Bankstown to compete at the NSWCCC Basketball Championships early last week. The girls gave it everything they had over the two day event to become runners up to winners St Mary's Star of the Sea, Wollongong. The girls played some very physical and skilful games and we could not be any prouder of them. They represented our College, our Diocese and our town with great determination, pride, and respect.

Huge thank you to Gina Roddy and Stephanie James for coaching the girls over the two days and Nakia Morris and Anna Stubbs for supervising and organising everything. A big thanks to the parents for supporting the team and transporting their daughters. What a great little community we are lucky to be part of. All winners in our eyes!

Year 7.2 Food Technology class getting into the Christmas spirit by putting a cool spin on the traditional gingerbread man!

On Wednesday, Kindergarten and Year 5/6 Blue went to visit our Blakeney Lodge friends and family and share some of our school work. It was great to see some familiar and new faces and also some special family members. We love visiting, thanks for having us Blakeney Lodge.

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It's National Recycling Week! Please see the flyer put together by our Community Council for how you can recycle AND help the McAuley Community at the same time.

Recycling_week_Return_Earn_Compass_Nov_24.pdf

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Primary students had an amazing time at the SRC disco a few weeks ago - well done to all involved on such a successful evening.

Last Monday, our Year 5/6 classes were fortunate to have a visit from Snowy Valleys School staff with their specially trained therapy dog, Yindi.

They have been learning about therapy dogs as part of their Literacy Unit. They have been reading the novel 'Can You See Me' by Libby Scott & Rebecca Westcott which has a therapy dog in the story and have also been researching information about therapy dogs in their persuasive writing.

This was a great opportunity for our students to connect their learning with Yindi and her role at Snowy Valleys School and be able to ask any question that may further their understanding of therapy dogs.

Year 2 have been learning about prepositions and noun groups in our recent Grammar lessons. This week, we wrote procedures for making biscuit faces. We used prepositions and noun groups for our instructions, such as:

Stick the nose BENEATH the eyes

Place the ears BESIDE the nose

Place the mouth UNDER the nose.

Then we put them IN our mouths and ate them for recess!

Year 7 LOTE students have been learning about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) as part of their Spanish classes. The multi-day festivities involve family and friends gathering to pay respects and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebrations are a blend of Mexican and Spanish Catholic cultures. The tradition of Catrina makeup is a vibrant celebration of life, as it adorns the living during the Día de los Muertos festivities. It signifies that life and death are interconnected, and the departed should be celebrated rather than mourned.