Dear McAuley Families

I very often hear positive comments about our students… we always have good comments after excursions and visits… I often remind our boys and girls about the words of our college Prayer “…please help all of us at McAuley to show care and concern for one another…”

Maggie Dent wrote in July about the importance of raising caring humans in an “uncaring” world. Her evidence and concerns are that globalisation is making our kids and teens a “me” society. The digital world can be a very individual one and can easily make us feel physically disconnected whilst we are connected in a digital world.

We are a “social species” and work together for the common good. As we continue to strengthen and enhance our college culture, we must embed our narrative of “care and concern for others” – this is our foundation.

Jonathonn Haidt writes in “The Anxious Generation” about the algorithms that draw our teen (and pre-teen) social media users into paths of body image, perceived beauty, misogyny and unethical behaviour. The algorithm provides this content over and over thus reinforcing those views and opinions until they become trapped, and this becomes their mind set. He also writes about how family arguments used to be about rules and now are almost solely about technology use.

Enrolling your children at the College infers a match in expectation and an alignment of ideologies. As families we can be assured that our staff are living and working to create people, we can be proud of (and vice-versa!).

Maggie Dent implores parents to build people who are ‘we’ people – kind, compassionate, resilient, and respectful.

She recommends we:

1. Work to protect our children from the harm of social media.
2. Educate yourself and your kids about being safe on-line.
3. Work on respectful, compassionate communication.
4. Model empathy in our homes.
5. Prioritise play and the creative arts.
6. Be kind and generous – and expect the same of your kids.

Aligning our school and family cultures plays directly into the notion of a “village”
raising our children and creating a school, a town, a society that are ‘we’ people who
have the best interests of others at heart and in their daily interactions.

Mary our mother look after us.

Eamonn Moore

Principal