McAuley Catholic College Tumut eNewsletter

Dear McAuley Families

As we listen to the endless coverage about the death of the Queen I am reminded we are going through yet another “moment in history”. We certainly have had our fair share over the last 3 years!

I reflect on the Queen as a leader, who remained humble and focused on relationships – meeting each person where they are at. She certainly showed skill at adapting to change and must have experienced so much change in her 70 years as Queen. She also demonstrated strong commitment to training and mentoring those around her. King Charles has endured a remarkably long apprenticeship! She was a person of faith also who relied on that as her foundation, during both the times of joy and sadness in her life.

We can learn much from Queen Elizabeth in terms of being a collaborator. A leader who knows they don’t have all the answers but seeks information and uses that to make a well informed and balanced decision.

Aside from that she showed a motherly care and concern, using her sense of humor and fun to make people feel welcome and at ease. The Queen’s example provides us with much to learn from as we reflect on a long and very public life of leadership.

As next Thursday (22 September) has been proclaimed a National Public Holiday, McAuley will be closed for all classes, staff and students. We will return on Friday 23 September for the last day of term.

Please note change of date for Term 3 Awards Ceremony which will now be held on Friday 14 October @ 2.00pm. (Week 1, Term 4).

I am happy to announce the following round of staffing appointments:

Welcome to Patricia Marsh who has been successful in replacing Libby McGruer as Primary Receptionist. Trish will now work full time in the Primary Office. Already a familiar face and phone voice, we are pleased to have Trish’s long experience and skills to support our students and families.
Following Wendy Hill’s decision to retire after her leave this year, we advertised for the position of Learning Support Teacher. A panel consisting of Stephen Barnard (Senior Officer Disability Wellbeing & Inclusion), Natalie Bartlett (Community Council Chair) and Christine Baron (Principal, St Patrick’s Gundagai) conducted interviews last week and appointed Libby Black to the role from 2023. Libby has been acting in this role with Jo Dougherty to cover Wendy’s leave this year. As part of our planning for 2023 we will further allocate learning support loads in Primary and Secondary.
Sarah Lu has been successful in gaining an English teaching position in Stage 6. Sarah comes to us with a wealth of Year 11 and 12 experience in teaching and leadership. She has been an HSC & NAPLAN marker so brings outstanding knowledge and skills to us. Sarah will join us in Term 4 for planning and assistance with Stage 6.
Graham Brown will join the staff from THS as a Stage 6 teacher also. Graham is an experienced, dedicated and student focussed teacher who also brings a highly impressive skillset to our staff.
We welcome back Mrs Greacen to Secondary classes next term following her leave and thank Mr David Edwards for his excellent work in Geography, Art and Hospitality this term as he covered for Julie.

As advised, we have extended the closing date for the other advertised Primary & Secondary jobs that will be offered next year. There will be some permanent positions offered which I know are very attractive to those considering joining us at McAuley. Please refer to the Catholic Education, Canberra website for details and applications.

National Day of Mourning:

As mentioned, our last day for Term 3 will be next Friday 23 September. Classes will return on Monday 10 October (Week 1 Term 4).

Some important end of year event dates are below for your planning:

Event	Date
Year 10 Tasmania Excursion	21-26 November
Year 5/6 Jindabyne Excursion	23-25 November
Year 10 Graduation Mass & Dinner	08 December
End of Year Awards Ceremony	13 December
Last Day for Students K-9 2022	15 December (Thursday)
Staff Professional Learning Day	16 December

Mary our Mother… Look after us.

Eamonn Moore

Principal

The Way to Mercy

The Way of Mercy is four simple steps to heal a relationship based on the principals of restorative justice. When we say or do things that we shouldn’t we hurt someone or break the trust of another, it’s important to take ownership of our actions, or inactions, apologise for it and rebuild the relationship.

Making an Apology

Step 1… Sorrow: I am sorry for-

Step 2... Empathy: It was wrong because…

Step 3… Promise: in the future I will…

Step 4… Mercy: Please forgive me.

Why do we bless ourselves with holy water when we enter the church?

From the earliest days of Christianity, water was used in baptismal rituals as a symbol of life and cleansing. Today, when Catholics dip their fingers into the little bowl of holy water, which is called a font or stoup, at the church foyer and make the sign of the cross, they do so as a reminder of their baptism.

STUDENT OF THE WEEK

MJR AWARDS

BRONZE AWARDS

SILVER AWARDS

McAuley Fire Cadets at the SES and Rural Fire Cadets shed, learning about fire extinguishers.

Last Wednesday on the 14th of September, all Year 6 students participated in fun activities to learn how to be peer support leaders:

We learnt about empathy and how to be assertive when teaching younger kids,
We played fun games to teach about teamwork and problem solving,
To work on our teamwork, we were given newspaper and masking tape and had to create a pirate costume,
We practised a session of peer support to learn how to be a leader,
We had a quiz on how to be a good peer support leader.

Overall, it was a great day and we learnt lots of helpful new skills.

-Sophie Webb and Paige Kelly (Year 6)

Proudly supporting their team colours!

And raising a total of $288.20 towards the installation of our new refrigerated bubblers. Thank you to all who donated.

Pyjama antics from Kinder, on our R U OK? Pyjama Day held last Thursday.

On Friday the 2^nd of September the 3/4 classes joined together to have a 'Convict Day'. Stage 2 have been learning all about The First Fleet, the convicts who came to New South Wales and the Aboriginal people who were affected by colonisation.

For our Convict Day, kids came dressed as convicts, free settlers and sailors.

We experienced life like the native Australians, throwing boomerangs and painting with ochre.

We had a taste of what the convicts might have eaten, making and cooking our own damper in a fire and trialling salted beef.

We did bush dancing, wrote poetry, made our own love tokens and played games that the early settlers would have played.

We built our own convict ships and looked at how big the convict ships would have been. We sang songs and had an awesome time.

Some quotes from 3/4LB

"The convict day was the best! We played, we cooked, we ate what we cooked. I think it was one of the best days so far!" - Lincoln Salmon

"I really liked building the boats and the boomerangs." - Isaac Clay

"Convict day was the best day ever, it was fun!" - Taylah McCormick

"I loved Convict Day. It was so fun making damper and playing games." - Lara Farquharson

"I enjoyed that we got golden syrup with our dampers." - Isabella Oliver

"Convict day was awesome because we dressed like convicts, made damper and did heaps of other things." - Rhys Laney

"Convict day was awesome because we got to act like a convict." - Logan Davies

"The First Fleet and convict day was the best. We did all kinds of fun stuff. I wish we could do it everyday." - Jimmy O'Connell

Students at McAuley Primary campus acknowledged Electricity Safety week. Electricity Safety week 2022 is on 5-9 September across registered primary schools within the Essential Energy network footprint.

Electricity Safety Week raises awareness of the hazards associated with electricity and teaches students how to be safe around electricity. Some resources, provided to us by Essential Energy, were developed in collaboration with the Department of Education to meet the Science and Technology and PDHPE curriculum requirements for years K - 6. The resources included an Electricity and Safety Unit Lesson Book for Stage 3 with STEM design challenge, Electricity Safety Lesson Book for K-6 and four interactive whiteboard lessons featuring activities, videos and teachers’ notes that engaged students in learning about electricity and how to be safe around it.

Many students in Years 1 and 2 enjoyed the opportunity to participate in a colouring in competition and students in Years 3 and 4 created a poster for the poster competition. We have sent all our entries away and wait anxiously for news! Thank you to Mrs Schirmer and Mrs Black for the great Science lessons.

Year 1 designed and built their own castles! They then spent time writing about their castles and sharing their stories. There were haunted castles, fairy tale castles and castles filled with gold and jewels.

Henty Field Days, Tuesday 20/09/22 - Consent and payment due by Friday 16/09/22
Women's World Cup Basketball, Friday 23/09/22
Year 9/10 History, Tuesday 18/10/22 - Consent and payment due by Friday 14/10/22
Cinderella Musical, Wednesday 26/10/22 - Consent and payment due by Monday 26/09/22
Tasmania Excursion, Monday 21/11/22 to Saturday 26/11/22 - Full payment due by Friday 28/10/22
Year 5/6 Jindabyne, Wednesday 23/11/22 to Friday 25/11/22 - Full payment due by Friday 28/10/22