McAuley Catholic College Tumut eNewsletter

Dear McAuley Families

The days continue to be busy as we reach the beginning of Autumn.

Our students have settled in well and have been working hard in their classes. Our teachers have been delivering engaging and challenging lessons, and we are pleased to see our students responding positively to these efforts.

We would like to remind you of the importance of regular attendance and punctuality. Consistent attendance ensures that our students do not miss valuable learning opportunities and helps them build a strong foundation for future success. It is important that students are in class, on time and well organised to fully participate in all lessons.

We also want to remind you of our commitment to creating a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students. We encourage you to speak to your child about the importance of respect, kindness, and empathy towards others. With a large number of new students joining us this year we know that they are quickly understanding and embracing our McAuley values and feeling safe and comfortable at our school.

At last week’s Community Council meeting the revisions to uniform were approved. Families will soon receive a graphic making clear our uniform expectations including jewellery, makeup and shoes. It is important that families support these guidelines. Classroom and PC teachers will issue uniform warnings and three warnings will trigger a letter and consequence in our Compass system.

We have worked for a number of years to develop a uniform that is comfortable and affordable and expect that our students are correctly dressed and safe to participate in all lessons and activities.

Finally, I would like to thank our dedicated staff for their hard work and commitment to providing a high-quality education for our students. We are fortunate to have such a talented and caring team at our school who, as you are aware are assisting our students achieve very high-level results.

It was thrilling to see us rank 3rd in the Riverina for our Yr. 5, 2022 NAPLAN results and 11^th for our Year 9 results. This ranked McAuley 313 in NSW Secondary Schools and 410 in Primary Schools (from a sample of 1868 schools). Fantastic news! and an awesome reflection on the great work being done in literacy and numeracy in our school.

A special welcome this week to Alicia Baldry who will share 1P with Ms Place this year.

I trust that the Primary Goal Setting Meetings and Secondary Open Evening will provide a good start to open conversations between families and teachers this year.

After the years of COVID restrictions we are keen to open the doors and welcome parents back to the partnership we so value in the education of your children.

Mary Our Mother Look After Us.

Eamonn Moore

Principal

Last Sunday was the First Sunday of Lent. The Gospel for Sunday was a reading from the holy Gospel of Matthew(Mt 4:1-11) and it is about Jesus fasted for forty days and nights and was tempted.

I would like to share with you a part of a Reflection of the Gospel from Greg Sunter, who has worked in Catholic Education in Brisbane for many years, most recently as a member of the Religious Education team and Mission and Formation team.

Gospel Reflection

Sin and temptation are the dominant themes for this first week of Lent. Indeed, they are regular themes in the season of Lent. However, the scripture passages throughout this season allow us the opportunity to think again about these themes and perhaps reconsider some traditional understandings of them.

In the Gospel, the temptation that faces Jesus relates to his purpose and ministry – will he trust to God’s vision of the suffering servant who will bring about a change of heart in the people, or will he be the sort of Messiah that the people hoped for: a triumphant, glorious victor over all who stood in his way. He is tempted to break his self-imposed fasting, to test God’s promise of nurture and security, and to seek glory and personal power. The temptations of Jesus are all about trusting God.

The Greek word translated as ‘sin’ in the New Testament literally means ‘miss the mark’. Its origin may lie in archery where the object was always to hit the mark; to miss the mark was to not achieve at one’s best. Jesus set about trying to redefine the Jewish notion of sin from being a transgression against God that deserves punishment to the more compassionate idea that sin is a wandering off course that can be rectified – a missing of the mark. When he encountered someone who was missing the mark, Jesus called them back into right relationship.

Lent is a season of invitation. It is an invitation to step into the desert with Jesus; to confront our own purpose and ministry and to renew our trust in God’s vision for the world and for us individually. Seen in this light, Lent is so much more than fasting from meat and giving up ice cream for a few weeks. The whole idea of fasting and sacrifice is an attempt to simplify our lives. Through simplifying our life and removing some of the daily distractions, we can share in the desert experience of Jesus and then truly celebrate the hope reborn in the Easter season.

I hope you found something valuable in this reflection on the Gospel.

Let us pray…

pray that during this time of Lent

we will try to turn our hearts in love and kindness

to you, by doing good to those around us, so that

we may become more like Jesus, your Son.

We make our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Lenten action

Choose a way to empty yourself this week.

Lighten your wallet with charity.

Listen instead of talking.

Give your attention rather than seeking it.

Be humble when you would normally be proud.

Did you know?

Why Amen?

The word ‘amen’ was often spoken by Jesus and means ’so be it’. When we say ’Amen’ at the end of a prayer, it is as if we say: I agree, this is true.

Anita Mason

Religious Education Coordinator.

As our Year 4 students prepare for this blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion it is a wonderful opportunity for us to reflect on the true meaning of this Sacrament.

For Catholics, the Sacrament of the Eucharist is a sacred meal where we break bread and share the one cup. It is the principal sign of our unity with and in Christ. It has been described as the ‘source and summit’ of the Church’s life. When we receive the sacrament we believe we receive Jesus in an extraordinarily intimate way: we take him into our very beings; he wishes to be in communion with us.

Please keep our Year 4 students in your prayers as they prepare to receive this beautiful Sacrament on 22^nd March.

Staff and Community Council have been in a collaborative process in order to update our uniform policy to comply with safety procedures.

Please see an overview of the uniform expectations below. We encourage all families to read our uniform policy through the link below.

Please click on the link below to see the Uniform Policy.

Uniform Policy 2023

STUDENT OF THE WEEK - WEEKS 4 AND 5

Resiliance Awards

Bronze Award

Swimming Champions & Runners Up

Our Week 4 radio presenters, Olivia and Ashton. Tune into 96.3FM Sounds of the Mountains every Wednesday morning at 9.30, to hear all the exciting things that are happening at McAuley.

Last Wednesday 1st March Primary teachers hosted a Goal Setting/Meet the teacher afternoon.

Parents got to visit the classroom, meet the teacher, read their child’s goal and the teacher goal and even write a goal they would like for their child. The children had some work to show their parents and parents had a chance look around the classroom.

Year 7 and 8 will be taking part in the DARE program. This program is a prevention-focussed mental health program developed to equip students with the behaviours, skills and strategies to be DARING, AUTHENTIC, RESILIENT and EMPOWERED. Students are challenged to build a greater sense of identity, foster healthier relationships and take positive action in the community. Participants will also leave with practical tools, strategies and resources to support mental wellbeing in the classroom, at home and in day-to-day life.

The program supports the social and emotional development of young people leads to better academic outcomes, improved physical health and a better quality of life. With half of all mental health conditions having started by age 14, it is critical to equip young people with the emotional literacy and help-seeking behaviours to develop a stronger sense of self, positive coping strategies and realise their potential. During the session students will explore:

1) Identity

2) Emotions and Mental Health

3) Healthy Friendships

4) Help Seeking and Wellbeing

The DARE program brings the St Vincent de Paul Society’s mission and vision to life, reflecting our values, beliefs and passion to provide people a ‘hand-up’ and empowering them to take control of their life.

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Resilience Project Parent & Community presentation will be held on Wednesday 15th March from 6:30pm - 8:00pm (90 minutes) AEDT.

What you can expect.
Martin will be delivering his flagship ‘Discovering Resilience’ presentation to your community. Through his high-energy humour and captivating storytelling, Martin will share simple, practical tips we can use everyday to improve our wellbeing.

Why a Parent & Carer presentation?
When building positive mental health in schools, we know the best impact happens when we work together.

The ‘Discovering Resilience’ presentation helps do just that by sharing those same evidence-based strategies being taught in the classroom, so they can be also practised at home and beyond. Attendees will also be reminded of the importance of their own wellbeing - we bring the best versions of ourselves to our family and community, when we make time to look after ourselves.

Parents and Carer will need to register for the webinar using the following link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tWLlDrq3QbmIOzKvO5-SpA
Upon registration, registrants will receive a link to attend the webinar, along with a reminder the day prior.

YEAR 3 AND 4 GYMNASTICS

Emmett Brown, Year 1PB wrote an amazing recount about the McAuley Swimming Carnival. A potential author.

"At the swimming carnival yesterday I swam in the medium pool. It was really, really fun. We also went in the splash pool. There were buckets that tip water on you. My team is Chisolm. They haven’t won any games yet, but I don’t care we will one day. There were so many activities. It was a hot and sunny day yesterday. I had the best swimming carnival day ever!"

By Emmett 17.2.23

Year 9 students first attempt at making a lemon curd Swiss roll,

and Year 9/10 Textile students creations, learning how to hand sew.

NOTE CHANGE OF TIME

Last Friday Joey Parry and Brad Beavan played with the Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese Basketball Team in Wollongong trialling for the MacKillop team. Both played extremely well and showed great skill and sportsmanship. Brad made the Possible and Probables but unfortunately didn't make it any further.

Congratulations to both boys.

We are delighted that in the past few weeks the students in classes 3-6 have started Spelling Mastery, a program we’ve invested in to improve spelling abilities at McAuley.

Spelling Mastery is a fully scripted Direct Instruction program that has an extensive research base and is teacher directed. The program helps students understand the relationship between sounds, word parts, and spelling patterns. Spelling Mastery encourages students to learn strategies to spell correctly rather than rely on memory alone.

There are three approaches within Spelling Mastery. Phonemic, whole-word, and morphemic.

Through the phonemic approach, students learn sound-symbol relationship between letters and sounds that help student spell using predictable patterns. For example, words like map, tap, fog, fan.

The whole word approach teaches students high frequency words and irregularly spelled words that do not follow a predictable pattern. Examples- ‘answer’ ‘the’ and ‘people’.

The morphographic approach teaches students that all words are made of one or more morphograph or word parts. They also learn rules that apply when combining morphographs to form words.

The students will learn to spell using all the above methods through lessons delivered in class. Please do not be concerned if word lists aren’t being sent home on a regular basis, as the focus of Spelling Mastery is for students to understand how to spell rather than spell ‘by heart’. We also recognise the need for practicing the skills learned in class, so when there are word lists sent home it would be mainly when added practice is called for.

Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher if you have any questions.

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A reminder that you must provide any updated medical action plans to McAuley Catholic Central School for your child/children. Please ensure that you have provided the most current copy. This also includes any changes to your child’s medical needs including Asthma and Anaphylaxis updates.

Please see attached the Medication Authorisation form to complete if your child/children require this medical option.

Please complete and return this form and any updated information as soon as possible to office.mcauley@cg.catholic.edu.au

https://cecg.sharepoint.com/sites/CECGPolicy/Lists/Policies/Attachments/244/Medication%20Authorisation.pdf

Bella O is swimming for sick kids in the month of February, she has already met her 10km target so she has now increased it to 20km.