Dear McAuley Families

We continue to operate very smoothly at Level 3 Restrictions and look joyfully at the chance to be able to reconnect with family and friends in other towns and states as guidelines allow.

The landscape is regularly changing and it is important that we keep abreast and well informed of the policies and procedures we need to follow. There are slight differences in following orders for schools, but rest assured I am working carefully to remain on track and keep us all correctly informed.

Mask wearing rules have changed a little in the last few days. 

• Masks must be worn indoors by all staff and students in Year 7 and above.
• Masks must be worn correctly covering nose and mouth.
• Teachers will enforce correct mask wearing in all classes and activities held indoors.
• Masks are strongly recommended for Primary students – but not enforced.

We continue to have the students separated in cohorts as best we can and encourage good hand hygiene and physical distancing where we need to.

Please continue to supply your child/ren with a drink bottle each day to avoid the need to use bubblers and taps.  It is still not possible to arrange excursions, assemblies or presentations.  We are negotiating an offsite event for our Year 10 Graduation in line with restrictions.  More detail will come as we are able to let you know.

Again I thank you all for the efforts you are making to keep our community safe.

Bronze Awards:  As we work to embed our Student Welfare Policy I have the joy of presenting Bronze and Silver Award Certificates to many of our students.  A Bronze Award indicates 10 Mercy Awards received.  These are our boys and girls who display Mercy Values to others through their kindness in action in word and deed.  It is great to see these students being recognised by their teachers and others in these awards. A huge aspect of our new policy is positive praise and works to build a harmonious and productive school culture.

World Teachers’ Day: Friday 29 October is World Teachers’ Day.  I take this opportunity to very gratefully thank our teaching and support staff for their mammoth efforts for our students. These last two years have been like no other in my experience and indeed in education history.  The way in which our teachers have worked to re-invent curriculum, lesson presentation, whilst showing care for mental health and support for our families, has been nothing short of inspiring.  It is sad that as a staff we are unable to gather. As a small gesture we had a coffee van visit this morning for a pick up to start the day.  Please encourage your sons and daughters to take a moment to recognise the efforts of their teachers and support staff.

Special thanks to our Community Council for their supportive message to staff this morning.  Many families have sent their best wishes to our staff.  Grateful thanks to the Proos family for the beautiful grazing box sent to Primary Staff today.

Building Project: Work will soon begin on the Secondary Campus on renovations to Rooms 1-4 and the Central Courtyard.  During December the Admin Building roof will be replaced also as part of the contribution of funds by Catholic Education.  This will mean a change of room allocations for our Secondary students but I know the inconvenience will be well worth it.

Compass App:  This term we have transitioned to using Compass for email and reminders in line with building our parent portal.  There are a number of families who have not yet installed the Compass app on their home devices.  When installing please be sure to search for “McAuley Catholic Central School – Tumut” so you are directed to the correct school.  This will be our main form of communication moving forward so please be sure to be up to date. Please get in touch if you need assistance.

Staffing/Enrolments 2022: I remind you that we have places available for enrolments in Kindergarten and Year 7, 2022.  There are also places available in other year levels.  Please highlight to local families the strong community and excellent results we work to provide here and encourage those seeking a quality Catholic Education to make an enquiry.

Details of Kinder and Year 7, 2022 Orientations will be sent home to prospective families shortly.

School Fee Remissions Term 4: If your family has been financially impacted by COVID 19 closure or loss of income there are fee remissions available.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need any further information or support.

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 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.

The famous Zig Ziglar once said "You can’t hit a target you cannot see, and you cannot hit a target you do not have.”

As teachers we ask our students to set themselves goals that they work towards throughout the year.  These goals create clarity, and with clarity comes a sense of urgency and action, and action ultimately produces results.

Good and loving relationships strengthen our communities.

Oscar Romero reminds us:

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.

Let us be encouraged that the good relationships we are building now in faith and life will shelter and nurture others.

Praying is Talking to God. 

Why Pray? 

Relationships thrive on good communication. To grow in love and friendship we need to communicate, not just openly but often! 

When we pray, we express our desire to grow closer to God. Through prayer we can praise, thank, ask, cry, argue and express many different emotions. We can sing, speak, listen, smile, embrace or just sit with God.  

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.

Dear Lord,

Lord, as we prepare for the coming of Advent make us ready, attentive and available to hear you.

Thank You for the gift of being able to rise each day with the assurance that You walk through it with us.

Thank You for the gifts of creativity and uniqueness, and the energy to put them to good use.

May all that we are today, all that we try to do today, may all our encounters, reflections, even the frustrations and failings all be place in your hands.

May the work we do and the way we do it, bring new hope, new life, and courage to all we come in contact with. 

We make this prayer through Christ Our Lord, Amen

“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.”
—St. Francis of Assisi

Are you looking for a way to “give back” this Christmas?

Christmas for many of us is a time of happiness and celebration as we gather with our family and friends sharing meals, laughing and chatting as we open presents, however for people experiencing poverty and disadvantage Christmas can be a challenging time.  Over the Christmas period the St Vincent de Paul Society in our area provides support through financial assistance, clothing, utilities, food hampers and gifts for children. The Vinnies Christmas Appeal encourages our community to rethink our priorities at Christmas time by helping to give joy and hope to those who need it most. We are seeking the support St Vincent de Paul in 2021 through the donation of gift items and/or non-perishable food items. 

During the week of Monday 15th-19th November, the students and staff of McAuley are invited to donate food and gifts to assist St Vinnies in the creation of quality hampers to bring joy for those in need during our Christmas period. Each classroom in our school will have a basket that the students can place their goodies in. If you donate wrapped gifts, please label with gender and age group.  

Anita Mason - Religious Education Coordinator

School fees were emailed out to families last week, if paying by the Term, fees are due 19/11/2021.

Thank you to the families who are keeping up to date with their regular fee payments.

If you do not pay your fees by Direct Debit, please pay online via BPAY or Qkr!

PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PAY VIA COMPASS.

Special thanks to our Community Council for their supportive message to staff this morning.  Many families have sent their best wishes to our staff.  Grateful thanks to the Proos family for the beautiful grazing box sent to Primary Staff today from Snowy Valleys Grazing.

This week students in K-6 were proud to display their creative talents in the newly refurbished Room 1 on The Primary Campus. 

Covid restrictions prevented us from our bi annual K-10 McAuley Art Show in our main Hall however students  on the Primary campus were thrilled to view and appreciate their peers artistic talents. Each class separately viewed and enjoyed the exhibition. Students displayed works form a range of mediums including, pencil, ink, watercolour and acrylic painting and sketches.  Students each selected their favourite art piece to exhibit and completed a self reflection and art appreciation activity whilst viewing the display.   

We also showcased our very own, amazingly talented student artist Harry Sanbrook as our exhibiting guest artist this year. Harry is currently a year 9 students at Mcauley and  has been a creative talent since Kindergarten.  Harry's art works displayed were of his intricate Australian bird series drawings including  exceptional detail in line, texture and colour. Students and teachers were highly impressed with his photo like representations of these birds. Harry also enjoys drawing cartoons and has also created logos . His Art work is currently the logo for " Gilmore Valley Garlic. "  Harry sells his artworks as framed prints or cards at local markets and is sure to continue creating and sharing his great artistic talents well into the future. 

Congratulations to all artists for showcasing your artistic talents to everyone. It certainly was inspiring to everyone to create and enjoy Visual Art.

This display will be electronically shared via our Mcauley Face book Page during week 5.

Liz Boxall and Stacey Crane K-6 Art Display coordinators  

McAuley have some very generous families and we were delighted when G & J Groves and A & S Groves purchased two new sets of sporting jerseys for our junior sporting teams. The Groves family have supported our school for decades and their latest purchase will allow all our students to stand out and represent our school with pride.  We can't wait for sporting competitions to resume! A huge thank you to the Groves family for their continued support of our school. 

Pictured are Geoff and Jean Groves' great grandchildren, proudly wearing the new jerseys. 

Anti-Poverty Week (APW) took place last week from 17 to 23 October. The aim of this week is supporting the Australian community to have an increased understanding of poverty and to take collective action to end it. 

The key message is: Poverty exists. Poverty hurts us all. We can all do something about it. 

Nevaeh and  Noah have been learning alot about those less fortunate this year and realising that they are very privileged and lucky to have all the things they need in life. It has made them very empathetic for those in need and wanting to do what they can to help.

Nevaeh and Noah gave all the money they had in their piggy banks to donate. 

To liven things up, on Tuesday 2nd November, staff and students are invited to come to school wearing race attire or come dressed as something associated with the Melbourne Cup to celebrate the famous race that stops the nation.  

 Students are asked to bring a gold coin donation. Proceeds will go to Australian Catholic Mission.

There is a lot of uniform and other items in lost property on the primary campus. Please label all uniform clearly so we can return to the rightful owner.