Dear McAuley Families

Welcome back to 2023.  I trust that all enjoyed a safe, relaxing, and enjoyable holiday break.  For my family we experienced the loss of my sister just after Christmas.  She had endured a long illness so her quite sudden passing was in some ways a relief and in many others terribly sad for us.  Of course, our staff and community provided us with great support and many prayers.  Thank you all.

On Wednesday we made history as we opened as a K – 12 school (“College”).  Our first cohort of Year 11 began eagerly, receiving their laptops and timetables.  They headed to Canberra yesterday for a 3-day camp with students from St Anne’s, Temora to learn about HSC, Virtual Learning and to get to know one another a little better. Our Year 1 – 10 classes returned very excitedly as did a number of new staff and enrolments.

We are at record numbers, and yesterday after our Kindergarten class began, we have around 387 students in K – 11.  We began with 23 Kindergarten students, 57 Year 7, 23 Year 11 and somewhere close to 60 new enrolments across all other year levels.

This is a direct result of two things… one being the outstanding reputation our school has in terms of academic and pastoral care and, secondly, the opportunity and choice we now offer families for their children to remain with us for Senior Secondary Schooling.  These are indeed historic and exciting times!

I know already our new students and families are feeling welcome and experiencing the care and authentic support our school is so well known for. Thank you all for being such positive ambassadors of our school and promoting its many positives to people in our local area.

Elsewhere in this Newsletter you will get to know some of our new staff and their areas of teaching and subjects.  With the relaxation of many COVID restrictions we look forward to throwing the doors open to our families and making you feel welcome in our classrooms and at our events as we work together to create fine young people of the future.

As you will be aware there have been changes to many of our administration and finance systems.  Please bear with us as we work to set up and communicate these changes to you.  Catholic Education are working hard to support us in the many modifications that have taken place in timetabling, fees, communications and so on.

I ask that you keep Maree Stewart’s mum in your prayers as she encounters a significant health crisis.  Maree is so well loved by all in our community and, I know, is grateful for the care and support she receives.

Please ensure at home that you are supporting your sons and daughter’s learning by establishing routines of revision, study, rest, relaxation, and screen free time.  Routine helps provide comfort and assurance to our young people.  Get to know their timetables so they can feel organized and prepared for the day and focus on positive events as you debrief in the evening. Relationships are at the core of all we do so please take the time to get to know your children’s teachers.  Seek from your children what it is they like about that person and admire and work with that as the year progresses.

“Raising Children” encourage the importance of strong families.  They promote these key characteristics of a “strong” family:

• Warmth, care, and positive attention
• Good communication
• A predictable family environment
• Connections to people outside the family (Ref: raisingchildren.net.au)

I look forward to re-connecting with our McAuley families as the 2023 school year gets quickly underway.

Mary our Mother, look after us.

Eamonn Moore

Principal