McAuley Catholic College Tumut eNewsletter

Dear McAuley Families

I came across this excellent article on anxiety. As always, Linda Stade has very practical advice for us as parents and teachers to support our children as they journey through life. She quotes Beyond Blue statistics as revealing that 34% of females and 23% of men will suffer from anxiety at some time. She also says that only 1 in 4 people will seek help for their anxiety.

Helpfully, she quotes the basics of a program called “Fear Less Triple P” which encourages us as parents to:

Understand anxiety by coaching our kids to know about it.
Set a good example by being aware of what you model (anxiety is a mirror I have been told).
Promote emotional resilience in our children by learning to accept and understand their feelings.
Encourage flexible and realistic thinking by avoiding catastrophising and rigid thinking.
Build exposure rather than avoidance by gradually confronting situations.
Manage anxiety by not getting angry, empathising and taking time to express worries.
Encourage constructive problem solving by working with your child instead of for.

Great advice for us all as we navigate this tricky path! For more please see https://www.inspiringgirls.info/post/help-kids-with-anxiety.

We continue to recruit for Secondary teachers in various areas of expertise and subjects. Please encourage anyone you know who is qualified and keen to join our outstanding team to apply via the Catholic Education Canberra website.

Enrolments are currently open for 2025. Due to high levels of demand, we are only looking at offering enrolment in Kindergarten 2025. Other year level applications will need to be placed on a wait list and places offered according to CECG priority levels as places possibly become available. Year 7, 2025 interviews are beginning soon. We have a high level of interest in Year 7 2025.

I had the privilege of facilitating our inaugural Year 12 Retreat at Jindabyne early this week. I must commend the group on their cooperation and thoughtful contributions. In particular, they are kind and caring of one another. I was so impressed by their efforts and look forward to this event being a really significant part of our college journey.

Mary our mother look after us.

Eamonn Moore

Principal

This term our Integrating Mercy Value is Human Dignity. Hugh van Cuylenburg, who is the founding director/facilitator of "The Resilience Project" is the role model for Term 2.

McAuley Catholic College's Year 12 retreat was designed as a significant milestone in the students' final year of schooling. Mr Moore, as College Principal facilitated the first Year 12 Retreat at McAuley.

The retreat served several important purposes. It was a celebration of the students' journey thus far and the milestones they've achieved. It was also a chance to acknowledge their hard work, growth, and contributions to the College community as the first Year 12 class at McAuley Catholic College Tumut.

The Year 12 retreat was an invaluable experience that supported the holistic development of our students.

We hope it was an enriching, and memorable experience for all participants.

Our RFS Volunteers assisted in another cultural burn today. Thank you for your service to our community.

Vape Education Poster - 3rd Place.

Congratulations to Alexander Torio (Xander) in Year 7 who was awarded third place in the Years 7 - 8 division.

Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) ran a poster competition to provide high school aged students with an opportunity to develop and promote e-cigarette (vape) prevention messages. All high school students living and attending a high school in the District were invited to submit a poster addressing the health effects of vaping use or ways for young people to get support in quitting.

This competition ran in Term 1, 2024 (closing on 12 April) and offered an opportunity for young people to make positive changes in their own lives and the voice to make an impact on their peers and school communities across MLHD.

Students needed to design an eye-catching and informative poster that highlights either:

The health impacts of vaping and/or
Ways to get support to become and stay vape free.

Congratulations to the secondary students who have received 10 Spirit of Mercy Awards and have received their Bronze Certificate.

Our SRC members taking suggestions from Year 2 students about what they would like to see at our school.

K- 6 students were very fortunate this week to attend the Tumut Town library.

Librarians, Wendy, Leteisha and Jane were very informative to show the students the many great facilities that the library can provide, not only limited to their vast selection of books, but also e books, Lego and chess clubs, holiday activities and more.

Students were also given a library pack containing membership application forms to the library and activities in support of Dolly's Dream promoting kindness. Students were also reminded that the library is a great place to hang out, it is safe, comfortable and informative.

Liz Place

Coordinator K-6 Library / Literacy Teacher

On Wednesday, Mrs Baldry took a very excited group of students from years 3 to 6 to participate in the NSW Primary Schools Chess competition. A great day was had by all with lots of interesting and at times, intense matches! Thanks to Tumut Public School for hosting the event.

Congratulations to the students who have completed their White Card training, also known as “Prepare to Work Safely in the Construction Industry” course. This is general construction induction training that is mandatory for individuals who are 14 years or older and working on a construction site.
Students who work on construction sites are required to have this for work experience. Once a person obtains their White Card, it remains current when they leave school.

Novel studies Year 3-6

This year students in classes years 3-6 are engaging with novel studies during their CE endorsed Literacy block English lessons.

Each term a new novel is introduced, read and “unpacked” for students, engaging students to read, respond to and to produce related text.

These instructional lessons develop reading fluency, vocabulary proficiency, spelling, grammar and writing skills.

This term the classes are reading texts with an indigenous perspective.

Year 3 “Yirra And Her Deadly Dog Demon" by A.Heiss Yirra and her Deadly Dog, Demon HarperCollins Australia

Year 4 “Uncle X Box” by J. Thomas https://magabala.com.au/products/uncle-xbox

“Waves" (refugee perspective)https://readingaustralia.com.au/books/waves/

Year 5/6 “Us Mob Wallawarru - Part 1" by L. Wilyuka and D. Spillman https://readingaustralia.com.au/books/us-mob-walawurru/

Use the links to learn what your child is reading about at school so you can discuss the book with your child also.

We are also seeking parents to assist with the covering of the many novels we now have. So if you are able to assist please let Liz Place know and the books and contact can be given to you.

Kinder students visited our wonderful friends and family at Blakeney Lodge. We shared our writing with them and a special prayer. We are so lucky to be able to visit and spend time at Blakeney- thanks for having us!

McAuley raised $506.75 for Dolly's Dream Foundation. Dolly’s Dream is committed to changing the culture of bullying by addressing the impact of bullying, anxiety, depression and youth suicide, through education and direct support to young people and families.

Students have thoroughly enjoyed looking at the many wonderful books to possibly purchase at the Book Fair.

These lucky students each received a voucher to spend at the Book Fair.

Happy reading.....

Semisi Taufa Year 1

Tau Montoedi Year 2

Stella Evans Year 3

Nate Spicer 5/6 R

Tarisi Laca 5/6 B

Thank you to the many families that came along to purchase books to continue your child's love of reading. Scholastic kindly donate some of the books for our Primary library so all can continue to be borrowed and enjoyed.

Primary Library / Literacy teacher,

Liz Place

McAuley girls - Hannah Hood, Cybella Roddy, Alliena Roddy and Sophie Webb with Lucy Pearce (Coach) represented the Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese in Penrith on Monday 6th May at the NSW Combined Catholic Colleges Netball Championships.

Monday 6th May saw our Secondary U16's Basketball team head to Wagga to compete in the Basketball NSW U16's All School Tournament in Wagga.

The boys played 3 games during the day. Playing against Jerrabomberra High and The Rock Central high schools with McAuley team winning both games. Our third game was the Div 2 grand final against our local public high school Tumut High. Resulting in McAuley not having much luck and coming Runners up. We wish Tumut High all the best as they progress to the championships in Sydney later this Month.

Congratulations to our Under 16s girls' team who won their grand Final match against Tumut High 36 to 24! The girls will now go through to Sydney in two weeks' time to play in the 2024 BNSW School State Championships! Well done! Thank you to all parents who transported the girls and Stephanie for coaching!

STUDENT OF THE WEEK

RESILIENCE AWARD

BRONZE AWARD

SILVER

Autumn Veg - Seasonal vegies taste better, are more nutritous and better for the enviornment. See below for some great recipe ideas and tips for cooking in Autumn.

Recipes and more

Build a lunch box - a healthy lunch box contains food from the 5 essential food groups. Click on the link below for advice and use the interactive lunch box builder to make packing lunches a breeze!

Lunch Box Builder

Label Reading - The supermarket can be overwhelming when you're trying to make healthier choices. Check out top tips for understanding labels below.

Labels made easy

No bake weetbix slice - for this recipe and more, follow the link below.

Recipe ideas

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Tumut Community Church would like to extend an invitation to students.

We are hosting a 9-week series presented by Youth Alpha to discuss life and faith issues that we believe are relevant to today’s youth.

Now, more than ever, we feel it is vital to offer our young people life skills and knowledge to help them navigate these difficult times and we believe the Youth Alpha course has much to offer in this regard.

The course has been tailored specifically for young people and is designed to facilitate meaningful dialogue between people of the Christian faith and those who are seeking direction and answers to some of life’s big questions.

The event will be presented in a friendly and informal atmosphere and participants can be assured of being made to feel welcome, that their viewpoint will be treated with respect, and that they will be allowed and encouraged to ask questions on all matters that are relevant to them.

We expect that the material will appeal to those in their teens and so would encourage students aged 13 and over to attend.

The evenings will commence at 5:30 pm with the welcome, brief introduction of who we are, after which there will be 20 to 30 minutes of games and informal social interaction. At around 6:00 pm, A light meal and refreshments will be provided and we will then watch a video of the Youth Alpha presentation which will play for about 20 minutes. This will be followed by an open group discussion of the content and the evening will close at around 7:30 pm.

The course will take place over nine Fridays commencing on 17th May and will be broken into 3 groups of 3 consecutive nights with a break between each group of three. School holiday breaks have also been allowed for so, the program will run as follows.

May 17th	Youth Alpha
May 24th	Youth Alpha
May 31st	Youth Alpha
Jun 7th	Speaker/video night (no Youth Alpha)
Jun 14th	Youth Alpha
Jun 21st	Youth Alpha
Jun 28th	Youth Alpha
Jul 5th	Break for school holidays (no Youth Alpha)
Jul 12th	Break for school holidays (no Youth Alpha)
Jul 19th	Break for school holidays (no Youth Alpha)
Jul 26th	Youth Alpha
Aug 2nd	Youth Alpha
Aug 9th	Youth Alpha

You may note the guest speaker/video night on Friday, 7^th June. This will be a more typical youth service night and your students will be more than welcome to attend this also, however, it does not form part of the Youth Alpha curriculum.

A link to the Alpha Course website is provided herewith - https://www.alpha.org.au/alphayth

Any students who would be interested in participating please register for catering purposes.