McAuley Catholic College Tumut eNewsletter

Dear McAuley Families

As we race to the end of Semester 1, I am thrilled to be able to review student reports. It gives a chance to reflect on one of our motto words… “Achieve…”

When we set goals (Believe) and work hard to achieve them (Strive) we (Achieve) great things. For us all there is an enormous satisfaction in reaching our goals and mastering new knowledge and concepts. There is an attitude we should display in our victories, I see often in our students that humility and pride when they receive recognition. I am also proud to say that I often see others offer congratulations and best wishes as they display graciousness in their loss. These are such important qualities in our young people that we should consciously model and teach.

As this will be our last communication prior to the winter holiday break I wish all students and families a safe and restful time after a busy term.

Please be sure to communicate with teachers and praise your children’s success at parent teacher interviews next week. Compass bookings will be open to see both Primary and Secondary teachers next week.

Over the break transportable administration, classrooms and toilet blocks will be installed on the primary campus as we begin work on the BGA Project. Over the following weeks we will see the demolition of the administrative block as well as the toilets, Year 5/6 and Kinder areas to be replaced with new facilities, classrooms and library areas. Exciting times! I thank our staff in advance for their flexibility and resourcefulness as we prepare to work around the disruptions to the campus.

We have a very dedicated and committed Community Council operating at the College. This small group of parents are terrific fundraisers and supporters of the College and our students.

The Community Council meet twice a term and are always happy to welcome new families to their meetings. At last week’s meeting the CC approved the support of the purchase of a new refrigerated bubbler for the McAuley Hall area. They also pledged support for the purchase of new rugby jumpers for our college representative sides. Most exciting was the finalisation of the purchase of new playground equipment to be installed on the primary campus following the construction of our new facilities.

At future meetings discussion is aimed around future fundraising events to build funds towards the provision of high-level resources and facilities. Please feel welcome to come along and offer your time and suggestions. Our strong community is the envy of many organisations around us – please let’s keep that positive momentum going.

	UPCOMING DATES
1 July 2024	Year 7 History Excursion (details on Compass)
2 July 2024	Parent Teacher Interviews K-6 and 7-12 (bookings on Compass)
3 July 2024	Primary Awards Assembly at 12:30 pm Secondary Awards Assembly at 2:00 pm
4 July 2024	Stage 2 Virtual History Incursion (details on Compass)
4 July 2024	Last Day of Term 2 - have a great break!
5 July 2024	Staff Development Day - Pupil Free Day
22 July 2024	Staff Spirituality Day - Pupil Free Day
23 July 2024	Term 3 first day of classes for K-12 (Warm and correct uniform please)

Mary our mother look after us.

Eamonn Moore

Principal

Term 2 School Fees are now overdue.

Fee statements are emailed to families monthly. Please only use your BPAY details to make payments NOT Compass. Your BPAY reference details are on your monthly statement. If you require assistance with planning your payments, please email the office office.mcauley@cg.catholic.edu.au

Semester One reports will be available to parents after school today via the Compass Parent Portal. To access these, simply click on the Reports tab and then select the link to the appropriate student report.

Following the release of the Semester One reports, we encourage you to take the time to book an interview with your child’s teacher. This can be done via the Compass Parent Portal. Details of how to do this have been sent previously through the Compass Parent News Feed.

Outline of Parent Teacher Interviews

Primary Parent/Teacher Interview Times
Please Note: All interviews will take place in your child's classroom
Monday 1^st July - Year 3 and Year 4.
Tuesday 2^nd July - Kindergarten and Year 5/6 Blue.
Wednesday 3^rd July - Year 5/6 Red + White.
Thursday 4^th July - Year 1 and Year 2.

Secondary Parent/Teacher Interview Times
Please Note: All interviews will take place in the School Hall
Tuesday 2^nd July - 3:40 - 6:15pm

Last Tuesday night, we hosted interested Year 11, 2025 students and their parents. They visited booths to learn about possible subject offerings and pathways for the Graduating Class of 2026. It was so exciting to hear some ideas and plans and to realise how far the College has come in such a short time…

Enrolments are open for limited places in Year 11, 2025. Please see the College website for enrolment details.

Last Wednesday students chosen from class speak offs in years 3-6 competed against students from St Patrick's in Gundagai in public speaking. Billy Bathgate, Madeline Harmer, Gracie Carney, Grace O'Connell, Charlotte Callaway, Adeline Hartshorne, Amelia Russell and Alfie Carney made McAuley proud showing confidence in presenting some brilliant speeches. Congratulations to Billy and Gracie who have made it through to the Western Region Public Speaking in Young.

Well done! And thanks to our friends at St Pat's and Mrs Baron who welcomed us with a lovely morning tea and a warm cuppa.

The College was lucky enough to have guest artist, Elyssa Sykes-Smith host workshops with students from both campuses last week. Elyssa is a sculptural artist who has created works for Sculptures by the Sea in Sydney and for the local Snowy Valleys Sculptural Trail. Kate Alderman, an assistant engineer from Snowy Hydro, also attended to talk about the important safety requirements when constructing a sculptural piece. The students enjoyed hearing about Elyssa's artistic journey and then had great fun creating their own sculpture under her expert tutelage.

Two of our Year 10 students, Cat and Jade had the following to say about this:

"We attended the Sculptures by the Sea workshop sponsored by Snowy Hydro. Here we met artist Elyssa Skyes-Smith and learnt about her sculptures, their meanings and the planning processes of her sculptures. Then we were given the task to create our own sculptures using the pieces of wood. There were many interesting creations and ideas, ranging from small statues to bigger structures. It was an awesome experience, learning about the steps to keep sculptures up and the meanings behind certain sculptures around the Snowy Valleys area".

See Elyssa's incredible work here: https://elyssasykes-smith.com/

Our budding young Kindergarten scientists have been busy creating some new toys. These toys are part of our unit 'Moving Objects'. We have learnt about push, pull, slide and roll and used our knowledge to design new toys. You are brilliant Kinder!

Year 3 are working on their knowledge of 3D objects. This week, they made a range of 3D objects using matchsticks and clay. We then tested their strength by placing books on top to see which shape was the strongest.

Year 2 visited our friends at Blakeney Lodge last week.

The College was abuzz last week with a visit from the St George Illawarra Dragons who delivered a wellbeing program for students in years 3-6. The "Best You Can Be" program, now in its 10th year has been very successful in supporting teachers to encourage students to make positive choices around health & wellbeing. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the visit and were very grateful for their time. It was so wonderful for our students to meet some of their heroes!

Our Year 7 students went to Wagga this week to see the Australian Army Band Kapooka perform. They had a quick pit stop at the Wagga Botanical Gardens Adventure Playground to stretch their legs. What an experience for our students to see this inspirational band perform live.

McAuley was represented by 43 eager athletes at the Western Region Athletics Carnival held in Temora on Friday 21 July.

All students strived to achieve their best and were excellent representatives for our College.

Some notable results were:

Elliot: 1st jnr boys long jump, 2nd jnr boys 800m and 1500m
Charlotte Callaway: 3rd snr girls 800m
Parker Cini: 3rd snr boys high jump
Logan: 2nd 11yrs boys discus
Glenn Doneley: 1st 9yrs boys 100m
Isabelle Fardell: 3rd snr girls 1500m
Adeline Hartshorne: 3rd snr girls shot put
Cody Johnson: 1st 11yrs boys 800m and 1500m
Tarisi Laca: 2nd 11yrs girls shot put
Freya Masters: 3rd 8yrs girls 100m
Jimmy O’Connell: 2nd 11yrs boys shot put and long jump, 3rd 11yrs boys high jump
Mila Webb: 1st 8yrs girls 100m
Junior Boys Relay: 1st (Jake Masters, Elliot, Braxton Piper, Glenn Doneley)
Junior Girls Relay: 2nd (Ava Manton, Evelyn Symons, Josie Webb, Grace O’Connell)
Senior Girls Relay: 2nd (Taylah McCormick, Isabelle Fardell, Isabella Crowe, Charlotte Callaway)

A special mention to Elliot who was named the Junior Boys Age Champion and to Jimmy O’Connell who was named the Runner-up in the 11 Years Boy Age Champion.

We now have 18 students who have qualified for the Archdiocesan Athletics Carnival and will represent the Western Region at the AIS on 27 August.

Thanks to all the parents who helped transport our team to Temora and cheered on our athletes and to Mrs Piper who was the team manager for the day.

One of Year 10 students, Reese Boyd, has had a wonderful opportunity this week doing work experience at Snowy Hydro. Reese is considering studying engineering as his future career.

This week two of our Year 5 students visited the Sounds of Mountains studio to present the College's radio news.

Did you know we do this every week? Tune in every Wednesday at around 9:30am to hear our SRC students talk about life on the College campus.

Kindergarten have been discussing how lucky we are to have made new friends on our kinder journey this year. We have also had some support from our Year 6 buddies who we now call our friends. The Resilience Project has been a great unit for children to work on, we have enjoyed learning about empathy, gratitude and mindfulness. Today's lesson is all about gratitude for our friends.

As part of The Resilience Project, Year 5/6 White had to plan a short teaching activity on empathy and then present their lesson to the Kinder students. They used posters and role play to teach Kinder what they knew about empathy. What a wonderful example of students working together across different year levels.

This week, our Year 7 Agriculture students helped with a community planting day. The project is a partnership between Snowy Valleys Council, Landcare and Local Land Services to improve the fishing habitat along the Gilmore Creek. We received an email of thanks from the organisers praising Mr Ellison and students for their great job, working in groups to plant the 150 tubestock and protect them with tree guards. Great work!

Year 8 Art students have been working on Pop Art and learnt about the artist Andy Warhol and appropriation. Students then appropriated Warhol's Soup Can's to create a new artwork.

The College celebrated MacKillop week with M Day on Wednesday. Students and staff were asked to dress as a character or object starting with M and they all did a marvellous job!