Welcome back to Term 2! I hope everyone had a restful break and a joyful Easter! It was wonderful to have so many join us for the ANZAC March last Tuesday. Both Easter and ANZAC Day have given us opportunities to reflect and raise our awareness of the sacrifices others have made so we can be the free people we are today. Sometimes it is good to be able to stop and think about the sacrifices others have made, and continue to make for us in our everyday lives, and be grateful.

Focus of the Week:

Week 1 - We Are Respectful in Peer Support. We began our Peer Support program last week, so this week we are looking at the things we will learn in Peer Support, how we can enjoy the lessons given by our Year 6 students, and what types of behaviour will support everyone in gaining the most from this program.

During our Peer Support Lessons, we will be focusing on:

Teamwork, working together and cooperating with each other.
Being patient, tolerant and respectful of each other
Actively listening to each other and waiting our turn when we wish to speak.
Learning about empathy.
How to be resilient and stand up for ourselves and others.

Week 2 -Catholic Schools’ Week. This week is Catholic Schools’ Week! Catholic Schools’ Week is about strengthening relationships among all who have a stake in our schools – students, staff, families, priests, parishioners, and members of the wider community, and this year our theme, "Experience the Spirit of Community", reflects this. It is a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the many outstanding achievements of the students and staff in every Catholic school. We are all part of a big community who wants to follow Jesus and live our lives with love and kindness like him. We will have a Liturgy in Grades on Friday to acknowledge some of the great work we do both here at McAuley and in all Catholic Schools across the world.

Kindergarten Enrolments for 2024:

Applications are now officially open for any students who would like to join the McAuley Family for next yea and Ms Flynn has begun interviewing our perspective Kinder children for 2024. We are still offering tours to any families who would like to see our wonderful facilities and get to know a little more about the McAuley family. If you know of someone who is considering sending their children to McAuley, especially in Kinder 2024, please let them know enrolment applications are now available both online and at the Office. Tours are on Tuesday mornings at 10am and Thursday afternoons at 4pm. If you would like to join a Tour of the school, or would like further enrolment information, please call the school on our school number, 6361 3344.

Peer Support : Our Year 6 students who undertook Peer Support Training at the end of last term and our program for 2023 began today. This will run for most weeks throughout Term 3 with all students from Kinder to Year 6 involved. Most Thursday afternoons this term students will gather in small groups, led by our Year 6 students, to help students in developing personal resilience when dealing with issues such as bullying, as well as working on strategies for team building. We look forward to beginning our Peer Support sessions this week.

Staff Changes: This term we welcome Mr Will Bishenden and Miss Prudence Williams to our Staff. Mr Bishenden is taking over Year 3Y from Mrs Carpenter, who is now on leave for the rest of 2023. Miss Williams is our new teacher for the Year 5 cohort, taking Year 5B. We welcome them to the McAuley family.

Athletic's Carnival: We now hope to run our Athletic's Carnival on Tuesday 23rd May at James Sheahan, after its postponement last term. This Carnival will be a Kinder to Year 6 Carnival, with both nominated events and novelties for all students. More information about the Carnival will be given a little closer to the day. Please pray for a fine day!

Diocesan Cross Country: Yesterday Mrs Rowena Livingstone accompanied students from our school who travelled to Coolah for the Dio Cross Country. Thank you to Mrs Livingstone and all the parents who took their children up to Coolah for this event. We are very proud of our students’ efforts and sportsmanship during this event.

Child Safe Standards: We all have an obligation to keep our children safe. At McAuley we are looking at how we can follow the new Child Safe Standards introduced as a response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. These Child Safe Standards provide a framework for making organisations such as McAuley safer for children. There are 10 Standards altogether. Throughout this term I will put information about these Standards in the Newsletter for your information. If you would like to look at the entire Guide to the Child Safe Standards, this can be found using the following link to the NSW Government Office of the Children’s Guardian: https://www.ocg.nsw.gov.au/child-safe-organisations/training-and-resources/child-safe-standards

Standard No. 1: Child safety is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture

A child safe organisation is committed to child safety. This is demonstrated in its leadership, in the way the organisation is managed and by the day-to-day activities it carries out. A child safe organisational culture drives the way things are done and how issues and risks are managed.

At McAuley, we aim to show good leadership by creating and maintaining a culture where children’s rights and safety are prioritised. We ensure all staff and parents know and understand that we believe keeping children safe is the responsibility of everyone in our School Community. This is why we often address safety issues in our Newsletter, at Assemblies and through our social media. We liaise with our Centacare Councillor to support students who need emotional support, and through our Safe Guarding Office at the CEBD to offer students and families with greater needs, the opportunities to gain good council and make plans to support them. The school rules; “Be Respectful, Be Responsible and Be Safe”, highlight the importance we place on keeping children safe. In all we do at McAuley, we put the needs of our students first, especially their safety.

Robyn Petty

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