Principal's Report

Welcome back!

As we have moved back into full-time face-to-face teaching and learning, it is heartening to look back at the key moments of the extended period of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and reflect on the resilience and flexibility of the McCarthy community. Right from the outset, our teaching and support staff stepped up incredibly to pivot their respective learning experiences and support roles to facilitate a high-quality online home learning experience. While obviously facing their own personal health and safety issues or concerns, not one staff member shirked their responsibilities and to the contrary, arrived each day onsite or at home with new ideas, new skills and an all-pervading sense of doing their absolute best for McCarthy students! Similarly, the students themselves, while unsure in their new learning domain at home, bought into the online mode as best as they could. While some certainly did struggle or felt overwhelmed at times, the knowledge that they could seek support from so many staff provided some solace and a sense of manageability. Finally, I offer a deep sense of appreciation to the parents who did their absolute best to support our work with your kids. No-one said that online home learning was ideal, nor that it was easy for parents. However, the collegiality displayed between parents and teachers got us through, together.

Thank you, everyone, for your positivity!

Staff News

As I indicated in one of my video communications early in Term 2, some timetable ‘tweaks’ were required as we moved back into full-time face-to-face teaching and learning. The most significant change was the reduction of one stream from each of the Year 9 and 10 core classes due to a longer-term reduction in enrolment numbers for those two-year levels. 5 out of the 6 core classes would notice little if any change. The 6th class of students, however, has been redistributed across the other 5 classes. This intervention was considered the least intrusive method of ensuring sustainable staffing as well as deploying suitably qualified staff to the right subject/s. Similarly, after the resignation of Mr McCullough from the TAS faculty, we have decided to no longer pursue Industrial Technology - Wood as an ongoing subject choice from 2020 onwards. With a long-term dearth of qualified woodwork teachers across NSW, we have decided to morph into Design and Technolgy in Stage 5 and 6, which has identical practical applications for our students, and for which we already have suitably qualified and experienced staff. Affected students in the Stage 5 and 6 electives have been informed by me personally and we are very confident that they can achieve great outcomes in this quality subject area into the future.

Pupil Free Day Cancellation

Please note that the Staff Professional Development Day set down in the calendar as a Pupil Free Day for Friday 5 June has been cancelled. All students are expected to attend school each weekday this term except for Monday 8 June (Queens Birthday Public Holiday). Term 2 concludes at 3 pm on Friday 3 July.

Enrolment Information Evening

As the current COVID-19 restrictions do not allow large gatherings, the Year 7 2021 Information Nights for Catholic primary school families have been cancelled for 2020. In their place, Year 6 families who satisfy the following criteria have received a multi-media recording that emphasises the College expectations for potential new students. All Year 6 families whose children are either: i) Catholic and currently enrolled in a Catholic school; ii) non-Catholic and currently enrolled in a Catholic school; or iii) siblings of currently enrolled McCarthy students have been eligible to receive the Enrolment Information recording. Once the video is viewed these families are expected to acknowledge and support the expectations via the return of an online form. This return will trigger an offer of enrolment that will be sent out no later than Term 3. All other Year 7 2021 enrolment applications will be processed via a face-to-face interview with some reasonable COVID-19 restrictions, more than likely in Term 3 - 2020. Please direct any questions to the Enrolment Officer - Mrs Belinda Gleeson-Barker - 6761 0800.

Mr Geoff McManus - Principal