KCC Publication

Principal Message

It has been a very full few weeks of sport and there is much to recognise.

Congratulations to the following for their great success in sport:

  • U15 boys AFL- Currie Cup.
  • Opens Boys AFL- Carroll Cup.
  • Opens Girls AFL.
  • Junior Girls AFl- Runners Up.
  • U/13 and U/15 Country Cup RL - won locally. U/13 Riverina champions.
  • Junior netball reached the semifinals.
  • Opens Netball made the final of the Tracey Gundson Shield and came away runners up after a close run final 22-20.

Congratulations to CCC and All schools reps:

  • U/15 AFL- six KCC players in the NSWCCC sides- Diezel Watson, Ashton Campbell, Judd Withers, Jag Ashcroft, Riley Bradshaw & Majella Day.
  • Majella Day, Ashton Campbell and Riley Bradshaw who were selected in the NSW All Schools Under 15 Teams. 
  • Ella Harriott, Ella Barrell, Hannah Ferguson and Ashton Bourke represented NSWCCC Southern Country soccer.
  • Kai Stanmore, Isaac Pratt, and Tyler Jordan represented NSWCCC Southern Country Rugby League.
  • Cohen Benson and Malakai Charles represented NSWCCC Southern Country Rugby League.
  • Kai Stanmore and Tyler Jordan progressed to represent NSWCCC Country Rugby League.

Behind all of these competitions and representative processes are volunteer staff who are giving freely of their time in support of your students, your children. I always encourage our students to show their gratitude to our staff for their amazing generosity. If you get a chance as parents to also thank them I’m sure that will go a long way to encourage them.  It was also impressive to see so many staff come to watch matches along the way in support of their students and colleagues. Teachers unfairly cop a lot of bad press these days and we should not buy into that narrative. Our staff are fine professional educators who also sacrifice much of their own family time to support our young people. It would be a good thing for this to always be recognised first.

 

We have needed to have a reset with the students about mobile phone usage, reminding them of expectations, responsibilities and consequences. This has been needed firstly as many students struggle to regulate their own phone usage and we have also had to deal with the fall out of inappropriate use of social media, in two cases leading to fights. All of this wastes significant staff and parent time. Please read the policy to remind yourself.

 

It is also timely to remind everyone that if any student engages in violence either as the one who starts something or retaliates this will result in a suspension if the hands off rule is broken. No exception. The use of violence  to resolve issues between people is inappropriate, contrary to our values as a catholic school and leave all involved open to police taking action. As young people, ‘standing up for themselves’ should look like peaceful problem solving, not asserting themselves physically. In most cases where such incidents occur, if those involved or bystanders had spoke up to a teacher, the conflict could have been resolved peaceably.  It isn't weakness to not retaliate physically, it is the appropriate and mature response we need our young people to engage in. 

 

If a young person is facing bullying at any time our strategy encourages them to be upstanders to speak to an adult who is in a position to help-upstanders can be fellow students, staff and most importantly parents. It grieves me that we have young people in our schools who suffer in silence when help could be provided if the school is informed. Please help by letting us know. 

With all of this in mind we have engaged the Tomorrow Man organisation. "Tomorrow Man" who are coming on 19th and 20th June to work with our students, boys and girls around youth mental health issues. On the evening of 20th June we have Tomorrow man leading a forum from 6.00pm to 8.00pm in the college hall with fathers and sons invited. Also invited are uncles, grandfathers and any significant male in a young man’s life you’d like to bring along. Families where there is only Mum leading the household might consider this option.

 

The subject of the discussion will be males and mental health. This is of paramount importance to discuss given the high rates of youth and young male suicides in our community. The rates are even higher in regional communities. A more detailed invitation is coming next week but please put this in your diary. Previous experiences of such nights tell me they can be life changing. These issues are critical for our young men in particular.