Pastoral Bulletin

• This week we are celebrating Catholic Education Week. This year’s theme fits perfectly with all that we do at St Mary’s outlined in our mission statement of “Through Faith, Hope and Love we make a difference in the world”. The theme is: Communities of Faith, Hope and Love. As a celebration of Catholic Education we will lead Mass at the Cathedral on Thursday, and celebrate as a school community throughout the week with activities and a Hawaiian free dress day on Friday. Please see details below. 
• Free Dress Day next week is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Catholic Education as a school community. Free Dress information has been outlined on posters around the College and displayed on social media. A few reminders: students must wear appropriate clothing that meets workplace health and safety standards (sleeved shorts, no midrif tops, closed in shoes), appropriate length shorts (similar to school sports shorts), no inappropriate slogans/language/images on clothing, be in theme (Hawaiian). Contact home will occur should students not meet free dress requirements to change attire and return for learning.
• We wish out TCS Athletics team the best of luck next Tuesday and Wednesday at Barlow Park. We look forward to hearing all of your success in the coming weeks.
• Academic Assembly will be held in the Hugh O’Brien Center next Tuesday at 9:35 am. We look forward to celebrating the success of our Academic Excellence in the College. All students are to be dressed in formal uniform. If students have a HPE class later in the day they may get changed into sports uniform following the Assembly. 
• The assessment planner is now available on the portal calendar; students must ensure they are aware of assessments deadlines or exams dates.

Regards,

Leah McBryde 

Assistant Principal, Junior Years (7 - 9) | lmcbryde@cns.catholic.edu.au

Justin Brennan 

Acting Assistant Principal, Senior Years (10 -12) | jbrennan2@cns.catholic.edu.au

Year 7

• Congratulations to students receiving recognition for their academic achievements on Tuesday’s Academic Assembly. You should be very proud of your efforts knowing they set a great example for fellow learners to aspire to.
• Just a friendly reminder to respond to the permission slip for Year 7 Camp if you have not done so already. If you require further information about the camp, please contact the Head of Year. Camps and Retreats are excellent opportunities for students to gain resilience and to develop a growth mindset.
• Students in the Year 7 Cohort have been participating in weekly competitions competing against other House & PG Groups. This week's challenge involves the checking of diaries, so make sure those diaries are being used and up to date!

Regards

Nathan Haydon

Head of Year 7 

nhaydon@cns.catholic.edu.au 

Year 8

• This term, students are participating in an Interhouse/PG Competition with different challenges set each week. This week's challenge involves a random check during the week to see which PG has the most lockers with locks.
• All students must have the company portal installed on their device! If you have not installed it you must speak with your PG mentor or visit the tech department who will provide you with instructions on how to do this. If you fail to do this, you will no longer be able to access the internet at the College.

Regards

Andy Winter

Head of Year 8

awinter@cns.catholic.edu.au

Year 9

• This week in our Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lesson, students were given the opportunity to organise their term by mapping out their future assessments into their diaries and Google Calendar. This will give students an opportunity to prepare or organise themselves to minimise future stress.
• A reminder that students need a note from a parent if they are in the wrong uniform. 

Regards

Saripha Curro

Head of Year 9

scurro@cns.catholic.edu.au 

Year 10

• I am proud of the effort and attitude of the Year 10s displayed on Retreat. The focus was on developing and understanding the importance of positive relationships in our lives which, I believe, will have benefits for many years to come. It was pleasing to see the positive ways the students interacted with each other and I hope that the cohort continues to become even more united as a result of student attendance.
• We have an important change happening this term in regard to how students access the internet at school. As of Monday Week 4 students who don’t have an SSL certificate (which is installed when the Company Portal is installed) on their BYOD laptops will not be able to access the Internet. The Company Portal is a small application that is installed from the Microsoft Store. When students install the Company Portal they are given a special SSL certificate which will give them access to the Internet. Currently, there are 71 students in Year 10 who have not installed this piece of software. The students have been made aware of this list and the instructions on how to download the software via email.

Regards

John Cahill

Head of Year 10 

jcahill@cns.catholic.edu.au 

Year 11

• I would like to start by praising our year 11 students on their engagement on Tuesday during the Elevate Study Skills day; I would hope that the tips and advice given will be considered for future success.
• Changes will be made to the School internet access from Monday Week 4. All students must ensure the company portal is installed on their devices to continue accessing internet in the College.

Regards

Sophie McQueen

Head of Year 11

smcqueen1@cns.catholic.edu.au 

Year 12

• Community PG will be back in the lecture theatre on Monday this week.
• Changes will be made to the School internet access from next Monday so all students must ensure they have installed the company portal on their device so that they can access the internet while at school.
• IA3 exam for General Maths and Maths Methods takes place next Monday from 8:30am. Please see emails from Mr Oxford regarding where you need to be for those exams - Good Luck!
• Celebration Dinner tickets are on sale. Parents should have received a letter last week with payment details. Please be sure to purchase those by the due date so that we can finalise numbers with the Convention Centre.

Regards

Lucy Fitzpatrick

Head of Year 12 

lfitzpatri@cns.catholic.edu.au