Secondary

Welcome back

Well come back to 2022 and welcome to all our new students and families.  We have been very fortunate that we have been able to begin the year as normal as possible.  On Tuesday the Secondary School got together for a welcome back assembly.  The Year 7 students had a big welcome as they processed in and the new staff were also introduced to our school by Deputy Principal, Mrs Kathleen Kemp.  

I was fortunate enough to address the students for the commencement of 2022 in my new role as Head of Secondary. Here is my welcoming speech from the day:

"It is an honour to be standing in front of you all today. 

This is my first year in the role of Head of Secondary.  So, with Year 7 and other new students, I can identify with you! I am on a big learning curve!  However,  It won’t be learning how to unlock a locker padlock, (good luck with that) however, it will be very similar, learning how to work with different staff and students and how processes at our school work and the day-to-day of being the best versions of ourselves we can be. 

My journey at our school begin in 2008, definitely before some of you were born.  At that time the school was catering to classes from Year 5-10 and there were only three permanent buildings on our site.  At that time Mr Hall and Miss Douglas were both students in Year 7! 

 For me it was a risk, and a challenge to come to our school however, I was lured by the tag line, 'Building a school from the ground up'.  This for me, meant taking the best ideas from other schools, the best staff, families that valued education and mixing it together to create a school that all could be proud of, and we have, Moama Anglican Grammar is all of this, and more!

I believe we sometimes lose sight of this fact.  The stresses of the past couple of years, combined with issues that arise for us each day can wear us down so that the little issues become big. 

We have beautiful school grounds, we have access to the best school oval and associated facilities, we have state of the art buildings. We have a uniform we should be proud to wear and that our community clearly recognise, we have dedicated and experienced staff and friends that care for us. This is what I call building a school from the ground up. 

Does this mean that everything is perfect? No. Our school is only 17 years old.  We need to continue to grow, improve and develop traditions in line with our school core values and mission. 

This therefore is not a responsibility of a small group of people within the Moama Anglican Grammar Community.  In 2022 this is a job for all of us whether we are Students, Staff, or Parents. We are here in the Secondary School for six years. We have six years to leave a mark, move our school forward, build our school, not necessarily from the ground up now, but build it none the less. 

Lily and Silas have talked about the Student Representative Council.  This is a great opportunity for you as young leaders to have a say in what the directions our school takes, to have a voice in the future of our amazing school. Not everyone can be elected from your year level, however you can all have ideas that you can pass on to your representatives. 

Examples of this could be seen last year during your Connect@MAG week... As the year progresses we look forward to seeing many of these “big ideas” come to fruition.

So in quoting Australia’s favourite athlete of the moment Ash Barty, the destination is important, whatever your goal may be, however, make sure you take in and enjoy the journey there.  

So I ask you, what traditions do you want to build at Moama Anglican Grammar?"

Mr Greg Cadd

Head of Secondary

Message from Hayley Catt,                                           Head of Teaching and Learning Secondary

Welcome to our new school year. To say that I am excited is an understatement; to have all our students back onsite, connecting and belonging - it is a wonderful feeling of excitement and anticipation of new opportunities. On this note, I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself as the new Head of Teaching and Learning (Secondary) in our wonderful school. I have been a teacher at Moama Anglican Grammar for a long time (13+ years) and I am truly humbled to be able to support our Secondary students in this role. I am passionate about each student in our school and you can trust that I will be working to support your students as best as I can with the Secondary Teaching team. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to say a massive congratulations to our graduating 2021 cohort. We had amazing HSC results last year, and I cannot praise our high achieving students enough for their diligence in such a tough period. I would also like to recognise those students who were not on the 'high achiever' lists. I can confidently say, as a teacher who has taught EACH of these students at one point or another, that I am so proud of each one of our graduating cohort. I am excited, as are their teachers, to hear about their next steps, what the future brings and endeavours they will pursue.

While COVID-19 is ever lurking, please rest assured that our staff are working to ensure all have access to learning material. Secondary teachers are requested to have lessons planned in advance. Should your student be required to isolate at home, please check SEQTA for learning material. Our parent and student community are also asked to become familiar with SEQTA “Assessment Overview” as this details any upcoming Formal Assessment tasks for Semester One. Alternatively, each Stage has an Assessment handbook, which are live on our website here.

This brings me to our new year, students, teachers and everything in between. We have had a rollercoaster, and hope that 2022 brings our whole community some “normality”. 

I feel that 2022 will be better; we have had time to grow and adapt and to reflect. In our classrooms, we are working to encourage academic resilience and build connections outside of normal friendship groups. As such, I would like to reintroduce Moama Anglican Grammar’s expectations of high standards for each individual (achieving personal best) and ask our students to set their goals for 2022. This should not be a letter grade, but something that makes your heart smile. Our Academic and Pastoral Care teams will be discussing these with our students in the coming weeks- what do you want to take away from 2022? 

We will also be continuing with our Deep Learning initiative in 2022 and look forward to seeing some of our 2021 Connect@MAG proposals make legs and come to life. Our core focus is Citizenship and Collaboration, and more dialogue will be sent to families about Deep Learning in the near future.

Should the need arise; please do not hesitate to contact me. Have a wonderful weekend. 

Mrs Hayley Catt

Head of Teaching and Learning (Secondary)

Year 7s Begin Science

Whilst Mr Hall's Year 7 science class tried out the safety gear and made posters about health and safety in the science lab, Mrs Smith's Year 7 class worked on a 'Rainbow Lab', testing their accuracy measuring volumes and using lab equipment safely.