McAuley College Grafton eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Last Monday I wrote to the College community regarding the terribly sad news that a former student had passed away with his sister and father as a result of a car accident. We keep Kaden Danks-Brown, his sister and father in our thoughts and prayers at this time and we extend our condolences to Kaden’s and Sharna’s mum and extended family, the Grafton High School community and all those impacted by this tragic loss. We will continue to provide support to our students and staff through our Student Services - Wellbeing Team. We pray to our Lord to bring all those affected strength, healing and hope in the days, months and years ahead.

Parent - Teacher - Student Interviews - Tuesday 21st March

Our Parent Teacher interviews will be held on Tuesday 21st March in the College Hall between 3.40 and 6.30pm and we look forward to welcoming you on the night. The response this year for interviews has been overwhelming and I am appreciative that parents want to be involved in their child’s education.

To meet the demand of interviews needed, another interview evening has been scheduled for Tuesday 2nd May from 3.40 until 6.30. As this is scheduled as a Year 12 PTS conference, Year 12 parents and students will be given first availability (bookings will open on 3rd April) then bookings will be opened up to the rest of the school community (these bookings open on 24th April).

Here are some suggestions of questions you could ask your child’s teacher.

What is my child learning?
How is she or he doing?
How do you know how he or she is doing?
How can she or he improve?
What supports can I provide and can you provide if she or he is struggling? When can we check in again?

(from Clarity - What Matters Most in Learning, Teaching, and Leading by Lyn Sharratt, 2019)

Open Night

Our annual Open Night is on Tuesday 4th April from 4pm to 6.30pm. This is a great opportunity for prospective and current families to tour the College, view the classrooms and specialty rooms, enjoy entertainment, and meet staff and students. Please let interested families know about this evening and encourage them to come along.

Return to school Term 2 dates:

Monday 24th April: Staff Development Day - No students attending

Tuesday 25th April: ANZAC Day Holiday: see details of marches in the Newsletter

Wednesday 26th April: All students return to College

ANZAC Day 2023

Representation of McAuley at ANZAC Day Marches throughout the Clarence Valley is an important part of our community service. Information will be issued shortly to students and parents, and an expression of interest will be sent to students to gauge numbers at the various marches our school supports.

HSC Presiding Officer - Expressions of Interest

Our long-standing Presiding Officer for the HSC, Trish McLennan, has decided to step down after an extensive amount of time in this role. I sincerely thank Trish for her dedication and service as our Presiding Officer, running the HSC exams for McAuley Catholic College. Therefore, we are calling for Expressions of Interest from members of our community to take on this role. Please see the advertisement and details in this Newsletter.

NAPLAN

Our year 7 & 9 students have completed their NAPLAN tests for 2023. I thank the students for the way they conducted themselves each day of the exams and we are looking forward to receiving the results. We use NAPLAN results to assess the growth achieved over time, the effectiveness of the investments we have made as well as determine students who need additional support at various levels.

Parent forum

Our first Parent Forum meeting for the year was held on Tuesday 7th March with 15 parents in attendance, in person and via zoom. The Parent Forum is an opportunity to find out what is happening in the College, meet other parents and ask questions. Each evening has a focus session and this term we had 3 areas of focus: the introduction to the Parent Forum and Parent Assembly arm of the group, a presentation on the Pastoral Care system and support provided at McAuley by Rob Imeson, Leader of Pastoral Care, followed by a discussion on proposed uniform changes.

We will hold a Parent Forum meeting in week 6 of each term. The dates are:

Term 2 - Tuesday 30th May

Term 3 - Tuesday 29th August

Term 4 - Tuesday 14th November

Swimming Carnival & Dio Tennis Results

Congratulations to the students of McCarthy House for their great win at the swimming carnival. The trophy was presented at our recent Assembly to the House Captains Levi Vereyken and Stella van Leest, and House Leader Tahni Day. Congratulations also go to the Age Champions who were presented with a medallion at the Assembly.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate our successful tennis players who performed exceptionally well at the recent Diocesan Tennis Championships. Oliver Seeto & Joe Wrigley were runners-up in the Junior section and Charlie Rainbow and Mahala Hitchings are the Diocesan Junior Girls Champions!

Finally, as we head towards Easter we continue to take time in the season of Lent to pray, give to others and fast. Let us continue to think beyond ourselves and find ways to make a difference to the lives of others around us.

A belated Happy St Patrick’s Day for last Friday! Students and staff enjoyed wearing a bit (or a lot) of green and were entertained at the lunchtime concert, our first for the year!

Enjoy the fortnight ahead

Yours sincerely

Kate

Kate Thomson

Principal

“We should be shining lamps, giving light to all around us.”

Catherine McAuley

Learning & Teaching News

Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences

We are looking forward to meeting with parents of Year 7 - 11 students this Tuesday, 21st March, at our Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences. These conferences are vital for supporting our students' learning and growth, and we encourage both parents and students to attend. These conferences are one part of the very important process of our students gaining the most from their schooling and provide an opportunity for parents and teachers to meet to ensure open and collaborative communication which assists students not only in their learning but in their growth as young men and women.

Since the booking system opened, we have had a rush on appointments and not all parents who wished to make an appointment were able to. We urge parents who are unable to visit in person to email their child’s teacher to organise a phone conversation. The school will also put an optional session next term for parents who could not attend the Term 1 week 8 Conference. This opportunity will be on Tuesday 2 May, the night of the year 12 Parent-Teacher-Student Conference. Much research shows that the more parents are involved, the more successful our students are. Thus, as our school grows, we will review the current systems to ensure that we are meeting everyone’s needs.

NAPLAN

By the time the Newsletter is published, we will have completed the NAPLAN testing of our year 7 and 9 students. Whilst there are still catchups that will occur for students who were absent on the testing dates, it has been a really smooth process. We would like to thank our year 7 and 9 students for their active participation in the tests. We would also like to thank the PDHPE department for supporting the testing process by allowing us to utilise the hall (one of their teaching spaces). Of course, the organisation, attention to detail, and calm approach of Mrs Leanne McLennan, our Data Coach, also need to be recognised. Thanks, Mrs McLennan.

Inclusion and Diversity

Our Leader of Inclusion and Diversity, Mrs Sophie Beresford, has been working diligently with our Learning Support team to provide personalised support to our students. At McAuley we have a fantastic Learning support team of Teacher Aides and Inclusion Teachers who have been kept busy with some of the external testing requirements, supporting students with one on one support, working with families to support personalised plans and increasing their skill set to ensure that our students are all provided with access to the curriculum and are given the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, knowledge and understandings, on the same basis as their peers.

Learning Hub

We would like to remind all students that the McAuley Learning Hub is available to them Monday to Friday in the second half of lunch. The hub is fully supervised, and we encourage all students to take advantage of this resource.

Week 6 Staff Development Day

Our staff recently participated in a professional development day focused on formative assessment and differentiation. We aim to increase student growth by building staff capacity to use data-informed practices. Our staff shared some effective assessment strategies and reviewed our school data to ensure that we meet our learning and teaching goals.

Ms McAlister, Mrs Robinson, Mrs Esad, Mr Doyle and Mr Marks supported one of the sessions by sharing formative assessment strategies with the rest of the staff and Ms Janson and Mrs McLennan presented some ways to use our eternal school data. A productive day such as it was takes a lot of preparation and Mrs Lee and Mrs Bertalili need to be congratulated on their work in making the day so valuable.

We are committed to providing a supportive and collaborative learning environment for our students. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to working together to achieve success for all our students.

Di McGowan
Assistant Principal - Learning & Teaching

Mission News

LEAD

Last week our College hosted LEAD, an overnight retreat for students in Years 11 and 12 across the diocese. The theme this year was ‘Set Apart’. Students were encouraged and inspired to be connected, committed and courageous.

Through inspiring guest speakers, testimonies, worship, prayer and small group activities students were challenged to consider their faith and encouraged to be courageous and committed to living out Christian discipleship. Students used their experience to connect with one another and share ideas and inspiration of how they can be leaders in their college communities.

The students will gather as a group after LEAD and discuss ways that they can encourage discipleship within our own College community and continue in their own faith journey.

LEAD is an amazing community event and we thank all staff and students who participated. Our TAS and VET departments work tirelessly to ensure that all participants are fed over the two days and we thank them for their continued support of this event.

Transitus

Nine of our Year 7 students were accompanied by Mr Rowan Butcher to attend Transitus, a Year 7 overnight retreat for students from the south of the diocese. The students come together at Yarrahapinni to share in the faith journey and support each other in their transition to high school.

Project Compassion - Third Week of Lent

(Week beginning Monday 13th March)

We are now in the third week of Lent and we encourage students to participate in Project Compassion. Donations to Project Compassion allow Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. This is the story of Priscilla, who lives in the Hwange district in Zimbabwe with her husband, Charles, and two of their grandchildren. Climate change continues to bring unprecedented challenges for people living in the most vulnerable and remote communities in Zimbabwe.

During times of intense drought and food shortages, Priscilla had to commute to the town centre and wait in long queues to collect food.

With the support of Caritas Hwange, Priscilla learnt conservation farming skills to grow drought-resistant crops and started poultry farming to support her family during the current food crisis. Priscilla was able to produce a bumper harvest in her first year of practising in conservation farming. Priscilla also used the funds from her harvest to start poultry farming, which enabled her to sell eggs to pay for her grandchildren’s school fees, books and stationery. The poultry farming provides a safety net for Priscilla and her family during times of hardship, like the current drought.

While the situation in Zimbabwe and across eastern Africa remains dire, the work of Caritas Hwange means that Priscilla can learn the techniques, tools and resources she needs to build resilience and support her family during this current food crisis.

Watch a short film about Priscilla’s story here.

Students are encouraged to bring in some spare change to place in their Project Compassion box within their homeroom. Next week during our Pastoral Care lesson, students will be able to place an order for Fish and salad on Friday 31st March. All proceeds raised will go towards Caritas and the annual Project Compassion appeal.

We acknowledge Norco Milk for their donation to our Caritas Lenten fundraiser.

Kathy Warby

Assistant Principal - Mission & Wellbeing

Wellbeing News

Attendance

Over the last three weeks in our Pastoral Care lessons, staff have been having discussions with their homeroom students about attendance. Once a child’s attendance falls beow 95%, as a College we have a process to work through to address this and aim for improvement. Some quick ways to ensure that this percentage does not drop is to:

Aim to attend school every day
Arrive at school each day for homeroom at 8.43
Be punctual to all classes
If late to school, students MUST sign in at the front office

Remember, It is a requirment that if your child is absent from school, a reason for their absence must be provided. To explain an absence you need to:

send a signed note in with your child and hand in at the office,
contact the school via phone or email,
respond to SMS messages sent in the morning with an explanatory note.

This week we will begin sending letters to parents if attendance is a concern. You may be asked to attend an Attendance Improvement Planning Meeting. This is a collaborative meeting between a family, student and school staff to identify strategies to support the student to actively engage in learning in the classroom. A written plan, individually tailored to meet your child’s needs, will be developed and reviewed. The strategies aim to address the underlying causes of your child’s school reluctance or refusal.

It is important that both families and school work together to empower students to feel safe, loved and respected in order to flourish and live life to the full.

Mobile Phones

Please reinforce with your child our Mobile Phone Policy. The following outlines the procedures for students:

Phones must be turned off upon arrival at school in the morning and may be switched on again after classes at 3.10pm.
Students are welcome to leave their phone in the office each day or place on the teacher desk / phone tub each lesson
If it is necessary for parents or carers to make contact during school hours this must be done in the usual manner through the School Office.
Students must not lend their phones to other students during school hours.
Students can only use their phone with the permission of a teacher, for example when used for educational purposes during a lesson, using eftpos at the canteen and office.
After 3.10pm, while being supervised on school grounds, students may use their phone to listen to music, check messages and make calls. However, they cannot take photos or videos.

Please note:

The following is deemed unacceptable use of mobile phones and similar devices - (this list is not exhaustive and therefore not limited to the following):

accessing social media (such as but not limited to facebook, instagram, snapchat and other similar platforms), taking of photos and videos, text messaging, phone calls, facetime or similar, accessing apps, streaming movies, listening to music etc

The following is an extract from the Terms and Conditions section of the College Enrolment form signed by parents/guardians:

Vaping

It has come to attention that students are vaping in the College toilets and we are addressing this with students. As families we encourage you to have conversations with your child about the harmful effects of vaping and address it as you would any other risk to your child’s health. It is important to keep the lines of communication open and show your child that you are concerned about their health and safety.

We have previously shared information about the harmful effects of vaping. Vaping is on the rise in Australia and has become popular amongst teenagers and young adults. Alarmingly, a recent study has also shown that there is an increase in the number of primary school-aged children who are experimenting with vapes. There are many misconceptions about vapes being fairly harmless and that vapes in Australia do not contain nicotine. Although purchasing vapes containing nicotine without a prescription is illegal in Australia, many vapes labelled as nicotine-free do contain nicotine.

Although advertising and peers can heavily influence your teen’s decisions, the impact

you have as a parent, carries enormous weight. Research has found that parental involvement and a positive outlook can make a significant difference in healthy decision-making, both now and in the future.

Kathy Warby
Assistant Principal - Mission & Wellbeing

Careers

Information Sessions for Students & Parents

CSU 2023 Medicine Information Night 29 March 2023 6:00 pm-7:30 pm. CSU invites you to their online medicine information night to discover everything you need to know about their five-year undergraduate entry degree – the Doctor of Medicine. Register at https://cvent.csu.edu.au/event/580ba471-d7bc-4095-aa56-1269fe26a324/regProcessStep1

Study Medicine | New medicine students start and prospective ones gear up to apply in 2023 for 2024 The latest information has been added to Study Medicine https://www.studymedicine.com.au/deadline-listing This includes a fully detailed list of university deadlines, interviews, notable events and medicine offers for all Australian medicine degrees and degrees leading to medicine (for entry in 2024).

Scholarships, Early Entry, Alternative Pathways

The University of Newcastle | New Early Entry Program The new Early Entry Program means you can receive an offer to the University of Newcastle before the HSC*. Apply for free and they will connect you with a mentor who can answer your questions and help you prepare for uni. You'll also access HSC study support and receive invitations to VIP events. *Offers are contingent on the completion of the HSC. Register your interest at www.newcastle.edu.au/early

The University of Tasmania | School Recommendation Program Studying interstate can be a big move. Applying early and accepting an early offer are key to securing preferred accommodation and being eligible to apply for the maximum number of scholarships on offer (many scholarship applications close in October). Applications for the 2023 SRP will open on 29 June. As always, applying to study with the University of Tasmania is free of charge.

University of Tasmania | Scholarships Support to Study Scholarship Package – Up to $8000. Relocation and Travel support: $2000 guaranteed to all students relocating interstate to Tasmania. Additional funding is available through Accommodation Support. See https://www.utas.edu.au/study/scholarships-fees-and-costs/domestic-scholarships/support-to-study-scholarship-package for further info and eligibility.

Traineeships, Cadetships, Apprenticeships - Information & Opportunities

ACFA - Cabinet Making Apprenticeships ACFA is a Registered Training Organisation delivering MSF31113 Certificate III in Cabinet Making (RTO 90432). Their Workplace-Based Training Model brings a unique one-on-one experience plus the flexibility to be enrolled as a new apprentice all year round. Learn more at www.acfa.net.au/training

Ai Group Apprentice and Trainee Centre | Start your Career in Trade Ai Group Apprentice and Trainee Centre are continually seeking passionate and dedicated people to start their career as an Apprentice or Trainee across NSW. Register with Ai Group ATC at https://www.aigroupapprentices.com.au/ to see current positions available.

ResMed is offering a 4-year apprenticeship program where you could take a Toolmaking apprenticeship course through Apprenticeship Careers Australia. The program is a paid on-the-job training package including 1 day a week at TAFE Ultimo and on-the-job training at ResMed’s Precision Tooling located in Kings Park (38 hours per week). Contact Christine.Dorado@resmed.com.au to find out more.

Year 7 Geography Fieldwork

Year 7 Geography students visited the World Heritage Iluka Rainforest. This fieldwork focused on Landforms and Landscapes. Students were introduced to a variety of geography skills in-situ, including field sketching. Students also observed the natural and human features of this fragile environment. Our Year 7 Geographers interacted with NSW National Park Rangers and recorded data on the importance and management of this unique remnant littoral rainforest.

Our thanks to NSW National Parks for their support and for sharing their time, expertise and knowledge in the field, allowing students to fully appreciate the landform and landscape of part of Bundjalung National Park.

From the Classroom

Year 10 Food Technology

Sport News

Swimming Carnival

On Tuesday, 28 February, McAuley held its annual College Swimming Carnival at the Maclean Olympic Pool. Unfortunately having to change to Maclean Pool, we were unable to run long-distance events this year. This meant the Carnival consisted of the 50m events. The participation and behavior of all students were exemplary.

Congratulations to our Age Champions:

U/12 Willow Rowney and Thomas Awbery;
U/13 Georgia Skeels and Archie Pope;
U/14 Sieanna Sutherland and Dexta Jones;
U/15 Eve Van Leest and Hudson Batinovic;
U/16 Milla Zvatora and Kyron Nipperess;
Opens Eve MacNamara and Kurtis Corcoran.

The House points went as follows: Tracey on 414 points, Mercy on 583 points, Champagnat on 641 points, and our winners on 723 points were McCarthy - Congratulations!

A Special mention goes to Giselle Dean and Willow Rowney who both broke the 12 years girls' Breaststroke record from 1998 with Giselle winning in a time of 45.87 sec. Also, a special mention goes to Hudson Batinovic who now goes through to the NSWCCC swimming championships Good Luck Hudson.

Upcoming Sports Events:

28 Mar - Rugby 10s Gala Day - Girls
29 Mar - Northern Selections Trials U15 & Open Boys, U16 Girls Rugby League
30 Mar - MCC Cross Country
3-4 Apr - NSWCCC Touch Championships
4 Apr - Diocesan North Opens Football Championships
4 Apr - School Girls League Tag

College Open Night - 4th April

RSVP for College Open Night here!

Alumni Achievements

Past student recognised for traineeship achievement

Past student, Breanna Ellis, was recognised at a special ceremony held at Ultimo TAFE and jointly hosted by TAFE NSW and School Infrastructure NSW (SINSW). The 1 March 2023 event marked the completion of a two-year NSW Government Infrastructure Traineeship program for over 70 trainees from the first cohort of 2021, including Breanna.

The NSW Government Infrastructure Traineeship program, managed by School Infrastructure NSW and the Construction Leadership Group, supports Year 12 school leavers with employment in the infrastructure sector while they continue their study.  

The program is a partnership, bringing government and industry together to deliver career options in the infrastructure sector for school leavers. Trainees combine study for a Certificate IV TAFE qualification and work in government and industry infrastructure projects. Trainees complete three eight-month rotations of work placements across three different government, industry and contractor positions. 

Interested in the traineeship program?

The Infrastructure Trainee program recruits Year 12 school leavers every year. You can find out more about the Infrastructure Traineeship and how to apply here:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/career-and-study-pathways/infrastructure-traineeships

Expressions of Interest - HSC Presiding Officer

McAuley Catholic College is seeking expressions of interest for the position of Presiding Officer for the 2023 High School Certificate (HSC) examinations. The HSC Presiding Officer is a casual position responsible directly to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). The rate of pay for this position is approximately $35.15 per hour (2022 rate).

Position Information:

The presiding officer will liaise closely with the school and is responsible for managing the preparation, conduct and supervision of the HSC exams. This includes managing a team of supervisors. The successful applicant will:

liaise with the principal concerning the set-up and conduct of the exams
follow all directions given by NESA regarding security and administration procedures (NESA training will be provided)
collect exam papers from the security centre and keep them secure until the commencement of the examination
brief the supervisors before each examination to ensure they are aware of their duties and any special arrangements
oversee the conduct of the supervisors during the exams and the packaging of the papers at the conclusion of the examination
implement NESA's policies and procedures regarding disability provisions and illness/misadventure applications

The presiding officer must:

be 18 years or over
have a valid Working with Children Check (WWCC) for paid employment
use their own vehicle with a comprehensive motor vehicle insurance policy
not have a relative (including children, siblings, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or cousins) sitting the HSC exams at any school
not have been recently employed by this school (paid or volunteer). Including but not limited to clerical staff, casual, relief, part-time or permanent teachers, canteen volunteers board members of P&F members
not tutor students sitting the HSC exams
have a working knowledge of common computer programs and tasks, such as Microsoft Word, Mircosoft Excel, emails, downloading documents etc
be well organised and have good attention to detail
be able to effectively manage students and a team of supervisors
be available for the entire exam period - 9 October 2023 to 3 November 2023

Applicants should be submitted to the Principal, Kate Thomson, and include a short outline of relevant experience and a reference. Previous experience working in an educational setting would be an advantage.

Expression of interest closing date: Thursday 30th March 2023

Year 7 Immunisations

From 2023 parents can provide consent online for their child’s routine school vaccinations.

If your child is in Year 7 or Year 10 this year, you can now provide online consent for their routine school vaccinations.

In Year 7, students are offered free vaccines for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (dTpa) and human papillomavirus (HPV). In Year 10, students are offered the meningococcal ACWY vaccine.

Vaccination will only be provided at school if consent has been received.

Year 7 Immunisations will take place at McAuley on Tuesday 28^th March.

How to provide consent:

To complete online consent for your child’s school vaccinations, visit: https://nswhealth.service-now.com/school
Click the login with ‘Service NSW Account’ button and log in using your Service NSW details. This is the same account you may already use to renew your driver’s licence. If you don’t have a Service NSW account, refer to Service NSW to create one.
Update or confirm your personal details in Service NSW as required.
Complete the School Vaccination Consent Form for your child/ren. You will need to:
- Enter your child’s personal details
- Provide the Medicare card details for you and your child
- Read the linked Parent Information Sheet and privacy statement
- Provide consent

If you or your child do not have a Medicare card, consent can still be provided by requesting a paper-based consent form directly from your child’s school.

Read a step-by-step guide on how to provide consent online. Translated guides are available in Arabic, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese.

For more information on routine school vaccinations, please visit www.health.nsw.gov.au/schoolvaccination.

Translated information about school vaccination is available in 27 languages, please visit www.health.nsw.gov.au/immunisation/Pages/school_vaccination_language.aspx

Parent Support & Education - Vaping Awareness and Information

Vaping: Information & Awareness

Vaping is on the rise in Australia and has become popular amongst teenagers and young adults. Alarmingly, a recent study has also shown that there is an increase in the number of primary school-aged children who are experimenting with vapes. There are many misconceptions about vapes being fairly harmless and that vapes in Australia do not contain nicotine.

Our school is committed to the health and wellbeing of our students and will be including a series of informative resources for our parent community over the next 3 editions of our newsletter. We hope parents and carers use these helpful resources to:

learn the facts about e-cigarettes and vaping,
recognise what a vape looks like,
understand why vaping is attractive to young people and
engage in positive conversations at home.

By working in partnership we hope to support our young people to make healthy choices.

Please watch this informative 2 minute video which provides some key information about vaping and e-cigarettes.

Key Information:

Vaping is the act of smoking e-cigarettes or ‘vapes’ that can look like metallic pens, USBs and other hand-held systems.
Vapes use cartridges filled with liquids, which typically contain nicotine, artificial flavouring, and various chemicals. These can be harmful to the developing body.
Research shows that 1 in 5 young people have vaped and nearly 80% of young people say it is easy to get a vape illegally at a shop or online.
Nicotine is especially addictive for young brains. It can cause long-lasting negative effects on brain development and can include impaired attention,

learning, memory and changes in mood.

You can find out more about vaping from NSW Health.

Conversation Starters at Home

Start conversations about vaping with your child early. You could consider the following questions or conversation starters:

Are a lot of kids vaping at your school? Are your friends vaping?

Be sure you don’t react, just listen.

What do you think about vaping?

You may hear your child say that vaping is harmless. It’s important to share some good information with your child about the impacts of vaping.

Do you know what is in vapes?

Share with them that they’ve tested vapes and they do not contain only water vapor and flavouring. Vapes can contain very high levels of nicotine and other toxic chemicals that damage lungs.

Pastoral Care News & Safe on Social Media

Vapes, Social Media, and what parents can do to help schools

Vaping has become increasingly popular among Australian teenagers, with some studies indicating that over one in ten high school students have tried vaping. Schools often ask the Safe on Social team to speak about the danger of ordering vapes online.

We have opened our books and are taking applications for our VIP School programs. There are only ten places left available.

For more information please email wecanhelp@safeonsocial.com

Dates for your Diary

Please note the following dates for Term 1

Parent Teacher Student Interviews Yrs 7-11: 21 March
MCC Cross Country: 30 March
Open Night: Tuesday 4 April (week 10)
Last day of Term 1: Thursday 6th April

Return to school Term 2 dates:

Monday 24th April: Staff Development Day - No students attending
Tuesday 25th April: ANZAC Day Holiday: see details of marches in the Newsletter
Wednesday 26th April: All students return to College

COVID-19 information

Please note COVID-19 is still present in our community. Rapid Antigen Tests are still available at the College. If you require additional tests please contact the College Office.

Please be reminded that students and staff CANNOT attend school if they are showing any symptoms of COVID-19.

Students who are unwell

If a student is unwell, displaying any COVID-19 or cold and flu-like symptoms at any time, they CANNOT attend school and should undertake a rapid antigen test.

If the rapid antigen test is positive and the student is unwell and/or experiencing any symptoms, they CANNOT attend school.

If the rapid antigen test is positive and the student is not feeling unwell and not displaying or experiencing any symptoms, they CAN attend school under the following conditions:

the school office is informed of the positive test result, AND
the student (over 12 years old) wears a mask for a period of 7 days in all indoor settings.