2 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message:

By Mr Kort Goodman - Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2018 school year. I hope that all families have had a wonderful holiday period and are refreshed and energised for the beginning of the school year. We certainly have started the year with a bang with Year 7 Orientation Days, Full College Assembly, Year 7 Information Evening, Welcome BBQ, ID Photo Day, Laptop Information Evening, Inter-house Swimming Carnival and Year 12 Academic Interviews all being held during our first two weeks.

At our first assembly during week 1, I spoke to the students about the importance of working with the staff of the College to take advantage of the numerous opportunities they are afforded each day. I highlighted the fact that as a College we have added three new roles to our staffing to assist the students to make the most of these opportunities and continue to strive to do their best. However, for the students to get the most out of their faith, educational, cultural and sporting experiences they must maximise their attendance on normal school days and at special school days and events. We want all of our students to be in attendance every day participating in learning and special events while supporting each other as we continue to grow a culture of striving to be the best we can be each day.

Best wishes.
Kort

Student Protection Contacts

Diocese of Toowoomba Catholic schools firmly believes that Student Protection is everybody’s business. The safety and wellbeing of our students is of paramount importance.

The Diocese of Toowoomba Catholic Schools has Student Protection Processes and Guidelines in place in all of our 31 schools. These procedures reflect legislative and regulatory reporting requirements, and the policies of Toowoomba Catholic Schools. All staff are trained in these processes and all of our schools have at least two nominated staff members, known as Student Protection Contacts, from whom students and staff can access support and advice.

At Assumption College Warwick our student protection contacts are; Mrs Julie Collins, Ms Suzy Krause, Mrs Jenny Gillespie and Mr Craig Frattini. All students at our College are aware of who these staff members are and how they can be contacted. Further information regarding student protection policy and procedures can be accessed via the link below:

St James Hall Renovations & New Manual Arts and College Sports Hall Construction

Thanks to Mr Ian Kauter, Mr Scott Clegg and Dean McCarthy Constructions, over the holidays we have been able to have renovations including the installation of air-conditioning all but completed on the St James Hall. This hall is used for drama classes and performances as well as other College events and we are very much looking forward to being able to return to using it when it is completed in the next couple of weeks.

In addition to these renovations we have moved into the tender process for the construction of our new two storey manual arts, sports hall, outdoor courts and flexible learning areas project. This multi storey building will be constructed where the current manual arts shed is, with the sports hall opening up to two full size outdoor sports courts.

Once completed later in the year this facility will complete stage two or our six stage master plan program providing our students with further outstanding facilities to utilise for their learning.

Have a lovely week
Kort

TERM 1 – 2018 DATE CLAIMERS

APRE News:

By Mrs Kate Cullen, APRE

Welcome to Term 1, 2018

Next week we will be:

• Celebrating our opening mass for the year inducting our Year 12 Cohort as our leaders for the year and acknowledging the academic award winners from last year. Thank you to all family and friends who are able to make it to this day. Mass begins at 9:30.Participating in the Year 12 Still Life Retreat with our adventurous Year 12 students. They will spend their “Still Life” time till Wednesday; reflecting on their leadership role at the College, examining their goals for this year, reflecting on how they got to now and what their hopes are in the next 5, 10 years, and also completing some fun group challenge games and activities to find a champion Here it Goes Again Winning Team!
• Attending the Youth Mass with schools across Toowoomba with the Year 12 volunteers
• Participating in a Social Justice Leadership Day on the Friday with a group of 6 students.

Coming soon:

• Ash Wednesday Liturgy on Wednesday the 14th of February during pastoral care time
• Launch of the Project Compassion Lent appeal from 14th Feb until the Easter Holidays
• Year 7 and 8 Hatch Retreats on the 27th and 28th of February respectively
• Year 11 and 12 SOR excursion to the Buddhist Temple in Priestdale Brisbane and ACU campus to explore aspects of the Sacred Texts unit students are currently studying.
• Easter Liturgy on Monday the 26th March.

Bibles For Religion Classes

Just to let parents know, in the last couple of years we have changed our booklist from all students being required to bring a Good News Catholic Edition Bible with them to school to students bringing one they already have from primary if they choose to. In classrooms we can access class sets of the Catholic Youth Study Bible and more often use the Biblegateway website to examine scripture with students.

Last week on assembly I spoke to students about using the biblegateway website and making sure they chose a translation known as the New Catholic Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. Parents may wish to view the resource via the link below:

Henri Nouwen Reflection: Choosing Joy

Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it.

What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.

Curriculum News:

By Mrs Anna Hardy,, Assistant Principal—Curriculum

Thank-you to all the Year 7 students and parents who attended our Parent IT/Curriculum Information Night. A reminder to contact us at the College if you have questions.

Academic Certificates: Students who have achieved an A in any subject in Semester 2 2017 were presented with Academic Excellence Certificates today in assembly. Congratulations to all these students, it is wonderful to see so many students achieving such high results in their subjects. Invitations have been sent to student and parents for our Academic Pin Ceremony on the 5th February. This will occur after the graduation mass at St Mary’s church.

Tutoring – The College will run a tutoring program again this year, each Thursday afternoon from 3:15pm – 4:00pm in the library. A few staff across subject areas will be present to help with classwork, homework and assessment. It is a valuable opportunity and we hope that students will make use of the sessions.

Assessment calendars will be made available on the College website in the coming week. The assessment calendars are a great tool to plan and manage time and studies. I strongly encourage students and parents to use these to assist in planning and preparing for assessment. They could possibly help to avoid some of the last minute, late night assignment sessions!

Assessment policy: please familiarise yourself with the assessment policy found on the College website. Note that parents will receive a SMS to their nominated mobile phone number if assessment has not been handed in. For final copies a follow up email or phone from the teacher will proceed this SMS. We urge parents to ensure that our office has the correct mobile phone number and to contact us if they have any queries around this procedure.

NAPLAN occurs in May each year for Years 7 and 9 students. If your child needs their test papers in alternate formats such as large font, or may require any other special requirements please contact Karyn Morrison or myself.

2019 senior schooling information evening for our current year 10 students entering year 11 in 2019 under the new QCE senior schooling system will be held next Tuesday night at 5:30pm. This will be the first of our information sessions for parents. All are welcome!

Sport News

By Mrs Julie Collins, Program Leader Sport

Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to all those students who supported, competed or participated so enthusiastically in the carnival. Thank you for displaying such positive behaviour throughout the event.

Many thanks to the College staff for your support in ensuring a smooth run carnival.

Sports dates are listed below. Please note any changes to trials/carnivals will be updated weekly in the newsletter.

Swimming Carnival Results

Assumption College Interhouse Relay Competition Winning House: Rice

Interhouse Competition Winning House – Rice

“Lee Gunderman” House Spirit Award: Donovan

House Spirit Award Winner: Donovan

Age Champions:

12 Years (Girls): Alyssa White
12 Years (Boys): Ryan Fischer
13 Years (Girls): Lily Osborne
13 Years (Boys): Jackson Pitstock
14 Years (Girls): Ella Briggs
14 Years (Boys): Christopher Watt
15 Years (Girls): Faith Kelly
15 Years (Boys): Luke Hauff
16 Years (Girls): Caitlin Skaines
16 Years (Boys): Matthew Blakemore
Open (Girls): Mary Higgins
Open (Boys): Seamus Ryan

Swimming Carnival Age Champions

Runner’s Up :

12 Years (Girls): Casey-Lee Shelton
12 Years (Boys): Bevan Costello
13 Years (Girls): Abigail Skaines
13 Years (Boys): Matthew Watt
14 Years (Girls): Nella Ryan
14 Years (Boys): Joseph Bange
15 Years (Girls): Holly Roche
15 Years (Boys): Morgan Byrne
16 Years (Girls): Paige Bain
16 Years (Boys): Ben Fischer
Open (Girls): Grace Parsons
Open (Boys): Nicholas Blakemore

Swimming Carnival Runners Up

Broken Records Swimming 2018

SPORTS DATES

Business News:

By Mr Scott Clegg, Business Manager.

Term 1 school fees will be posted this week and are due by 2nd March. If you have any concerns over your account please contact our Business Manager Mr Scott Clegg on 4660 4000.

Parent Portal

Parents/Guardians of the new students to our College, will receive details about our Parent Portal including their associated logon and passwords. These details are attached to the College school fees accounts for Term 1 that we recently sent out to you. If you have any queries about the Parent Portal, please contact our Finance Officer, Mrs Toni Cox by phone on 07 4660 4000 or by email at toni.cox@twb.catholic.edu.au

Library News:

By Mrs Mary-anne Driver, Library Assistant

The library has undergone a transformation with heaps more books, more shelves and lovely sitting areas. This term we welcome Mrs Mary-anne Driver each Wednesday, Thursday and Friday while Mrs Cantwell is on leave. There will be planned activities in the library in the first break for those students who want to hide from the heat, discover new facts or simply socialise! Board games, craft, and lots more will be on offer with the week’s planned activities on display in the library and in the breezeway.

The library is open from:

Monday and Tuesday: 8.30 am to 3.15pm
Wednesday to Friday: 8.00 am to 3.30pm

School Counsellor News:

By Mrs Jenny Gillespie, School Counsellor

Welcome to 2018 at Assumption College. Below I have included some transition information specifically for families new to Assumption College. Moving from primary to secondary school, or beginning at a new secondary school, is a transition with many tasks involved along the way.

Relationships

Your child will need to meet new peers and make new friends, and establish or re-establish their position within a peer group.

Schoolwork

Your child will need to adapt to new teaching and assessment styles, become acquainted with new subjects, adjust to having different teachers in different classrooms, become more responsible for their own learning, manage a different school and homework load, and follow a new timetable.

Getting around

Your child will have to adjust to their new school campus, find their way around, get to class on time with the right books and materials, and perhaps new transport arrangements.

It can be a time full of fun, excitement and new experiences, but it can also be challenging or worrying for some students.

Students may have mixed feelings about starting secondary (or moving to a new) school. They might be:

• excited about new friends, subjects and teachers
• nervous about learning new routines, making new friends or wearing the new uniform
• worried about handling the workload or not fitting in.

You might also worry about these issues, and about whether your child will have the confidence and skills to handle them. These worries are all normal and will generally fade over time as kids become familiar with their new school environment.

When students are making the move to a new school, you have the biggest influence on how smooth the transition is. Your child’s friends do influence how your child feels about the move, but your support has stronger and longer-lasting effects. Keep talking with your young person about their new school, normalise their worries but also convey the message that not only do they have your support, school staff are there to help and can be approached for help as needed. By the end of first semester, most students will have settled well into their new school environment.

General Notices:

New Teaching Staff

We would like to welcome our new teaching staff to the College.

Back (Left to Right): Mr Phillip Yates, Mr Matt Kirby and Mr Paul Bernardi.
Front (Left to Right): Miss Annette Nicholson, Ms Wendy Watkins and Miss Claire Molkentin.

Uniform Shop

The Uniform Shop has two new convenors this year – Mrs Catherine Willet and Ms Marie Curoopen. We welcome these ladies to their new positions.

The opening hours for the uniform shop will now be as follows:

Wednesday: 7:30am – 9:00am
Friday: 7:30am – 9:00am

Tuckshop Menu Ash Wednesday

Tuckshop has a meat free menu on Ash Wednesday Feb 14th.

All students purchasing lunch MUST ORDER.

All prepared food must be ordered or students will miss out.

Students can order from Tuckshop from 8.30

Drinks, chips slushies, slices etc will still be available as normal at both breaks.

Football (Soccer) Training

We are holding Football training for the 2018 season, here at the college oval, on Tuesday’s at 3.30pm-4.30pm; commencing Tuesday 6th February 2018.

We are looking forward to a great season with a number of school based tournaments to be played throughout the year. We are also hoping to incorporate Futsal tournaments into our football program this year too. If you would like to be part of this program, please come along to training. We are looking at increasing the number of players available for the tournaments, so if you know of any other students that you think may want to see if they suit football, please encourage them to join us. All students are welcome. Any student who wishes to participate in training, will be required to have parent/guardian permission to do so. Permission slips will be available from the College office from 01/02/2018 or by contacting Scott Clegg or Simon Mascadri at the College.

ITD Dog Kennels For Sale

Last year our Year 11 ITD students had a semester of researching and constructing group projects which included some fantastic dog kennels. These dog kennels are now up for sale with all proceeds going back into tools and accessories for the ITD workshop. Please contact the school if you are interested in purchasing one of these dog kennels for your pet!

Environmental Committee

On Thursday, 30 November, members of the Environmental committee met with the federal Member for Maranoa, David Littleproud. The purpose of the meeting was to hand over the ‘Caritas Community Climate Change Petition’, which was signed by over 250 members of the Assumption College community. We asked Mr Littleproud to present the petition to parliament at the earliest convenience.

The Petition asks the House of Representatives to do all in its power to protect communities in Australia, and our region, from the harmful impacts of climate change by:

• Committing to deeper and more urgent reductions of our greenhouse emissions;
• Developing a plan to ensure Australia achieves zero net greenhouse emissions before 2050, and supporting families and communities affected by the transition towards renewable energy and more sustainable land use;
• Providing additional assistance to help our poorest neighbours adapt to the harmful impacts of climate change.

Mr Littleproud acknowledged the concerns of the Environmental Committee and outlined a number of strategies the federal government has, and will implement to address these concerns.\

The Environmental Committee is looking forward to continuing to educate and implement strategies within the Assumption College community in 2018.

Pink Stumps Day

Community Service Events

Congratulations and thank you

Towards the end of last year a group of Assumption College students volunteered their time and talents to be a part of community events. Betty-Rose Carey beautifully performed a poem at the St Mary’s Parish Christmas Party along with Diev Sorono, Faith Kelly and Olivia Smith who showcased a dance routine.

In addition our students gave up their time to rehearse and perform for the Warwick Christmas Carols. Flynn Donaldson sang and played his rendition of classic carols while Faith Kelly, Deiv Sorono, Cassidy Henry, Olivia Smith and Maddi Farrell presented an upbeat dance choreographed by themselves, with Mrs Searson, during their lunch breaks last year.

The involvement of these students in the mentioned community events was a testament to themselves and the Assumption College community.

St Mary’s Catholic Parish:

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