Term 1 Week 9 - Thursday 23rd March 2023
Notes from the Principal
This week we celebrated Harmony Day in Australia; an opportunity to acknowledge and honour our differences and to recognise that when we live in harmony, we are a stronger, happier people. The tag line for Harmony Day is ‘Everyone Belongs’.
At Catherine McAuley we enjoy a great diversity in the families who belong to this community, and realise that it is an important part of our richness and our success. We encourage harmony in our diversity, and rather than focus on individual differences, we look at what we have in common. At school we celebrate our Catholic Mercy womanhood and the strength it gives us to be competent future leaders of our world. Within this, we celebrate the things we do well and strive to accomplish things we need to work at.
In your family conversations this week, I ask you to speak to your daughters about the potential for unity and strength that can come from being in harmony with one another.
I hope you have a lovely week.
Mary Refalo
Principal
News from the Assistant Principal
Harmony Day Activities
The theme for 2023 Harmony Day was ‘Living in Harmony’. Student Leaders have been meeting throughout the term to discuss activities they could put in place that highlights the importance of this year’s theme. The activities focused on getting to know each other. On Monday, 20th March in Homeroom students prepared to celebrate Harmony Day on Tuesday with an activity organised by the Social Justice leaders. In Homeroom each student received a small blank flag on which they designed using colour to represent their country of choice. Each Homeroom received a blank world map, on which students placed their individual flags. Students were encouraged to discuss what they appreciated or admired about their culture during this activity. This activity encouraged further discussion during Homeroom on the importance of having an appreciation for different cultures in the community. On Tuesday morning a Grade Chat was run by Hospitality leaders during Homeroom with Year 8 and Year 10 students. The Hospitality leaders had provided sentence starters to encourage conversation.
At lunchtime cultural music was played over the PA and students were encouraged to bring cultural food to share. Students were also encouraged to wear an orange ribbon, the colour for Harmony Day across the world.
Resources for Parents
For over 10 years the school has worked with Dr Prue Salter in the area of study skills and on occasions throughout the year shared information with parents and carers that may assist with conversations regarding a range of topics including approaches to study, making study notes, the importance of sleep and how to be organised. This year the school is working with the cybersafety experts from Safe on Social. This resource has easy to follow and informative tips for parents that we will include in the 'Need to Know' section of the News Weekly. This week's 'Tip for Parents' is on 'Mitigating Risks of Allowing Children to Use Personal Mobile Devices'. I hope these pieces of information will be of assistance to parents in managing their own and their families' social media platforms and generally staying safe when using social media.
Bus Safety
Catherine McAuley and Parramatta Marist are working together to address the overcrowding in the afternoon at the Westmead Hospital T-way where students catch the bus to the Hills area. These buses come every couple of minutes so students do not need to be on the first bus.
We ask if your daughter catches buses from this stop that they wait until it is safe to board the bus. Currently students are pushing to try and get on the first bus that arrives causing students to spill onto the road. We have rearranged the way students exit in the afternoon to avoid all students arriving at the bus stop at the same time.
Students also need to remember this is a public bus stop and at times elderly or unwell people are trying to board the bus. As stated last week it is essential that students tap on and off all forms of public transport.
Debbie Grigson
Assistant Principal
Pray With Us
News Articles
This Week on Social Media
Follow Catherine McAuley Westmead on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for regular updates. One of the posts from this week is shown below:
Around the Classrooms - The Year 10 English class of Ms Shipley have been busy completing an escape room. To finish off their novel study on ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, the students completed a number of tasks, testing their knowledge and understanding of key characters, ideas and situations within the text.
Ms Shipley said that the students were challenged and engaged by this activity as they had to work in groups to solve problems and crack codes. “This was a great way to finish off our first unit”, she said.
Need To Know
Upcoming Fortnight
Term 1 Week 10
- Year 12 Half Yearly Assessment Block
- Year 9 Dance Excursion
- Year 9 Global Connections Excursion
- Year 7 Vaccination Program
- NSWCCC Swimming Championships
Term 1 Week 11
- Year 12 Half Yearly Assessment Block
- NSWCCC Touch Football Championships
- Term 1 Ends
- Good Friday