Term 3 Week 5 - Thursday 17th August 2023
Notes from the Principal
This week we announced the rest of our School Leadership Team for 2023 - 2024. The team, led by the School Captains, Lea and Alyssa, is made up of a number of Portfolio Leaders and House Leaders in Year 12, as well as Year 11 Assistant Leaders. The Leaders’ and Assistant Leaders’ names are here, along with the portfolio or House they will serve.
Mercy leadership is about service in the values we hold so dear at this school. We know these students will demonstrate mercy, excellence, hospitality, justice, courage and integrity throughout their leadership, and throughout their lives, and that they will inspire all of us to do likewise. We thank them for accepting this responsibility.
We look forward to conferring the leadership of the school onto these students at the Mercy Day Mass on 1st September 2023.
Yesterday at our Chapel Mass Fr Christian from Our Lady of Mt Carmel Wentworthville Parish gave a lovely homily based on the reading from Matthew (18:15-20) about how we relate to one another. I have included it here for your perusal.
I also take this opportunity to remind you and your daughters that Chapel Mass takes place every Wednesday morning at 8.00am either in Mercy Chapel or at La Valla Chapel at Parramatta Marist High School. All students from both schools are welcome to attend, even if they arrive a little late and miss the beginning.
Finally, the School Locker has announced the opening date for their new Blacktown Superstore. This will open on 25th August 2023. Further details are available below in the Need To Know section.
Best wishes to you all for a wonderful week.
Mary Refalo
Principal
The Term 4 2023 and 2024 Student Leadership Team
News from the School Captains
Hey, hey, hey McAuley! It’s your School Captains Jasmine and Jacinta.
Or rather, as we should say, your School Captains for the next few weeks. We are so excited to be able to congratulate Alyssa and Lea on being announced as the new School Captains for 2023-2024. We have complete faith that they will lead the school and their peers through the mercy values they embody and enact in their daily lives. As always we are excited to see what comes next in this school community and the amazing things we can accomplish.
Term 3 is always an exciting one at McAuley. On the 1st of September, the school community will celebrate Mercy Day, with the commissioning of the new leaders, school mass, and activities and dress up throughout the day following the theme for this year of: McAuley rewind! Mercy Day is an exciting and integral part of this school as it is a celebration of the anniversary of the opening of the first ‘House of Mercy’ by Catherine McAuley in 1827 in Dublin, Ireland. We acknowledge and celebrate this as it was the beginning of the long-lasting devotion to assisting the poor, sick and uneducated, continuing her legacy of caring and compassion in the name of mercy.
Whilst this term truly has some exciting things coming up, it has also seen the end of the Year 12 trial exams as well as some special achievements of note. The Year 7 debating team, excitedly, but unsurprisingly, made it all the way to the grand finals, finishing as runners-up of the CSDA debating competition! As members of this year's debating team ourselves, we are giving our utmost praise and admiration to the Year 7 students for being hardworking, intelligent, confident and resilient. We have had a number of successful stalls held this term to fundraise for Timor Leste including the Krispy Kreme stall, and the upcoming Father's Day stall in Week 7. On a similar note, the Year 9 Commerce students' market day is quickly approaching and sure to attract impressive sales and build the skills of these students.
It is true that there is never a dull moment in McAuley and we are excited to see what the remainder of the Class of 2023’s last term of school brings!
Until next time… stay merciful McAuley.
Jacinta Abdulahad and Jasmine Ong
School Captains
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:
Year 10 students experienced their Reflection Day on Friday. With the theme, ‘Be Shining Lamps To Others’, they listened to Dr Mariam Chaalam speak about feminism in the modern world, understood the distribution of the world’s financial resources in a city building activity, and shared Mass together in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Students enjoyed the day, but were also challenged by some of the concepts that were discussed. Thank you to the Year 10 RE teachers for organising this day for them.
Need To Know
Upcoming Fortnight
Term 3 Week 6
- School Photos -Sports, Music & Cocurricular
- Year 1o RYDA Excursion
- Year 10 Geography Excursion
- Year 10 History Incursion
- School Tour Open Morning
- Parents Representative Council Meeting
Term 3 Week 7
- PDSSSC Athletics Carnival
- Year 12 Modern History and History Extension In School Activity
- Music Captivate Cluster Class Excursion
- Bishop of Parramatta Student Excellence Awards
- MERCY DAY
