By Mr Simon Fleming - Principal

A recent documentary entitled Tales from Tiger Town focuses on the Rugby League season of the West Tigers in 2021. The program has been the topic of discussion for a number of reasons, in particular, the role of the coach Michael Maguire. The Tigers have battled this season, and Maguire has been criticised for publically roasting his team as most people do not respond well to being put down and maligned. What motivates most people is positive reinforcement, certainty, and some clear guidance for ways to improve. No organisation flourishes surrounded by negativity. Many organisations that have high levels of interpersonal interactions, like schools, are now embracing the power of gratitude. 

I would like to highlight just some of the work being done by the staff at ACW and how they are going beyond to support our students. For some time, Mr Brady Retallick has been conducting workshops in the ITD building from 7.30am on a Thursday morning. Mrs Cate Tunstall (who travels from Toowoomba each day) has been providing extra support for Year 11 Maths methods commencing at 7.30am which every student has attended. Miss Wijesooriya held a special Senior music showcase last Friday afternoon and has been prepared to offer students extra tuition in her own time. Miss Brackin has done a great job taking on the role of Sports Organiser, also giving of her own time to support students at Touch Football and Hockey. Mrs Bennett and Mr Donnelly gave up many hours, often not arriving home until late at night, to take students to debating and public speaking in Toowoomba. Mr Baker gives his time every Thursday afternoon to support students at tutorials and runs an amazing Pastoral Competition each term giving up hours of his break times. I also often run into teachers at work on a Sunday preparing for the next week. These are just some examples of how this wonderful staff are demonstrating on a daily basis their commitment to the students at ACW and we should be rightfully proud of their efforts.

On Friday August 13 we celebrated the Feast of the Assumption by way of a College Mass conducted by Father Bony followed by our 2022 Student Leadership Induction. I would like to thank the community that gathered with us, and all involved in the preparation of what was a dignified occasion.

Kind Regards

Simon

By Ms Natalie Smith, Acting Deputy Principal

Wearing a uniform is a badge of pride, gives students a sense of belonging to a particular school and creates an identity for a school in the community, and is an important part of being a school student. Uniforms can also help students prepare for when they leave school and have to dress smartly or wear a uniform.

At this time of the term, we are focusing on the correct wearing of the uniform, in particular sports uniform, hats, and jewellery. Students have been reminded that they are to wear the full correct College uniform at all times. Students are to arrive at school in their day uniform and are required to change into their sports uniform at the start of Health and Physical Education and Drama lessons (when required) and change back into their school uniform immediately at the end of the lesson.

The College shade hat must be worn at both break times, the times of peak U.V. radiation. As well, students involved in activities outdoors during school time and at sports training after school must wear the College hat. This includes the Health & Physical Education classes.

The only items of jewellery permitted for girls are unobtrusive, plain gold or silver studs or sleepers, maximum of one per ear in the ear lobe. The only visible piercings should be in the ear. All other piercings are to be removed. A wristwatch and a simple neck chain with a religious crucifix only. Boys are to have no visible jewellery except a wristwatch and a simple neck chain with a religious crucifix only. Any infringement may result in confiscation. Confiscated jewellery is returned to students at the end of each term.

Of course, we understand that extraordinary things can happen and there may times where a student may not be able to wear the correct uniform while at school. Should this be the case or should you have any queries or concerns about uniform, please contact your student’s Pastoral Academic Leader or myself.

On Thursday, 18 August,  the College Leaders attended the Vietnam Veteran’s Day Ceremony at the Warwick War Memorial in Leslie Park commemorating the 55^th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. The address was delivered by Lieutenant Robert L Pares RAN & RANR, after which representatives from the Warwick RSL and Sub-Branch, along with Vietnam Veterans, the Police and Emergency Services, students from local schools and members of the general public were invited to lay wreaths and flowers.

Thank you to our College Leaders for representing our College so well.  Congratulations too, to Army cadets Darcy Pitstock, Libby Cooper and Regan Henderson for attending as part of the 17 ACU Warwick.

By Mr Michael Simpson - Assistant Principal - Curriculum 

Examination Tips

The end of term is always a busy time for students completing assessment. There are several exams that students need to prepare for, and I would like to outline some tips and tricks that can be discussed and utilised at home.

Begin studying early:

• Start thinking about the exam from the beginning of the course by listening for hints and tips
• Revise your notes after each class, so you have a clear and complete set to study from
• Start doing more revising about four weeks before your exams
• Don’t cram the night before—it’s ineffective because you won't retain much. You’ll also be tired and stressed when the time comes to actually sit the exam

Organise your time

• Make use of short study times. Fifteen minutes can be ideal for revising notes or looking through note cards.
• Don’t study for longer than 50 minutes without a break. It’s better to study for short intense periods with sustained concentration than long blocks of time when you are tired and not working effectively.
• Work out when you can study most effectively. Are you more alert in the morning or evening? Schedule study times that suit your personal rhythms.
• Don’t study when you’re really tired. It’s better to get a solid night’s sleep after a short study period than to push on until 2am. You won’t remember much and will be less effective the next day.

Organise your subject material

• Gather the materials for each course. Make sure you have a complete set of course notes and copies of any handouts, slides or visuals. Make sure they correspond to the topics in the course outline.
• If you’ve missed lessons, find out whether they have been recorded and catch up. Borrow copies of class notes from another student and review any lesson slides and handouts available. Make sure that you have copies of any extra readings or materials distributed in classes. Once you have a complete set of course materials, you can study by topic.

Rewrite your notes

• Rewriting your notes helps you to remember them. Don’t just copy out your original notes. The key is to read and think about the contents of your notes, what you noted down and why, and how to summarise your notes efficiently and memorably. Then rewrite them in your own words.
• When you finish studying a section of notes, ask yourself questions relating to the material to see if you remembered what you just read. It can help to answer your questions out loud as if you were trying to explain it to someone else.

Sort out what you don't understand

• Clarify the meaning of any words or concepts you don’t understand before trying to study them. If you aren’t clear about what the information means, memorising it won’t help.
• Prioritise the hardest subjects first in each study session. Allocate more time to studying the subjects you find most difficult.

By Mrs Carol Sharp, APRE

Year 12 Retreat

As you are no doubt aware, our Year 12 retreat was cancelled due to COVID lockdown restrictions. The spiritual formation that would have occurred on this camp has been rescheduled to occur as a one-day retreat here at ACW on Thursday, Sep 16^th. This date is the Thursday of week 10 of this term and will pose minimal disruption to students’ preparation for their external exams.

We are keenly aware that this group of students have missed multiple opportunities to engage in the more hands-on components of camps and outdoor activities over the past two years. They do have a ‘fun day’ scheduled to occur in Term 4 in their final week of school and we can only pray that whatever plans are made here are able to proceed without restriction or interruption.

Feast Day and Leadership Induction

A big thank-you to all those involved in our Feast Day celebrations and the Induction of our new 2022 student leaders. As usual, Fr. Bony stole the show, this time with his dance moves. The Year 11s have some work to do to catch up to Fr Bony’s hip and elbow shake. In amongst all the dancing was an important message about humility – the humility Our Lady always demonstrated. Fr Bony challenged them to, ‘be humble, because when we are humble, we are approachable and when we are approachable, we are teachable.’ What a lovely message to our new senior class as they consider how to lead the College forward.

Prayer

In keeping with our theme of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, this week’s prayer is to give thanks to God for the example Mary has provided.

Father in heaven,
all creation rightly gives you praise,
for all life and all holiness come from you.
In the plan of your wisdom
she who bore the Christ in her womb
was raised body and soul in glory to be with him in heaven.
May we follow her example in reflecting your holiness
and join in her hymn of endless love and praise.

And so we pray:

Hail Mary, full of grace.

The Lord is with you.

Blessed are you among women,

And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, mother of God,

Pray for us sinners now

And at the hour of death.

Amen.

by Miss Denise Ryan - Chaplain

While still living in a COVID world it can be hard as our lives can change at the drop of a hat and COVID-19 has touched each of us somehow. For many, it’s been a point of realisation that mental health is important and should be prioritised as we go about our daily lives. I loved this article from the World Economic Forum about caring for mental health in the midst of the pandemic.

Caring for mental health in the midst of the pandemic 

How often have you started work on a project, only to find your enthusiasm slipping after a couple of weeks? Don’t worry, it happens.

Tips to get and stay motivated.

• Find your inspiration

Finding inspiration is one of the best ways to get excited and pumped up about achieving your goals. So when you are struggling to stay motivated, remembering what all the hard work is for will help you to focus your attention and reignite your passion.

• Revisit your goals

It is important once you have set the goals and found the inspiration to achieve that you regularly check back in and see how you are travelling. That way you can make sure that you are still passionate about these goals.

• Take it one step at a time.

A lack of motivation can also happen if you’ve got too many things on the go at one time.  When you are revisiting your goals, make sure you’re focusing your attention on a couple of things at any one time.  

• Use positive talk

Don’t get down on yourself if you’re not feeling motivated. Being kind to yourself can have a huge impact on your mental health.  Simply replacing a negative thought like, ‘I can’t do this’ with, ‘Yes, I can! I’ve got this’, can make all the difference.

• Reward yourself

Depending on what your end goals are, there will be baby steps that you need to complete along the way, every time you reach a mini milestone, reward yourself!

Monday 16^th August saw seven ACW students participate at the Southern Downs Athletics Carnival at Allora. This was a massive day for under 12 years athletics and our students performed really well. Charlie Montgomery (pictured) received Runner Up for the 12 year boys which was an outstanding effort. Congratulations to Marty May, Charlie Montgomery, Jazmine Cruda, Gabriella Riordan, Lara Santo, Natalie Heineman and Archer Barret.

A thank you to Emily Phelan, Alexia Lever, Georgia Denny and Tom Doherty for the help across the day.

On Wednesday the 18^th August, over 50 students attended the Warwick Secondary Schools Sports Association’s 99th Annual Athletics Carnival. All of the students represented the College with great pride, and we were extremely proud to see such a high participation rate this year, with the carnival having been cancelled in 2020.

Leading up to the carnival, the students were in very high spirits and were super eager to participate in as many events as possible. We would like to congratulate all of the students on their achievements in the carnival, as well as acknowledging their positive behaviour throughout the day. 

The College would like to congratulate the following students on their outstanding achievements at the WSSSA Athletics Carnival.

• Natalie Heinemann – 12 Years Girls Runner Up Age Champion
• Charlie Montgomery – 12 Years Boys Age Champion
• Cooper Murray – 13 Years Boys Runner Up Age Champion
• Mikayla O’Neill – 14 Years Girls Runner Up Age Champion
• Denika Murray – 15 Years Girls Runner Up Age Champion

NEW RECORDS:

• Natalie Heinemann – Triple Jump
• Old Record – 7.94m
• New Record – 8.00m
• Denika Murray – Long Jump
• Old Record – 4.78m
• New Record – 4.93m
• Denika Murray – Triple Jump
• Old Record – 10.28m
• New Record – 10.74m

We would also like to congratulate the following students on their results from the Border District Athletics Carnival last week.

• Eli Costello – 14 Years Boys Age Champion
• Denika Murray – 15 Years Girls Age Champion

Miss Dimity Brackin 

Riding for the Disabled 

This year Assumption College has again had the pleasure of assisting the East State School students in the Riding for the Disabled program. 

Every Thursday afternoon under the direction of Mrs Butler, our students assist the primary students associate with, and ride the placid and friendly horses around an obstacle course at the Warwick Show Grounds. 

Our students have been a wonderful representation of the College as they have been friendly, respectful and helpful in being part of this important community service.

Year 6 Transition Afternoon

HPE & ITD Departments

Term 3 has been a very busy time for the Health & Physical Education and Industrial Technology & Design classes, with designing, creating and playing!

Year 7 HPE - Handball

Year 10 ITD - Country Clock

Year 8 HPE - Soccer/Futsal 

Year 9 HPE - Spikeball

Year 9 ITD - Designing Ecolamps 

Year 10 HPE - Touch Football

Year 11 Engineering - Toolbox 

Year 7 ITD - Pencil case

Enviromental Group

The Environmental Group meets once a fortnight on a Friday. They have been doing a great job halter training the alpacas. Last week they taught the alpacas how to walk up and down stairs and they even visited the year 7s in their classrooms. Great work, Enviro Group! 

New Mural for Sacred Space

This mural began last year and through the leadership of Isabel Natividad and the efforts of her team, Jorja Lepp and Keira Mitchell, across the last 8 months the work is finally finished! You can see it enhances the entrance to the prayer labryinth and is a welcome addition to the art and architecture of the College.

Isabell wrote her own explanation to share with you about the artwork:

"The mural is an ode to the schools’ multicultural students, and the desire to incorporate the values and beliefs of Assumption College with the culture of the traditional owners of the land.

The social collective of Assumption is shown thought the separate yet connected meeting places shown through the dot art featured in the mural. While showing the learning environment using the symbols that frame the courtyard.

We used the symbol for stars to represent the outstanding students in our school that achieve to their fullest.

This work of art was completed by me- Isabel Natividad-, Jorja Lepp and Keira Mitchell.

It was a fulfilling experience to be able to share my culture with not only the school but my peers to help create an understanding of Aboriginal culture and art."

Assumption College Fathers Day BBQ

Tuckshop Menu

2021 Early School Leavers survey

The Queensland Government is seeking the support of the school community for the annual survey of Years 10, 11 and 12 students who left school in 2020, before completing Year 12. This short, confidential survey collects information about what young people are doing the year after leaving school. The results of the survey help provide valuable information to improve services available to school leavers in the future.

Between August and September, these school leavers can expect to receive instructions to complete a web-based survey or a telephone call from the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office. Please encourage them to take part. If their contact details have changed, please assist the interviewer with their updated details or forward the survey to their new address so they can participate.

Thank you for your support of Next Step post-school destination surveys in 2021.

For more information, visit www.qld.gov.au/nextstep/ or telephone toll free on 1800 068 587.

BOOK WEEK is nearly here!  We have lots of exciting things planned, not only in the library, but out and about in the school too!  The theme for this year is ‘Old worlds, new worlds, other worlds’. A shout out to Zia and Kiera who has spent time drawing our dragon for next week.  Thanks girls!

As our focus is on books – here are a few titles new to the library.  If you ever wish to borrow books (we have a great selection of social, emotional and learning texts) please contact us on Assumptionlib@twb.catholic.edu.au and we can send them home with your student.

This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell.  20 lessons on how to wake up – take action and do the work. ‘A book that brings together kids, families, teachers and administrators in conversation.’

Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta. How indigenous thinking can save the world.  Tyson uses sand talk, which honours the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground, to bring clarity to complexity.  He challenges us to think differently – and save the world.

Over the Shop by JonArno Lawson is a wordless picture book.  A warm and subtly nuanced tale, it throws open the doors to what it means to accept people for who they are, it is a wordless examination of human souls.

Not All Heroes Wear Capes by Ben Brooks.  10 things we can learn from the ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, some cook for the hungry, some change lives by fundraising.  Full of ideas and stories about ordinary people who found their superpowers and used them for good.

Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd is a semi-autobiographical graphic novel featuring a girl with severe allergies who just wants to find the perfect pet.  Graphic novels develop and reinforce reading skills like inferencing, they are actually full of text and are engaging, they just have more images to support the development of the story.

Azaria a True History by Maree Coote is a beautifully illustrated non-fiction picture book. What happens when the truth gets lost, and how did it go so wrong?  A cautionary tale of mob thinking and the rush to judgement. It is a matter-of-fact retelling of a series of events, the lessons from Azaria are still just as important today.

We had the biggest game on record for Exploding Kittens this week and it is great to see some students are bringing in their own games to enjoy with their friends for our Wednesday device-free lunch times. 

By Mr Scott Clegg - Business Manager 

Family Discount Fees

The following discounts apply for families with children attending Assumption College Warwick.

• Families with two children attending Assumption College, first student charged full fee and a discount of 20% off the standard tuition fee for the 2nd student applies.
• Families with three children attending Assumption College, first two students charged full fees and a discount of 30% off the standard tuition fee for the 3rd student applies.
• Families with four or more children attending Assumption College, first three students charged full fees and a discount of 50% off the standard tuition fee for the 4th student applies.

There may be a variation to the level of discount that applies. For general account enquiries please contact the College Finance Officer or Business Manager on 07 4660 4000 between 9:00am and 4:00pm Monday to Friday.

Thank you,

Scott Clegg

By Mrs Jenny Gillespie

Body Kind Families?

Butterfly Foundation is the national charity for all Australians impacted by eating disorders and body image issues, and for the families and friends who support them.

Butterfly Foundation’s recent research has concluded that during the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a significant increase in body image issues, at risk eating patterns and eating disorders in young people.

“Body image is the third major personal concern of Australians aged 15-19, just behind stress and mental health and ahead of school or study problems and physical health. In fact, 33 per cent have serious concerns about body image”.

Although QLD has not seen the ‘worst’ of Covid-19, young people in QLD have unfortunately followed this national trend reporting higher rates of body dissatisfaction than previously.  But why?  The reasons are complex but certainly include increased exposure to media, particularly social media.

“The increased exposure to social media and heightened levels of stress and anxiety resulting from Covid-19 have placed young people at a significant risk of body dissatisfaction, which we know can develop into an eating disorder later in life.”

As parents, it can be hard sometimes to know how best to help prevent body dissatisfaction and ultimately, eating disorders from occurring.

Butterfly Foundation invites all parents and carers to join the free webinars providing information and tips on supporting your child's body image, including a brand new session specifically addressing young males.

Please see the community pages in this week’s newsletter for details of these free webinars.

To gain access to Butterfly Foundation’s Body Kind Families resources - videos, factsheets, family activities and audio content to help your family be body kind. Head to www.butterfly.org.au/bodykindfamilies.

Anyone needing support with eating disorders or body image issues is encouraged to contact Butterfly’s National Helpline 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673) or support@butterfly.org.au.

Come and play at St Mary's Kindergarten!

Free Webinar for Parents

Sustainable Living Workshop

Presented by Mark Delaney, co-author of 'Low Carbon and Loving It' for a two hour workshop offering practical insight on how to live sustainably in the modern world.  

When:  Sunday, 18th September 2021

Time:  1pm to 3pm 

Where:  St Mark's Church Hall, Grafton Street Warwick

Cost:  Free, followed by afternoon tea

To register please contact Susan Cruikshank by Wednesday 15th September 2021. Phone 0427 624 635 or email nifty50@y7mail.com