As we enter the last two weeks of another busy term, I would like to take the opportunity to reflect on a few activities that showcase our holistic approach to Learning and Wellbeing here at Mount Carmel. 

Since Week 2 of this term, students in Years 8, 9 and 10 have been involved in a process of selecting subjects for 2024. This includes Preliminary and HSC patterns of study for our current Year 10 cohort for 2024, the selection of 2 elective courses for Year 9 2024 and opportunities to engage in 100 hour elective courses for those students in Year 10 2024 who may wish to explore a broader range of elective options. CatholicCare Parent info night centred around “Supporting Teens with Friendships. This process involved assemblies, information evenings and meetings with KLA teachers and Coordinators to provide clarification and support with these very important choices. Thanks to Ms Miller, Ms Toogood and all Coordinators and teaching staff for their involvement in this process and for the cooperation and patience of students and carers throughout the past few weeks.

The end of the term also sees the culmination of another MISA representative sport season. We have had a number of teams again make Grand Finals of their respective competitions, which Mr Webb will provide more details of in his Sports section of the newsletter. I would like to extend a huge thanks to Mr Webb, Coaches and participating students for their contribution to our representative sports program and thank them for their commitment to the past season.

Finally, last night saw a first for Mount Carmel, with a presentation by our CatholicCare Counselling team to parents and carers. As has been advertised over the past month or so in our Newsletter, the focus of the evening was titled “Supporting teens with friendships”. Particular areas of discussion involved:

• Supporting your child to develop Resilience
• How to support your child in developing friendships.
• How to manage conflict in friendships and look at online/social media friendships.

Thanks to Mrs Moore and the CatholicCare team for the organisation and presentation of information and also to those parents and carers who attended. We anticipate that there will be more opportunities in the future to provide evenings of this nature aimed at supporting the wellbeing and social development of our students.

As we head towards the end of Term 3, a quick glance ahead in our calendar sees a number of key events occurring as we head towards our break. These include:

• Preliminary Exams commence next Monday. We wish our Year 11 students every success with their last assessments of the Preliminary course.
• Years 7 to 10 Term 3 Tracking Reports will be completed by staff over the next 2 weeks. These will give an overview of student progress over the past erm and will be released to students and families on the last day of term. 
• R U OK Day - next Thursday 14 September. Thanks to Ms Nguyen and the Youth Ministry Team for their work in promoting R U OK Day and raising awareness for this year’s theme “I am here to hear”.
• Year 12’s last 2 weeks of official classes will come to a close in Week 10. Their last day is Wednesday September 20, which will involve a whole school Graduation Mass in the morning and a Graduation Ceremony that evening. 

Finally, a reminder that winter uniform is to be worn until the end of the term. Week One of next term will see a return to Summer Uniform.

Thanks for your ongoing support with all matters relating to Learning and Wellbeing. As always, please contact your son or daughter’s respective Year Coordinator or Pastoral Advisor should you have any questions or concerns.