Dear Families

It’s Week 8, students are involved in a range of culminating tasks and assessments, teachers are heavily engaged with reporting and everyone is getting tired! And that’s just at school. Staff and students have a world outside the school environment that we often don’t know the full impact of.

Life moves fast, deadlines loom, tasks pile up and it can feel like you're carrying more than your fair share. Feeling overwhelmed is not a sign of weakness—it's a sign you're trying, you're caring and you're doing your best.

Coaching we provide for students is also relevant for adults; when you're feeling stretched, take a moment to pause. Breathe deeply. Break your tasks into small, manageable steps. Prioritise what truly matters, and remember that it's okay to ask for help. Progress doesn’t have to be perfect—it just has to be forward.

At our core, we believe in community and compassion. Whether you're a student, parent or staff member, you're not alone. Reach out, lean on those around you, and remind yourself: you’ve handled hard days before—and you will again.

Dear Lord
Guide us to be aware; of self and others.
Foster within us patience, tolerance, compassion and understanding.
Amen.

Week  8
Thursday, June 12

• 8:45 Year 5 Liturgy

Friday, June 13

• Feedback survey closes
• 8:30 Assembly

Saturday, June 14

• Catholic Diocese of Cairns Plenary Consultation
• 4:15 First Eucharist Preparation Session 3 
• 5:30 Parish Mass - celebrating the Sacrament of First Eucharist 

Week  9
Tuesday, June 17

• MoGC Has Talent auditions
• 8:30 Parent Engagement - Coffee on the Deck

Wednesday, June 18

• MoGC Has Talent auditions
• 4:00 Eisteddfod Literary Award Ceremony at Choral Society Hall

Thursday, June 19

• 8:45 Year 6 Liturgy

Friday, June 20

• 8:30 Assembly - Prep A leading Prayer 

Week  10
Tuesday, June 24

• 8:30 Parent Engagement - Coffee on the Deck

Wednesday, June 25

• Newsletter day
• Musician Gen Bryant visiting MoGC

Thursday, June 26

• Student reports available via the MyCE App

Friday, June 27

• 8:30 Assembly
• Whole school Hip Hop Concert
• Free Dress Day - sunsmart with school shoes
• Additional accessories welcome for the concerts
• 1:45 Hip Hop Concert - parent viewing

Saturday, June 28

• 5:30 Parish Mass

Confirmation was held at St Monica’s Cathedral on Thursday June 5. First Eucharist will be celebrated in two groups at Mother of Good Counsel Church. The first group will be on on Saturday 14 June starting at 5:30pm (straight after preparation session 3) and the second group will be on Saturday 19th July, also starting at 5:30pm.  

Pentecost

On Friday 6th June we had our Whole School Mass to celebrate Pentecost. Presiding over our Mass was Fr John (as Fr. Roy is on leave in India). Pentecost Sunday is the "fiftieth day," which concludes the season of Easter, the continuous single festival of the risen Christ.  Pentecost, the Jewish feast of harvest, also commemorates the giving of the Law of Moses.

It was the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles.  The event has been celebrated on this day at least since the third century.  The joy of Pentecost is that the risen Christ breathes upon the Church and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit".

Term 2 school fees have been emailed to families and payment was due last Friday, June 11, unless you have a direct debit in place. 

If you are having difficulty paying school fees, or experiencing hardship, please contact accounts.nthcairns@cns.catholic.edu.au so support can be discussed.

To ensure information is delivered efficiently and effectively, here is an outline of where to direct various information:

Student Absentee

When students are away for a period of time, this information can be communicated a number of ways:

• Through the MyCE app, notification is received at the office, and this absentee is directly transferred to the class teacher’s electronic roll.
• Phoning the office leaves a voicemail message retrieved by the secretary.
• Informing staff via email should include the student’s classroom teacher and secretary.nthcairns@catholic.edu.au to ensure rolls are accurate and to avoid receiving a text message.
• For personal/family absences longer than three days, parents are required to complete a Notification of Temporary Absence form.

Student Concerns

The classroom teacher is always the first point of contact for concerns and questions regarding student wellbeing, achievement, engagement and behaviour. Information gathered through email, and preferably a meeting, then determines other staff involvement.

The front office is not the most effective and efficient way to share this information, as staff may not be aware of historical events or contributing factors.

When making appointments with staff through the office, a brief outline of the purpose of the meeting is required.

Our Feedback Surveys close this Friday, June 13, and we currently have a response from 37% of parents. We would love to see this number grow and encourage families to share their thoughts and insights. The Feedback Survey is an important tool in providing information and data which assists in determining and refining all aspects of our operations and offerings at both the school and system levels. 

The link emailed is unique to your email address, and will make reference, by name, to the oldest child you have enrolled at MoGC. Reminders are sent every few days, if the survey has not been completed. If you did not receive this survey, please check your spam. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

In Term 2, as part of their Arts curriculum, students participate in Hip Hop lessons with Miss Sian from Step It Up Crew. Each year, these lessons culminate in a Hip Hop concert. Families are invited to attend a concert on Friday, June 27 in the Hall from 1:45pm. 

Students are invited to wear casual dress on this day, with their usual school shoes, and encouraged to pack hats, sunnies, gloves, vests, jackets etc to accessorise.

Each class will enter the hall, present their dance, and exit straight away. To minimise disruption and ensure the concert runs on time, parents are encouraged to remain for the full duration of the concert. It is a fabulous hour of entertainment!

This Semester, schools in the Cairns Diocese are moving to a new reporting platform - The Learning Dashboard (TLD). 

Rather than accessing a PDF report, The Learning Dashboard will provide your child's report through a web interface, accessible via mobile phone, tablet or computer.

The new system brings some small changes and improvements to the look and feel of the previous student reporting system. 

• TLD follows students across CEDC schools, enabling parents to maintain visibility of academic reports throughout their primary and secondary school years.
• With the click of a button, parents can see comparative cohort information about their child.
• Parents can create a PDF copy of the report for their records.
• Students will no longer receive strand achievement judgements in Science and HASS. These learning areas will only receive an overall result.
• Students will receive a General Comment that provides an overall, individualised comment highlighting growth, progress and a goal to focus ongoing improvement.
• From Thursday June 26, parents can access reports through the Parent Portal, MyCE application and The Learning Dashboard website, using their Parent Portal credentials.

Reports from previous years remain accessible through the Parent Portal. 

 MOGC HAS TALENT AUDITIONS! 

It is that time of year again-talent show time!  Auditions will begin in Week 8.  If you are keen to show your talent on stage, grab some friends, get rehearsing and be part of the 2025 Mogc Has Talent!

Where?  THE HALL 

When?  FIRST LUNCH TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY from Week 8, Term 2 

Who?  See Mrs. B or Mrs. Cooper for details

What?  Show us 30 seconds of your rehearsed performance-dancing, singing, jokes, acrobatics, magic tricks, acting, playing an instrument or any other talent that can be showcased on stage! 

If you would like to submit a video instead of performing on stage to be 

part of the talent show, please email your video to Mrs. B: 

ebuchan@cns.cathololic.edu.au 

Keep it short and sweet-30 seconds or so.  Anything goes:  dog tricks, acrobatics, artwork, photography, trampoline tricks, 

skateboarding or scooter skills, juggling, singing, cooking, downhill riding, animation, etc. 

We look forward to seeing all the exciting talents MOGC has to offer this year!  

Mrs. B & Mrs. Cooper

On Thursday, May 29, we had our Athletics Carnival, and what a day it was! The sun was warm, the breeze was cool, and sportsmanship and team spirit were consistently on display! It was great to gather as a community of students, staff and families under a sea of Blue, Yellow and Red.

We are grateful to so many people that help make this event a success:

• Students! For turning up and representing yourselves and teams so well. There were wins, losses, tumbles, celebrations and disappointment, which were managed with humility and resilience! The scores were SO close throughout the day indicating the high level of participation by everyone!
• Parents! Who attended in huge numbers. Your ongoing support of your children and our school is appreciated. Thank you in particular to those who were able to help out at the field and novelty events, and in the canteen. The kids love seeing you as part of the day.
• Staff! What an incredible bunch who always turn up for our kids and each other. Every member of staff had an integral role to play - supervision, scoring, manning the canteen, running events, first aid…It’s a long day in the sun, however seeing the kids give their everything brings a great feeling of enjoyment and pride. A very special mention to Amy Chapman for her preparation, planning and coordination to pull this event together.

While everyone had a win of some sort on the day, the final scores were:

1st - Barron: 657

2nd - Savannah: 650

3rd - Palmer: 504

AGE CHAMPIONS

Chess Champions

On Thursday, June 5 the MoGC Chess Team competed at the Interschool Gardiner Chess Competition. There were over 500 chess players from throughout the Cairns district competing on the day. Toms, Tyche, Johnny and Lachlan formed one team and Tayo and Teddy formed the second. Our teams were competing up a division this year and continued their strong performances of the past. Our MoGC team of four won their division, with Toms coming first overall, Tayo 4th and Tyche 5th. Johnny, Lachlan and Teddy also performed very strongly ensuring that their team came out on top on the day. Well done boys! 

On Saturday, The Far North Queensland Junior Championships were held. In the Junior Novice section, Christian, Amreen, Savan and Zephyr competed. Christian was awarded 2nd place out of 53 competitors, an amazing performance! In the Junior Open division Toms and Johnny competed, with Toms coming 2nd. Chess is alive and well at MoGC! Congratulations to all involved.

A huge thank you to Mrs Miranda Calatzis for her mentoring and guidance of our budding chess players. 

Masters Games

Congratulations to our amazing parents and staff who competed at the recent Great Barrier Reef Masters Games. It is inspiring to see your ongoing passion for sport and engaging in an active lifestyle. What great role models for your children!

World Open Skiff Event

Hi my name is Isabella Del Favero and I’m in 6B. I have been sailing Open Skiff dinghies for three years with my home club, Tinaroo Sailing Club. I attended my first National competition this year in January in Melbourne. I qualified as first position in the U13 age division for the Australian Team. 

The team is competing at the World Event in Nishinomiya (Japan) at the beginning of Term 3. I will be competing against kids from Japan, Thailand, Italy, France, Poland, USA, Canada, New Zealand and India. My sister Frankie is also competing in the U17 age division. 

We have quite a special Australia team this year as 8 out of the 11 kids qualified and selected for the team are girls which is pretty outstanding. Three of us come from Tinaroo Sailing Club in North Queensland. We are also taking our coach Breanne Wadley to the event who has won several world championships of her own in the class. I look forward to sharing some photos and telling you about the event and when I get back to school next term. 

On Wednesday, June 4 the cyclists involved in this year's Tour de Cure visited MoGC. The peloton was riding from Airlie Beach to Port Douglas and dropped in to speak to the students.

Their mission at Tour de Cure is clear: is to cure cancer this lifetime. 

‘One way we do this is to place emphasis on prevention. One in three cancers is preventable by leading a healthy lifestyle. During our cycling tours, we endeavour to spread our mission and educate with our ‘Be Fit - Be Healthy - Be Happy’ presentation for primary aged students. 

Our Schools’ Program aims to encourage healthy patterns of behaviour:

• To promote physical activity    
  
• To emphasise informed decision making leading to effective and responsible action   

• To inform about physical, social, cognitive and emotional growth and development patterns    

• To promote the factors influencing personal health choices    

• To encourage the adoption of an active lifestyle.   

To date, Tour de Cure has raised $145 million, funded 1198 cancer projects and educated over 180,000 children on how to lead a healthy lifestyle. We’re proud to have contributed to 185 scientific cancer breakthroughs.’

So far this tour has raised almost $1.7 million! If you would like to support this worthy cause, please donate here.

Our next MoGC Connect meeting is scheduled for 5:30 on Wednesday, July 23

in the Multipurpose Room, above the library. You are warmly invited. 

Agenda items can be emailed to mogc.connect@cnsstu.catholic.edu.au

Coffee on the Deck

Parents and carers are invited to join us for Coffee on the Deck each Tuesday

between 8:30 and 9:00. This is a great opportunity to chat with staff and meet other families.

The Fathering Project

It’s easy to assume that the big events - holidays, outings, or milestone moments - are what your child will remember most. But often, it’s the little things that leave the biggest mark. Bedtime stories, backyard games, silly jokes at dinner, these everyday interactions help your child feel safe, seen, and truly connected to you.

Move your body, boost your mood

Physical activity doesn’t just help your body, it’s good for your mind too. Regular movement can lift your mood, improve your sleep, boost energy levels, and reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. And when you get active with your kids, you’re role modelling healthy habits and building connections.

Try this: Choose one activity this week that gets everyone moving - like a post-dinner walk, a dance-off in the living room, or a backyard footy match. You’ll boost everyone’s mood and create a fun, active routine together!

Happy Families

Mother of Good Counsel subscribes to Happy Families (previously known as Parenting Ideas), one of Australia's most trusted sources of parenting education and support. This subscription provides families with Insight articles (published here each fortnight) and opportunities to attend FREE online webinars.

Insight articles:

Managing Fatigue as a Parent

Managing Fatigue as a Parent

Managing Fatigue as a Parent 549.08 KB

Present Dads, Healthy Kids

Present Dads, Healthy Kids

Present Dads, Healthy Kids 524.98 KB

Parent Contacts 

If you have a question about your child’s year level, are looking for information or need some guidance on where to direct an enquiry, these parents contacts are happy for you to reach out to them:

Prep: Stacey Watt staceylwatt@outlook.com	Year 1: Louise Bernstein: louise.bernstein@blueoceanic.com
Yr 1: Emma Smith: emmajb21@hotmail.com Yr 3: Paula Kelly: paulajkelly81@gmail.com	Yr 2: James Rickman jamesrickman@yahoo.com.au
Yr 4: Jenny Gangell jenny.gangell@gmail.com	Yr 5: Joeleen Bettini joeleenb1@bigpond.com  Bindi Cooper coopernb@outlook.com
Yr 6: Kate & Carl Vogler: katevogler@hotmail.com

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK