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Term 2, 2021
 
National Reconciliation Week

We celebrated National Reconciliation Week from Thursday 27th May to Thursday 3rd June. This year’s theme was More Than a Word; Reconciliation Takes Action, reminding us all that talking the talk does little to create meaningful change if we don’t then walk the walk.

  

Our main activity this National Reconciliation Week was to create three Reconciliation Action Trees in the Junior Library, The Hub and the Staff Centre. This activity encouraged the school community to think of something they could do, are doing, or could do better, to assist in reconciliation and to write it on a leaf to attach to the branches of our trees to symbolise that all of our actions contribute to growing a respectful, inclusive, and reconciled society.

We also asked all Year 5-12 homerooms to write their own Acknowledgement of Country which will be displayed in their rooms and used during their homeroom sessions year round as a reminder that the journey towards reconciliation exists all the time, not only during National Reconciliation Week.
 


 

On Wednesday 2nd June we celebrated as a school community with our National Reconciliation Week Assembly, which kicked off with a moving Acknowledgement of Country written by 12G and read by Isabella Gaston and Jayke Ferguson with a special didgeridoo performance by Xavier Spry-De La Cruz and Kauri Bedggood. The Assembly was hosted by Ella Dedaunton and Felix Kuttainen with special guest speaker Floyd Gillin from Yalga Cultural Mentoring who shared some inspiring words about this year’s theme and the much overlooked importance of the first follower - the person who turns that solitary person making a statement into the leader of a movement. Emily Clark in Year 9 made a special presentation on Mabo Day commemorating this special significant day for North Queensland and our deadly 6C gave us a lovely rendition of the Louis Armstrong favourite 'What a Wonderful World' complete with dance moves. Brianna Cassady in Year 11 spoke about the history and significance of damper, before we shared some with students as they exited the hall thanks to the tireless baking effort of one of our Indigenous parents, Alan Jenkins.

Staff wearing their Indigenous shirts for the National Reconciliation Week assembly.
Burara Mentoring Program

Well-being Workshop


On Wednesday evening 12th May, we ran a well-being workshop as part of our Burara Mentoring Program. Students and their mentors spent some time reflecting on questions about well-being and then we were privileged to have a guest speaker, Forensic Psychologist Gayle Roe and her team mate, Naevia (a kelpie cross border collie therapy dog) who spent some time with the students and mentors of our Burara program yarning about resilience and her own personal journey.



The annual Burara camp is currently being finalised. It will be a three night camp to Cairns starting on the last day of Term 3, Friday 17th to Monday 20th September. A jam-packed exciting itinerary has been planned and it is sure to be extremely memorable!

Mens Group

Cultural Connectedness Program

 

On Thursday 6th May, we hosted a Mens group run by representatives from the Wulgurukaba Walkabouts. This will be an initiative that will run once a term for the rest of the year and was initiated with a view to support our young Indigenous men in Years 7-10. The topic was mental health and well-being. It had a good attendance and was well received.

Shalom Reading Program

   
The Shalom Reading Program has continued this term running two days per week for students in Years 9-12. It has been great to see the progress the Shalom students are making in their reading and we look forward to continuing the program in Term 3 starting in Week 2. 
If your child/ren are interested in joining us next term, make sure to collect a permission slip from the Indigenous Education Support Office in Week 1.

Personal Learning Plans

Personal Learning Plan meetings for Prep - Yr 6  were held in Week 6, thank you to those parents who attended. These plans are a fantastic opportunity for our team to set goals and create opportunities to support our students in ways that will make a difference. If you have missed out on a meeting and you would like an opportunity to discuss your child’s progress, please contact the office on Junior Campus, or the Indigenous Education team on the main campus.

Yarning Circle
  
On Thursday 13th May and Friday 14th May, our Year 3 students on the Junior Campus and our Year 7 & 11 students on the senior campus gathered at their Yarning Circles to eat and have a chat. In the spirit of this year’s National Reconciliation Week theme, 'More Than a Word - Reconciliation Takes Action', students were asked to bring a non-Indigenous friend along to share the experience and possibly open some new conversations about their culture.



Our Year 8 & 12 students gathered at the Yarning Circle on Friday 21st May, to eat pizza and have a chat about this years theme for National Reconciliation Week.


Our last Yarning Circle for the term on Friday 11th June was packed with our Year 9 and 10 students each bringing a friend along to share a part of their culture. They all sat in circle together along with some of our deadly Pastoral Leaders to discuss this year’s National Reconciliation Week theme: More Than a Word: Reconciliation Takes Action. . . and eat pizza.
Work Experience

  

In the last school holidays, we were fortunate for one of our Year 12 students to participate in work experience at Maritime Safety Queensland, an agency of the Department of Transport and Main Roads in Townsville. She was offered this great opportunity to experience a government workplace and learn hands on what happens in real scenarios. Tara has a boat licence and is very interested in the marine industry as she originates from Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. She said "I enjoyed learning about the jobs in the marine industry, especially going out on the boat."

Her supervisor said: "Tara was punctual and displayed enthusiasm and a willingness to learn, doing each task with precision and within the time frame"… high praise from a workplace, don’t you think?

We encourage all our senior students to take the opportunity whilst at school to engage in work experience and get the valuable opportunity of being in a workplace.

Staff Professional Development
On Tuesday 27th April Pria, Kirby and Kate attended an Emerging Leaders Workshop with other coordinators of the program from around the Diocese which was a fantastic day of reflection, re-connection, and planning for the term ahead.

Most of our staff attended a Network of Indigenous Education Workers (NIEW) event on Wednesday 28th April, with staff from Indigenous Education programs in schools all over the region. These events are a wonderful chance to get together and discuss upcoming events and opportunities as well as the specific concerns of our students and communities.

 Last Friday 18th June, we had a 2 hour workshop facilitated by our Indigenous Education Consultant, Krista O'Connor which explored the Stronger Smarter principles as we shared thoughts, hopes and ideas. This will continue every term to strengthen our team bonds, cultural knowledge and shared wisdom.

What's New?!?!
Year 7 & 8 Cultural Camp

Our Year 7's and 8's will be going on their inaugural cultural camp to Magnetic Island on the last day of school this term, from Friday 25th to Saturday 26th June. This gives these cohorts the opportunity to share stories, ideas, culture and helps them to get to know each other away from school. It also provides the opportunity for staff members to build rapport with the students. We have a range of activities planned including a cultural bush walk, fishing, beach olympics, art workshop, campfire and more. We are very much looking forward to this great experience with the students!
Look out for photos next term!
Emerging Leaders

Term 2 has flown by so quickly! Our Term 2 check in's are all complete and we have just been delivered the Emerging Leaders Student T-shirts. These are currently being handed out to all students who have returned their signed Personal Leadership Agreements. The shirts look great!



This term we had Fabian from Deadly Choices come into the College once a week to run the "Healthy Lifestyles" program to a group of Year 9/10 students. The program covered some super important and engaging topics. Fabian was an excellent presenter and all students involved had a blast! They even scored free tickets to the recent Indigenous round (Australian vs New Zealand) Rugby League game at Queensland Country Bank stadium! We are looking into possibly having Fabian back to present another one of the Deadly Choices programs in Term 4 so watch this space.

  

We are looking forward to a big Term 3 with many engagement opportunities and events planned.


Kirby Smith
HPE Teacher
Emerging Leaders Program 

Homework Club & Tutoring
Emerging Leaders and the Indigenous Support Team offer after school sessions from 3:15 to 4:15pm for Indigenous students who need academic assistance.

Homework Club is a supervised independent study session for Years 5-12 held in E1 on Mondays-Wednesdays and the Tutoring sessions for more individual help is in E2 on Mondays-Thursdays. This will recommence in Week 2 of Term 3.

Breakfast Club
Our highly successful Breakfast Club will continue next term. On Monday's we welcome the Year 9's to 12's and on Thursday's we welcome Years 5 to 8 to come along and grab something to eat. It's a great opportunity to have an informal yarn with the students while making sure they have some brain food! 
We have toasties, yoghurt, fruit and muffins on offer.
Coming up next term ...
IEAC Meeting - Thursday 15th July - 5:30-7pm
 NAIDOC Week (Week 2) - 19th-23rd July
NAIDOC Week Assembly - Wednesday 21st July
(Parents/carers invited - will also be live streamed)
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Year 12 Graduation Liturgy -
Thursday 2nd September
Year 10-12 Burara Camp - (Last day of school) 17th-20th September

Yarning Circles (Junior Campus)
Week 2 - Thursday 22nd July - Yr 4
Week 4 - Thursday 5th August - Yr 3
Week 6 - Thursday 19th August - Yr 2
Week 8 - Thursday 2nd September - Yr 1
Week 10 - Thursday 16th September - Prep

Yarning Circles (Senior Campus) 
Week 4  - Friday 6th August  - Yrs 9 & 10
Week 5 - Friday 13th August  - Yrs 7 & 11
Week 6 - Friday 20th August  - Yrs 8 & 12
Week 9 - Friday 10th September  - Yrs 5 & 6

Days to wear your Indigenous Shirts in

Term 3 2021

Monday 19th July - Friday 23rd July - NAIDOC Week (4th-11th July)
Thursday 5th August - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day (4th August)
Monday 9th August - International Day of the World's Indigenous People

Thursday 2nd September - Indigenous Literacy Day (1st September)



The next round of T-Shirt orders should be arriving by the end of Week 1, just in time to be worn for NAIDOC Week in Week 2. Payment ($31) will need to be made before T-Shirts can be handed out. A notice will be sent out when they have arrived.
 Have a safe and blessed Holidays!

For any queries, please contact us at indigenous@ryan.catholic.edu.au
From Pria, Kirby, Georgia, Amy, Michelle, Bacho, Shannon, Alesha and Kate.
Copyright © 2021 Ryan Catholic College, All rights reserved.


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