New Beginnings

A warm welcome to 2024. I trust everyone had a joyful Christmas and time to relax and enjoy family and friends over the break. Our staff have been busy all last week with professional development and preparing for the start of the school year. It has been wonderful to welcome Year 4, 7, 10 and 12 and new students today and I look forward to the full student cohort commencing tomorrow.

I especially welcome our new students and families in all years and particularly our boys in Year 4 and 7 and their families and wish our Year 12 students the very best in their leadership call to ‘Be the Change’ in 2024.

2024 is a significant year in that it is our 10^th year as Ambrose Treacy College. As a growing and maturing organisation, there is much to celebrate across the achievements of these years. Our first group of Seniors from 2019 celebrate their 5^th year reunion this year and we look forward to welcoming them back to the College. It is my intention in the coming months to use this forum and our social media platforms to share the stories of the first 10 years of Ambrose Treacy College.

I wish Declan Lever, our 2024 College Captain and his peers an exciting and challenging year of change, friendship, achievement and example and thank them in anticipation of what lies ahead.

Welcome Events and Parent Information Evenings

Details for these events will be available in the College APP and I look forward to the Year 4 and 7 Welcome Afternoon Saturday 3 February, and Kick off Cocktails Saturday 17 February, both hosted by the ATC Parents and Friends. We also offer Parent Information Evenings hosted by the College Leadership Team and key staff. Please engage with these friendraising and community building events and feel welcome to join us as we commence the year together.

Key Contacts

In 2024, we have 1350 students from Years 4 to 12 which is a big school! Sometimes, it is understandable that people coming from a smaller community may become overwhelmed and confused about who to contact about what. When in doubt, contact College Reception on Ph 38780500 and our friendly and helpful staff will assist you with your query and direct you to the appropriate person. Alternatively you can email our general Administration email address by CLICKING HERE. For you information, our ATC staff email addresses have their surname first, followed by the first name initial eg for Tony Brown brownt@atc.qld.edu.au

It is important to know who your son’s Home Room teacher is. Every student from Year 4 to 12 has a Home Room teacher that they engage with every morning, and they are a helpful contact for you. It is important to know the names of your son’s teachers and to work with your son by having him share his log in details with you so that you can also see his class work and homework in Teams and OneNote. Class teachers will communicate with you. Please remember that teachers have full and busy days. A general rule is to allow 2 days for an email response from teaching staff. I would also respectfully request that wherever possible emails be kept to working hours on Monday to Friday. It is understood and respected that this is not always possible but work intensification for teachers in regard to keeping up with online communication is a challenging reality. Please seek to keep email correspondence brief, respectful and in the interests of building a positive relationship in support of your son. The ATC community is extraordinarily supportive of our staff, and this is greatly valued and appreciated by all.

It is important to know who your son’s Formation Leader is (Pastoral Care Leader). Please see the list below:

Junior School

Year 4 Mr Paul Degenkamp degenkampp@atc.qld.edu.au

Year 5 Ms Maryanne Gillespie gillespiem@atc.qld.edu.au

Year 6 Mr David Ryan ryand@atc.qld.edu.au

Counsellor Ms Siobhan Brophy brophys@atc.qld.edu.au

Middle School

Year 7 Mr Yugei Nair nairy@atc.qld.edu.au

Year 8 Mr Bernard Wong wongb@atc.qld.edu.au

Year 8 Mr Ben Babao babaob@atc.qld.edu.au

Mr David Mapleston maplestond@atc.qld.edu.au

Senior School

Connacht House Mr Matt Ribeiro ribeirom@atc.qld.edu.au

Leinster House Mr Tim Walker walkert@atc.qld.edu.au

Munster House Ms Danika Ehlers ehlersd@atc.qld.edu.au

Ulster House Mr Cam McConnell mcconnellc@atc.qld.edu.au

Ms Kelly Gaunt gauntk@atc.qld.edu.au

Safety, Patience and Consideration

As each year gets underway, the surrounding streets of our College are intensely busy. This calms as the year gets properly underway, students commence sport, cultural and clubs participation and more students become confident in using public transport. It is important that we are aware of the intensity of traffic in the early phase of the year and exercise safety, courtesy, and common sense please. Darting across roads, driving through the neighbouring gym, parking over neighbour’s driveways and other unhelpful decisions raise danger and tensions. Thank you for your co-operation. patience and consideration on the roads.

ATC Strategic Plan 2024-2028

Fittingly, in our tenth year, we are launching the new Ambrose Treacy College Strategic Plan for 2024-2028. I will also use this forum in the coming weeks to introduce and break open this important document, our third Strategic Plan as a College. Thank you to all stakeholders who participated in our extensive consultation process, our College Advisory Council, College Leadership Team and our facilitator, former Nudgee Junior College parents and Advisory Council Chair, Mr Patrick Herd for his advice and facilitation. Please find a link to the plan HERE for your perusal.

Staff Update

A hearty welcome to our new Deputy Principal, Mr Jason Sepetauc. Jason has a rich history across numerous Catholic Schools in the Edmund Rice tradition in Bindoon (Western Australia), Sydney, Canberra, Townsville, and Brisbane. He has been busy in recent weeks wrapping his head around all things ATC and I am confident that the ATC community will benefit greatly from his presence, service and relational approach.

An equally hearty welcome to our new Dean of Learning, Ms Liana Baillie. Liana has extensive experience across a range of settings including remote Queensland and one of Australia’s largest schools in the Gold Coast corridor as well as schools similar to our own here in Brisbane. Liana has also been busy working with her Learning Team in readiness for the new year and I am also confident the ATC community will benefit from her knowledge, experience, and relational approach.

Ms Deb Carcary is not new to the College in her substantive role is as our College Accountant, but I warmly welcome Deb to the College Leadership Team as Acting College Business Manager while Mr Peter Nugent is on long service leave until mid-June this year. Deb’s experience, expertise and steady approach will be invaluable during this time.

I wish to welcome all new staff to Ambrose Treacy College. One of my pleasurable components of my role is the process of appointing new staff. I am very confident our new staff will be an asset to the ATC community:

Staff News

Congratulations to our Drama Co-ordinator, Ms Katrina Homes-Blissner, on the arrival of her first baby, Parker.

Welcome back to Ms Kate Tyson, our Music Co-ordinator from parental leave.

Mr Dallas Moffat, our Director of Administrative Operations, is presently on personal leave following a health concern for his young son. His son is in full recovery and doing well and Mr Moffat will return to work soon. Next week, the College has engaged experienced teacher, Mr Andrew Locke, to take Mr Moffat’s classes.

Also, over the break, Ms Tammy Sleeth, Professional Assistant to the Deputy Principal and Ms Melia McCarthy of our Communications Team, tendered their resignations from the College. Both are moving to great new positions for their professional and personal growth, and I thank them for their service to the ATC community. Most pleasingly, Ms Georgie Ingham-Myers, a member of our Learning Office Team, has been successful in being appointed to as Professional Assistant to the Deputy Principal and Ms Dalena Dinh, one of our Senior School Officers, has been appointed to the Learning Office Team. I welcome Ms Louise Johnston to the College as our new Communications Officer working alongside Ms Rhonnie Sparksman.

Year 12 2023

We were proud of the efforts and achievements of our Year 12 students of 2023 across both the ATAR and pathways domains and most importantly, we are now tracking their destinations into University, courses and training and the workplace. Thank you and well done to our 2023 parents and caregivers, staff, and ATC students for their support of our Seniors last year. Each year, these great characters are missed but they will be back as coaches, tutors, and mentors in our building community of past students.

Sport Events over the break

Our ATC Volleyballers competed in the Australian Volleyball Schools Cup on the Gold Coast in December. The tournament hosts 500 teams from 150 schools. ATC entered 5 teams across years 7-11. It was our most successful to date winning 3 bronze medals in the year 8 division 1, year 9 division 1 and year 11 division 2. Our year 11 division 1 team took out the gold medal. A big thank you and congratulations to our Sport Office Team, Mr Tim Walker to all of our players, coaches and families who supported our players.

Our Cricketers enjoyed a wet but successful week in the Australian Schools Cricket Competition, and we congratulate the Sport Office Team, Mr Ben Marriot and thank all players, coaches, and supporters.

Hot off the press from last week is our inaugural participation as a guest in the Associated Independent Schools Cricket T20 competition. Our First X1 enjoyed strong wins against Padua, St Patrick’s and Villanova Colleges and faced a talented St Laurence’s College side in the final where they won convincingly. Irish Warriors, go Brach! Congratulations to all players, Mr Ben Marriot, Mr Paul Draheim, and supporters on a fabulous achievement.

Waterford Building Project

The Waterford Project, which consists of 14 classrooms, a 200-seat lecture theatre, various staff offices and facilities, more student bathrooms, a second hospitality teaching space and a second Drama teaching will be completed mid-year. You will note that another demountable has been installed in front of the Edmund Rice Building. This is temporary and all of these demountables above the Middle School pick up area will be removed later in the year. When the Waterford Project is completed, we will move to the final phase with the renovation and extension of the Tipperary Building staffroom in the Middle School zone is completed in Term 3. This will allow the remainder of secondary school teaching staff who currently reside on the third floor of the Edmund Rice Building to be located with their colleagues in a centralised zone. Thank you to the extended ATC community for your contribution to this important project for our current and future students.

Junior School Amenities Block

A much-needed renovation and renewal of the Junior School amenities block has been progressing over the break. This will continue for a brief period of time as school commences. There are other toilet spaces in the precinct available to students and we are also bringing in a number of portable toilets for this brief period. Mr Michael Stewart and the Junior School Team will support students in this process.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we improve this facility for our Year 4 to 6 students.

2024 Bell Times

As advised in Friday's app notice, there have been minor changes to our Bell Times and Home Room time each day will commence at 8:30am rather than 8:25am. Morning Tea and Lunch will both be 30 minutes in length each day. There will be no change in the length of teaching lessons. The school day will conclude as normal at 3pm. These changes enable the College to provide supervision across the property before school, at Morning Tea, Lunch and after school and for our teaching staff to meet more regularly outside of the school day but within their hours of duty to collaborate in planning for effective teaching. We will continue to review our needs as a Year 4 to 12 school and our timetable design and operational needs in supporting the life of the school for students. and meeting our industrial requirements for staff.

Mobile Devices

As communicated prior to the break, students will no longer be able to use their mobile phone or smart watch with linked bank accounts to use services at the Tuckshops. This is in alignment with a general initiative across Queensland schools to support students to store their mobile phones during the school day rather than have ready access. While phones are marvellous for a range of purposes and functional communication, it is certainly our lived experience that their presence on site also leads to mistakes, inappropriate use, and conflict. It is extremely challenging to completely lock down the presence and use of mobile phones but this removal of their use at our Tuckshops will assist. We will continue to monitor and review our practices regarding this issue and communicate with students in the early days of the new school year. Thank you for your support and understand in what is in the best interests of student well-being and safety.

Care & Concern

The ATC community is welcoming and friendly and we believe that when everyone is involved in the Ambrose Treacy life, it builds a strong and connected community. Volunteering is a great way to make friends and meet parents in your son’s year level and by signing up for Care and Concern or getting involved with P&F events, you are investing in your son’s future at ATC. Please CLICK HERE to complete the ‘Helping Out in 2024’ online form. We look forward to welcoming you to our community of volunteers.

Training for Child Safeguarding

An important aspect of the culture of hospitality, partnership, and service we share is through our many volunteers across the life of the College. A responsibility we share as adults is the provision of a safe and caring environment for our young people in all that we do, and this is reflected in our compliance policies and procedures. All visitors and volunteers must review the Key Messages for Visitors and Volunteers document and please complete the online training (a few minutes) via this link. We will keep a record of which parents and caregivers have completed the training. Unfortunately, if you have not completed the online acknowledgement, you will be unable to volunteer in various activities across the College. Your support with this is greatly appreciated.

Child Safeguarding Policy and Practice

Further to this, Edmund Rice Education schools have a strong commitment to the safeguarding of children and clear policies and practices that we promote and follow here at Ambrose Treacy College. Mandatory reporting of all concerns that are in the interests of protecting our young people’s safety and well-being is a priority at our school. I encourage all parents and caregivers to preview our Child Safeguarding policies and information on the College website under the ‘Community’ banner and ‘Child Safety’. I encourage all parents and caregivers to feel comfortable to contact a member of our Child Safeguarding Team if you have a question or require some assistance or support. Our Counselling Team are an excellent resource in this and other regards.

ATC Child Safety Contacts

Ms Siobhan Brophy – College Counsellor Junior School – brophys@atc.qld.edu.au

Ms Danika Ehlers – Head of Munster House – ehlersd@atc.qld.edu.au

Mr Chris Ryan – College Principal – principal@atc.qld.edu.au

Mr Conor Finn – Dean of Formation – finnc@atc.qld.edu.au

Mr Matthew Warr – Dean of Faith and Mission – warrm@atc.qld.edu.au

Prayers

Lord, we pray for those in our community who are suffering. Be with them in this time of hardship and uncertainty. Give comfort and peace to those who have lost loved ones. May their sorrow be turned into strength, and their distress turned into peace. May our hearts remain loving and pure as we seek to always be compassionate to those around us.

Chris Ryan
College Principal