Dear Families
Dr Lauretta Graham
It is a privilege to welcome you to Newman Catholic College. While we wait for our College to be constructed our school office is in the Smithfield Shopping Centre opposite K-Mart. Since the start of 2021, we have made steady progress towards creating the foundations of our new College opening in January 2022, with approximately 125 students. Those who already know our school, will be aware that the success so far has been achieved through the persistence and hard work of many wonderful people especially Catholic Education Services under the Leadership of our Executive Director, William Dixon. I look forward to leading our future leadership team, staff, students, and parents in this exciting work over the years of development.
The choice of the right secondary school is a very important decision for you and your family. I do hope that this brief introduction provides information for your serious consideration of Newman as you begin to evaluate your options.
It is our plan to establish a coeducational Catholic college of choice in Smithfield for the northern suburbs of Cairns extending to Mossman and Kuranda. Nestled between the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the Wet Tropics Rainforest, Newman Catholic College is co-located with James Cook University, Nguma-bada campus, Smithfield. Newman Catholic College will be the first Catholic school in Australia located within a university precinct.
Whenever a student comes to our school, we make a commitment to provide them with the opportunities and support to achieve not only excellent academic progress, but also fundamental life skills such as effective listening, creativity and problem solving. The attitude and atmosphere of our school will be one which always strives to achieve quality learning and never settles for anything less. As our students take up their leadership roles, seats in our classroom, or when they are honing their skills in the sporting and performing arts arenas, it is exactly this attitude that we aim to inspire in all our students with everything that they do. I sincerely thank parents as their child’s first educator, for starting this foundation work with their children. We intend to further develop these characteristics, and attitudes that help young learners to manage their time, get along with others, think critically, problem solve, and behave in an ethical manner. These essential abilities are known as transferable skills (Appleby, 2001), they can be developed in one environment and then transferred to future environments (e.g. college, university, and the workplace) providing a platform for future success. Following on from this, it is our aim to develop in our students a lifelong passion for learning and a genuine interest in their environment. At Newman this will be done through a curriculum that is forward thinking, innovative, digital and design focused.
Over the next months, our time will be spent developing a curriculum with a particular emphasis on the standard of teaching throughout the school as this is the area that is proven to have the greatest impact on student progress
Our Catholic identity will be present and actively incorporated into our faith, academic, and community lives. The vision and values of Catholic education will underpin all that we do at Newman Catholic College, building on the fine traditions of Catholic education that already exist in the Cairns Diocese. We welcome you to browse through the links, especially this website, so that you understand what our school is about, our ethos and our vision and culture.
It is an exciting time, and I am honoured to be part of this new vibrant school and I hope that you are interested in being part of our family. Welcome to our school. We look forward to meeting you at the Newman Office in the Smithfield Shopping Centre.
Lauretta Graham
Principal
