Welcome to the 2021 School Year!
A very warm welcome to the Year 7 and 8 students, who are attending Mary MacKillop College for the very first time. Some of you may already have connections with the College through sisters or cousins, or even, perhaps, your Mum or Grandmother is an old scholar. Whatever your situation – you are very much welcome and we hope that you enjoy the next few weeks as you settle into life at the College.
Welcome to the 2021 School Year!
A very warm welcome to the Year 7 and 8 students, who are attending Mary MacKillop College for the very first time. Some of you may already have connections with the College through sisters or cousins, or even, perhaps, your Mum or Grandmother is an old scholar. Whatever your situation – you are very much welcome and we hope that you enjoy the next few weeks as you settle into life at the College.
You will hear and see the term MacKillop Girl banded around the College. We like to say ‘Once a MacKillop Girl, always a MacKillop Girl’, and that is because you will be come apart of the Mary MacKillop story just by being part of the College community.
The other phrase you will hear is ‘All day every day’. Attendance is very important and research has shown there is a very high correlation between attendance and academic success.
Thank you to our parents for making that commitment, to come to our school. We are in partnership with you and if you have any concerns, I want you to contact us as soon as possible.
I believe that Mary MacKillop College is a unique school, we are a small school where relationships are nurtured, students are cared for and learning is challenging and fun.
For our Year 12 students this is their final year as secondary students, I welcome you back as the College leaders that you all are. One of the tasks I have set myself this year is to have some one-on-one time with each of you. It has often been said Year 12 is a very short year. This term you will have your Retreat and before you know it, you will be doing final exams and assignments and graduating from the College. Enjoy the journey. It will be difficult at times but your teachers and the rest of the College staff are here to support you.
We have a number of new staff at the College.
- Teagan Schmidt, who has returned to the College for Term 1 while Miescha Archibald continues her Maternity Leave.
- Joleen Hall, who will be with us for Term 1 while Louise Tyler takes some Leave.
- Jasmin Eckert, our new Year 9 Pastoral Care Coordinator
- Laura Whalan, who is teaching Stage 1 and Stage 2 Psychology
- Jasmin Watkins, our new Music Co- Curricula Coordinator
- Melissa Couzner, who is taking on the new role of Future Pathways Coordinator
- Jayne Langley, our new Canteen Coordinator
- Judith Osborne, Learning and Wellbeing Support
- Domenique Violi, our new College Counsellor
- Stephanie Adam (Class of 2019), our new Sports Assistant
A number of key events have already taken place; Swimming Carnival, the SACE Merit Ceremony, which was a little bit different because of COVID restrictions, our Beginning of Year Mass and tonight we will have our Year 11 Formal. Schools are indeed busy places!
On Wednesday 3 February, we held a twilight event to honour our high achievers of 2020. Congratulations to our College DUX, Jasmine Masefield, who received an ATAR of 99.15 and our Proxime Accessit, Mia Carpinelli, who received an ATAR of 96.55. I commend our Merit recipients, Mia Carpinelli (Religious Education and Child Studies), Daniela Corbo (Child Studies), Jasmine Masefield (Research Project) and Julia Principe (Research Project), as well as our students who received an ATAR above 90 - Emily McCormack (96.30), Pia Piotto (96.30), Julia Principe (95.90), Grace Woods (94.90), Gurleen Kaur (94.65), Emily Salvatore (93.15), Isabella Fazzini (93.05) and Olivia Cavuoto (91.50). The recipient of our Mary MacKillop Award was Pia Piotto. Well done to the Class of 2020 for 100% SACE Completion and, of course, your resilience and perseverance during a very challenging year.
Our theme for the year is ‘Courage and Justice’. Both words come from the Values in our Strategic Plan.
- Courage: We are ready to meet challenges and take risks in the service of others
- Justice: We uphold what is fair and right, taking care of those who are vulnerable
We will explore what these two words mean this year and how we have seen examples of these virtues in the past and the present, and how we as people of hope can continue to demonstrate these values.
We look forward to a busy and very exciting Term 1 full of learning and fun.
Kath McGuigan
Principal
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