The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart are an Australian congregation founded by Mary MacKillop and Fr Julian Tenison Woods. The beginnings of the order were in Penola, South Australia, with the opening of the first Josephite school on St Joseph’s Day in 1866.

Students are involved in daily prayer during Pastoral Care, weekly Chapel assemblies and annual Retreats where they have the opportunity to deepen their relationship with God and each other. They also attend whole school and regular year level Masses in St Joseph’s chapel, built by St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.

Religious Education at Mary MacKillop College is concerned with encouraging girls to know more, do more and be more, to “embrace Mary MacKillop and engage the world”, to strive for justice and to make a difference to the lives of others. This is achieved through a careful cultivation of the heart and the mind of young women to prepare them for society, to promote reason and intelligence and to fire their imagination.