Term 4, Week 1, 16th October

Meet the Experts

This week's Meet the Expert is our Assistant Prinicpal Pastoral Care & Staff Support Jennifer Campbell.

Name: Jennifer Campbell.

What subject(s) do you teach?

My recent focused teaching areas are Drama and English but throughout my career I have also taught History, Visual Arts, Food Technology and Life Skills!

What high school did you attend?

Our Lady of Dolours, Chatswood.

What university did you attend and what course(s) did you do after finishing school?

I studied at the University of New South Wales where I gained an Arts Education degree, I also have a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Religious Education) from the Australian Catholic University.

What or who inspired you to become a teacher?

My family was the inspiration for my career in Education. My mother made learning fun from when we were all very little, she made everything practical, it was also her way to raise four children all close together in age and get housework done and meals cooked; my father was a reader and we all developed that trait from him, reading gave you knowledge of things you could never, in your real life, experience.

What would be your proudest teaching moment in your career to date?

A conversation with the mother of a boy in my Year 10 English class – she said he was determined to finish reading his English novel for me, the first full novel he had ever read in high school. She said it was a struggle for him but he was enjoying it!

What are you reading at the moment?

I recently finished Boy Swallows Universe and loved it and have just started Where the Crawdads Sing, the opening chapters promise a great journey ahead.

What quote best describes your approach to teaching?

Just do it. Ideas, initiatives, challenges – meet them head on and give them a go. 

Favourite non-work related hobby?

Reading, knitting, travelling.

What do you love most about your work? 

Seeing children grow into beautiful young men and women fully able to contribute positively in our world – loving, kind, intelligent, creative, physically active, and filled with hope and faith.  

Graduation Mass

Theo Last: Occasional Address Celebration of Excellence 2020

While our 2020 Celebration of Excellence in the last week of term looked quite different to our previous ceremonies, we certainly sent our Year 12s off with a flourish – lots of colour, congratulations and a great sense of community. One element we were able to retain, albeit in a remote video form, was the Occasional Address by our previous cohort’s Dux.

Theo Last, Dux of MacKillop 2019 with an ATAR of 99.25 and currently studying Medicine at UNSW, highlighted the theme of ‘Courage’ to our Year 12 graduands and urged them to recognise that they will always have fears to face but to believe that their school journey and MacKillop have prepared them well and that they are ready to deal with whatever challenges life offers them.

I reproduce for you here, Theo’s Occasional Address at our Celebration of Excellence 2020.

Good Afternoon Teachers, Students, Family and Friends watching at home, and, of course, Good Afternoon to Year 12. I wish I could say that I was delighted to be back in the College Hall to congratulate you in person, but for reasons that will not be a mystery this video will have to do.

That aside, I’ll try not to spend the entirety of this speech talking about a certain virus, not because I don’t recognise the immense challenges that you have all faced, adapted to, and overcome, nor the losses you have experienced, but because this day is about celebrating Year 12; there is so much more to this cohort than being the poor Class of 2020 who graduated in a pandemic.  But there’s one particular trait that this year has required of you – courage – and that’s what I’m going to make this about.

To me, courage has never been about the absence of fear but rather about action in spite of it. I wish I could say that I came to that realisation after some profound, life-changing moment, or upon consuming some great work of literature, but the reality is far less impressive than that: when I was 9 years old I came across that idea in a review of the cartoon movie Rango published in a kid’s magazine intending to advertise toys. Questionable provenance aside, I’ve carried that understanding of courage with me all my life, and I bring this up because there are plenty of things in the world that might cause ‘fear’: our first foray into life without the structure of school; career and study choices; climate change, war, and although I said I wouldn’t mention it again, a Pandemic.

And if we’re discussing things that require courage, we can’t forget about the HSC. Whether we describe it as scared, worried, stressed, nervous, anxious, I think it’s safe to say that no one listening to this is completely carefree about these exams – I know that I certainly wasn’t this time last year. But nothing worthwhile has ever been accomplished by avoiding things that make us nervous – we draw on our courage to carry on, to get the job done, and in the case of Year 12, to walk out of the last exam in a month’s time knowing we made the most of the hand we were dealt.

Courage helped me complete my HSC last year, and I don’t just mean that I was really nervous about some exams but did them anyway. The most important little act of courage was to let go of the need to be the best at everything and ask my friends for help in subjects where I needed it. If I’d been too scared to swallow my pride I would have missed out on those study sessions that were not just helpful, but fun.  The little bit of courage needed to send that “hey, can you give me a hand with English,” text strengthened friendships as much as it bumped me up a couple of marks.

Now, one thing that MacKillop has in abundance is mottos: on the School crest is Summa Tentabo, Strive for Excellence; the junior site entrance is emblazoned with Be always Humble, Gentle, and Patient; when I was in Year 7 and the junior site was still Saint Paul’s, we had Veritas Liberabit, the truth will set you free, and although not an official motto special mention must be given to Mary MacKillop’s most famous saying, never see a need without doing something about it. All of these are superb attitudes to apply to life, but my personal favourite is lesser known, and is found on the school’s Moodle homepage: it reads

To create authentic, courageous, faith filled people with a passion for learning, respect for relationships and an ability to contribute to a global community.

To me, this emphasises that MacKillop has never been merely a factory to churn out high ATARs or create workers, but a place to equip us with the skills and values needed to be good citizens. We are undoubtedly living through a pivotal movement in human history. The challenges of the future will require our ingenuity and intellect, our physical strength and skill, our compassion and empathy. But none of these qualities are of any help if we let fear stop us from exercising them. I hope that the HSC demonstrates the importance of courage, because all the subject knowledge in the world is useless if you’re too scared to actually sit the exam. Similarly, I hope it demonstrates the courage that you are capable of, because I know that you can and will overcome your nerves and smash these exams.

I’m going to leave you with a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson: Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name.

The world is at your feet. Be brave and seize it. Good luck Year 12!

Welcome back to Term four and the hustle and bustle of school life. Students seem to have come back ready for a positive term, the sun is shining and positivity is in the air. 

Summer uniform

Please note that students do not need to wear their tie this term. The hot weather is a stark reminder also of the need to have a school hat. If this has been misplaced, please encourage your child to speak to their PC teacher to discuss a timeline to replace. In the meantime, it is preferred that students wear any hat, but please send them with a note in their diary. This is a short term option, but one that keeps our young one’s sun safe. 

Positive behaviour and attitude

Our College is very proud of the standard of behaviour that we model and teach. This week in our Year Meeting, students were exposed to an interesting article in Real Schools, Adam Voigt: Knowing Where the Line Is. The message for students was that we want to teach and guide our students to develop emotional intelligence and empathy, to be used in the classroom, on the playground and in life. We want our students to “know where the line is”, to treat each other with respect and love. It is clear that many students are already on this path and, as a PC Team, we strive to continue this journey with them. 

PC Fun Touch Football competition

This week Year 7 played Rounds 1, 2, and 3 of a competition which will be played each fortnight in extended PC time. This “competition” is a wonderful way for students to explore their character, and those of their peers. Character strengths such as teamwork, fairness and perseverance are easily spotted on the field. The challenge is set to recognise so many of the other character strengths that are displayed, such as honesty, social intelligence and self-regulation. This week was a lot of fun and a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the beauty of our environment. Please enjoy a few quick snaps from the games below.

Bronwyn Avery

Year 7 Leader of Pastoral Care 

Term four, with its longer, warmer days and abundant signs of new life, is always a time of renewed energy. Students are recommended to commence this term by refocusing their effort and application. An ideal starting point is to visit learning goals set at the commencement of term three, considering areas of achievement, areas requiring further attention and possible modifications to their goals. I thoroughly recommend that parents sit with their son or daughter and partner them in this process. Such a process of beginning with the end in mind will contribute greatly to the achievement

We welcome three new students, Sophie Kelly, Cohen Leonard and Mackenzie Leonard to Year 8. All Year 8 students are encouraged to make an effort to ensure that the starting experience for these three young people is filled with welcome and hospitality.

I look forward to a busy and energy filled and successful term four.

Included below are just a few photos from the last day of term three.

Lastly, a humorous look at ‘boy logic’… A certain group of 16 Year 8 boys had been told daily to either put on a hat or move from their picnic table seating to a shaded area. This was their recent ‘practical’ solution…

It made quite a few people smile.

God bless.

Peter Murphy

Year 8 Leader of Pastoral Care

Welcome back to all our families for the first step towards completing your son or daughter’s last year of senior schooling. Both exciting and daunting times. There will be much to tell you in the coming weeks however, I wish to dedicate this newsletter solely to congratulating our SRC leadership team of eight.

This is a fantastic group of young men and women who are going to lead our College for the remainder of 2020 and throughout 2021. 

Well done and congratulations to:

I am so proud to have such an amazing group of students to help me navigate what is to come.

Dates to remember

This will be a busy term for everyone, and I look forward to working with you.

Have a great weekend.

Term Four Ensembles

Please note that planning is currently underway to restructure the ensemble program in term four pending COVID relating restrictions remaining in place. Students will be informed of changes through the co-curricular music google classroom forum and this newsletter.

Rehearsal Schedule Week 1