Term 4, Week 7, 19 November
Principal
Father Peter
Next week sees the departure of Father Peter Wood from St Agnes’ Parish. Father Peter is moving to Murwillumbah Parish. He has been a much-loved member of the MacKillop College community and we will certainly miss his smiling face, friendly chats and encouraging words, especially during the school Masses he has presided over during his time in the parish. Father Peter we thank you for sharing your faith with us and look forward to seeing you in Port Macquarie during your holidays in the future.
Student Success
Once again the Enrichment program at MacKillop College has seen outstanding success with our high potential leaders being crowned Northern NSW Philosothon 2021 winners. Mandy Palin and the team of students showed their outstanding ability to adapt and be flexible in the online environment.
A Philosothon is concerned with big questions, questions at the edge of science and reason. Students represent the school and together they explore philosophical and ethical issues orally. The event differs from debating in that students are scored highly if they build on each other's arguments. Philosothons promote critical thinking, creative thinking and collaboration skills.
Congratulations to: Megan Goldie, Samantha Carlton, Miya Freeman, Milly McGrath, Cara McIlroy, Shayla Mitchell, Harmony Mitchell, Seppe Beekmans, Tia McGrath, Elliott Worner, Tess McWilliams, Ellie Fallon, Finnian De Groot, Georgia Ryan, Olivia Nichols, and Mia Dawson.
Special mention to Cara McIlroy of Year 8 who was awarded the highest score in the junior division receiving the "Most Promising Philosopher Award”.
HSC Major Works
Each year, MacKillop College HSC students are able to display their creativity through their selected subjects' Major Works. 2021 has been no exception, with their talent and ability obvious in these chosen practical fields.
See below for this year's Visual Arts, Industrial Technology - Timber, and Textiles Major Works. These students have once again displayed their resillience and strength during the unprecedented COVID-19 changes of 2021. Congratulations to all for your incredible efforts.
Visual Arts
Industrial Technology - Timber
Textiles
Year 7-11 Academic & Service Awards
A special occasion for our students is the Year 7-11 Academic & Service Awards Ceremony.
Whilst it will be held in a COVID-safe format this year, celebrations of our students’ success will be held on Tuesday 14 and Wednesday, 15 December.
These awards are an opportunity to acknowledge students who have excelled in academic and cultural areas. These students receive a trophy or a book voucher as a symbol of their involvement and achievement in a particular area.
It has become a tradition that these awards are sponsored by families or businesses in our College community. Sponsors will be acknowledged in the College newsletter.
If you are interested in sponsoring an award, we would love to hear from you. Your support is invaluable and greatly appreciated. The cost of sponsorship is $30.00 per award.
Please contact the College Office 6583 2632 or email pmac@lism.catholic.edu.au for further information regarding sponsorship of awards.
Thank you in anticipation.
Cath Eichmann
Principal
Evangelisation
Year 9 & 10 Youth Ministry Shine 2021
On Wednesday and Thursday, our Year 9 and 10 Youth Ministry classes each had a day experience of Shine “Called to Connection”.
Each event was facilitated by Ella Ippaviz, Youth Ministry Officer, and Conor, Youth Ministry Officer, Newman. We used the program created by the Catholic Schools Office to give the students an opportunity to encounter God and come together as a community.
Some of the prayer experiences provided the students with the opportunity to take time to reflect on friendships, and some different forms of prayer and worship.
The students enjoyed various activities and small group discussions, and took away from the day a greater sense of their own faith and the importance of their class as a community in Christ.
Christmas Hamper Appeal
"Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.” (Isaiah 58:10)
Imitating the compassion of Jesus and being a Christian example to others, our College will provide a total of 24 Christmas hampers to help families celebrate Christmas.
We offer these beautiful gifts to families who have experienced difficulties over the past year. This may be due to of poor health, a death in the family, financial hardship or another stressful circumstance.
What will be in the hampers?
Pastoral Care classes will work in pairs to put together a hamper for a family that the parish has identified may appreciate the love and support that comes with the gift of a hamper.
Every PC member will be asked to collect enough money and/or donations to provide each family with food or vouchers for fruit & vegetables, butchers, which will help alleviate meal worries.
This year the focus will be on food for families with group gifts that help bring families together.
A focus on a balance of meals and a couple of special things. We suggest smaller juices (tetra packs) and soft drinks are preferable as they are less bulky and heavy. A nice idea may be to have the makings of four meals complimented by vouchers for fruit & vegetables, meat, seafood or baked goods.
The hampers will not include:
- Second hand toys or out of date food.
- Products requiring refrigeration.
- Cash or alcohol.
Thank you in anticipation of the generous donations that you will be making as a family.
Sunday Mass and Gospel Reflection
Please check the link for Mass times and COVID-19 precautions for Masses in the St Agnes' Parish:
You may also like to spend some time in reflection on the Gospel for this coming Sunday.
Marg Gobius
Leader of Evangelisation
Year 7
Congratulations
Congratulations to Amelia Southwell who has received a Leader of Pastoral Care Award.
Congratulations to the following students who have received a Leader of Pastoral Care Award: Cooper Beukers, Meredith Davies, Ciarran McCallum, Bailey Partridge, Mia Perkins, Lewis Shipway and Amelia Southwell.
Greg Finney
Year 7 Leader of Pastoral Care
Year 9
In Year 9 Religious Education, students have been studying the unit, ‘Search for Meaning’. Some of the questions addressed include:
- How did life begin?
- Why am I here?
- What is the purpose of life?
- Why is there evil, pain and suffering?
- What happens when I die?
- Why do bad things happen to good people?
- How did the universe begin?
- Is there a God?
As part of their Evidence of Learning task, students research and present information on a significant Australian who has integrated faith and life in such a way that their actions and relationships express their faith. We hope that this insight into the relevance and sometimes centrality of faith in making meaning will open students to consider their own attitudes to both faith and life.
Jesus brings light and life to all. He said, “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.” Jesus is often described as the light of life. Indeed, at Christmas we speak of the light of life coming into the world. I recently came across this short reflection which looks at both themes, light and life, in one man’s attempt to explain the meaning of life. I will be sharing and discussing with my class next week.
What is the meaning of Life?
A Greek philosopher and teacher ended a lecture asking, “Are there any questions?” In the audience was Robert Fulghum who asked, “Dr Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?” Fulghum relates: “The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go. Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was. “I will answer your question,” he said. Then taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into it and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter. Then he said, ‘When I was a small child during the war we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found several pieces of a broken mirror from a wrecked German motorcycle. I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine – in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find. I kept the little mirror and as I went about growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child’s game but also a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light – truth, understanding, knowledge – is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.’
‘I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have, I can reflect light in the dark places in this world – into the black places in the hearts of men – and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life.’
“And then he took the mirror and, holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window and reflected them onto my face and onto my hands folded on the desk.”
Where there is darkness, let us bring light;
Where there is despair, let us bring hope;
Let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Peter Murphy
Year 9 Leader of Pastoral Care
Year 10
In October we recognised Dyslexia Awareness Month. In the Diocesan staff newsletter, Georgia Ryan was recognised for the amazing work she does for dyslexia awareness. Below is the article.
Georgia Ryan 2021 Dyslexia Youth Ambassador
Georgia has been a Dyslexia Mid North Coast Youth Ambassador since 2019 and is a student at MacKillop College. We were first introduced when Georgia reached out to Dyslexia Mid North Coast to attend Luminosity in 2018 to see one of her heroes, dyslexic sailor Jessica Watson.
Since then Georgia has gone from strength to strength petitioning federal and state governments to improve teacher training in specific learning difficulties, and has been recognised in NSW Parliament for her contribution. Fairfax newspapers called Georgia a ‘trailblazer’, MindFood journalist Cat Rodie referred to Georgia as a Dyslexia Warrior. And we think she is truly an amazing young lady who is creating positive change for all children with dyslexia.
October was Dyslexia Awareness Month and Georgia has kindly taken the time to record a video to shed a light on living with dyslexia and to encourage you to support, embrace and be proactive in creating positive changes for children with dyslexia.
Glen Littler
Year 10 Leader of Pastoral Care
Lost Property
There is currently a large number of unlabelled items in our College lost property including college jumpers, caps and jackets.
Items that not claimed by the end of the Week 9 will be donated. New lost items from this week are pictured below. Please claim from the Office.
Year 11
The last two weeks have involved plenty of action for Year 11. We held a poetry challenge where we combined our Term 4 character strength of gratitude with our poetry skills. The students had to create a poem of gratitude about their PC. This was a strength based challenge and let’s be honest poetry is not for everyone but some of the classes really excelled with some fabulous poems. Clare Hayes was the guest judge and PC19 took away the win with their lovely poem about their PC teacher Nicole Bailey. My personal favourite however came from PC10 who included everyone from their PC and for the record were the only PC to hand theirs in on time.
I have included a copy of the cute poem below:
Attitudes of Gratitude
- A - Appreciation for our school
- T - Thankful for our teachers
- T - Thinking of ways to give back
- I - Inspired by faith
- T - This is PC10
- U - Unified by our amazing PC teacher, Jamanda Eggert
- D - Dedication to education is fielded by our inspiration
- E - Embodying our school values
Of
- G - Gratitude strengthens our PC’s teamwork skills through
- R - Recognising Liam, Jordan and Jack’s appreciation for physical activity
- A - lice, Alys, Amelie and Ashton’s ability to motivate the PC
- T - The appreciation of kindness by Callie, Kiera, Noah and Olivia
- I - Identifying Jayden, Patrick and Jack’s humble enature
- T- Tayla, Luka, Joelle and Jannel’s school spirit
- U - Utilising Maddie, Maddie and Zoey’s different strengths
- D - determination of Hugh and Hudson to lead our school
- E - Eggerts spooky Halloween cupcakes which is only one example of our PC teacher’s generosity.
The next challenge was a balance challenge. I naively thought Year 11 students would find it fun to do a handstand challenge but apparently being upside down stops being fun when you hit puberty. Nonetheless, a few courageous souls had a go at the hand stands. The slackline challenge brought lots of laughs and a few tumbles. PC10 again had a fantastic team effort but PC11 took away the handstand win with Cayden Briscoe holding his handstand for longer than all the other PC’s combined!
Our SRC jumped into action this week, kicking off a Christmas Secret Santa activity where those who wish to be involved do a little research about their peer and purchase a little present for them for Christmas. We have our fingers crossed that we can celebrate together with a Christmas party in Week 11 before we head off to the Christmas holidays.
The SRC also requested a sporting challenge for our extended PC which went very well with everyone having a bit of fun and spending some positive time together outside of the classroom. They have also instigated a sports competition each Friday. Last Friday we played touch at lunch and this Friday was four-way volleyball. It's great for the students and even better for me as I get to run around with them whilst I referee.
All this fun activity comes at a great time as the academic pressure builds toward the end of term and assessments start to fall due. I am noticing a number of students finding the balance between study and life a bit hard to reach. Many are feeling stressed and overwhelmed, and others are not quite working at the level they need to in order to keep up with the demands and meet the expectations of their classes. I encourage parents to have a chat with your child and determine how their study/life balance is going? If they, or you, need advice on how to get the most out of their study routine, please do not hesitate to contact me or any of your child's teachers. We certainly strive for academic success and we recognise that this comes in many different forms. However, our main aim is to have healthy young men and women who know how to work towards a goal, as part of a team and who are able to appreciate their success with humility and handle their challenges with resilience. It takes a village to get a student through the HSC and we look forward to a continued positive relationship between the College and our families in order to do so.
Andrea Huxley
Year 11 Leader of Pastoral Care
Year 12
To quote the great lyricist, Bon Jovi, "Oh we're halfway there", I won't go on with the quote because hopefully we are living on more than a prayer. Prayers are great but we want our HSC students to have prayers and knowledge at this point! I say halfway because today sees the end of Week 2 of the four week HSC timetable, although in reality the majority of our young men and women will finish their exams next week with the Studies of Religion paper on Thursday ("Oh we're two thirds there", nowhere near as catchy!). I know you have heard it before and I state the obvious when I say this HSC has been a HSC like no other, but it has been very interesting to see everyone before and after their exams. There has been an undercurrent of excitement which hasn't really happened before. Everyone just seems to be happy that we are underway and they are now keen to get the job done. I can say that the best efforts have been put forward and whatever results come from that, we should be proud of what has been achieved.
Today is the final RSVP date for our formal on December 11, so if you haven't booked please do so today. I have received a lot of requests for additional tickets from blended families, partners and even grandparents who would all love to attend if they can. Due to the relocation of our Formal and imposed COVID-19 restrictions, space is extremely restricted. If you have made a request we will be able to tell you next week if there is an additional tickets available.
Have a great weekend, only nine school days to MacKillop's final 2021 HSC exam is sat!
Lisa Kable
Year 12 Leader of Pastoral Care
Sport
Please refer to the College website for the Sport Programs for Year 7-10 Term 4 Sport.
Return of School Sport
We have been advised by NSW Catholic Schools and the Lismore Catholic Schools Office of changes to school sport from November 1. School sport onsite and at off-site venues will be permitted under the following guidelines. Parents are asked to particularly note the vaccination rules for students aged 16 or older.
- Organisers must have a COVID-19 safety plan in place including plans to minimise mingling and mixing between cohorts entering and exiting the location where the sport is taking place.
- The school must maintain a list of all students and staff that participate and attend each session for contact tracing purposes.
- Schools are discouraged from enabling students to participate in sports across different school cohorts, and are not permitted to enter into inter-school competitions during school hours until 2022.
- If transport is required masks are required on buses for staff and students in Year 7 and above.
- Students aged 16 and older (and staff) must be fully vaccinated to enter public indoor recreation facilities until December 1, and will be required to show proof of vaccination status to school staff prior to boarding a bus and to facility staff on arrival. Students 16 and over that are NOT fully vaccinated will NOT be permitted to go off site as per COVID regulations. Alternate sport arrangements will be in place for students at school to participate in sport.
- Students in Year 7 and above (and staff) must wear masks indoors at all times when not exercising, including change room and bathroom facilities.
- As much as possible, schools should negotiate to have sole use of the recreation space for the time required and minimise use of shared spaces including change room facilities.
- Indoor and outdoor pools are permitted to be used with the above requirements, including for swimming carnivals.
- Inter-school sport activities
Inter-school sport trials, training and competitions, Inter-school representative sport, and grade sport training and competitions will not proceed during school hours in Term 4, 2021 so schools can focus on learning during the school day. Subsequently all diocesan Term 4 representative sports trials will not proceed.
Representative Sport
The Lismore Diocese will be holding trials for 15 Boys, 15 Girls, Open Boys & Open Girls Touch Teams on Thursday, 3 March 2022 in Coffs Harbour. Start time of these trials is 9.00am. To nominate for these teams, please fill out the form below. Students will then be selected to trial for each squad and a team will be chosen at the trials.
Diocesan Teams will compete at the NSWCCC Touch Football Selection Trials in Nelson's Bay on 29 March.
Community Sport
If your child has achieved outstanding sporting results in their community sport, we would love to hear about it. Please email myself, or your child’s respective Leader of Pastoral Care, so we can acknowledge these achievements.
If you have any questions regarding sport at MacKillop College, please do not hesitate to contact me either by email or phone at the College.
Erin Denham
Leader of Sport
Music
“Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.”- Martin Luther
Digital Bravissimo Success!
Congratulations to Jadzia Stronell of Year 12, whose HSC Music performance ‘Danza’ by Alberto Ginesterra for solo piano, has been selected for inclusion in the Digital Bravissimo Concert 2020 - 2021. Ordinarily, Bravissimo is a live concert staged at the Glasshouse Port Macquarie with a student audience. Due to the disruption created by COVID, the concert has been curated digitally to include the best HSC music performances from Music 1 and 2 students across our region from 2020 - 21.
Included is a recording of Jadzia performing this piece from earlier in the year.
Ensemble Recordings
Ensemble recordings have now wrapped up and are being mixed. These audio recordings will be released to ensemble members throughout Week 8 to share with families. In a year that has made the creation of music difficult we are grateful to have had the opportunity to record repertoire to share with our school community.
Links and Forms
MacKillop College Music Tuition Request Form
Saxophone Ensemble Google Classroom
Junior Percussion Ensemble Google Classroom
Senior Percussion Ensemble Google Classroom
String Ensemble Google Classroom
Collective Pop & Praise Band Google Classroom
SAPSS Drumline Google Classroom
Senior Vocal Ensemble Google Classroom
Upcoming Events
Youth Mass
- Week 10: Sunday 5 December, 4:15pm - 6:00pm, St Agnes' Parish Church, Collective Praise Band (singers only).
Please contact Rob Denham with any questions relating to the co-curricular music program at MacKillop College.
Rob Denham
Leader of Music
Canteen
All volunteers must QR code in at the front office and provide proof of double vaccination before proceeding to the canteen.
Monday 22 November
Paul Atkins and Patrick Corr
Tuesday 23 November
Jane Keegan, Katrina Bates and Elizabeth Jardine
Wednesday 24 November
Kaylene Monckton and Verena Gandy
Thursday 25 November
Jason Garland and Stuart Ward
Friday 26 November
Priscilla Turnbull, Bec Eakin, Tracey Reddie and Sam Harrison
Parents please also ensure your child knows about their online order. There are a signifcant amount of orders daily that are not being claimed.
To order from the canteen:
1. Orders can be written out at the canteen (bags supplied free of charge).
2. Orders can be written out at home and handed in at the canteen.
3. Download the QKR! app and order on line.
ALL ORDERS TO BE IN BY 8:30AM PLEASE
Please remind your child/children if you have ordered for them, and what their order is.
If your child is sick and you have ordered, please phone the canteen (6583 2632) to arrange a credit.
From the Mathematics Vault
Welcome to our weekly Maths Vault!
We will provide a mathematics problem for solving, with the answer published the week after underneath a new problem. Good luck!
Parent News
From Tuesday 30 November, some regular route numbers and all school bus numbers in Port Macquarie, Laurieton, Wauchope & Kempsey regions will change to become part of a state-wide standardised program.
There will be no changes to times or route paths operated.
This information is available on the Busways website:
https://www.busways.com.au/nsw/school-services/school-timetables
Please select the link adjacent to MacKillop College | New timetable | 30 November 2021. We have provided the Junior Campus timetable below as an example.
For any enquiries regarding these changes, please contact the Busways Customer Service Team via 1300 692 929 or Infoline@busways.com.au