MacKillop Chronicles 2023 Term 1, Week 7

Thursday 16 March 2023

Primary Matters

Dear Community,

Fourth Sunday of Lent

"I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind." John 9: 1 – 41.

The story of the blind man is well known. What is not well known about this story is that people who had any sort of affliction such as blindness were seen in Jewish times as being cursed because of sin. In other words, people born this way was because of their parents' sinning and the punishment was an eternal affliction. Heavy stuff really! By Jesus curing the blind man and daring to put his hands on him was tantamount to endorsing and not shunning sin, according to the Jewish authorities. How can Jesus be the son of man if he spends time together with the afflicted who are born of sin? Let us hope education has taught people that such thinking is redundant and simply not true. What Jesus did was heal not as a sign of how powerful he was, but to model that he loves us all. In Jesus we trust!

Mini-Mack’s Easter Egg Appeal for the Elderly

As part of our Lenten Alms Giving, we are asking for children to bring in Easter eggs so that we can distribute these to the elderly in nursing homes. Many old people do not have family or friends to care for them in their twilight years. Many do not receive presents or a simple chocolate at Easter time. We want the children to know it is important to care for everyone and to learn the lesson that not all of us enjoy the love of a family. Children are also encouraged to write a simple Easter Card message wishing the elderly lady or man a Happy Easter! A community looks after all its citizens and at MacKillop, this also means those in our local nursing homes.

Harmony Day – Tuesday 28 March

Across K – 12, the College will celebrate Harmony Day which is really about a celebration of diverse cultures and the inclusion of all. On this day children are encouraged to wear a cultural dress of their family origins or simply wear something orange which is the colour for Harmony Day. The children will participate in a liturgy followed by Social and Emotional Learning activities in their CLAN groups. All children can purchase a sausage sizzle lunch for $5 on the school’s Qkr App. Orders can be taken now. We would like a band of parent volunteers to come to cook and distribute the food. Please let Mr Snelling or myself know if you can help with the sausage sizzle.

School Playgroup for Term 2 Start

If you are interested in being part of a school playgroup and helping with its operation, please let the school know ASAP. We would like this to begin each Friday morning in the multipurpose room.

SECOND STEPS & PARENT INFO SESSION

The children in Years K - 5 have been focusing on skills for learning in their second-step lessons: listening, focusing attention, using self-talk to stay on-task, and being assertive when asking for help with a learning task. Teachers have been reminding students, about the skills which help students be successful learners. Year 6 lessons are currently focusing on Social Skills. All children are earning house points for following school rules and implementing the skills we are developing in Second Steps.

Here is what some of our students have said about their lesson this week:

Hudson (Year 1) said “I loved the song and using actions to remember how to focus with our eyes & ears”

1W even shared a video of their class using this song

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10VB8Kx8yVHFtsEWQ1TmHGkgjdrjrqJhB/view?usp=share_link

Josh (Year 1) said “I loved playing the Your turn, My turn game with Puppy & Snail puppets. Puppy is very good & snail tries to trick him. I learnt if you listen hard, you can get everything right.”

Lucy & Lily (Year 6) said “On Friday we listened to videos about Leo & Stella’s trouble going to high school. We offered advice for ways they could face their challenges.

We thank the parents who have already created Second Steps accounts and used the activation codes to access family resources online. To further explore the benefits of Second Step here at MacKillop we invite parents to an Information Session on Friday 31st March at 9 am in the library. A summary will be uploaded after the presentation for those parents who cannot attend in person.

Seasons for Growth

Seasons for Growth offers children and young people a safe space to come together and share their experiences of change and loss. If this is something that you feel your child can benefit from then this year, we are running the program over several terms. Please see the attached note and complete an Expressions of Interest form so that your child can be included in the program for 2023.

Sports Happenings with Mrs Denneman

Congratulations to Carter H for his outstanding placings in the State BMX Tournament. Well done to Aoibhinn T and Georgia H for progressing further in the NSWPSSA Girls AFL selection meet and will travel to Batemans Bay in May for games. Common to these pages is Krystal L who we know is an outstanding swimmer. This was affirmed further when she was named the swimmer of the Central Coast Catholic Schools carnival held at Mingara recently. Isaiah F was recently selected to represent Broken Bay in the under 11 Rugby League tournament and Ava N, Danika M and Hallie W  for the Broken Bay Netball.

On Monday, the primary cricket team headed to Darren Kennedy Oval at Toukley to take on St John Fisher in the opening round of the Mark Taylor Shield cricket competition. We won the toss and elected to bat first. St John Fisher had an extraordinarily strong bowling lineup and restricted MCC to just 57 runs, but we did manage to bat out the full 30 overs. Byron was the top-scorer and most of the team got a bat. 

With a small total to defend, it was always going to be tough. We tried our best, but St John Fisher were able to chase down the runs in the first ten overs—special mention to Byron, Victor and Bayley, who all took one wicket each.

As this competition is a knockout competition, unfortunately, that ends our run this year. Congratulations to St John Fisher and good luck in the second round. Our cricketers will get another chance in the Waratah Shield in Term 4. 

Grace competed today at the NSW State Championships for Karate in Sydney and came an amazing 1st in u12 Kumite and is now State Champion for Kumite! We’re really proud of her! She’s still only 9 and she fought and won every fight with so much passion and sportsmanship! 

Enrolment for Kindergarten 2024

It is vitally important that if you desire a place for your child in kindergarten in 2024 or know of someone who does, advise them to enrol ASAP. Places as expected are really filling fast and enrolment interviews are being booked. Please do not delay as demand may outstrip supply! Enrolment forms and packs can be collected from the front office or downloaded from our website.

NAPLAN Begins

Well done to the Year 3 and 5 students who sat their writing assessment this week for NAPLAN. Next week the students will be assessed in Grammar, Punctuation and Reading followed by Numeracy. It is one test for one day, but it does provide valuable teaching information on ‘where to next’ for each child’s literacy and numeracy pathways. You can do your bit by ensuring your child is well-nourished and rested before the tests each day.

A Thought for the Week…

“Peace of mind comes from not wanting to change others, but by simply accepting them as they are. True acceptance is always without demands and expectations.” Jampolsky.

God Bless,

Frank Cohen

Primary Principal

Tips for Helping your child to:

Year 6 Taster Day

MCC Year 6 students do not need to register, but if you do know of someone wanting to enrol in Year 7 2024 please advise them to enrol now and register for the Year 7 Taster Day.

Secondary Principal

Prayer:

God our Father, Creator and Ruler of the universe, in every age you call us to use and develop our gifts for the good of others. With St. Joseph as our guide, help us to do the work you have asked and come to the rewards you have promised. Please grant this through Christ our Lord.
AMEN

St Joseph’s Day:

St. Joseph’s Day is celebrated on March 19 every year, which is this Sunday. The day commemorates the feast of St. Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary and legal father of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. St Joseph is a very important saint also for our College as Mary MacKillop had such a devotion to this caring and fully human man that she called her order of nuns after him, the Sisters of St Joseph.

Learning: NAPLAN

NAPLAN is an annual assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It tests the types of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. The tests cover skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy. 

NAPLAN helps governments, education authorities and schools to see whether young Australians are reaching important literacy and numeracy goals. It provides information about how education programs are working, areas for improvement, and which schools need support in the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy.

NAPLAN has been moved earlier in the year so that schools will have information earlier about the progress of the students and in 2023 these exams are occurring in Weeks 7 and 8. In preparation for this the Maths and English teacher have been working through practice exams and Mrs Ferguson, Mrs McGuinness and Mrs Campbell have also been teaching specific language skills.

Students need to realise how important these exams are as another marker of their progress and should be encouraged to do their very best in each and every exam.

Congratulations:

At each assembly, we now have a new agenda item that Mrs Patil introduced at the end of last year. It is to recognise the achievements of our students outside of the College. We obviously celebrate all the achievements that occur within the school with personal congratulations, at assemblies on the College's social media and on our website. However, our students do a great deal outside of the school and it is so important that we are aware of this and recognise the students, not just with JUMP hours but also publicly.

At each fortnightly assembly, Mrs Patil highlights all the successes of which we have become aware. Therefore, we encourage both students and parents to inform us of these achievements. This can be done by contacting Mrs Patil via email at corinne.patil@dbb.catholic.deu.au

Parent Partnerships:

There has been a great deal in the news recently about the abuse of teachers in schools across Australia by both students and parents. For a highly trained professional teacher, this truly is distressing to hear but there is also a realisation that abuse and anger are not only being faced by teachers but also in many other professions such as nurses, paramedics, police, shopkeepers and the list goes on. Be it a result of the stress of COVID and now the pressure from inflation it is obviously the incorrect way to deal with this.

Every teacher enters the profession to help better the lives of their students. Secondary teachers realise they will be working with large numbers of teenagers and understand the challenges that will pose. They also realise that schools are safe places to make mistakes and that even the best child can make mistakes. The importance is that when this occurs that the school and parents form an honest and open partnership to assist their child and look at the best way forward.

We must always remember that a partnership of trust must be formed where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Thankfully, this is the usual response within our community as parents realise that the school is only trying to do the best for their children and that we do need to stop and listen and understand the whole story of what has or is occurring so that we can move on to the best possible outcome.

P6, Police Lecture:

Students at MacKillop in Years 7 - 10 complete a unit every term called Digital Leadership where they are taught about the benefits, responsibilities and pitfalls of using digital and social media.

The students also cover this in PDHPE and RE and we often speak about it at assemblies and in P6. This is also accompanied by all the advice given at home by parents.

Unfortunately, students often ignore all the advice and the rules of the law and the College and make mistakes. Due to some very poor decisions by some of our students, the Police became aware, and they asked to come to our College to speak with our students in the areas of cyberbullying, defamation and the passing of pornographic material.

This occurred last Tuesday in P6 and we hope that all our students listened attentively and understand that being young is no excuse for breaking the law or for being truly unkind and cruel to others. They also need to realise that what is put online is there forever despite deleting material from their own device.

The College will continue to educate in this area which is an issue in every school and every home.

Evacuation Drills:

Every year we must have drills in 4 areas for the safety of our students.

1. An evacuation in case of fire or bomb threat from the classroom
2. An evacuation in case of fire or bomb threat from the playground during breaks
3. Lockdown in case of threat in the classroom.
4. Lockdown in case of threat during a break.

Last Tuesday the entire College, K-12 was supposed to practise the first of these but due to rain it was postponed

When this actually occurs, the students will need to ensure their classroom windows are closed when the alarm occurs and to leave the rooms they are in to move to the evacuation area, the oval. They will line up in their Pastoral classes where the rolls will be taken.

The students are told it is a drill so that if the real thing occurred, they will understand the difference.

The students should complete this within 10 minutes. The various Houses will be allocated points for how well they follow the correct procedures, how quickly they line up and have the rolls taken and reported to the major fire wardens.

Hopefully, we will never have to do one of these for real but, if we do, our students will know what to do.

Important Dates for Week 8:

Mon-Fri: NAPLAN continues

Tues – Fri: Year 12 Frozen Week (all students and staff in class every lesson to prepare for their exams in Week 9)

Tues: P6 – Year 8 presentation called “Smashed Alcohol”

Sun – YMCC Youth Mass 5 pm.

Final Word

If you have any questions or concerns always, please contact the College.

Remember to check COMPASS, our website and, our Facebook pages for information.

God bless.

Debra Ferguson

Secondary Principal

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