From the Principal

Ms Silvana Rossetti

Term 1 began with a strong focus on connectivity as we came together to celebrate the new scholastic year with our Opening School Mass. The Opening Mass is a very special event in our calendar as we witness our Year 12 students as they welcome the new Year 7 students into the Marist College Eastwood community.

Our Term 1 Parents and Friends (P&F) meeting was held onsite in the Learning Centre. This meeting was a time for parents to reconnect, plan ahead for the year and hear about our wonderful 2023 HSC results, our strategic direction for the next five years and a facilities update.  Our Year 7 Parent Welcome Evening was enjoyed by parents, students and staff and gave us all an opportunity to reconnect and be reminded of the wonderful community that we are. This event was followed by our Open Day where once again, the Marist College Eastwood P&F group, along with our staff and students demonstrated true Marist College Eastwood hospitality as we opened our school to our future students and parents. 

The Trivia Night fundraising event, organised by the P&F, was held in March this year.  This annual event is fast becoming a highlight of the P&F social calendar which we all look forward to each year.  A special thank you to Mrs Jody Patman, Mrs Vicki Tanner and the P&F committee for all the work behind the scenes, as well as the generous parents who donated various items to be raffled or auctioned on the evening.  A great evening was had by all and we are already looking forward to the 2025 evening. 

Our Year 7 students had their first Reflection Day where they were able to spend some time learning more about what it means to be Marist as well as getting to know their peers and their teachers.  Year 12 also travelled off campus to their last ever Retreat as Marist students.  Here, along with their teachers, they were  able to take some well deserved time out to pray, reflect and reconnect with one another and they have returned energised and ready for the last two terms of their school education. 

The College continues to be a hive of activity as students enjoy participating in the College swimming carnival, SCS sports program, CSDA Public Speaking competition, SCS Portrait Prize competition and Chess club just to mention a few. Our afterschool Homework Club and Tutoring program has been very successful and it is wonderful to see so many students use this opportunity to continue to grow in their academic life. 

The College has embraced the Marist Association theme for 2024, ‘First Light’  which calls us to recognise the world as the place in which we discover God- in nature and in human nature as we witness acts of kindness.  We can recognise and experience God’s Spirit through the beauty and goodness of everything that the world holds and reveals. The beautiful prayer below reminds us to see God in everyone we encounter so that we all may experience ‘first light’.

In a classical rabbinic story, the teacher asks the disciples:

“When do you know it is dawn?”  One says, “when you can distinguish a white thread from a black one.” 

“No,” says the teacher. 

“When you can see the outline of a tree against the horizon,” ventures another.

“No,” says the teacher — to this and all other efforts to answer the question. Finally, he says, “when you can look into the eyes of an ‘other’, a stranger,and see a brother or a sister, then it is dawn.

Until then, it is still night.”

We pray that the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds and hearts to recognise and know God’s presence in the breath-taking and ordinary encounters of our life. We pray that our lives will be transformed by God’s Spirit, making known the presence of God in the world and within us. 

Mary, Our Good Mother …. pray for us 
St Marcellin Champagnat ….pray for us
St Mary of the Cross MacKillop .… pray for us 
And let us always remember .… to pray for one another