Dear members of the Mary MacKillop Catholic College community,

As we move towards our Easter celebrations; the most important time in our liturgical year, I have been reflecting on our role at the College in educating our young women.

Throughout this term I have been seeing our girls continuing with their dedication to improvement and growth in all areas. They have grown in their academic learning through consistent work and there has been a real growth in confidence. This has been obvious in their willingness to give of themselves to after school challenges such as the NAPLAN Boot Camp that was held over the past two weeks and the holiday and evening classes that have been run by dedicated staff for the Year 12 students. I am forever grateful to the staff who generously give of their time to make this a reality. I have also seen them grow in their expression of their faith in liturgies, visits to reconciliation and social justice initiatives; and again I see our dedicated staff valuing this and ensuring there are many chances for our girls to be close to Christ.

We are more fortunate than many other Catholic schools however, in that we are in a position to welcome those who have suffered in war and give them a chance to launch into a new life and create a future in our great country. This is what a Josephite school which is modelled on the example of St Mary of the Cross must do.

Next term we will welcome several young women into our community who have fled atrocities in Iraq and will enter our new Catholic Intensive English Centre. As I have been meeting them I have been overwhelmed by their resilience, energy and excitement at becoming a part of our community. These are hard working young women who understand the gift of our College and I am very confident in what they will contribute in the future.

i know that the students at MMCC are well placed in their understanding to welcome them as they learn from each other. This understanding was exemplified by the recent ACU Award given to Veronica Samano of Year 12 2016 at the Religious Art Exhibition which is highlighted later in this newsletter. On our last assembly of term I showed the students this image of a close up of Veronica’s art work.

This artwork was only made possible by the generosity of the students who supplied the children’s shoes which would decorate the side of the refugee boat; a reference to the deaths of innocent children fleeing war torn countries. To me, this artwork represents the love and care demonstrated by our students. It is MMCC’s young women who are making the world a better place.

I go to the holidays feeling blessed and very privileged to be a part of the MMCC community. I wish you all a blessed Easter with your families and look forward to being with your daughters and our staff once again for the adventures of Term 2 2017.

God Bless,

Narelle Archer

Principal