From the Principal

Dear members of the Mary MacKillop Catholic College community,

Thank you to the staff, students and parents of Mary MacKillop Catholic College Wakeley for the kindness and warm welcome that I have received since commencing at the College. It is a privilege to be a principal, especially in such a wonderful Catholic learning community, and I will do my best to honour the community by committing to provide the best Catholic education for the girls in my care. I begin the role acknowledging the contribution of the great leaders of the past from Sr Judith Sippel through to Mrs Narelle Archer. In particular I want acknowledge the recent work of Mrs Archer, which has resulted in the College achieving its best ever HSC results in 2017.

HSC High Achievers’ Assembly

On Friday 16 February we celebrated our 2017 HSC results at our High Achievers’ Assembly. Our impressive results were due to the growth mindset, high aspirations and goal setting of our students, their collaboration with their classmates and the continual support, direction and challenge they received from their families and their teachers.

Our teachers are to be commended for enabling their success. They set high expectations of our students and balance this with high support. Their selfless teachers did the extra things beyond what happens in the classroom to help them succeed, such as, providing them with endless hours of additional marking, practice and scaffolding answers, and providing outside school hour lessons.

Our 2018 Theme for the Year is “Do It Scared”. This theme was created by our new student leadership team and is embodied by our HSC students of 2017. These students took chances; sometimes they succeeded and sometimes they failed, however, they kept trying despite any setbacks. They displayed resilience, courage and commitment. They believed in themselves and believed that near enough was not good enough, so that even when they felt afraid, tired or lost they did another practice essay, or completed another past paper, or worked to perfect their major work and so on, determined to succeed.

There is no better way to prove that having a growth mindset works, than through our 2017 HSC results.  MMCC had 17 girls achieve an ATAR over 90 with 9 of them achieving an ATAR over 95. In fact, just under half our Year 12 students achieved an ATAR over 70. Current and future students and their families can be reassured that MMCC is leading the way in education in the South-West of Sydney. An education at MMCC is one to be proud of.

JJAMM

From Saturday 10 February until Wednesday 14 February, Erin Zappia (College Captain), Mary Khousho (Vice-Captain-Well Being) and I attended JJAMM (Joseph, Julian and Mary MacKillop), the Josephite schools’ student leadership conference. JJAMM provides a special leadership experience for students in schools sharing the spirit of Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods, the co-founders of the Sisters of St Joseph. This year our students joined students from 28 schools across Australia and New Zealand.

At JJAMM the leaders identify with the core values of the Josephite tradition, explore the nature of leadership, are assisted to recognise Mary MacKillop as a role model for living the Gospel and develop their responsibilities in representing the legacy of Mary MacKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph. We spent time at Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney and at St Joseph’s Kincumber. As well as being an uplifting learning experience for the students, I found it inspirational as a leader in a Josephite school. I thank Sr Jan Barnett and her team for organising and facilitating this experience.

God Bless,

Ms Gilda Pussich

Principal

From the Assistant Principal

Welcome to our New Year 7’s

A big Mary MacKillop Catholic College Welcome to our new Year 7 students who had the special opportunity to spend their first day on their own before the rest of the school came back to start the year. Our College community is very happy to welcome you and we hope the next six years are full of life long learning as you journey into becoming “young women called to life to make a difference in the world”.

Important Reminders to Begin the Year

Our whole College community began the year with an Administration based day ensuring students were presented with very important aspects of their expectations before they started their classes. The presentations were centred around:

• Attendance: ensuring all students are clear on the expectations of attendance for academic success.
• Learning Management: All students were reminded of their rights and responsibilities of being a member of the Mary MacKillop Catholic College Community.
• Uniform: Clear guidelines regarding grooming, jewellery and expectations with their sports uniform as well.
• Diary: Clear understanding of the importance of the diary being the central form of communication and organisation between school and home.

A huge thank you to the CLC teachers who have worked very closely with your daughters in ensuring they began the year well informed and ready for learning.

Swimming Carnival

Our great start to the year continued with our Swimming Carnival. Students were involved in a whole new range of activities and showed house spirit throughout the day. Our Year 12’s got into the spirit of the day by dressing up to represent their House. Below, are our McCormack “MMCC Life Guards”. A great deal of effort went into getting these costumes organised. Well done ladies!

College Diary Enhancements

Senior Diary

Junior Diary

Your daughter’s diary has been improved once again.  All enhancements were the product of student feedback.

Daily organisation page

The daily organisation page has been updated to student specifications and allows students to have a list of asks to complete for the week.

As always, parents are asked to check their daughter’s diary page above each week on top of the weekly Commendations and Matters of Concern page located in the communications section (as seen below):

Commendations and Matters of Concern

The College is committed to communicating with parents on a constant basis. Parents have faster access to information on how your daughters are progressing on a week-by-week basis. Teachers will be giving students Commendations or Matters of Concern and recording these at the back of the diary (Communications TAB) at the back of the diary. Parents are required to sign this page on a weekly basis.

Commendations: Students can earn a commendation at any time both in and out of class according to the listed criteria. Based on the number of commendations received at the end of the term, CLC teachers will nominate students to receive specific College merits.

Matters of Concern: Students can receive these at any time, in and out of class and indicate that a change of behaviour or attitude is required. When students receive 5 matters of concern, a phone call will be made to the parent by the CoL (Year) or CoL (KLA) to alert you of the fact that any further matters of concern received will result in a Thursday Afternoon RAP detention.

Commendations & Matters of Concern

6 Commendations = 1 Merit Card

6 Matters of Concern = Thursday Afternoon RAP – 3:00pm – 4:00pm

Thursday Bell Times

As of Thursday 8^th February, bell times for Thursday have changed. Students exit the College at 3:00pm. Please see below:

** SCC Students leave class at 12.10pm

Mobile Phone Policy Update

After careful review of our updated 2017 mobile phone policy, we have made one further amendment to ensure continued safety for students in regards to mobile phones during the school day. We also remind parents and students that the purpose of this policy is to promote appropriate and safe use of mobile phones within College grounds and encourage interaction and communication without distractions.

The amendment is as follows:

• The use of portable speakers also constitutes the use of a mobile phone and both the speaker and mobile phone whether seen or unseen will be confiscated immediately.

College Dress Code

To continue our commitment to high standards in presentation, updates to our College Dress Code are below:

• The College Jumper cannot be worn during Terms 1 and 4. If the weather is cool, students wear the College Blazer.

I remind parents of our uniform and grooming policy: At all times if your daughter has a variation to our uniform or grooming policy a note from a parent must be provided.

School Shoes

It came to my attention that some students are wearing the incorrect school shoes. Please note the following. Anyone that has the incorrect shoes has been asked to replace them immediately with the correct ones.

Correct Shoe	Incorrect Shoe
Black, leather, low heeled and lace up school shoes.	Open top (Mary Jane style) shoes that present a WHS risk. Black leather converse casual sneaker/shoes that present a WHS risk.

Perfect Attendance – Term 4 2017

Congratulations to the following students who received perfect attendance for Term 4 2017. Their 2018 year groups have been displayed. Students will receive their certificates in Year Meeting this term.

Traffic Safety in and Around the College

Each year it is crucial that we remind all parents regarding traffic safety in and around the College.

As a result please read below some very important reminders regarding traffic safety to ensure your daughter and all members of our community are kept safe:

Speed Limit – A reminder that during the times listed on the school zone signs, 40km/h speed limits apply.   We ask all parents to ensure you are vigilant with your speed and stick to the speed limit within our school zone all times.

Safe drop off – Please observe the road and parking rules to ensure you are dropping off or picking up your daughter in the correctly marked zones. Parents are not permitted to park or stop at any time in a No Stopping Zone, particularly in Carnarvon Street as this blocks buses from entering of an afternoon preventing our students from getting home at a reasonable time.

Pickup and Drop Off Zones – A reminder that these zones can only be used for a quick pick up or drop off only. The following applies:

• maximum stop time is two (2) minutes
• driver must remain in or within a vehicle
• vehicle must not be left unattended
• zone applies only during hours of operation

Morning Drop Off inside the College – We ask parents to move their car to the furthest point of the drop off zone to ensure as many cars as possible can come into the College ensuring traffic flow is not stopped or interrupted. When parents park their cars close to the gates this causes traffic jams on Hamilton and Bulls roads. Please also check your mirrors when leaving to prevent any collisions and stick to the 10km/h speed limit within College grounds.

Police and Council Rangers regularly patrol the area around our College. Please ensure you observe all road and parking rules. These reminders are in place to ensure the safety of all members of our College community. We thank all parents for your continued support and care of our students. Please contact the College if you have any questions or concerns.

Vaccinations Messages from NSW Health

 Growth Mindset Reminder

All students at MMCC are working on the Orange side of the graphic.

Pope Francis’ Words

May we continue in our partnership of “Forming young women called to life to make a difference in the world”.

Mr Pablo Grana, Assistant Principal

New Staff for 2018

As a Josephite community we extend a very warm welcome to our new staff.

Ms Gilda Pussich

Principal

Leadership Team

Teaching and Support Staff

College DUX 2017

Swimming Carnival

It has been an eventful start to Term 1, 2018 with our annual College Swimming Carnival being held on Friday 2^nd February at Fairfield City Leisure Centre.

We had fantastic weather and fun was had by all staff and students who attended the event. Students had the opportunity to gain house points by participating in both main pool events as well as novelty races.

Selected students will represent Mary MacKillop Catholic College as a team in the Sydney Catholic Colleges (SCC) Swimming Competition on Monday 26^th February. We wish our team well.

Miss Brown, Sports Coordinator

The carnival results are as follows:

Women in Engineering Camp

During the summer holidays, I attended the University of New South Wales’ Annual Women in Engineering Camp. This five-day camp gave 100 girls from Year 11 and Year 12 the opportunity to explore different engineering disciplines.

The camp included:

• Site visits to Transport NSW, Tooheys, and IAG where we were able to talk to multiple experienced female engineers
• Career panels where females engineers discussed the endless opportunity for females in this industry
• Design and build workshops with an aim to develop a solution to current engineering issues
• Networking events which allowed everyone to make connections and attain a greater understanding of what is happening within the industry
• Harbour Bridge climb which was the highlight of the camp!

Overall, the event was incredibly exciting and intellectually stimulating. This camp encouraged me to challenge myself in order to learn and grow as an aspiring engineer. It was an experience that I will cherish as it helped strengthened my growth mindset and make new friends along the way. I would definitely recommend any girls who are interested in the engineering field to apply!

Rachel Nguyen, Year 12

Lenten Penance

College Open Evening

HSC Survival Tips for Parents

Don’t Forget to Download SkoolBag

Trivia Night

Letter from Sydney Catholic Schools

Year of Youth Launch

Coming Events

Mass Times

Smithfield:

Saturday Vigil 6.00pm;

8.00 am (Italian); 10.30am; 6.00pm

Fairfield West:

Saturday Vigil 5pm (Vietnamese); 7 pm (Spanish); 7.30am & 9.00am; 11am (Spanish); 6pm (Arabic)

Smithfield 9.15 am. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday;  6pm Wednesday 

Fairfield West Monday – Friday 7am Saturday 8am

Fr Jarek Zan

Vigil: 6:00pm Sat   

Sunday 7.30am (Polish) 9.00am 10.30am 4.30pm (Vietnamese) 6pm

Fr Michael de Stoop, Fr Francisco Regala

Saturday Vigil English: 6pm Vietnamese: 7.30pm

Sunday English 8.30am, 10am & 6pm Vietnamese 6.30am, 4pm, 7.15pm Polish11.30am

Monday – Friday 7.00am, Wednesday 7.30pm Saturday 9.00am Vietnamese – Tuesday & Thursday 7pm

Fr Liem Duong, Fr Nen Dang

Monday 7.00am  Tuesday 8.00am Thursday & Friday 8.00am Wednesday 7.00pm Saturday 8.00am

Saturday Vigil 6.00pm Sunday 9:00am

Fr Jerry Prindiville

Monday-Friday:  8.30am Saturday Vigil: 5.30pm Sunday: First Mass 8.30am  

Solemn Mass 10.30am English Mass: 5.30pm

Monday-Friday: 5.30pm Saturday Vigil: 5.30pm Sunday: Solemn Mass 9.00am Arabic Mass: 5.30pm

Saturday English Mass: 5.30pm Sunday Mass: 9.00am