I had the pleasure this week of experiencing two wonderful events at the very end and very beginning of our College journey.

The School Based Apprenticeship Thank You Breakfast was held at the St Patrick’s Cathedral Centre on Wednesday. This is always a fantastic function. When as Principal I write and speak of ‘academic excellence’ very often what is heard is a desire that EVERY student is engaging in explicitly intellectual and university-destined pathways. This is not the intention. We are very fortunate that many of our senior students choose School Based Apprenticeships that complement and enhance their own skills and passions. We have had huge success with these and with our dedicated careers professionals operating in the school I know we will continue to do so.

I want to offer really sincere congratulations to the year 12 students who graduated from the SBA program on Wednesday. You are modelling for your younger peers a positive attitude to learning and skill development. Thank you also to the employers and parents who have supported.

The first Prep Transition morning was on Tuesday. What a real joy it is to welcome new parents (and established parents) to the Prep area for a relaxed immersion in the play areas and classrooms. Seeing the bonds of community being formed by the children and their parents was lovely. The next Prep Transition Day will be next Tuesday and I am looking forward to formally welcoming our newest members to our community.

Please do consider joining our Hike for Homeless team too - last time I checked we were topping the leader board for school's fundraising!

Lastly – a huge congratulations to our Queensland All Schools Touch teams. You were outstanding ambassadors for the College and you simply keep getting better. Competing at that standard is just fantastic. Well done!

Mr Chris Gabbett
College Principal

The PPF Resource Team met on Tuesday morning to collate and analyse the feedback received in the consultation process for the new fee restructure. Mal Martin, the Team Leader of the Resource Team, noted how positive the feedback was based on the number of emails, phone calls and messages received in relation to the total number of College families. The goal is to develop a fee structure that is transparent, equitable and focused on the current College priorities.

The team noted adjustments would be necessary to the Capital Levy for single sibling families to ensure the total College Fee remained affordable for these families with only one child. The only adjustment noted was the amount of the Resource Levy for those families with children in Years 4 -6 to ensure no families were disadvantaged under the new fee structure.

These adjustments will now be modelled by the College and finalised with communication to be provided by the College Principal on the final outcome of the restructure. Families will be advised of the 2022 Fee Schedule together with the usual information regarding direct debits and payment methods. Keep an eye on your emails with the subject line - 2022 Schedule of Fees!

It is important to note that this review has been motivated in part by a desire to make a Catholic education more accessible for all families. We have noticed during the pandemic that many more families are seeking fee concessions as living expenses increase faster than salaries. We ask please that if you are encountering or fear you may encounter difficulties paying fees that you contact the College Business Manager in the first instance.

The Resource team of the PPF would sincerely like to thank all families who reached out and provided their feedback in this consultation. Without this invaluable feedback, we are unable to get data that is meaningful from the full cross section of families of the College.

This week we have interviewed the new College Chef, Mr Andrew Weir, so let’s see what he has to say.

Where did you go to Primary School: Sacred Heart

Where did you complete your Secondary schooling: St Mary’s Toowoomba

What have you liked about working at Mary MacKillop so far?

The friendly nature of the school and the good support I have been given so far.

What's your favourite food?

Anything Texas BBQ - brisket, ribs, the lot!

What are you hobbies and Interests?

I love most sports, cooking a Texas BBQ and fishing.

Other interesting facts about yourself or anything else you would like to share with the MM community:

I have owned my own Aviation ground handling business and worked with some of the largest aircraft.

Hello to all students, parents and community. We hope everyone is well and you all have had a lovely holiday.

We are back into Term 4 already. We only have 7 weeks to go until the end of the year and still lots to celebrate this term!

We’d like to wish our Year 12 students the very best with their upcoming external exams. Year 12 will have their final day on Friday November 19. We wish them all the very best of success for their futures.

We wish to congratulate all the Mary Mac students who participated in sporting, performing arts or academic activities over the mid semester break. It has been a very successful year for the College with excellence being seen across all areas!

On a very positive note, congratulations to the College on a job well done for the College Drum Line and Colour Guard in the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers Floral Parade. What a tremendous honour for students to participate in this event. Also, to come out as champions in the College’s first ever Floral Parade entry was absolutely outstanding. The winning trophy will be presented later this term by a Toowoomba Regional Council representative. Great work by Mrs Jessica Burke for organising this event and well-done Mary Mac! This will be a great event to continue every year. 

Congratulations also to the College Touch Football teams who participated in the QLD All School Touch Football Carnival at the Gold Coast last week. The College performed well against a huge amount of talent. Each year the College attends this competition, the teams improve their performance. Best of luck to the U13 girls’ team and the Junior School team who will compete at the SWQ All Schools Touch Carnival this coming Sunday at Kearney’s Spring Ovals. Everyone is welcome to come along and support the College.

NAPLAN results are in and well done to all the College students in Year 3, Year 5, Year 7 and Year 9. All very positive results! We have continued to elevate the results and continue to improve in all areas. Well done everyone!

We recently had our PPF meeting on 12 October where we discussed many items on the agenda.

• Thank you to Mr Piers Dudin – Middle Leader Mathematics and Numeracy. Mr Dudin presented to the group an update of College Mathematics and gave the PPF group a detailed breakdown of current College rankings with grades etc. He advised us on Inspire Maths and the 'learning pit' and how important the teachers’ roles are in extending all students to achieve their very best. It was a great presentation.

• Fee restructure and consultation period with all parties. Thank you for the feedback and we will continue to work on this and finalise this for the start of next year and make sure no one is disadvantaged.

• RADII Benchmark Results. All very positive and greatly improved since the last review in 2019. Well done to all teachers, leadership and staff for always wanting to improve in all areas.

• Volunteers Register. The PPF Group is seeking expression of interest from parents and students to be involved with College events in 2022. We will be sending out communication in coming weeks. If you have passion and enthusiasm to help out, please watch this space for how to become involved. The Volunteer Register will be a ‘port of call’ for when we need the generosity of our volunteers to help with College events. Watch out for this email in College Communications.

• In the Mission and Identity space please keep 6:00pm, Saturday 6 November free to attend the new look, student led, Parish Mass. This Mass will be a celebration of Saint Mary MacKillop and we look forward to this celebration together as a School and Parish community. Everyone is welcome to attend. We would love to see you there.

• We are still seeking interest to form a Grant Writing Committee and welcome those who have grant writing experience to work alongside PPF members and College staff, in completing and submitting grants for the College’s benefit. This is a great way for you to contribute to the College gaining and improving on its resources and facilities. If you have a passion for making things happen, please contact the PPF at higppf@twb.catholic.edu.au

• Mr Chris Gabbett’s Principals Report was very comprehensive as always. The College is hitting targets in all areas along with the Annual Action Plan to align with the College Pillars of Success. Great work by the Leadership and all College teachers and support staff.

The PPF meeting concluded well with actions in place to continue to support and work alongside the College and staff to achieve the best outcomes for all involved and for the betterment of all children attending the College.

We look forward to welcoming you at our next meeting on Tuesday 23 November which will be our last PPF meeting for the year.

If you have a topic or matters for discussions, please send through to the PPF email higppf@twb.catholic.edu.au and we can add it to our Meeting Agenda.

Take care.

Shayne Cleary and Rowena Voll
Co-Chairs PPF

Next Meeting:

• Tuesday 23 November 2021
• Penola 6/7 
• 5:30pm

Fr Julian Tenison Woods was born 15 November, 1832, in Southwark England and died 7 October, 1889 in Sydney. Fr Julian is best known as the co-founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart with Mary MacKillop as well as the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. He was a priest, scientist, missioner, journalist, and explorer. He was also the first director of Catholic Education in Australia staying in Adelaide to work with Mary MacKillop and the sisters in educating the poor children. It was through Mary accepting to support these children that Julian and Mary started Catholic schools for these children. Both Julian and Mary worked against the odds - Bishops who wanted control of the sisters, sisters not following the rules of the order, prominent people making incorrect accusations - to maintain their strong spirituality and belief in what they were doing.

I start with this today as it was Fr Julian's anniversary last week and his birthday will be next month. Tenison House is named after Fr Julian as well as the science buildings in the Senior College.

Fr Julian was a generous person in his giving to those around him and through devoting his life to the work of God. Mary and Julian shared a love of God, a love of creation and a love of helping those in need. For this in itself were acts of generosity.

Ignite Conference

During the September holidays, five students and myself attended the Ignite Conference in Brisbane - themed 'Unleashed'. This was a great experience for everyone learning how we can be unleashed from what holds us back. It was a time to mix with other students from across Queensland who celebrate their Catholic faith.

The conference was structured so that all students attending were catered for according to their year level as well as giving them opportunities to hear from people who have turned to their faith, to God. Workshops talked about faith subjects like the Holy Spirit.

The highlight of each day was the rallies (rock concerts) that started and finished the day. Emmanuel Worship are just amazing in spreading the message about God in a way that engages all ages but especially the young through music. Look out for their songs being played at our liturgies in the future.

Here are some comments from each student who attended:

"Ignite Conference was better than I could have dreamed of. To be honest, I thought it was going to be reading long passages from the bible with half the people there falling asleep. I couldn’t have been further from the truth. When I walked in the doors to the opening night’s rally, the first thing I noticed was the presence of Jesus in that room. It was like an overwhelming sense of love and happiness. In that moment, I couldn't help but smile.

Soon I realised that Jesus wasn’t just in the room but in the people too, even the people who were forced to come by their parents. Everyone was welcoming and full of energy throughout.

One of my favourite parts was the rallies. Specifically, I loved ‘Kim on the Couch’. Kim is the head of Ignite Youth and that particular morning she invited three people to talk about their journeys. There were many tears shed that morning. What a way to start the day that was. Despite the heavy morning, I had a fantastic day.

Throughout Ignite I met plenty of new people and built on existing relationships with people and Jesus." Rachel

"I really enjoyed the rallies but the best bit was the guest speakers who were very interesting in sharing their life journey." Erin

"I enjoyed the rallies because they had interesting guest speakers as well as great music." Chloe

Thank you

Thank you to you! The donations to Rosies Outreach has been amazing and Rosies are very thankful for our support. I know that many of you also donate in other ways for that we are very grateful as well. Your generosity is noted!

October is Socktober month and the month of the rosary. We hope that the students enjoyed the Socktober crazy socks today as well as the soccer competitions. Thank you for your generosity in donating towards Caritas Australia.

A Catholic tradition during October is to say the rosary. The rosary consists of repeated prayers that the students are taught - Our father, Hail Mary and Glory Be. If you would like to pray the rosary, we meet on a Tuesday morning at 7:30am in Penola 6. Fr Brian is on holidays which has given us the perfect opportunity to pray the rosary during his absence over October. Mary MacKillop prayed the rosary often and that is why you will see pictures of Mary with wooden rosary beads hanging from her belt.

Commemorative rosary beads are available at either Junior or Senior offices. These beads were made last year to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Mary MacKillop's sainthood. These beautiful Italian glass beads are $30 each.

So in closing "Let us try to be the generous ones"!

Paula O'Rourke
Assistant Principal Religious Education

Congratulations to the Year 12 Praxis students who, this week, successfully shared their experiences of the Praxis program with staff and their peers.

The Living Water Praxis course provides students with the opportunity for practical application of their faith through involvement in flexible, enriching and engaging experiences.

This year, the Year 12 students who have completed the Praxis program have been called to positive action in the world through the experience of service learning. The course is organised around four core elements of social justice: charity/action, social justice/solidarity, advocacy and immersion/awareness.

It was truly a privilege to listen to the stories of these Year 12s who have involved themselves in so many initiatives this year. Students were charged with the task of ensuring their presentation included the benefits of their service experiences, as well as the challenges they encountered along the way.

Of course, as providers of Catholic education, one of our aims is to ensure our Senior students are armed with the values of a Josephite education. We speak endlessly in Religious Education classes about serving others, following in the footsteps of Jesus. Catholic Social Teachings and modelling the values of Mary MacKillop.

It was a privilege to listen to the experiences of these students this week and to learn how Praxis has affected them. Many students stated that Praxis has opened their eyes to the realities of injustice in their local community; others discussed the deeper sense of gratitude they now have for their own families and an appreciation for the opportunities they have been afforded.

While the list below is not exhaustive, it provides an insight into the variety of service learning, advocacy and awareness initiatives these Year 12s have undertaken throughout 2021:

• Music service at The Hub (Uniting Church)
• Serving with Rosie's - Friends on the Street on a Wednesday evening
• Working with Vinnies Youth to provide sporting and camping experiences for underprivileged children
• Working with Meals on Wheels
• Advocating for the hearing impaired through volunteering for the Hear and Say Foundation
• Cooking meals and biscuits for Tony's Community Kitchen
• Facilitating activities during the Junior College Formation Days
• Serving in the Prep and Year 6 classrooms with Melanie Skewes and Nicole Wittman
• Assisting Junior staff and students with Mac Mates at lunchbreaks
• Serving with the Rural Fire Service
• Organising and facilitating whole-school liturgies and Masses such as Anzac Day, St. Patrick's Day and Mother's Day
• Building the College Chapel
• Attending their own Year 12 Retreat; and
• Raising awareness of homelessness in our local community.

It is timely as well to thank the staff who have worked with the Praxis students this year, including: their teacher, Jen Langerak; Paula O'Rourke who spent many hours with students organising liturgies and Masses; Bridget Rillie who worked with students on the organisation of Junior Formation Days; and Melanie Skewes and Nicole Wittman who made room in their busy days to accommodate Year 12s who came to assist in their classrooms.

Again, well done to the 2021 Praxis cohort! We hope that your experiences of service learning this year stay with you and inform your attitude towards social justice and serving others in your community in future years.

Leisa Radley
Director of Formation and College Culture (Years 7-12)

After postponing the Youth Gathering from Term 3, we have set the date for this term.

SATURDAY, 6 NOVEMBER starting at 6 pm at MacKillop Centre.

We look forward to seeing lots of families there.

There will be pizza and games at the Café and grass area.

All are welcome!

Paula O'Rourke
Assistant Principal Religious Education

Hope everyone is enjoying their family time as you journey with your child on their faith journey.

Thank you to everyone who has sent in their photograph page and information page. These photo pages are up in the MacKillop Centre for everyone to see and pray for them.

I will be meeting with students on Tuesday to look at how they are going with their booklet. Please remind the students to bring their book to school on that day.

The ceremony will be Thursday, 11 November at 6:00pm. Practice for this event will be on the Monday before, straight after school.

If you have any questions, please email one of the team or Paula.Orourke@twb.catholic.edu.au

Paula O'Rourke
Assistant Principal Religious Education

Masses are celebrated in the MacKillop Centre on a Sunday at 8am.

Please use this link to register your attendance

October is Socktober month and the month of the rosary. We hope that the students enjoyed the Socktober crazy socks today as well as the soccer competitions. Thank you for your generosity in donating towards Caritas Australia.

Term 4 is a busy time for every English student. In 2021 this trend will continue!

Students in Year 7 will explore the world of picture books in their analysis of the thought-provoking text The Varmints.

Representations of good and evil in visual texts will see Year 8 students traverse the world of heroes and villains in images and film.

Year 9 classes will address all things fantasy within the texts of Roald Dahl.

Students in our newly-created elective course of Creative Writing and Literature are moving, cautiously, into the realm of Gothic Horror texts.

Satire and satirical texts form the building blocks of English for students in Year 10.

Crime fiction is the focal literary genre for our Literature students, during this term.

Year 11 students in English Essential are focussing their skills on language that influences, while Year 11 English students are analysing Australian literature via the study of poetry and narrative.

Planning ahead, prioritisation of time commitments and the avoidance of potential distractions are all pivotal skills for students during Term 4. Considering these skills and the literary challenges that await students, English classes are sure to be a collective hive of activity over the next few weeks.

Tim Connolly
Middle leader - Senior English

Implementing feedback in order to improve writing is a difficult skill to perfect. Some students see the feedback as criticism, rather than a pathway to success. This links directly to a growth mindset and the willingness to continually strive for excellence.

Effective feedback is designed to achieve improvement in student learning by continuously driving a student's performance towards a current learning goal. It leads to positive changes in teaching and learning behaviour and significant improvements in student outcomes. Students are encouraged to seek, receive, interpret and use the feedback, as feedback given and not heard is of little use.

It always make me extremely happy when I have students come to share their success with me, and when that success is achieved by implementing feedback, it makes me even happier.

Thank you Gabby for sharing your writing success with me!

Mrs. Natalie Adler
Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning: Junior

Arts Shirts

There has been an increase in participation in the Arts and as such we would like to offer students the opportunity to purchase an MMCC Arts Shirt. These are used for performances, co-curricular Arts activities and will be used at some events later this term.

If you would like to order one please fill out the from via the link below.

Arts Shirt order form

Last Thursday we extended a special invitation to our budding education students in Years 9-12 to participate in personalised USQ Experience Day at the Toowoomba Campus accompanied by Mr Gabbett, Mr Naiker and Mrs Stevenson.

The College is fortunate to have secured exclusive partnership with USQ in offering Education pathways that specialise in Religious Education. With an ever-growing demand for teachers now and into the future, we are committed to offering our students a pathway that secures them a future role within Catholic Education.

As part of this personalised USQ Experience, the students started the day with a guided tour of the newly refurbished library, refectory and student services area by Dr Elizabeth Curtis, Programme Director - Bachelor of Education and Senior Lecturer - School of Education. Needless to say we were all impressed with the wonderful spaces, facilities and support offered to students.

We then visited my old stomping ground the Alison Dickson Lecture Theatre, I had many lectures there, twenty years ago. The students loved the feel of the big theatre, the seats with the tables and everyone wanted a turn at the lectern including Mr Naiker.

Whilst enjoying USQ's hospitality in the Quad, Dr Elizabeth Curtis organised for USQ Education staff to join us for morning tea and speak informally to our students and answer their questions. We then moved to the education faculty general classrooms and had USQ students, staff, lecturers discuss education, teaching, the meaning of pedagogy and what future students would expect. We had a very informative presentation and discussion about Head Start and Scholarship opportunities at USQ. Mr Gabbett provided some fantastic insight and perspective on what a school is looking for when employing its teachers. 

Students were keen to look at A block, the Arts Faculty to check out the theatre and visual arts studios. We were particularly amazed by the ceramics studio, and more impressed by the fact that USQ is one of the very few Universities in Australia that still provides ceramics in their visual arts degrees.

This was a wonderful opportunity for our students, our College and our partnership with USQ. It has certainly sparked many further conversations with our students and I hope ignited a passion for education.

Keep an eye out on our social stories this weekend to see Mr Naiker trying his hand at lecturing! 

Your Pathway Team
Jennifer Stevenson and Christie Richardson

Thursday 14 October 2021 dawned as a spectacularly wet and gloomy day, a day perfect for getting out of school, locking down in an art studio, and producing great art. Taylor Blackley and Katelyn Haddow could not have planned a greater day to commence their first assessment for Year 12, 2022.

Both students spent the day immersed in a private studio at the invitation of local artist Catherine Parker. This very rare opportunity to produce work alongside a practicing artist will inform three assessments for 2022. The first unit of work is entitled ‘Art as Knowledge’ and it is through the interaction with Catherine, and the exposure to Catherine’s work and practice that Katelyn’s and Taylor’s work will develop.

Both Katelyn and Taylor were enthralled with the creative process that Catherine employs to produce her own work. During the workshop they had the opportunity to develop ideas and experiment with a variety of media and processes. Both girls have welcomed the advice provided to them to not only improve their own creative process, but to understand the importance of their own intuition and value of their own ideas in comprehending the ‘bigger picture’ as young artists.

Matt Chivers
Senior Art Teacher

On Friday, 8 October Ethan Wiggins and learning support staff travelled to Ipswich State High School to attend a wellbeing day for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. We had an early start leaving Highfields at 7am. We were welcomed by Teachers of the Deaf from Ipswich State High School and mingled with other participants. All activities and conversations throughout the day were conducted in Auslan.

Ethan participated in a range of activities including team challenges such as a bungee run, engaged in group conversations with deaf mentors and considered ways that he can manage self-care and self-growth.

Ethan also got the opportunity to meet Sally Strobridge who is a teacher of the deaf and is the president of the Deaf Cultural Council of Queensland. Sally is a long time idol of Ethan as she is well-known from the television program 'Sally and Possum'. Sally convened the day and supported students from a range of schools in South East Queensland to make friends and aspire to achieve personal goals.  

Jacqui Koch & Patricia Cosh
Learning Support Teachers

For children and their families, the transition to school is a significant milestone. This new experience is a time of change that can create excitement and uncertainty. A positive start to school for children and their families supports their ability to meet future educational transitions with trust and confidence.

We welcomed our 2022 Prep students to the College this week. It was wonderful to see so many children and parents engaged in the morning.

Our Transition Program helps both parents and students to become familiar with the College. It strengthens and supports learning and wellbeing, laying the necessary foundations for a successful start to a child’s educational journey. Our Transition program occurs over 3 mornings and one of our goals is to give families a sense of belonging.

During a Transition session, activities and strategies promote self-regulation by helping children know what to expect and actively participate in their daily routine when school commences. Our Transition Program allows our teachers and staff to establish positive relationships with the children and their parents.

This week, when the 2022 Prep students visited, they were given ‘free reign’ of the P-2 Playground. Children were encouraged to move between activities and explore their new environment. It was a lovely opportunity for parents to meet other parents in a relaxed, and informal setting.

Our next Transition morning is scheduled for next Tuesday, 19 October 2021. More informaiton about Prep Transition can be found on our website.

We look forward to welcoming back all the smiling faces we saw this week.

Mrs. Natalie Adler
Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning: Junior

Last term, the Year 6 cohort held a fundraising event to raise funds for the 'Work and Welcome' program. The program is designed to provide work experience opportunities for refugees in the local community. The students were inspired to hold the fundraiser after reading the novel 'Boy Overboard' and viewing the events occurring in Afghanistan at the time.

The students, their families, and the Year 6 teachers ran the sausage sizzle and spider stall, and choc toss competition. There was some fierce competition at the choc toss stalls with many students lining up for multiple shots at chocolate glory. Many thanks must go to Sarah and Catherine in The Café for pre-cooking the sausages, and the students and their families for donating the chocolate.

With the support of the Mary MacKillop Catholic College community, we were able to successfully raise $1603.99 for the Work and Welcome program. This is an incredible amount of money and we are immensely grateful for the support.

Year 6 Teacher
Lisa-Marie Preston 

Our Year 5 students recently completed an assessment on Natural Disasters, focussing on designing and building flood resistant housing. The opportunity arose to use this assessment to enter the Get Ready Queensland Competition, an initiave of the Queensland Government to support Queenslanders in getting ready for for natural disasters!

Students have worked very hard on planning and designing homes that can withstand floods and other natural disasters. This assessment has now won them the Get Ready Queensland Competition...which means Johnathon Thurston ( J.T ) is coming to visit! 

To find out more, read the press release below.

Visit this link to find out more about Get Ready Queensland.

Visit our social pages to see all the amazing work by our Year 5 students, and stay tuned to find out when JT comes to town! 

This term we welcome Tanya Tory to our College as the new student welfare worker. This is part of the Chaplaincy program that is funded by the State Government. Tanya will be supporting students across the College everyday in ways that support their needs. We look forward to getting to know Tanya. Welcome!

The Term 4 focus for our College Pastoral Plan is 'honesty'. This term, students from years 1, 4, 5 and 6 will participate in a formation half day.

This week, year 4 students participated in a half day focused on building their own personal character with a focus on the value of honesty. The students explored what the definition of honesty is, what that might look like in their day and they identified times where honesty was required. The students were set a challenge in pairs to create an 'honesty emoji'. The challenge saw 4 emojis being chosen to share with our community. The emoji's below were created by Alexis and Ebony Herbener; May Davies and Aly Butler; Chelsea Lowein and Sophilee Condon; Sophie Prieto Pazdur and Elivia McKenzie Todd.

There are times as parents, when you are in a position of needing to have conversations with your own children about their ability to be honest. It is often fear of the consequence, that will inhibit children's ability to explain the full truth. At Mary MacKillop, our understanding of honesty is below. The langue in these statements may be of assistance to you with engaging in conversations with your own children.

Honesty

• A MMCC student is honest to themselves and others. They aim to be authentic in their interactions with others and take responsibility for their actions. When you are honest, you speak the truth. You present yourself in a genuine and sincere way, taking responsibility for your feelings and actions. 
• A MMCC student is a person of integrity and acts consistently across all domains of their life. 
• A MMCC student is trustworthy in all situations. Their consistent behaviour builds trust in connection with others, which supports relationships and positive influence. 
• Acting justly and with integrity, a MMCC student does the right thing because it is the right thing to do, even when this is difficult. They are consistently accountable for their behaviour and own their mistakes. This enables a state of internal consistency that supports goal attainment and the benefits of living authentically.

Bridget Rillie
Assistant Principal Wellbeing: Junior

Buckle Up! Term 4, is always a whirlwind with many key events and celebrations that will be upon us in no time.

Currently, our outstanding cohort of Year 11 students are deep into the process of applying to be College leaders for 2022. We are in a great position that all nominees for the positions would do an outstanding job. At the end of last term, I had the privilege of joining Chris Gabbett to interview the applicants for each position. It was heartening to see the pride and passion each and every one of these students have for this College. Best of luck to all of the applicants and I look forward to celebrating these achievements with the students and community during our end of year celebrations.

These celebrations will begin in week 7, with a whole week of activities and rites of passage planned for our Year 12 students. These students have very few normal classes remaining and are heavily focused on preparing for their external exams. We are already knocking on the door of week 3 and before we know it we will be fare welling the 2nd cohort of Year 12s from our College. When you get an opportunity please take the time to wish these students well and help them to finish the year strongly.

Please congratulate your child on the way they have begun Term 4 and encourage them to work with their teachers to gain the best learning opportunities possible. A great way for teachers to support students is to see learning through their students' eyes. For this to occur, open and honest feedback from students about how they learn and what stops them from learning is very important. This is something I regularly encourage students to do to build their own agency and active involvement in the process of learning.

As always please feel welcome to make contact with me if you have any concerns about your child.

Sean Albion
Assistant Principal Wellbeing Senior

Term 4 has commenced like Term 3 ended...busy! As of Week 2, we have 3 netball teams, 3 futsal teams, 4 rugby 7s teams, a volleyball team, and 13 touch football teams competing in various competitions around Toowoomba. If you look at the entries across these competitions, there is only one school that features in all of them...the opportunities are boundless at Mary Mac! Many thanks to the staff, students, and parents who have all volunteered to assist with the coaching of these teams. We wouldn't have a program if it wasn't for these selfless individuals.

During Week 1 of Term 4, staff and 50 students travelled to the Gold Coast to contest the Qld All Schools Touch Football Tournament. This is our third visit to this prestigious event and the standard of touch football played across the week is outstanding. All three teams enjoyed some very close games and all came away with victories in their pools. The quality of play from our teams has greatly improved over the last few years. The following students were recognised for their efforts during the tournament:

13 Girls

• Player's Player - Eustacia Golobic
• Coach's Award - Tilly Haig

15 Girls

• Player's Player - Sophie Randall
• Coach's Award - Charli Botham

15 Boys

• Player's Player - Jezziah Berry
• Coach's Award - Lachie Mayes

Thank you to Mr. Brunner, Mrs. Richardson, and Mr. Albion for the energy and good humour they brought to the table for the entire trip. The students truly appreciate your time. And to the students - thank you for being excellent ambassadors for the College.

Year 6 student Alara Williams enjoys playing football of all kinds! During the holidays, Alara represented Darling Downs School Sport in Rugby League and was a member of the 12 Years South West Qld Swans Touch Football that contested the National Youth Championships.

Alara will represent the College in Touch Football at the South West Qld All-Schools tournament this weekend. Congratulations on your success Alara!

Brad Griffiths
Middle Leader - Sport & Student Engagement

CONGRATULATIONS to Mary MacKillop Catholic College Marching Band and Colourguard on winning 1st place in the Grand Central Floral Parade 2021 Best Band Category.

The Arts team consisting of staff and students, came together to create an entry that celebrated our identity and engaged within the theme of "In the New Landscape".

Lots of fun and cheering happened and we can't wait to do it again!

Next Friday at assembly we will be awarded a trophy by a representative from the Toowoomba Regional Council. 

Jess Burke
Middle Leader: Arts & Student Engagement

Over the holidays Travis competed in the Queensland BMX State Titles. He rode extremely well showing great sportsmanship and conducted himself positively. After a competitive weekend of racing he made the finals in 7th position, meaning he is now ranked 7th in Queensland for his age. Travis also recorded a personal best, beating his previous time by 2 seconds.

Congratulations Travis on your hard work and dedication to the sport!

Our Outside School Hours Care kids enjoyed a spring in the park vacation care program with three excursions to parks, and all things plants, animals, sun and fun! We hope your kids can join us next vacation care!

The Mary MacKillop OSHC Team