Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It has been a busy conclusion to the term. Over the past week and a half, Year 9 students have completed their exams, while a number of sporting events have reached their climax. These experiences have been incredibly valuable in helping our students prepare for the transition into senior school. Our Touch Football teams performed admirably at the Southern Carnival, and our SSATIS teams are now wrapping up their rosters, with several progressing into finals. A particular highlight was seeing our AFL 9/10 boys’ team win their way through to the Hawks Cup in Launceston. These assessment periods and sporting challenges help our students develop resilience and confidence, essential skills for their future. The inaugural Catholic Schools Band Festival was a fantastic experience. Our College not only participated but also organised the event.

With the coldest of the weather behind us, our camp program begins again for the year, with some senior students walking Frenchman's Cap. The program then continues for the rest of the year, with camps on a weekly basis. This is a highly valued part of our College that provides experiences that promote personal growth for our students.

Our uniform shop will soon be moving offsite, and it looks like Perm-A-Pleat has secured a site quite close to the College. On a practical note, we have had a lot of random track pants being worn by some of our female students, as we have been told there has been no stock at the Uniform Shop. Perm-A-Pleat have let us know that the size S, L, and XL are being air freighted today and should be received tomorrow/Friday. The size 3XL is in winter orders due to arrive at the uniform shop in January. Thank you to the families who let us know about this issue. 

We are all aware that our world feels increasingly complex and, at times, chaotic. Advances in technology mean that global divisions often find their way into our classrooms, while age-old prejudices continue to present themselves. Our responsibility as a community is to provide our students with a sense of stability, to respond thoughtfully and respectfully to harmful messaging, and above all, to model and teach the greatest of the gifts of the Spirit, Love. 

I was particularly struck by a passage I read recently about Love by the musician Nick Cave. I pass this on as an expression of love for all of you who help make MacKillop Catholic College the best place it can be.

The surest way to avoid a broken heart is to love nothing and no-one — not your partner, your child, your mother or father, your brothers or sisters; not your friends; not your neighbour; not your dog or your cat; not your football team, your garden, your granny or your job. In short, love not the world and love nothing in it. Beware of the things that draw you to love — music, art, literature, cinema, philosophy, nature and religion. Keep your heart narrow, hard, cynical, invulnerable, impenetrable, and shun small acts of kindness; be not merciful, forgiving, generous or charitable — these acts expand the heart and make you susceptible to love — because as Neil Young so plainly and painfully sings, ‘Only love can break your heart.’ In short, resist love, because real love, big love, true love, fierce love, is a perilous thing, and travels surely towards its devastation. A broken heart — that grief of love — is always love’s true destination. This is the covenant of love. However, Mauro, to resist love and inoculate yourself against heartbreak is to reject life itself, for to love is your primary human function. It is your duty to love in whatever way you can, and to move boldly into that love — deeply, dangerously and recklessly — and restore the world with your awe and wonder. This world is in urgent need — desperate, crucial need — and is crying out for love, your love. It cannot survive without it.

To love the world is a participatory and reciprocal action — for what you give to the world, the world returns to you, manyfold, and you will live days of love that will make your head spin, that you will treasure for all time. You will discover that love, radical love, is a kind of supercharged aliveness, and all that is of true value in the world is animated by it. And, yes, heartache awaits love’s end, but you find in time that this too is a gift — this little death — from which you are reborn, time and again. I have only one piece of advice for you both, and it is the very best that I can give. Love. The world is waiting.