PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

To all of the St Mary MacKillop College community I express my thanks and gratitude for another wonderful year at the school.

If you were unable to attend the School Production of “Little Shop of Horrors” this week you have missed out on an opportunity to see many of our students demonstrate their amazing artistic talents.  Thank you to the parents and carers that have supported their children to participate and to the staff and parents that have committed many hours and days to rehearsing, preparing sets and costumes and helping students to work together as a team. After more than two years without a live performance, this was a definite highlight to the end of the year.  Well done to Talia Henderson, Production Coordinator.

This week we have also held our annual Year 7 and 8 Activities Days. The Athletics carnival on Monday was wonderful, with all students participating in all of the events.  Congratulations to Woods House who won the House trophy at the end of the day. On Tuesday and Wednesday the staff ran a number of activities for the students, finishing with a fun afternoon at the swimming pool and water slide. It was disappointing that a large number of Year 7 and 8 students were allowed to stay home on these days.  All of the school days are important and the expectation is that students will attend until the last school day.  I hope to see an improvement in attendance on these days in 2022.

As we finish this school year I would like to acknowledge the staff that will be retiring, or moving on to new positions in 2022:

Anne Stewart and Leonie Gleeson will retire at the end of 2021. We have been very fortunate to have Anne and Leonie on our staff for many years. Anne has held the important role of running our Pastoral Care Centre.  Students and staff will certainly miss her in this space next year.  Leonie will leave our fantastic Wellbeing Team, having been a counsellor to many students over her 20 years at the school.

Kursty Bookham and Gibson Jim have both resigned their teaching positions, with Kursty moving to Wangaratta and Gibson to Melbourne.  We wish them both well in their future endeavours.

Olivia Gardiner and Narelle Rush have also resigned their positions as Learning Support Officers as they also move on to new roles in 2022.  

Jaclyn Clark will begin  twelve months of leave in January 2022 as she takes time out to pursue other interests and spend time with her young family.  We look forward to Jaclyn returning in 2023.

In farewelling these staff we also welcome the following people to our school community in 2022:

Jorgie Allen - Learning Support Officer

Scott Anderson - Teacher, RE, English and Science

Jessie Ballam - Pastoral Care Receptionist

Courtney Bell - Teacher, Science (Biology) and Food Technology; House Leader (Xavier)

Casey Frame - Teacher, Mathematics, PE and Health

Peta Goodman - Psychologist

Yvonne Kelley - Learning Support Officer

Marcus Jetson - Teacher, English and Humanities

Nichola Miliano - Learning Support Officer

Saige Ottrey - Student Extra-Curricular Activities Coordinator

Catherine Smith - returning from parental leave.

I continue to be proud of the efforts of the students and staff at our school.  We have a great school and it is a wonderful place to work.  I hope that all members of our school community have a restful holiday break.

May you have a joyous Christmas, surrounded by those that you love, and a hope-filled New Year.  I look forward to working with all of our students and their families and the staff again in 2022.