Week 8, Term 1 2025

Dear Families and Friends of Mary MacKillop Memorial School,

Inspired by Hope – Hope does not disappoint (Romans 5:5)

Lent is about opening ourselves to someone else, about stretching ourselves, so that we can become closer to God. I love Pope Francis’ reframing of Lent which calls us from darkness into light. Pope Francis says “I invite every Christian community this Lent to set aside moments to rethink their lifestyles, times to examine their presence in society, and the contribution they make to its betterment.”

At this time, we consciously and deliberately renew our commitment to Christ and his way of life as we renew our Baptisms. I remind the school community that we are in the season of Lent right up until Easter Sunday, which this year falls in the school holidays on 20th April, and as such we do not give out Easter Eggs prior to this time. From Easter Sunday we are in the season of Easter for 50 days which gives us more than enough time to hand out Easter Eggs and celebrate the joy of Easter, which we will be doing as a school community when we begin Term Two. 

Harmony Week

This week we celebrate Harmony Week. As a school we wore a splash of orange and participated in a special Harmony Day liturgy on Thursday. Being in harmony is part of our everyday values of living. We highlighted the cultural diversity of our nation and how to be inclusive to all. Money raised from the gold coin donation will go towards Project Compassion, assisting those in developing countries.

Wellbeing at Mary MacKillop Memorial School

In the Week 6 newsletter I talked about wellbeing as an imperative at Mary Mac and the importance placed on making sure that our students are in a good place so that learning can take place.

Part of our continued work in this area has been to implement The Resilience Project as part of our wellbeing program for all students. If you have not ever read Hugh Van Cuylenburg’s book, I strongly recommend that you do. 

This initiative has come to fruition through a Commonwealth Grant received in June 2023. The Commonwealth Education Minister, Jason Clare announced that all schools in Australia would receive a one-off wellbeing ‘boost’ to support students’ mental health and wellbeing. We are extremely excited that we have been able to use this funding to improve and help our student’s wellbeing now and into the future.

Have a wonderful weekend, 

Nicole 
Principal
 

Recent News

It is with a heavy heart that I let you all know that Fr Olek will be moving on from the SouthEast at Easter time. He has been appointed as Assistant Parish Priest at Croydon Park.

I know that this news will bring much sadness to you all as Fr Olek has been a wonderful addition to the South-East Deanery and particularly popular with the staff, families and children at Mary Mac’s. Please keep Fr Olek in your prayers.

Feast of St Joseph: 19th March

As a school we celebrated the Feast of St Joseph with a whole school Mass. The original name of our school was St Joseph’s of Penola and St Mary of the Cross MacKillop founded the Sisters of St Joseph. Therefore on this day we dedicate time to learning about this special saint.

Saint Joseph was the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the foster father of Jesus. All we know about Joseph comes from the accounts of the nativity in the New Testament. Joseph married Mary and later discovered that she was pregnant. Knowing that this child was not his own but not wanting any harm to come to her, he sent her away. Joseph only brought her back when an angel came to him in a dream explaining that the child Mary carried inside of her was conceived from the Holy Spirit. Joseph was a tradesman, commonly he is said to have been a carpenter, but it's possible he may have been a stone worker. He was said to have been a direct descendent of David, the great king of Israel.

Since Joseph is not mentioned in any accounts of Jesus' public life, his crucifixion, or resurrection, it is thought that Joseph died before Jesus started preaching. St. Joseph is the patron saint of the Catholic Church, unborn children, fathers, immigrants and workers.

Despite knowing so little about Joseph, he still has two feast days in the Western church. In his capacity as the patron saint of Workers, 1st May was established as the Feast of "St. Joseph the Worker" in 1955. 

A Child’s Prayer to St Joseph

"St. Joseph, watch over me and care for me just as you cared for the child Jesus; and by your help, may I come to know your Son, and so grow in strength and wisdom and the favour of God."

Amen. 

During Lent…..

Veiled Images

1. It heightens our awareness that we are close to the passion (the events from Jesus’ agony in the garden through to His death on the cross) and that we should be looking closer at our Lenten journey and, for lack of a better term, ramp up our efforts in fasting, prayer and alms giving. When the veils are lifted on Good Friday (crucifix) and the Easter Vigil (images) it makes us notice these more closely.
2. It also signifies the fact that Jesus was now being searched for by the Jewish leaders. In the Gospel of John, 8:48-59 Jesus’ teachings are found to be very confronting to the Jewish leaders and they went to take up stones to throw at him. Jesus then hid – this hiding is represented by the veiling.

St Joseph/Feast Day

On Wednesday we celebrated a whole school mass in honour of St Joseph Feast Day. Fr Olek reminded us that our school was once named St Joseph’s of Penola. Upon reflection, students dedicated their time to learning about this special saint. Such learning deepened the students understanding of St Joseph, his life, deeds and legacy and how this can have an impact of us today

St Joseph, who embraced truth and courage and was known by many titles including – the Dreamer; the Worker; the Protector; the Carpenter, and is the patron for the Josephite Sisters, founded by Mary MacKillop and Fr Julian Tenison Woods. St Joseph is also known as Joseph the Refugee, which highlighted his connection to the plight of asylum seekers and refugees. Joseph’s story of flight as a refugee 2000 years ago was not dissimilar to refugee stories of today. Joseph chose to seek out asylum in another land and risked much to do so. 

Simple Ways to Build Your Child’s Resilience

Building resilience in children is an important life skill. It starts at home, where parents play a key role in preparing their child for success—both in the playground and the classroom. Schools also reinforce this learning with support and encouragement from teachers and staff.

Help your child develop this essential skill with these strategies:

• Manage Emotions:

Teach them to name their feelings and practice calming techniques like deep breathing.

• Encourage Problem-Solving:

Ask, “What could you try?” instead of fixing things for them. Role-play social challenges.

• Embrace Mistakes as Learning:

Share your own mistakes and remind them that failure helps them grow.

• Boost Social Confidence:

Teach them to introduce themselves, join play, and use friendly body language.

• Promote Independence:

Let them handle small tasks and make daily decisions.

• Encourage Empathy:

Help them understand different viewpoints and explore social challenges through stories.

• Model Resilience:

Stay calm, solution-focused, and show them how to bounce back from setbacks.

Resilience can ensure a happy and fulfilling time at school and in other social situations.

Regards,

Bec Baker

School Counsellor

Birthdays

Stronger Families: A Positive Parenting Conference

On Tuesday evening St Anthony’s Millicent hosted the Catholic Schools Parent Association of South Australia’s latest parenting conference.

Unfortunately, no families from our community attended, however, I can tell you that it was an exceptional evening with two incredible speakers who shared very valuable insights into parenting and the challenges that come with being a parent and supporting your child.

Madhavi Nawana Parker (google her!) spoke on ‘’Helping Children and Teens Respond to Friendship Difficulties and Bullying” and Nathan ‘Dubsy’ Want presented on ‘’Navigating Inescapable Moments’’. Here is a couple of takeaways from the evening…. Madhavi’s message around bullying was simple; it is always intentional, pre-planned, most likely occurs when there is a power imbalance between the parties, eg a child who sees another child with a lack of confidence, maybe not as academic, socially disadvantaged or physically challenged to name a few, and it is repetitive – not every once in a while, but daily, or at least every other day.

If your child is being bullied she advised to teach them never to be alone and vulnerable, to seek help and to tell. When your child is the bully focus on their goodness and look to support them to improve and repair. 

Nathan focussed more on teens, however, all children become teens at some stage and adolescence can last up to the age of 25! Yikes! A great topic of conversation was around mobile phones. Did you know that Australia is the leading country in the world for exploitation! That is frightening! The mobile phone advice from both presenters was – delay – delay – delay! A child’s brain, frontal lobe, is nowhere near developed to cope with good decision-making that needs to be displayed when engaging in social media platforms. Should your child have a mobile phone, never in bedrooms, bathrooms and do the check ins regularly. They are vulnerable!

We thank Trish Jarvis, President of Catholic Schools Parent Association of South Australia for bringing this event to the South-East and for sharing her own challenges as a mother with two children, and to the St Anthony’s Community for being wonderful hosts for this event. If you would like to know more, just ask. Both presenters have written a number of short, simple and easy to read books that would benefit all parents.

Millicent District Athletics Day 

A special thank you to Rachel, Kellie, Jack and Beck for assisting at Millicent District Athletics Day on Tuesday!

We would like to congratulate the following students for their sporting achievements:

Congratulations to Oscar Rowland for qualifying for the Swim Team in Adelaide.

Congratulations to Levi Devlin who has made it to the next round of Regional SAPSASA Golf in Naracoorte.