Mary MacKillop Catholic College | Mary MacKillop Catholic College

Yesterday, I received the various reports from our RADII survey. Thank you so much to the community members who took the time to complete it. I was so glad to read it and see that parents, students and staff feel the College has made real progress since 2019. Whilst we have room for improvement in terms of culture, buildings and systems, the feedback was clear that we have made real strides in these areas. It is a pleasing affirmation - thank you.

You will find elsewhere in the newsletter a report from the Parent Partnership Forum. We had an excellent meeting on 24 August dealing primarily with the implementation of the College Strategic Plan and Annual Action Plan. Underneath that formality though is a group of parents who are taking an active role in the strategic direction of our College.

Over the past few months, the Resources group have supported a review of College fees. My hope in this area is that we offer a much more economical fee structure that is transparent and better supports College priorities. The Resources team have modelled the structure against their own current fee situation and for all it is a net saving. There will be more modelling done and we will then advertise the fee structure to the community.

Other activities from the Parent Partnership Forum are just as central. For example, the Teaching and Learning group are liaising with the Assistant Principals in that area to discuss how we cater for every child, particularly those with considerably high potential. You will have seen the excellent activities of the Wellbeing group who have supported the LivinWell event and are driving the Fathering Project too. Our Mission group are leading liaison with the Parish and our Relationships group are engaging with local businesses.

I am so appreciative of the efforts of these parents. Catholic schools have a core responsibility to enable parents and carers authentic agency in the education of their children. The Parent Partnership Forum is now starting to do that with real impact, and I am very confident it will have a positive results.

Finally - thank you so much to those dads and dad figures who came on site today. What a wonderful atmosphere you helped us create! And thank you to those who have already signed up to the Fathering Project.

I hope the dads in our community have a really lovely and restful Father's Day on Sunday.

Take care

Mr Chris Gabbett
College Principal

A huge shout out to all the father's and father-figures who joined us for the Father's Day Breakfast and Liturgy today. We hope you enjoyed a relaxed morning at the College with some quality time spent with your children, and wish you a wonderful day on Sunday!

If you haven't already, there is still time to sign up to the Fathering Project!

What is the Fathering Project?

The Fathering Project will support our Mary MacKillop dad community, including by forming Dads groups that do fun activities and offer a safe, inclusive environment where dads can engage with their kids, as well as learn, share and connect with other Dads. It offers a virtual community to support Dads, kids and families with all the challenges of everyday life. There’s podcasts, videos, online forums, research articles and light-hearted celebrity conversations. The Fathering Project’s mission is to inspire and equip dads and father-figures to be the best they can be for the benefit of kids.

Research shows that fathers play a significant role in the health, happiness and educational outcomes of their children.

So get involved in Mary Macs Fathering Project! You can do this easily by signing up today! It’s that easy, and the next step will be to look out for upcoming Fathering Project activities and events!

Check out the full gallery of images below...you might just spot someone you know!

Hello to all the College community, students and parents.

We hope you are all keeping well. Almost 2 weeks to go until September Holidays. It’s been another busy term for everyone. Everyone at the College is doing an amazing job!

Firstly, we’d like to share an update from our most recent PPF meeting on 24th August. It was a lovely evening and it was great to see all members and welcome new attendees. We all had some positive discussions about community and engagement and future fund-raising ideas. These will be added to a future calendar agenda.

We would like to thank Mr Chris Bracken – Dean of Senior Studies and E-Learning for giving us an insight into “Write That Essay” and its power in improving student understanding of writing and grammar. This certainly is a powerful tool for the College and it can bring a lot to all students and educators. It shows successful writing and the areas that need improvement. This has been a great investment!

We also heard about ‘flipped learning’. This is on the agenda in the Senior School. It is a great way to engage students and develop their understanding through on-line content delivery, which then enables more in-depth work to occur in class.

Next month we welcome Mr Piers Dudin - Middle Leader Mathematics and Numeracy. Piers will provide parents with an update on how the College is travelling with Mathematics, student support and success areas and, of course, encouraging mathematical learning. Maths Club has been rolled out to assist students who need extra help or simply doing homework. Practice makes perfect!

In other areas of our PPF meeting, we discussed a new fee model. We are looking forward to hearing more about this and getting a greater community input. Thank you to the Resources Team in the PPF who have undertaken a lot of investigative works including research on numerous School fee models to produce a best fit for our College families. The PPF and the College are very excited about this. Watch this space!

School Master Planning was also discussed with the upcoming potential Uluru extension and New Outdoor eating area for the Junior/Senior College. We are looking forward to hearing more about this and looking forward to receiving some good news from the Government and its acceptance to allow us to progress this area of the College. More to follow on this.

There is great success from the Teaching and Learning PPF Group. Recently, the team met for another discussion, joined by the Principal. Mr Chris Gabbett joined us to share his vision for each PPF team to be involved in setting goals and to move forward in offering support to the college. Ideally, this is so the significant goals in the schools’ Strategic Plan can be realised. We as parents can be cheerleaders for the quality teaching and learning at the college. Challenging us to be critical friends, we are charged with a mission to support and provide support and advice to the College’s Teaching & Learning Assistant Principals both of whom are in the Teaching and Learning PPF Group.

We focused our discussion around questions such as, how can we as parents be more supportive of our children's learning? How can we have meaningful parental engagement and conversations about the quality teaching & learning initiatives? What is the MMCC point of difference? How do we develop a whole college approach to teaching & learning, rather than separate junior and senior procedures?

Our role as a Parent Partnership is to have a complementary relationship. As parents we may have a different focus and lens than the teaching staff, however, both roles are important in developing and supporting our children in their educational journey.

The Wellbeing PPF Group are excited to support our College Wellbeing Team in the launch of The Fathering Project. The College shared information about the Fathering Project at the Father’s Day Celebration and breakfast today. This will assist in building increased support and community around the fathers and father-figures within our College moving forwards. Great work is happening in this area!

In Term 4, the Mission and Identity Group will welcome back the Vigil Youth Gathering Mass which will be exciting for the College. We look forward to this event with College students involved in the Mass. This brings joy to the Parishioners - seeing student and children involvement at our Parish - St Mary MacKillop Parish – Highfields.

Mr Chris Gabbett’s Principal Report was very comprehensive. 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 ended 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, 12 October after the September school holidays.

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 and stay safe. Spring is upon us! Beautiful days ahead for us all.

Shayne Cleary and Rowena Voll
Co-Chairs PPF

Next Meeting:
Tuesday 12th October 2021. Room: Penola 6/7. Time: 5.30pm start.

Friday, 6 August, was the day, as a whole College, we celebrated this amazing pioneer of Catholic Education's Feast day. You may ask what is a Feast day?

A feast day is a celebration of the patron saint of the school and in our case it is St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. The feast day is always celebrated close to their official feast day which for Mary MacKillop it is 8th August - the day she died. Usually the day is a day of fun for all students in recognition of the patron saint which incorporates aspects of their particular focus. Throughout the day there is opportunities for students to learn more about Mary MacKillop as well as engage in activities that reflect the 6 P's - possibilities, perseverance, possibilities, practical action, prayer, and partnership.

This year we started our day as a whole College to celebrate mass in honour of Mary MacKillop as prayer is both significant for our catholic faith and also it was very important to Mary. Mary had a deep trust in God and celebrated mass regularly.

After mass, the school was split into various age levels to complete activities - Prep to Year 2 games with Year 10, 11 & 12 students while Year 3 to 9 students completed an Amazing Race style of challenge.

Here is Mrs Radley's recap of the Amazing Race:

Students in Year 3-9 gathered in House groups to take on the Amazing Race Trivia Quest challenge!

Working in Junior teams comprised of Year 3 to 6 students in the same House, and Senior teams comprised of Year 7 to 9 students in PCs, the students set out on a quest across the College.

Questions ranged from the student winners of previous years’ awards, to the newest staff member and even which brand of shoes Mrs Adler and Mrs Cotter were wearing that day.

It was fantastic to see the energetic smiles of students running wildly across the Junior and Senior campuses. More than that, students showed resilience, persistence and team work to figure out the answers to some difficult questions.

Well done to Mr Faessler’s McCormack 2 team in the Junior College and Mr Chivers’ PC group, Penola 2, for winning the Junior and Senior categories respectively. All students in the winning teams will receive points for their House, a certificate and a Zooper Dooper.

After first break, which was a picnic outside the Cafe with a sausage sizzle, the whole College then participated in activities ranging from physical to spiritual to mindfulness. This is completed in the following age groups - Prep to Year 2, Year 3 & 4, and Years 5 to 12. Each year the Year 5 to 12 students select two activities that they would like to do during this time. Students enjoy this part of the day as it is always a fun time and a time that they can choose what they are doing.

After second break, where everyone enjoyed a celebratory piece of cake, the day concluded with a tug-o-war for different age groups before everyone gathered in the MacKillop Centre to judge the Mary Mac's Got Talent finalists from each house in Senior School. The finalists were McCormack 1 – The teachers of MMCC, Penola 3 – The 6 Ps of MMCC, Cunnigham 2 - Olympic perseverance and Tenison 1 – The Mary Mac RAP. Congratulations to this year's overwhelming winner - McCormack 1 as voted by the amount of student cheering!

Each year we ask for feedback from students and staff about the events across the day to create a day which enables all students and staff to enjoy so we look forward to the feedback given this year to create an even better day next year. Here is some feedback from staff and students:

"Thank you for today! It was really great to be part of the Feast Day today. I felt the whole school grew an inch taller today, everyone had such a good time. Great to see the primary school interact with the senior kids and visa versa. It’s such a big asset of our school to be able to do events which join the primary and senior schools together, not jut for the kids but for the staff as well. Very proud to be part of the Mary Mac team today. She would have been proud of us!" (Mr Dudin)

"Having the junior and senior college interact was fantastic. So much joy. Feast day is by far my favourite day of the year. The college getting together has such a good vibe. We should do similar days or even half days every term to get all students on campus interacting." (Mrs Cook)

"The vibe! We rarely get to slow down and just be. This day is one of the few that allows the community to do this." (Mr Griffiths)

Some student responses to "The best part of the day was":

"Hanging out with the whole school, eating the food, and choosing what activities we would like to do."
"The activities and hanging out with friends"
"Being able to have a chill out day with my grade in between assessments."
"Being together as a school doing activities."
"The activities....... the food ....... tug-o-war " (was repeated several times)
"Beating the high school students in capture the flag."

We look forward to next year's feast day where we can continue to grow our wonderful feast day.

Paula O'Rourke
Assistant Principal Religious Education

This Monday, the Year 8 cohort was involved in their second Formation Day for the year, titled Strength to Serve.

The intention of the day was to highlight the importance of knowing your own strengths and finding opportunities to use those strengths to support others. In turn, Year 8s learned that they can use their strengths to serve others in their homes, PC groups, across the College and in the wider community.

Commencing with Dr Jasmin Slack-Smith who educated the Year 8s on the importance of character strengths, the cohort then used the VIA Character Strengths Survey to determine their personal strengths. Some of these included: creativity, perspective, humour, honesty, perseverance, hope, humility and teamwork.

Using their list of personal strengths, the Year 8s created their own coat of arms. This was a shield which displayed their strongest characteristic, their commitment to how they could serve others and a personal motto to live by.

The day was punctuated by a visit from Anthony Hurle, the founder of Tony's Community Kitchen, who shared his own story, informing the Year 8s about his strengths and how he uses these to serve others in the Toowoomba community. Particularly, Tony's Kitchen provides food and necessities to those experiencing homelessness.

Conducted in groups, the next session enabled the Year 8s to consider how they could use the strengths of the whole group to make their homes, PCs, the College and their wider community better for all. As Jesus, in the book of Peter implores: "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another".

The Year 8s were reminded that our patron, Mary MacKillop, also used her best qualities to improve the lives of women and children and that her legacy is lived out through the actions of students just like them.

Perhaps the most creative part of the afternoon, was the opportunity for each student to design their own triangle of bunting, on which students were encouraged to write their best character strength. Subsequently, the individual bunting pieces will be joined together to form a row of bunting representing the cohort.

Next term in Religious Education, the Year 8s will participate in some service initiatives for which they will commit to hours of service in their home, the College or in the wider community. We look forward to seeing these Year 8s use their best qualities to serve others!

Thank you to Dr Jasmin Slack-Smith and teachers of Year 8 who supported the Year 8s on Monday.

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

During Week 6, we recognised National Science Week. The school theme for National Science Week 2021 was Food: Different by Design. It honours the United Nations International Year of Fruits and Vegetables and the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development.

National Science Week is an annual festival of science that takes place in August each year. This celebration aims to raise the profile and increase the public understanding and public appreciation of science, innovation, engineering and technology, and their role in maintaining and improving our society, economy and environment. It also aims to encourage an interest in science pursuits among the general public, and to encourage younger people to become fascinated by the world we live in.

Over the course of the week, students participated in a variety of activities, such as a STEM Challenge specific to their year level.

Year 6: Bridge Building using only paddle pop sticks and masking tape.
Year 5: Catapult using only 2 cups, a ruler, pencil, cardboard, and masking tape.
Year 3 & 4: Bridge Building using only straws and masking tape.
Year 1 & 2: Little Red Riding Hood transport using noodles, coffee filters, masking tape and construction paper.
Prep: The Three Little Pigs House using straws, paddle pop sticks, masking tape.

During first break, students were involved in a variety of experiments demonstrating various reactions: - Examining specimens using magnifying glasses, Thirsty Celery experiment, The Bouncy Egg experiment, the Maillard Reaction, Elephant’s Toothpaste, Make it Move experiment, Painting with melting ice.

In addition, lots of cool experiments were conducted in the classroom, e.g., Balloon rockets, Balloon hovercraft, Paddle pop chain reaction, Dancing Rice, Walking water, Making yoghurt, Frozen Yoghurt pops, changing states of matter – making Spiders, paper planes and weights.

A big shout out to teachers who gave up their break time to provide scientific experiences for students.

Mrs Natalie Adler
Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning: Junior

How to Interpret NAPLAN Results

There are two important elements to how these results are reported: the scale and the performance standard that are used.

Scales: NAPLAN results are measured at a student level against an assessment scale in each of the areas tested. The scales span all the year levels from Year 3 to Year 9 and are divided into 10 bands. Not all bands are reported for each year level.

Standards: For NAPLAN results, a national minimum standard is defined and located on the assessment scale for each year level. Band 2 is the minimum standard for Year 3, band 4 is the minimum standard for Year 5, band 5 is the minimum standard for Year 7 and band 6 is the minimum standard for Year 9. These standards represent increasingly challenging skills and require increasingly higher scores on the NAPLAN scale.

NAPLAN

The minimum standards and common scales for NAPLAN results across all year levels are illustrated in the picture below: National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy National Assessment Scale

Branching – A tailored test design

In June 2012 the Australian Government Department of Education funded the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to conduct research to inform decisions on the transition of the National Assessment Program (NAP), including the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), from paper-based to computer (online) assessments.

The research examined the feasibility of a form of ‘computerised-adaptive’ testing to enhance the targeting of NAPLAN tests to the individual student’s ability and learning needs. This research also investigated how students interacted and engaged with these computerised adaptive tests.

How it works

The diagrams below Numeracy and Reading and Conventions of Language illustrate the branching points within each test.

Aims of the tailored test design

to deliver more engaging tests to all students including high- and low-performing students to increase precision in measuring student's proficiency across the whole ability range

to provide more accurate and timely diagnostic information about student learning needs

to assess broader knowledge and a wider range of curriculum content, without increasing the test length

to strengthen the vertical scaling of tests across different year levels and enhance the longitudinal equating of tests across different testing cycles – thus increasing the long term stability of NAPLAN assessment scales.

Individual student reports will be sent home once they have arrived at the College.

Mrs Natalie Adler
Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning: Junior

As always the end of term is busy with the Your Pathway team, and that's how we love it.

In week 9 the Jennifer and Christie will be attending the Future of Jobs - Toowoomba Forum, which will include morning of presentations from Major Project representatives about predictions for the makeup of the workforce that will be needed, for Toowoomba in the future. This will cover the skills required, and the likely timeframes for these skills. This is an outstanding opportunity for the Your Pathway Team to prepare our students with the required qualifications and skills to take advantage of the opportunities in the local area over the next decade.

The upskilling of our students is our main focus in week 10. Our year 9 students will participate in a 2 day resume workshop on the Monday and Tuesday of the week. This is the first step towards their work experience placement in term 1 year 10. It affords students the opportunity to explicitly learn further knowledge and skills in the realm of employment preparation, with a focus on resume development. These workshops are crucial for student success in pathways beyond school and geared toward supporting our students in their search of and application for future work experience and employment opportunities. Make sure you ask to see your child's resume at the end of it.

Also during week 10 the years 10, 11 and 12 students have been offered the opportunity to complete their Espresso Machine Operation skill set. Over 53% of this cohort has taken advantage of this opportunity and will be completing this skill set over three days. This will result in them earning 2 QCE points towards their Queensland Certificate of Education. To ensure students keep their skills current, they will be asked to nominate a day over a fortnight period that they will operate the college coffee machine. Allowing them to practice, not only their newly acquired espresso making skills but their customer service skills.

The Your Pathway Team is excited to be able to offer our students the opportunity to build their qualifications at the college, opening up employment pathways in the future.

Your Pathway Team
Kris, Jennifer and Christie

Year 1 students recently took their learning outdoors and spent the day visiting Amaroo Environmental Education Centre at Kleinton. During the day they were invited to experience a nature play program called ‘Garbarlah the Greater Glider’. Upon arrival, the students were introduced to Gabarlah and heard about where she lives and how she likes to play. Students explored Gabarlah’s home in and around the local bush through nature play activities such as, mud, sand and rock play, gardening, construction using loose parts and became mini palaeontologists, excavating bones. They participated in a traditional Murri throwing game called ‘Gorri’ where they had to throw small bean bags at a moving target to replicate customary spear throwing. The Amaroo staff led students on a bushwalk where they used their senses and imagination to further explore the local bush area. In addition to links, to the Year 1 academic curriculum this excursion provided, there is also growing evidence that suggests nature play activities provide deep learning opportunities, support brain development and assist to build resilience in children. Students, teachers, and parents attending all had a wonderful day. A highlight of the day was being transported to the Centre aboard the new College bus.

Those who know me well are aware of my vision for sport and young people. Put succinctly, in my eyes, all Mary Mac students should be able to participate in physical activity in a safe and enjoyable manner. The end result isn't the ultimate prize, more importantly, the lessons we learn and the growth we experience are what ultimately make us better humans.

Last week, our Year 7-9 Girl's soccer team embodied this vision. Many of these students have been involved in this competition for the last 2 or 3 years and have experienced the wrong end of some fairly lopsided score lines. This year, results have steadily improved and ultimately, they defeated St Ursula's 4-2 in the Grand Final to secure our first premiership in this particular competition. It would have been easy to give up or not return for another season based upon previous results alone, however, these students saw something more than just results and winning. They applied themselves, they improved, they stood together and they triumphed. Not going to lie, the silverware is pretty cool!

Those that attended the match were part of something special. The College Drumline added atmosphere and a real sense of occasion to the afternoon. The sense of community and College pride was unmistakable. These are the experiences that the College community will remember years down the track. Realistically, students just need to get involved and they will derive a wide variety of benefits far greater than scoring a goal or making a tackle. Being part of our community is special. Mary Mac students have a wide variety of opportunities and the only real limiting factor in participation is the individual.

Nine students travelled to the Champion of Champions Futsal Championships in Brisbane last week. Competing in the Under 14 division, the boys played three tough games against some quality opposition. Despite not getting a win on the day, the boys were competitive in all matches and have now seen what it takes to compete at the next level. We will be back next year!

Football is the flavour of the month at Mary Mac currently. Next week, a large contingent of Junior College students will travel to Maroochydore to compete in the finals of the SEQ Primary Football Championships. Our Year 5/6 Boys team qualified for the final last week after beating St Mary's in a penalty shoot-out after regular time was unable to separate the teams. Full report in the final newsletter of the term.

Next week will be the final match of a Covid interrupted Darling Downs Super Schools Cup season. The boys have played some good rugby throughout the competition and will be looking to end their campaign on a high note against Downlands. The under 13s kick-off at 4:30 pm on Wednesday 8 September at Highfields Sport and Recreation Park (home of the Redbacks). The under 15s kick-off at 5:30. The College will then commence preparation for the SW7s Term 4 competition.

Good luck to all students participating in the finals of the H-Series netball at Highfields this Saturday morning. The College has been a big supporter of this competition in its inaugural year and we look forward to the continued growth and development of Netball at Mary Mac.

The H-Series Summer Series will run once again this summer. Parents can register their interest on behalf of their child here. Please see the Highfields Netball Facebook page for more information.