Catholic school to offer distance ed

INDEPENDENT Catholic school St Mary MacKillop Colleges in Wagga Wagga is set to become the first non-government provider of distance education in New South Wales.

Although the school is still awaiting approval from the Board of Studies, if its application is successful it will offer Years 11 and 12 via distance education from the start of 2016.

Principal David Obeid said providing distance education has been on the school’s agenda for some time.

“We’ve had a few families move to the area for the school, but there’s always been this request from families who don’t feel they can make the move to please provide what we do by distance education,” he explained.

“A lot of families, who are in the big cities, often balk at the idea of moving out here to Wagga, because they fear losing the security of employment options… but they’ve all universally said that they want access to the particular flavour of Catholic education that we provide.”

As an independent Catholic school, St Mary MacKillop Colleges has a number of unique features that set it apart from other schools, Mr Obeid said.

“One hundred per cent of our staff are practising Catholics,” he said.

St Mary MacKillop Colleges’ Year 12 class, back row, from left to right, teacher Stephen Vieira, Edwina Funnell, Ian Powell (captain); front row, from left to right, Lily Philip, Lacey Johnstone-James, Virginia Morton, and Frances Kingston (captain). PHOTO: SUPPLIED

“Families love the fact that at the end of the K-10 religious education program, students graduate on to studying, from a classical Thomistic point of view, theology and philosophy, then in Year 12 they’ve got the opportunity to study Catholic apologetics as well.”

Parents have also been attracted to the school for its small class sizes and strong academic results, Mr Obeid said.

But the biggest drawcard by far, he added, is the presence of teaching Dominican Sisters at the school.

Since beginning in 2008, the school has maintained a fairly steady level of enrolments – about 120 – each year.

Mr Obeid, who has taught in various government and Catholic schools for more than 20 years, said the MacKillop Colleges student body is exceptionally well behaved.

“Serious discipline issues here would be a child leaving their blazer in class instead of wearing it to Mass,” he said.

The general good behaviour of students is encouraged by the school’s efforts to immerse them in as Catholic a culture as possible, Mr Obeid said.

“Starting lessons with prayer, stopping for things like the Angelus, getting involved in charitable works in our visit to the local nursing home, praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet in the afternoon – those things have a concrete effect that you can see in the behaviour of the kids,” he said.

Although the school is still in its early years, Mr Obeid has big dreams for its future.

“The long-term hope is that we acquire some of the adjacent land to where we are… so that we can expand into that, and eventually have enrolments and facilities grow to the point where we can have a co-educational primary school and a separate boys secondary school and a separate girls secondary school,” he said.

“I just want to see the school thrive, to do what it set out to do, to give families that need schooling options an opportunity to have their children educated in the faith, to grow in the faith, and to leave knowing, loving, and practising their faith for their whole lives.”

For more information about St Mary MacKillop Colleges, phone (02) 6925 6601 or email admin@stmarymackillop.nsw. edu.au.