Newsroom

The 2019 SunSmart WA School Surfing Titles took place at Huzza’s Surf Break in Gracetown on Thursday 15 August. After a successful trial competition for the College the previous week, there was plenty of depth to the St Mary MacKillop College team chosen to compete against Margaret River Senior High School and Cape Naturaliste College.

Our senior surfers – Jake Robinson-Ellis, Tom Broadbent, Curren Boyes and Eddy Rodda – started the day off with strong performances, followed by some high scoring rides from our junior surfers: Ashley Spencer, Ryder Vernon, Bede Chandler and Lajon McDonald. Ashley and Ryder made it through to the second round against some highly talented Margaret River surfers.

An unusual design leapt ahead of the pack to win the lucrative prize purse in this year’s Science Week competition, after seven teams followed through to enter a working balloon-powered vehicle in Monday’s race.

Lunchtimes during Science Week were spent enthusiastically building and testing a number of prototype vehicles, where they soon discovered that the weight of the racer was an important consideration. After trialling various wheel types and propulsion systems, most teams opted to propel their racer using the air inside the balloon.

Forty students and four teachers set off for Canberra in the early hours of Saturday 10 August. The students were undertaking an educational tour of the National Capital. Whilst on the tour, they participated in a variety of educational programs focused on Australian history, culture, heritage and democracy.

St Mary MacKillop College entered a team of boys from Years 8 and 9 in this year’s Busselton Pedal Prix, which was held on the Busselton foreshore as the fifth in a six race Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) series on Sunday 18 August 2019.

The race consisted of riding a purpose-built tricycle continuously around a set course over a six-hour period. The winning vehicle is the one that completes the most laps in the time. Finn Breeze, Hiroki Rule, Nicholas Pavlinovich, Riley Bridgham and Denham Stewart all worked very hard on the day, rotating shifts averaging 20 minutes each around the 1.2km course.

Congratulations to Year 12 student Alastair Bruce on his selection as a finalist in this year’s Cinesnaps student film competition, which is run as part of CinefestOz.

Aspiring film makers aged between 15-18 years were invited to create a 3-5 minute original short film based on the 2019 theme: ‘The Watch’. Alastair was selected as one of seven finalists from schools around the South West Region for his short film entitled ‘One in a Billion’, which is set in the ‘perfect’ city of Arcadia and explores the question: is everything I see and hear on the news true? “I wanted to follow the idea of the series Black Mirror,” he said, “exploring the idea of how the media might ensure specific values and beliefs are held within society”.

Alastair will attend a glamorous red-carpet Finale event on Thursday 29 August, where the finalists will receive feedback from the jury panel of high-profile Australian film industry professionals, before the winner and runner-up teams are announced.

On Thursday 1 August, a Year 9 Girls and Senior Boys Netball teams headed to Perth to play in an Elimination Day against metropolitan schools, after getting through the first round of South West High School Netball Cup last term.

It was a long day for the students, playing six games in one day, but both teams came with high spirits and played some awesome netball.

Congratulations to two of our Primary students, Oscar Buck in Year 4 and Harry Priest from Year 2, who have both won awards in this year’s Catholic Arts Angelico Exhibition. This annual exhibition showcases artwork from Catholic schools across WA. The Primary Exhibition has been on display for the last two weeks, to be followed by the Secondary Exhibition from 18-30 August, in Forrest Centre, Perth.

On Thursday 1 August, 48 students from Year 3 to Year 6 travelled to Bunbury Cathedral Grammar school to complete in the SWPSA Cross Country. The College team competed against eleven other Primary schools around the region, including Great Southern Grammar from Albany and St Brigid’s in Collie.

The Timor trip was full of excitement and wonder, from the time we stepped off the plane in Darwin until we touched down back home.

On Friday, after staying overnight in Darwin and then flying to Dili, we had time to visit the museum there and visit the Cristo Rei statue before we were off to Bacau.

During the second week of the July holidays, 36 music students from the College embarked on a 7-day tour of Melbourne and surrounds with staff members Miss Jackson, Mr Bradley, Mr Taylor and Ms Jones.

They began their flight from Perth with a 5am check-in, and after arriving in Melbourne they met with their coach driver and were soon settled into their accommodation.