David Harris MP visits MCC

This week, we were privileged to have David Harris MP visit our College to celebrate the Commonwealth Block Grant our College recently received of $1.695m.

Thank you David for taking time out of your very busy schedule today to visit us, especially in light of the recent flooding emergencies.

David updated our team on what it’s like for the community right now with the current weather event, and we also discussed traffic and committed to raising the issue with Transport for NSW.

More info on the grant:

The grant will go towards the first phase of a re-imagining of MacKillop as a learning community. This first phase will involve the replacement of the current Primary demountable classrooms, construction of new student amenities and the refurbishment of learning support spaces in the Primary school. This phase we hope will be followed by ongoing planning for the future of the learning spaces K-12 at the College, ensuring we have the spaces that support the continuity of learning that is age and developmentally appropriate.

In coming weeks and months there will be planning meetings with Catholic Schools Broken Bay staff, architects and our school staff as we provide input into the design of the spaces prior to the tender going out for the construction company. The exciting aspect of being able to plan new school buildings is the opportunity to imagine new spaces and how this environment can even better support the learning of our students. Our hope is that we can provide opportunities for our teachers to see other schools and discover the advantages and challenges of learning in differently designed spaces, to ensure the input we have into the new designs of the learning spaces is informed and based upon evidence of the most promising practice in similar schools. Additionally, we will involve our students in the planning processes, so there is a clear student voice in the design of the internal learning spaces that ensures that their needs are met now, with the flexibility of the spaces ensuring the College facilities sustainably meet the learning needs of students well into the future.