Principal’s Welcome

At the Annual General Meeting in April, Mrs Antoinette Colbran was elected as Chair of the College Council. Mrs Colbran has been a Director of the College since 2015 and I thank her for her commitment to the College. Mr Alastair Sloan was elected at Deputy Chair and Mr Rick Watkins accepted the position of Treasurer once more.

Our new Deputy Principal & Head of the Secondary School, Mr Michael Farrell, arrived during the term and is already making his mark on the College. Please make yourself known to him during the Term 3 activities.

Our Business Manager, Mr Steve Owen, retires from the College in mid-July. Steve has been the keeper of our finances since 2007. He has seen many College projects through to completion during his 12 years with us including the sale of property, building of Markham House, annual audits, and of course, the monthly financial reports to the College Council. I wish Steve and his wife Libby every happiness and good health as they embark on their travels in the coming months.

Mrs Jenny Jackson, our much loved administrative assistant, has also decided it is time to retire. Jenny has been looking after our Junior School students (and staff) since 2004. Her calm, caring and efficient ways will be sadly missed by us all. We wish her every happiness and good health as she embarks on the next chapter of life.

Welcome to Ms Melissa Coombes who has joined our staff as our Billy Elliot teacher. Welcome also to the child cast of this wonderful musical. All the children ranging from Years 4 to 7 are enrolled at The McDonald College for the duration of their contract with Billy Elliot the Musical and Ms Coombes will travel with the students when they tour Australia.

At the P & F AGM earlier this year we thanked Sonja Heinecke as the outgoing President and congratulated Agatha Locantro as the incoming President for 2019. The P & F are charged with fund and friend-raising for the College and this involves the allocation of the P & F levy charged to each family. This year the P & F levies have been allocated to the purchase of raked seating, theatrical lighting, microphones and rigging for the Conference Centre and other performance venues around the school. I am sure those who have already enjoyed the much improved performance sight lines provided by our raked seating will agree that this purchase was money well spent.

The Principal’s Dinner held at Aqua Luna in May was a most enjoyable evening celebrated with friends, family and members of the McDonald family young and not so young. Many people worked to make this evening a wonderful success and I particularly thank Agatha Locantro (P & F) and Sarah Minol (McDonald Foundation) for their hard work, determination and commitment to making the evening a resounding success. Thank you to everyone who supported the evening by donating, attending and purchasing auction items. We raised $30,000 which has been credited to our Bathroom Renovation Fund. This fund now has a balance of $88,000. Slowly but surely, we are inching toward being in a position to renovate the bathrooms on the Music Floor.

If any family or friend can assist with this fundraising, all donations to the Foundation Building Fund are tax deductible – a timely donation as the financial year ends would be gratefully received. Bank Account details are:

Foundation Building Fund

CBA (Commonwealth Bank of Australia)

BSB: 062-256

A/C: 10061940

Congratulation to our supreme tennis athletes – Micheal Zhang, Ethan Lye, Ashley Lauwerikis, Dario Kmet, Dylan Shah and Lachlan Rook. Our boy’s tennis team came fifth in the World Tennis Championships in Italy held in May. The boys only losses were to the Champions Turkey and Chinese Taipei. A wonderful result of which we are very proud.

Chookas to those entering the Sydney Eisteddfod in the coming weeks.

Our International Summer School (January 2020) is now on sale with very generous introductory discounts available until mid-July for the Inspire and Aspire programs. The Ignite program for pre-professional students is shaping up to be amazing. This will be announced in mid-July and the opportunities in this program are unique to McDonald College and should not be missed. More information can be found here or on the ISS website.

I wish our community a happy and safe Winter break and remind Year 12 students that this is the time to complete practical works and to revise daily.

Maxine Kohler

Principal