Dear parents, carers and students, 

As the school term comes to a close this week, we particularly take the opportunity to congratulate and acknowledge our Year 12 cohort who officially graduated from Magdalene this week. On Wednesday morning, we gathered as a eucharistic school community and celebrated Mass with Fr Michael Williams and were thrilled to be joined by many proud family and friends of our graduating cohort. On Wednesday evening, our students and families once again returned for their Graduation Ceremony where each student was individually presented with their Graduation Certificate and the major award recipients for 2025 were announced. Although the HSC Examinations are still to follow, these events were wonderful opportunities to acknowledge the significance of this achievement for all our students. I also take the opportunity to extend this congratulations to the family and friends of our Year 12 cohort who have supported our students through their high school journey and will of course continue to do so beyond their time at Magdalene. 

As part of the official graduation proceedings this week, we took the opportunity to not only congratulate the outstanding work of the 2025 Student Representative Council, led by our College Captains and Vice Captains, Sophie McMonigal, Oliver Bromley, Bella Stevens and Cody Wooden, but we also had the opportunity of announcing and outstanding team of student leaders for 2026. It gives me great pleasure to announce that after an extensive SRC nomination process, our 2026 College Captains are Bronte Clark and Lachlan Campbell and our College Vice Captains are Bridget Malone and Lachlan Chadwick. I congratulate these and all students who have been nominated to these significant positions for 2026 and look forward to working with them throughout the year in support of their advocacy of all students at the College. 

As you may be aware from previous newsletters, from the beginning of next year, Magdalene will be taking on an additional stream of students commencing with next year’s Year 7 cohort. With this growth comes the exciting opportunity to introduce a new house group into the College, as was done with the addition of the Chisholm House when the College took on a new stream six years ago. Each house at Magdalene is named after a person, or people, of significance in the Catholic Church in both our local and/or broader College community. In addition to a house patron, each house also has a patron saint and a colour associated with it. After an extensive consultation and discernment process, I announced earlier this week that from the beginning of next year, the eighth house at Magdalene will be named after Eileen O’Connor, founder of the Society of Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor. In 2018, the process began which formalised the case for Eileen O’Connor to be declared Australia’s second saint, after Mary of the Cross MacKillop, and her cause was presented to Vatican officials in October last year. The Patron Saint of the O’Connor House will be St Carlo Acutis, who was only canonised earlier this month after passing away in 2007 at the age of 15, and the house colour will be pink. We look forward to welcoming our inaugural O’Connor students in Year 7 at the beginning of next year. As the term draws to a close, I take the opportunity to thank all members of the College community for your work and support throughout Term 3 and wish you all a safe and enjoyable holiday period in anticipation of a rewarding and successful Term 4. 

Best wishes, 

David Cloran

Principal