On the 31st May a number of student leaders from both Hennessy Catholic College and St Mary’s attended the sesquicentenary celebration of 150 years of service to the Diocese of Wagga by the Presentation Sisters.

The order was founded in Ireland by the venerable Nano Nagle.

As this is a valuable part of our school's heritage I thought I would share some of the history of this remarkable woman and the order she founded.

Background

Nano Nagle grew up in Ireland when education was not available to Catholic children unless they enrolled in Church of Ireland schools. Even though it was illegal to be educated overseas, Nano was sent to France for her education.

A series of life changing events inspired Nano to devote her life to the service of the poor. On her way home from a ball in Paris she saw paupers mustering around a church door in search of alms. When Nano’s father died and she and her sister Ann returned to Dublin to be with their mother, Nano began visiting poor families with Ann. Ann died suddenly, quickly followed by her mother. Nano decided she would devote her life to helping the poor. At first she thought this might be achieved by entering a religious order and she travelled to Paris and joined a convent. But Nano found that her life of religious enclosure allowed her little access to the needy. She felt her vocation was to offer poor Catholic children the chance to better their lives and engage in their religion through education. She made up her mind to leave the convent and return to Ireland to live with her brother.

Since under the Penal Laws, operating a Catholic School could result in three months imprisonment, Nano had to work in secret. She began by opening a school for young girls in the early 1750s. This girls’ school focussed on reading, writing, Catechism and needlework.

Within ten years demand for the education which Nano provided was such that she was operating seven schools across the city of Cork, teaching both boys and girls.  By day she visited each of her schools, and by night she visited the poor of Cork city. This was dark and treacherous work.  The city streets were neither lit nor properly policed. Nano travelled by the light of the lantern she carried, and across the city of Cork she became known as ‘Miss. Nagle,  ‘the Lady of the Lantern’.

She started her own order which later became the Presentation Sisters in 1775. At the invitation of Bishop Lanigan, five Irish sisters arrived in Wagga Wagga on the 29th May 1874 and began teaching the next day. In 1886 they began teaching in Young and today their charism supports and at the same time challenges all those at and associated with both St Mary’s and Hennessy Catholic College.

Over the last month we have been planning a school visit from Kirra Pendergast of “Safe on Social”. She visited St Mary’s about 10 years ago, and her message was exceptionally well delivered and received by students, teachers and parents.

We felt it timely to do a refresh of online safety for all of our community with the end goal of ensuring the online protection of our St Mary’s children. Kirra will be coming to St Mary’s on Thursday 5th December 2024, and there will be the opportunity for all our students in Year 3 to 6, parents and staff to hear her advice and wisdom in separate sessions during the day, afternoon.and evening. Watch this space for updates of what she will be delivering, for who and when. 

Sadly after this week's events in the news about deep fake technology, the education for school’s, families and individuals of online safety, is even more important than ever. I encourage any parents who have concerns about online security and deep fake technology, to join Safe on Social on Instagram, where Kirra posts regularly with excellent tips and strategies for managing online safety for children. Or visit her website - Safe on Social. The attached link takes you one clip that outlines the strategies parents should use, if they are posting images of their children online, to disable the deep fake technology. Kirra also mentions her upcoming webinar on this topic which may be of interest to you.

Kirra Pendergast Safe on Social Instagram post

MacKillop Touch Football Trials

We wish the very best of luck to Jesse Gault, Kynan Burgess, Daisy Sullivan & Chloe Buck as they compete for selection in the MacKillop Touch Football Team today in Wagga. It is certainly quite the achievement to represent our Archdiocese and we congratulate them on their efforts!

Western Region Athletics

Notes for the upcoming Western Region Athletics have been sent out via Compass email. The email includes the events they have been selected to participate in. Permissions must be completed via the Compass Event that your child has been invited to along with payment. You may send money to the Front Office but it must be accompanied with the printed out Compass permission form please. All resources including event timings are available in the Resources section of the Compass Event which has now been made available. Please email me if your child is unable to attend so I can inform the organisers.

Trent Barrett Legends Gala Day

This event will be held in Harden on Tuesday 13th August (Week 4) and is open to students in Year 3 and 4 who wish to play either tackle football or league tag. Please note while this is not a competitive day we ask that students playing tackle football have previous experience and are registered with a local tackle Rugby League or Rugby Union team please. Permissions for this event will open next Friday 21st June and will close on Thursday 1st August.

Boorowa Touch and Netball Carnival

This event will be held on October 25th and will be open for students in Year 2 to 6. Permissions for this event will open via Compass next Friday 21st June and close on Thursday 8th August. This is a very popular event and the teams fill up quickly. Once we have submitted teams we cannot make changes.

Girls Rugby 7s - Year 5 & 6 only

Registrations are open for the MacKillop Girl’s 7s trials to be held at Santa Sabina College on Wednesday 14th August. Register via the CSNSW Sport portal before 2nd August. Please check for mandatory size/weight ratios on the website.