7 August 2020

Celebrating the feast day of Australia’s first saint, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, will continue this year, although it may look a little different.

Students and families from St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Catholic Parish Primary School, Epping North, have received a special learning pack to mark the day. Created by the school’s leadership team, the packs include information and activities to keep students connected with the school, and student leadership teams have created slides with voice recordings to explain the day to parents.

‘Normally at school the feast day would be a big celebration, but we’ve had to do things differently this year’, said the school’s Education in Faith Leader, Sarah Spiteri. ‘Instead of our whole-school liturgy, students have recorded parts of the liturgy from home to share with the school community. The safety and wellbeing of students and families is a top priority, and we wanted to mark our school’s special day in a safe and enjoyable way for everyone.’

One of the activities is for students to create a dish inspired by what they know about St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Another activity is to draw St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, place it in their front window and then see how many other drawings they can spot in their local neighbourhood.

The feast day of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop takes place on 8 August.