2023 | ISSUE 14 | SJC Newsletter

Mackillop Family Services Excursion

On Friday 18 August, the St. Joseph’s Westcourt leadership team went on an excursion to Sacred Heart College to meet with the Year 9 leaders from both Sacred Heart and Iona Colleges. This was an event run by the organization known as the Mackillop Family Services and it focused on educating the students on various aspects of the institution’s role in both housing and educating children from troubled or difficult pasts, as well as ways that we can support them.

The first session had a focus on the history of the Mackillop Family Services. They originally began in Melbourne in the 1850s as a Catholic orphanage. Also discussed in this session was the fact that over 100,000 children who have partaken in their services and that McKillop continues to help many young people in need today.

The second session was learning about methods to calm yourself when in the ‘red zone’ and discussing the ‘specialised teaching’ methods that are used at their many special support schools. The 4 different ‘emotional zones’ were explained and the various ways that they help their students to move from the red or yellow zones back into green discussed. These included ‘dancing with the 6^th and 7^th senses’, mindful walking and blowing bubbles. We then discussed how McKillop Family Services schools operate. They have specific schools in place for students who struggle in mainstream education and are referred here after their teachers have tried as much as they can to help them learn.

The final workshop of the day involved employees of ‘paw pals’, a branch of the Mackillop Family services who focus on mental health support dogs for the children in Mackillop’s aid programs. The staff talked about the different ways that dogs communicate with humans and how to read their emotions, another thing that is taught to the Mackillop students. They finished by giving a demonstration of the various commands their dogs are taught to follow.

Following this, all three schools made plans on how they would continue to support Mackillop Family Services into the future. Overall, the day was a very valuable experience for the students of every school, as it allowed them to learn about the children who have much more difficult lives than themselves and the ways in which everyone can help them.

Eamonn O’Dowd
Year 9 Student Leader