School named after merger

Staff and parents from St Joseph’s Primary School and MacKillop Catholic College have decided on a name for their amalgamated college.

The name is not far from the Busselton schools’ roots, with a sub-committee deciding the new Kindergarten to Year 12 facility opening in 2016 will be named Saint Mary MacKillop College.

Naming sub-committee member John Grace said school and parent representatives had a say in the decision.

“We spent many weeks toying over the idea of a name, ” he said.

“The Bishop had given us certain criteria we needed to work with and … despite the huge number of names we worked through, both schools felt the commonality was the charism of Mary MacKillop as the woman we identified with.”

The amalgamation was announced by the Catholic Education Office of WA in March after four months of consultation.

MacKillop Catholic College principal Chris Wallace, who will also be principal of the new school, said preparations were going well.

He said the formation of an interim board had been “a real asset” and additional sub-committees were working in the areas of uniform, capital works and finance.