MacKillop College is a Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 co-educational secondary school in Swan Hill, Victoria

Swan Hill, Victoria

Swan Hill is a city in the northwest of Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Murray Valley Highway, on the south bank of the Murray River, downstream from the junction of the Loddon River. At the 2006 census, Swan Hill had a population of 9,684.-History:...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The school is located in the Swan Hill Parish. Moves to open a secondary school to service the Swan Hill, Kerang and Quambatook Parishes began in 1981; prior to this Catholic education was only available to primary school children in the area. The school was opened in 1987, having operated classes for students in Years 7 and 8 out of St Mary's Primary School since 1983. MacKillop College's first principal was a Josephite sister

Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart

The Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, often called the Josephites , were founded in Penola, South Australia in 1866 by Mary MacKillop and Father Julian Tenison Woods....

; having had a series of lay principals, the school's current principal, Mr Rob Aron who replaced Brother Tony Paterson in 2011. Brother Tony Paterson is a Marist Brother. Educating young people in remote areas is central to both orders. The school is named for the Australian educationalist Mary MacKillop

Mary MacKillop

Mary Helen MacKillop , also known as Saint Mary of the Cross, was an Australian Roman Catholic nun who, together with Father Julian Tenison Woods, founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australasia with an emphasis on...

, and the school motto is that of the MacKillop family.

MacKillop College offers an international study program, Intercultural Education Today, with students primarily from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Students begin their study at MacKillop in Year 10 and may continue through Year 11 and 12. The program is promoted as allowing student to become fluent in English: courses include English as a second language

English language learning and teaching

English as a second language , English for speakers of other languages and English as a foreign language all refer to the use or study of English by speakers with different native languages. The precise usage, including the different use of the terms ESL and ESOL in different countries, is...

, core subjects in Japanese and electives with local students, and students live with local families during their study.

MacKillop College ran an exchange program for year 8 with Emmanuel College, Warrnambool, until 2006.