News 2010 December 24: It's Christmas, Eve!

Well it's time to wrap up the 2010 News Page. Eleanor has done her traditional Christmas family picture and this year I've included the Christmas photo of Eleanor with all of the grandchildren too.

And as a little bonus if you click here, you can hear my new Christmas song: Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus Looking back on the year, here are some highlights: • Our trip to Los Angeles in March • •

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Eleanor's First Holy Communion The Pope receiving his copy of "St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars" The whole developing of "St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars" with Jill McLoughlin and the children The Mary Mass at St Mary's Mt Evelyn with the Irish priests Rainbow Day for Jane Our tour of Tasmania, especially the welcome at St Brigid's, New Norfolk The Mary MacKillop Mass in Melbourne, where "A Cross Of Stars" was the recessional hymn

Thanks to all of the children, teachers, parents and priest who have shared the year with me and above all thanks to my family for supporting me on the journey and thanks be to God for the journey itself. December 18: A Fundraiser for Lachlan: This is my friend Lachlan. Lachlan is currently undergoing treatment for a brain tumour in Sydney Children's Hospital. So on Saturday night the community got together for a Community Carols fundraiser to help Lachlan and his family. It was a great success in terms of helping the family, community support and great music. Speaking of our eldest daughter Kylie gave us an early Christmas present with tickets to see Bon Jovi- a great show especially when John sang Alleluia in the pouring rain.

December 16: Busking begins and a mini-concert for the Girl Guides: Busking is pretty big in Bowral as we're a very musical town. Eleanor and the Malone boys did a busking session outside Woolworths and were pretty impressive although Sam manages the double bass better than his hat. In the afternoon I did a mini-concert with Eleanor's Guide group.

December 15: St Oliver's Harris Park- Last school Concert of the year! St Oliver's is a true Rainbow School- you look across the sea of faces and see all parts of the world living and working together in harmony. I was fortunate to be asked to write their school song last year and Susan and her friend led the beautiful actions to it in the evening concert. And down the end is the famous Annabelle who had quite a fan club. A great way for me to finish the school year.

December 14: St Brigid's Gwynneville- it's beginning to look a lot like Elvis! You know it's going to be a great day and night when the staff get so involved. The three grooving below here are the principal, the assistant principal and the Religious Education Co-ordinator. And Danny Sykes, the Assistant Principal later in the evening put on the Elvis gear and sang an Elvis Christmas song with the staff and "Young Elvis", another teacher. And the lady at the end gave up her ticket to U2 to come to our Christmas Concert because she had such a good time two years ago.

At the end of the evening Jenny Werakso, the principal, read a beautiful African Blessing for those leaving. I hpe to do something with it musically one day soon but I share it with you now: AN AFRICAN BLESSING Walk tall, walk well, walk safe, walk free And may harm never come to thee. Walk wise, walk good, walk proud, walk true And may the sun always smile on you. Walk prayer, walk hope, walk faith, walk light And may peace always guide you right. Walk joy, walk brave, walk love, walk strong And may life always give you song. Walk in God, walk with God, walk for God And may you always dance in the hearts of all you meet. Hamba Gahle - Go well. December 13: St Joseph's Bulli: Many highlights but the best was the amazing singing performance of Silent Night by two of the choir members- so good that I had to relegate the teachers! The Year Fives did a great rendition of Christmas Where the Gum Trees Grow too.

December 11 and 12: Farewells and busking: On Sunday morning at our parish Mass we celebrated the graduation of our Year 6 class from St Thomas Aquinas school. Every so often a special group comes through and this group was one of those, particularly in terms of the musical talent they shared. St Thomas Aquinas has a liturgy group of singers and musicians that lead the music at school and some parish masses and are one of the very best I have seen anywhere in my travels. Maddie, Mikayla and Juliette have been working with me musically since they were in Year 3 and featured on my DVD "Come Dance With Me". Our granddaughter Eden is a beautiful singer too and sang Silent Night for me!

December 10: Our Lady of Dolours, Chatswood: What a voice! In what was perhaps the best vocal performance of my year, Karina sang May God Be In My Heart so beautifully with Natalie and me. At the evening concert we also sang my new Advent Christmas song "Maranatha" as a duet. While doing some work in the church in the afternoon, this lady was decorating the church with some stunning banners that I recognised to be the work of Susan Daly. When she had finished she came and introduced herself- it was Susan Daly herself! It was so lovely to meet her and learn about her ministry.

Jessica impressed everyone with her dancing and nice prize moves and me managed to get the old "TimTom" team back together one more time! Another highlight of the evening was the singing of the teachers Joe and Melissa on Silent Night. December 9: St Thomas, Willoughby: See Kayley holding the Under Your Star Book? In my Christmas Quiz I often ask the tricky question "Who were the three wise men?" and it stumps most people. But not Kayley. She knew their names: Melchior, Balthazar and Gaspar! So she won a gift!

December 8: St Nicholas of Myra, Penrith: St Nicholas have just opened their new hall, complete with a St Mary MacKillop Garden and this spectacular rainbow carpet which makes it easy for everyone to sit comfortably. Little Ayla in Year 2 was the singer of the night as well as being Mary. Adamo had his air-conditioned Santa suit. My old friend Anne Hines is now the principal at St Nicholas and has a terrific staff around her, especially Mary Clarke who has such a passion for her faith.

December 7: St Anthony's, Marsfield: A new record! St Anthony's is now the only school I have visited four times for Christmas. The highlight this time was the singing of Annabelle and her sister on "May God Be In My Heart" where we had every kindergarten child up to bless the seniors. Just before I left Letitia snuck a photo by RANGA1.

December 6: St Patrick's, Guildford: Three years ago we got rained out twice in a week at St Patrick's but now they have their beautiful new hall. Thanks again to Melissa for her energy and to Rory for his hat! And no, they're not twins, it's the same girl with a turn-around hat to suit her mood!

December 3: St Anthony's, Girraween: One thing I love about St Anthony's is their sense of joy and energy. And their school captains play such an active life in the day to day running of the school. I often visit schools where the role of the captains is reduced to being the ones who say "On behalf of..." to every visitor who comes through. This is Will who loved having a turn on my Maton guitar and who was a great roadie throughout the day. And Year 6 came up with their own moves for "Shine Among Them" which were truly brilliant!

December 2: St John the Evangelist, Campbelltown: This was another walk down memory lane for me. Increasingly as I travel around I meet children who say that I taught their mum or dad or their aunt or uncle. At St John's I met the nieces of Hayley COllings who I taught way back in 1994. Hayley and her mum came to be a part of the evening concert. And this is the beautiful Casey who led Year 2 so beautifully in Under Your Star.

December 1: Mary MacKillop, South Penrith- which way do we go again?: They love their music at Mary MacKillop and llittle wonder with all of the talent on their teaching staff. Scott Carroll is the music teacher as well as being the REC (what a great combination!) and leads by the most stunning example as witnessed here! Bianca and Jessica- simply beautiful on Prepare Ye!

November 30: Trinity, Erskine Park: I had the pleasure of being part of Trinity's Holy Week event in 2007. It's a unique place with a warmth about itperhaps it's because everyone is one a first name basis with everyone. A real lesson there I think- does respect come from a title or from your sense of self and integrity? I had a ball especially with Jessie and the cute Kindies- how about Luca and Holly! And Salvatore, Michael Jackson, Michael (Ian) Jordan, Melissa and Sam all did such a grand job helping me out.

And tonight I heard one of the most beautiful versions of Silent Night sung by little Lana in Year 2! She brought a tear to more than one eye. And at the end of the night there was even room for one quick shot by RANGA1 of a proud redhead too!

November 28-29: Family Fundraiser and a wet visit to St Michael's Meadowbank: This is our friend Jane at a family fun day we had as a fundraiser to look after Jane and her family. It was wet but a lot of fun. Speaking of wet poor St Michael's at Meadowbank had to cancel our evening concetr as there was no where to get out of the rain for the evening concert. It was a shame because everyone, and especially Year 2 had done such a great job in preparing.

November 26: Holy Spirit Lavington: The only other time I visited Holy Spirit was way back in 2002 when I was still a teacher. I think it was about school number 12 in the list of visits and now I am up to 759! I really enjoyed going back. A great day at this time of the year relies on the quality of the Year 5s and 6s and these were some of the best. Tom was just brilliant and I was really thrilled at the end of the night that three of the really terrific children I'd worked with, Maddie, Cody and Lucy (also known as Susie!), took out the major citizenship awards. We also sang the Irish Blessing to Mr Scott and Mrs MacGregor who are both retiring at the end of the year.

November 25: Mater Dei, Wagga Wagga: Mater Dei has an amazing new hall and we shared a great Christmas Concert together there. Joss was just amazing and his sister was good too. Sarah has a beautiful voice and loves to perform. Thanks to the beautiful choir who did such a great job of backing me throughout the day and night.

November 24: Holy Trinity, West Wagga: The first time I visited Holy Trinity back in 2003 as I left the school a big rainbow appeared in the sky. At that time I had only just written the Rainbow Song, not even knowing what it was to become. Holy Trinity is a really attractive school and they have a rainbow to decorate their wall. I was able to perform in their brand new hall which is a great venue.

Here's a big collection of pick me smiles and the famous Lily dance move! Nathan, you're a star but remember the Wiggles want their microphone back! Darcy, Steph, Imogen and Kira- you are truly some of the best singers I have met this year. I loved your work on Walk Humbly With God. Isabelle, thank you for being my partner in Lord of the Dance.

And there was a new name story to come out of the day. I met a beautiful singer called Liberty and her singing friend is Bella. Together they made Liberty Bella! November 23: St Joseph's, Narrandera: I set the alarm for 4:15 got in the car and headed down the Hume Highway for Narrandera. Had a fun day with the kids, especially the choir, and in the afternoon we performed in a grand old building that used to be a theatre but is now the CRC Church.

November 22: St Joseph's Oatley- an early Christmas! We entered the spirit of Advent at St Joseph's. I met some old friends from Sefton: Eilish, Niamh, Bridie, Sorcia, and Declan- a grand collection of Irish names if ever there was one, to be sure, to be sure! Niamh showed me a card trick and then I showed her one. Maddison speciallised in the big finish at the end of Christmas Where the Gum Trees Grow and not only did Matisse have beautiful red hair but a beautiful voice as well! Katia and Emma and all the choir were fantastic. Thank you to Martha, my partner. And St Joseph's, your version of Advance Australia Fair is one of the best I have heard around Australia.

November 19-21: A special weekend! The weekend began with one of the grand Chev concert nights, which happen at the end of each term. Chevalier is our local Catholic High School and Eleanor is fortunate enough to be one of the primary school students involved in their string ensemble run by her violin teacher, Kate Malone.

On Sunday, the Feast of Christ the King, Eleanor made her First Holy Communion. She looked beautiful but more importantly, she entered the celebration in a faith-filled and reverent way. It was a really beautiful occasion she shared with family and dear friends. November 19: Christ the King, Bass Hill: I worked with the children of Christ the King two years ago so this time we went on a Journey through the Bible in Song. It was great to see Bob and Mona again as well as my old teaching pal, Margo Craig. I really loved the joy-filled singing of the choir, especially Alanah.

November 18: St Mary's Yoogali- The Walking out the Door Song is now officially a Wedding Song! It's true! This teacher had the Walking Out the Door Song sung to her by her Year 1 students when she got married four years ago

and she had the DVD to prove it to me! St Mary's have a board in the Staffroom where they list "God Moments" (from the Making Jesus Real Program) in the lives of each other and the wider community- I thought that was a great idea. And these are the "behalf ofs" from St Mary's. I even got to make their speech for them but their own speech was much better than minevery thoughtful and sincere- thank you both. On the way home I drove past the "Big Tennis Racquet"- a tribute to Yvonne Goolagong in her home town of Barellan.

November 17: Wherever I Go, I always go back to St Joseph's Finley: Back in 2003 I visited St Joseph's for the first time and with the help of Libby, Jack, Jemima and the rest of Year 6 we came up with a graduation song called "Wherever I Go". So Finley holds a special place in my heart. They always make such an effort too. Each time I've gone the classes come up with a poster to illustrate one of my songs! Here are two samples. Brooke here is a fabulous and joyfilled singer, she might just make an appearance on one of my CDs one day.

And here are some of the stars of the day. We found some cheese for Bernadette! And check out this man of many faces. And finally, the fabulous Austin (not Archie- is that 10 cents I owe you?!)

November 16: Small Schools day with St Joseph's, Lockhart and St Francis Xavier's, Urana: As a young teacher I felt a distinct call to work in rural areas. I applied for a few principal jobs in places like Balranald, Culcairn, Peak Hill

and Coleambally, and was fortunate to get offered one or two but the time just wasn't right and I think God may have had other plans for me. It's been in the last eight years that the vocation that first called me back then has now been fulfilled as I get the opportunity to work in small schools in rural communities.

"Burrumbuttock"? Just loved the name of that town. Foster and Chate were groovers today and Emily and Kate were the singing stars. Oscar posed by RANGA1 and then it was off to the cricket pitch. I thought I was in good form but the slo-mo replay reveals that I might well be a chucker! And my offies were carted all over the shop. The boys were impressed that I had taught Jason Krejza how to bowl off-spin when he was in my Year 4 class back in 1992 at St Francis Xavier's in Lurnea.

As I headed out of Lockhart I spotted one of the metal sculptures that feature throughout the town. And as I drove through Urana a short while later I got a shot of St Francis Xavier's, one of those beautiful small country schools.

November 15: St Augustine's, Wodonga: Some lovely memories to take from this day: meeting Hudson and Cooper again, the fish faces of Tom, Leah and little Faith; the beautiful meal I shared with the Cotter family- thanks Julie, Chris, Matilda and Georgia; and meeting Fr Jake Mudge, one of the most hope-filled people I've met. He also won his category at the Melbourne Marathon: first in the Catholic Priest under 35 with Osteo training!

November 14: Sharing One Faith in Christ: Parish Family Mass in the Catholic Parish of Frenchs Forest: Three years ago the parishes of Davidson, Forestville and Terrey Hills combined to become one parish. Each year they gather together in one of the centres for a combined parish family Mass. The music is great, featuring singers and musicians from the age of nine to about 80 (hope I haven't offended anyone there!) For the last two years I've been invited to be a part of the celebrations, led by my old friend Fr Michael O'Toole, who I first met years ago when he was at the Northbridge Parish. Loved working with all the musicians but especially my young male vocalist pals, Chris and Nick. Great work from Kate and the youth group band and Vicky, Chris and all the choir.

One of the lovely parts of the Mass is when during the prayers of the faithful doves are released to symbolise our prayers being carried by the Holy Spirit to God. If you look carefully in the middle picture you can see the doves ready to fly. November 12: Belinda's birthday, a family gathering and first steps for Cecilia! November 12 is Belinda's birthday. She would have been 26 this year. We gathered for a family dinner because I had been away so much and as part of the excitement our youngest grandchild Cecilia took her very first steps and I managed to have the camera ready! Then she and Xavier, my grandson, celebrated by eating ice-creams in their own special one-year-old way!

November 10 and 11: St Martin's School, Davidson and Our Lady of Good Counsel, Forestville: Once in a while you meet someone who is truly delightful, that is, full of delight. And at St Martin's at Davidson I met, again, the delightful Zara. She is a natural actress, full of life and joy and a great little voice to match as well. She's also a debater and a feisty one at that. Thank you Zara for lifting our day! I was at St Martin's on Wednesday and OLGC on Thursday to work with the parish schools in preparing for Sunday's annual combined parish Mass. We also workshopped and performed my new "Journey Through the Bible In Song" Concert, which went really well.

On Thursday I met my old friends Joshua and Kaitlin who were my roadies last year and offered to help again this year. And Louise won a "nice prize"! November 9: The choir that brought me back to Tasmania, St Thomas More, Newstead: Back in mid October, I performed at an evening concert with a combined choir from Sacred Heart and St Thomas More's schools. I was so impressed with the choirs from the two schools and their brilliant music teacher, Mr Barry Nas, that I thought I just had to come back to sing with them again before they left for high school. They would be one of my favourite choirs I've sung with all year, along with the other St Thomas More at Belgrave in Victoria.

In the morning Mr Nas and I witnessed an amazing sight. As we entered the brilliant new hall at STM the sun was shining through the window, casting a rainbow of light over the section of the wall where St Mary MacKillop's picture hangs! And later in the day, just after we finished the rainbow song, someone asked for "A Cross of Stars", again linking the two songs! Here are some pictures of the choir. Chloe is doing her now famous Elvis move. Back in October, Chelsea won the quiz but selflessly donated her prize to her school, so today I gave her a gift of her own as well as one to the fabulous "High Harry" for his great moves!

Thanks to everyone at STM for a memorable day. I headed straight to Launceston for my last flights of the year first to Melbourne then on to Sydney. The two pictures show the last glimpse of Tasmania and the first glimpse of the mainland, or the North Island, as Tasmanians like to call it! November 8: Back to St John's in Richmond: I lost my voice back in October and had to cancel my visit to St John's. They have a special place in my heart as they recorded the Irish Blessing for me in Irish on "Let Your Light Shine" so we thought it was important to get back if I could. We had a fun day together. I really enjoyed the work of MattBenChris, who became one and Holly thank you for teaching me the new improved moves for "Walk Humbly With God".

You can see Richmond is a beautiful town, home to one of the oldest churches and schools in Australia. November 6: Celebrating Our New Saint in St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne: I received a phone call about six weeks ago from Sr Mary Ryan, seeking my permission to use "A Cross Of Stars" at both Melbourne Josephite celebrations of the Canonisation of Mary MacKillop. I was so excited to learn that my song would be part of this event that we scrambled together our frequent flyer points and made the journey to Melbourne to be there.

There were so many highlights for me. Twenty minutes before I heard the orchestra and choir rehearse "A Cross of Stars" and they sounded magnificent, so much so that I had tears in my eyes. And in the entrance procession and prelude a young girl played the role of Mary as the sisters walked into the bagpipes. But for me, the most moving moment was watching the sisters process out and as I looked at them I tried to count the years of selfless service between them. And so many of them were singing "A Cross of Stars" with passion and joy!

Following Mass I went to meet some of the musicians and Sr Mary and many of the sisters. I was fortunate to meet Br Michael Herry, who writes so much fantastic liturgical music, including the words for "From Penola's Plains" and beautiful Mass settings. What made me proud was that the committee who organised the Mass made a commitment to using the music of only Australian composers and the Mass was certainly better for it. I think too often we look outside our shores before we look in for quality liturgical music, with the music of Br Michael being no greater example. So without a doubt this was one of the proudest moments of my career, to have a song of mine play a role in honouring St Mary MacKillop, our first saint.

Our day finished with a Mary theme too as Bernadette and I went off to see Mary Poppins on stage! November 5: St Mark's Anglican College, Basin Reserve and old friends: Just across the road from the hallowed turf of the famous basin reserve Cricket Ground is St Mark's. They have a very polished choir who worked at lightning pace to get ready for our concert. There was a real sense of joy about the concert- thanks to Mr Holland for inviting me.

My trip to New Zealand finished with my friend Michele Lafferty taking me to lunch on the water before catching the plane home. We shared a few laughs and some special memories of loved ones. November 4: St Joseph's, Dannevirke: Oh Dannevirke, the pipes, the pipes are calling... I couldn't get that tune out of my head. You know you're in for a great day when the best singers in the school are the Year 7s and 8s. Some amazing characters. I don't think I'll ever forget Reid and his "very nice!!!" prize! He's not a bad chess player although I think Mr Lamont and his teammate had staged a comeback by the end of lunchime. David and Ella won the NZ gopher award with their combined efforts.

Loved the senior singers: Cameron, Tina, Emma and Breelle. And then there was Tara's nice prize move and Riley who really can do the moonwalk and did so for the Walking Out the Door Song.

November 3: Our Lady of Lourdes, Palmerston North, learning how to spell AO-I-F-E!: I don't know what John Cleese was talking about! Palmerston North is a beautiful city with lovely people, especially at Our Lady of Lourdes School.

I learnt a lot today. I learnt that Te Aniwa is a Maori word for Rainbow and that's the name of this lovely singer holding my Rainbow book. And finally I learnt how to spell the beautiful Irish name... Aoife! That's her below doing a haka move. Speaking of, I hereby declare that the OLOL school song is my favourite school song. As well as sounding beautiful it has the series of graceful and then powerful Maori moves that accompany it. And then there were the many fabulous faces: Ishmael and Emma's fish faces, Esther's fuzzy wuzzy hair, Caleb's gopher, Finn's pick me smile and the gentle smile of McKenzie, a former student of OLOL who came back to be a part of the evening.

At the end of the day, as I quietly returned to my room I opened my present and was deeply moved by both the present and the card. I was really touched by the words, especially the last sentence, and the gift is a hand made Tui bird, made especially for me from New Zealand wool. I sing about Tui's in the New Zealand version of If I Were A Butterfly and now I have one of my own. Thank you OLOL for a truly memorable day.

November 2: St John Bosco, New Plymouth- A Happy School! For me the Taranaki district of New Zealand is the final frontier, the only place I had never been to in my travels and now I can say I have had the pleasure. When you visit St John Bosco's website there is an emphasis on them being a happy school. I thought that's a lot to live up to but now I can say they do. They even have a "Happy Team" at lunch time who walk around to see that everyone is happy and if they're not the Happy team steps in to do something about it. How do I know this? Because Blaque came up to me and said, "Hi, I'm Blaque, and I'm from the Happy team, can I help you?".

And can they sing! You can tell really good singing schools by how quickly they learn new material and they were sensational, especially on Together As One. Great singing from the choir, especially Connie! November 1: All Saints and old friends: On the day I arrived in Wellington it was listed as the fourth best city in the world by Lonely Planet. I love it too, along with Melbourne and Perth as the best cities in our part of the world. I spent Monday at St Benedict's at Khandallah where I met my old friend Cashman, from Cardinal McKeefry School, and we shared a few special memories of lost loved ones. And I met some new friends too- hi Keira! And during the evening concert I noticed one lady singing her heart out during our All Saints liturgy and then our concert. It turns out she was Mrs Dawson who I'd met years before at St Pius X in Hamilton, where she had cooked a beautiful meal for me and my mum. And there was also Alice who had sung with me at Sacred Heart School in Thorndon- I'm hoping to get her on my next album.

October 29: My old friends at St Michael's, Berwick (as well as new friends from the newest school in the Sale Diocese, St Brigid's at Officer): Golden Boots, redheads and dots! I don't remember too many people from one visit to the next but I do remember the Tomkins family. St Michael's has always been loaded with redheads so it was a real joy that the first and last people I saw on my visit to St Michael's were Mitchell, Hannah and Stephanie (she has just enough red to qualify!). St Michaels' is also home to the Golden Boot award, a tribute to past student Matthew Kowalski, a boy who gave his heart and soul to the life of St Michael's. they have a brilliant new hall at St Michael's with those amazing retractable seats- I could happily play with them all day! And you can see here that the people of Melbourne are already getting in to the Melbourne Cup spirit!

We became fascinated with names with dots: Bronte has then and so does Laetitia, who has the ruler to prove it! And what I great choir. Only eight of them but they made my job a real joy. Thanks to Brittany, Charlotte, Alana, Bronte, Mary, Molly, Gemma and Isobel.

October 28: St Paul's, Monbulk: Once in a while you meet someone who is a born performer. Last year it was Rachel from OLGC in Gatton in Queensland. And this year it's the amazing Alicia from St Paul's in Monbulk! She can sing, she can dance, she can act- wow! Thanks to Grace for her beautiful card; to Lachie and Lachlan for their grooves and moves; to Alana for her outstanding dance work, especially in "Walking Out The Door". And I have to thank the Frank, Paula and the staff for their singing performance! St Paul's is in perhaps the most beautiful part of Melbourne, right on the fringe of Melbourne up in the hills. And they have the best oval I've seen anywhere.

October 27: St Joseph's, Malvern: I'm always fascinated by what turns a school around. A few years ago St Joseph's had less than 100 students but now they have more than 250. They've tripled in size! I asked the principal and a couple of things rang true: One is to have a sense of fun and humour and another is to really take a stand against bullying, something that is very evident in the relationships at the school. Some really lovely singers: Dhyan (amazing vocal range and stage presence), Rebecca, and Eliza, you were just stunning on These Hands. And Anna and Prudence proved that fish faces run in the family!

October 26: St Jude's, Langwarrin: Definitely in my top ten for the year! Now, this is a friendly school! At lunch time I was sitting quietly outside the hall sending a text message and three of the Year 5 students, Olivia, Trent and Daragh, thought I looked a bit lonely so came to pay me a visit! Gypsy was an absolute shining star as was my pal Henry. And we had the grooviest camera people of all time filming from up in the gallery too!

October 22: St Patrick's Mansfield: These kids can really sing, especially Brandon! Their singing of "A Cross Of Stars" was very moving. And they had some really stunning Mary MacKillop artwork on display: from Picasso style portraits to more simple chracoal portraits.

October 21: Caritas College, Port Augusta: In All Things Love: I found out that nearly every Josephite school in South Australia has one of Mary's sayings as their motto: "In All Things Love". I think it's a simple, yet beautiful motto, and will one day turn my hand to writing a song based on those words. I had a ball with the R-6 children at Caritas and was privileged to be the first entertainer to use their magnificent new undercover area! Completed the big week of

driving back to Adelaide where I finished the day having a beautiful walk to Henley Beach to catch the sunset.

October 18-20: Touring photos in Regional SA: Rather than just see schools and churches and hotel rooms I try to really get to have a look at the places I visit. The first picture is the view from Hummock Hill in Whyalla, looking out over the Great Australian Bight. When you get to Port Augusta you come to this road sign: turn left for Perth (2300km), turn right for Darwin (2600km)! On the right is the mural created on the old church facade by the very last children to be enrrolled at St Michael's School in Woomera. Eleven years after it was painted it still stands as testament to Catholic Education in the area.

The South Australian desert has seen its first significant rainfall in many years and as a result the desert flowers are in full bloom. As I drove back from Roxby Downs to Port Augusta I stopped along the road to take photos of these rarely seen flowers.

October 20: St Barbara's, Roxby Downs: In September 2006 I was invited to attend the Catholic Schools Musical Festival in Adelaide. It was an amazing event- the best I've seen like it anywhere in Australia. One of the many highlights that night was seeing the children from St Barbara's in Roxby Downs be part of the choir. I was so impressed that they'd travelled so far to be part of the big event. And I was so impressed I emailed the principal the next day to tell her so too and said that I'd love to come up to visit one day (It's close to a seven hour drive from Roxby Downs to Adelaide). So today I fulfilled the dream.

The choir still heads down each year. Here they're showing me their moves to the Michael Jackson medley they performed. And check out the yellow school bus. From the 1950s until 1999 there was a US military base located at Woomera, 70km south of Roxby Downs. As a result there are still some pieces of Americana in the area including some of the school buses. Special thanks to Basie and all of the great roadies. And Mrs Lacey, I meet many principals but you are a true gem! One of the very best! October 19: Samaritan College, Whyalla, Part 2: There were more children's work pieces on display at the St Teresa's campus of Samaritan College. Mikayla is doing the pick me smile and we're not sure what her pal was doing but it looks a bit like Mick Jagger!

Thanks to Connor, JB (how do you spell that) and all the gophers. Thanks to all of the Ethans and to Joseph. Special thanks to Bernie Meixner for the invitation to come up to this part of the world. Loved it and will be back!

October 18: Samaritan College, Whyalla, Part 1: When I arrived at Samaritan the church was decorated to celebrate the Canonisation- from the artwork of the young to the beautiful banner created by one of the teachers. I met some outstanding voices, none better than Bonnie. Loved Hannah's moves, especially the Elvis look and thanks to Isabell....a for the great joy she brought to the evening concert. And I mustn't forget to thank Jaykn and Ryan and the beautiful Tarea! Thanks for being my partner!

October 17: St Mary MacKillop! What a great day it was in the life of our church and country. I spent much of the day travelling across this great land from my home town of Bowral to the remote South Australian centre of Whyalla. As I flew and drove I saw and heard glimpses and sounds from the event in Rome as well as from around Australia. And while I wished I had been in Rome I kind of felt the St Mary MacKillop Spirit as I drove along the Eyre Highway heading for those places that she was so passionate about ministering too. October 14: Big News! Pope Benedict has been given his copy of Beneath A Cross of Stars! Here's an excerpt from the official Mary MacKillop website:

"Today Sister Anne Derwin, the Congregational Leader of the Sisters of St Joseph together with her Assistant, Sister Eileen Lenihan, attended the weekly Papal Audience. Today Sister Anne was able to present Pope Benedict XVI with a beautiful medallion of Mary MacKillop as a gift from the Sisters at this time of Canonisation. Sr Anne said the Pope was excited about Mary's Canonisation this coming Sunday, noting that it is Australia's first! Some weeks ago in Australia, a group of children asked Sister Anne to present to Pope Benedict XVI a story book about Mary MacKillop. This beautiful book called St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars was written by Australian singer and song writer, Andrew Chinn and Josephite Sister, Jill McLoughlin. The drawings in the book were done by children in MacKillop schools across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. This evening Andrew Chinn is letting all these children know that their wish for Sr Anne to give a signed (by them) copy of this book to the Pope has become a reality. One can easily image the sheer joy when these children hear this news and no doubt Mary MacKillop will be rejoicing with them!

Sisters Anne and Eileen along with all the pilgrims are aware of Mary's journey to Rome, her meeting the Holy Father and the reason for it and give thanks this day for the fruits of her life of heroic goodness and courage." by Sr Annette Arnold, Roving Reporter in Rome October 13 and 14: St Finn Barr's Mowbray and St John's Richmond: I had a lightning visit to St Finn Barr's School in Mowbray on Wednesday, soing a mini-concert with the Prep- Year 2 group. On Thursday I did my best to sing with the children at St John's at Richmond but unfortunately I had to give up due to sickness and losing my voice. I am hoping to return next month all being well.

October 12: MacKillop moments at Sacred Heart: Both Sacred Heart and St Thomas More Schools in Launceston are lucky to have one of the best music teachers going around, Mr Barry Nas. Last night this showed when the choirs of both schools got together for a Launceston Parish concert. Great singing from Wizz, Sarah, Grace, Liam, Chelsea, Susie and everyone. We had two Andrews, and we played a guitar duet together and there were two Eleanors as well.

And the Mary MacKillop moment? We had actually started to sing "A Cross of Stars" and there was a kindy boy crying in the front row. A beautiful girl called Arabella, who was standing next to me saw this and went and sat down and comforted him and then brought him up to join us. Amazingly she went to the boy, who she didn't know all that well, just as I was singing those words of Mary MacKillop "to answer a need". It brought a tear to more than one set of eyes. October 11: Stella Maris, Burnie- Star of the Sea: And it truly is- with a view right over Bass Strait Stella Maris is in a beautiful place. I have to thank Mrs Matthews for bringing my music from St Peter Chanel in Smithton to Burnie. The kids sang Rainbow really, really well. And there were many redheads: Oliver, Nataarlie and many more but we just couldn't get Lachlan off the floor!.

Thanks to Piper and Kennedy for their fish faces and thanks to Yr 2 for their thank you cards. Here's one that makes me look like a rock star.

October 9: Cradle Mountain: We just love our visits to Cradle Mountain every two years. It is such a beautiful place- a Cathedral of Creation. The night we arrived a friendly possum nearly joined us in our room and the local wallabies are there to meet you when you step out on the verandah in the morning. We set off on a walk towards Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake, working off our beautiful breakfast.

We saw lots along the way including this lazy wallaby. In the evening we visited "Devils@Cradle" and were led by one of the most knowledgeable guides I've ever met, called Ben. The Tasmanian Devils are nearing critical levels due to the mouth tumours that have literally decimated their population.

October 8: St Cuthbert's, Lindisfarne: Pick Me Smiles All Round!: What a beautiful choir I got to work with at St Cuthbert's. The Sarahs sounded great together as did Andrew and Maddie- and Jazzy and Anna were a great discovery too. Loved Chloe's "Pick-Me-Smile"!

Dominic shone and Amy flew in "Shine Among Them" and the Orange Boys did well on the great folding competition.

This was one of the most entertaining fuzzy-wuzzies since St Monica's in Kangaroo Flat. And then, of course, it was time to walk out the door in style!

October 7: St Aloysius, Kingston Beach: This really is a beautiful place, Tasmania. And the schools reflect that beauty. St Aloysius at Kingston Beach has a church with the main window overlooking the Derwent River, the view you can see on the left and I had the privilege of spending the day there with the beautiful children of St Aloysius. What a dream place to work- Kindy to Year 4!

On the left here you can see Evie and Meg, who introduced a whole new move to the "Great Folding Competition" the Waiter Walk, which they did at the end of the day. Patrick and Jesse, you were fantastic and thank you to the beautiful choir- some great voices: Shea, Tabitha and many more. I was lucky to catch up with Maria and Emily who I signed a birthday CD for earlier in the year and their lovely mother, Ingfrid. And in the middle is Kirby, who can sing, dance and be a nice prize person- one of the best all round performers I have met all year. Her dancing in "Lord of the Dance" was so full of life and joy.

October 6: Dominic College, Glenorchy: Dominic College, lies at the base of Mt Wellington, the mountain that towers over the beautiful city of Hobart. The window is at the back of the their stunning new chapel, which replaced the other one which was burnt down a few years ago. So instead of a stain glass window, the window captures the grandeur of God's creation that lies behind. What I really love about the children at Dominic College is their self discipline. All the classes entered the chapel so beautifully and yet they came alive when the music started. They must have a very special music teacher and obviously a great staff.

It was another great day for the redheads, so many that we had to sing the "Irish Blessing". And of them all Monique was the bravest, not just for helping me out but also for great dancing in "Walk Humbly With God". And here's Lachlan being a Fuzzy-Wuzzy- thanks to Noah, Rory, Chris, Kyle, Vincent, Thomas, Xanthe, Amelie, Kayley and Hayley, Riley and Bailey and all the choir. And to Taylor, thanks for your help in the afternoon and for remembering me from when you were in Kindy! Thanks to Taylah, Daina and Georgia too. October 5: Holy Rosary, Claremont: More name stories! Yesterday I met a girl called Liberty, and today I met my Destiny, well Destiny anyway, and I met faith as well. So Destiny and Faith in one place! Thanks to Corey, Isaac and the boys. Speaking of boys and names the boy holding the CD below was our quiz winner for the day and his name is..... "Light"! No wonder he chose "Let Your Light Shine" as his "nice prize"! And last, but not least is he of the bright yellow shoes, Kyle, who can really get those shoes moving too.

October 4: St Brigid's, New Norfolk: Truly one of my favourite Tasmanian schools. And today the Year 5/6 boys did the best moves of the year to "Shine Among Them". The fabulous Miss Dorn is now the music teacher as well as the choir teacher. Miss Dorn's Year 4 class created this fabulous welcome artwork for me- wow and thank you! This is a photo of the St Brigid's choir from 2008- I think I can spot Ella in there! Great singing again from the choir but especially from Trent, James and Keshae!

New Norfolk is about half an hour from Hobart and is set on the beautiful Derwent River. The photo below is taken from the window of the new hall- a stunning vista. St Brigid's was also one of the first schools in Australia to adopt the Making Jesus Real program- created by Tasmanian Peter Mitchell, now used in schools across Australia and even New Zealand. Their new hall proudly displays their own commitment to Making Jesus Real in their own lives.

October: Oh Tasmania! Every two years we head off in our school holidays for two weeks in Tasmania. And every time we arrive we say the same thing- we could really live here. It is such a beautiful place with the cool climate we love. On our first day, we were both amazed and thrilled to see that Hobart is getting right into the Canonisation spirit with banners of Mary MacKillop lining the main streets. We then did a tour of the city on the Double Decker Red Bus- if you look closely you can see that Eleanor is the driver. We spent the afternoon at a springtime festival in the beautiful Botanical Gardens. One of the highlights was this ice-cream- perhaps the best I've had in five years: real strawberries, cream, and apple pie flavoured ice-cream!

End of September- Tulip Time in Bowral: Spring is a great time to be in Bowral: the Tulip Festival is on and the town looks fantastic. There's breakfast in the park, the tulip display, the street parade on Saturday and even a gopher or two!

September 24: Rainbow Day for Jane: Our friend, Jane Harris, recently found out that her melanoma had returned and that a difficult road lies ahead. So we decided as a community to join her on that road as much as we can and held a "Rainbow Day for Jane". I ran a series of workshops with the children and choir of St Thomas Aquinas where our children go to school and where Jane sometimes teaches. And in the afternoon we put on a concert for Jane.

Jane loves rainbows (as do I!) so there were rainbows everywhere: on Georgia's feet, on Oscar's head, right throughout the church. We managed to raise soem funds that will help Jane in the months ahead with her treatment and with looking after the family.

September 23: Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, West Pymble: This was my third visit to OLPS over the past four years. I was there for the last day of term which meant I got pizza, served to me by Sophie. Maia and Andrew write a recount of our workshop and brought it in to show me in the afternoon.

The first time I went to OLPS I met Tim Claremont and Keenan Singh who both had great voices so I invited them to come and be part of the Christmas choir that recorded the songs on "Under Your Star". As I walked out at the end of the day, they ahppened to be walking in so we had a chance to catch up. They;re both still singing and involved in music. Tim's sister, Alexandra, turned 17 on the day so we made a big fuss of her- she really is a star of the future: a great voice and such a vibrant personality! Emma-Jane, Jessica and Armelle are holding up their "contracts" signed on their hands! I have agreed to let them sing Feliz Navidad when I return for Christmas next year.

September 22: St Matthew's Day, Windsor: St Matthew's is the birthplace of Catholic Education in Australia and I was privileged to spend their feast day with them. We had the workshops in their historic hall before moving outside into a spectacular spring afternoon for a concert on the Green. Special thanks to Amal for the photography.

Thanks to Tim for his fish face, Chloe for the Fuzzy Wuzzy and to Taia for her combination.

September 21: St Benedict's, Narrabundah: This was my second visit in a year to St Benedict's so we changed things around a bit. We trialled one of the songs from my next album, called Ubuntu, and did Lord of the Dance, featuring Taylah as one of my best dance partners in ages- and she can sing too! Thanks to bec and Bridget for their help. Special thanks to Bridget who has now sang with me at three schools: St Brigid's in Coogee, Marian School in Townsville and now at St Benedict's. Thanks too to my red-headed pal, Nicola!

September 20: Back to Liverpool, where it all began for me: This playground on the left is the playground where I probably did my first playground duty back in 1984. I loved this school for many reasons. I met my teaching mentor Booby Cameron, his wife Winnie and their two sons, David and Robert, who have been life long friends, along with Bruce Hughes and Sr Mathilde, my first principal. It was a great school because of its truly rich cultural diversity which still pulses through it today. The night before I visited Eleanor asked me if there would be any students left from my time there. I explained that while there may be some teachers the students would all now be in their thirties. And then, in the middle of my kindergarten workshop, this young lady walked in to say hello. I recognised her immediately! It was Dimity Chidgey who was in my first ever class, 4 Cahill. This is her with her daughter Kia.

And here we have the fabulous 3 Cahill taught by my friend Alice Gobeli. Sorry it took me so long to get you up there! September 17: Cranbourne Staff Development Day- St Agatha's and St Therese's: Spent an enjoyable day sharing stories and strategies with the teachers of St Agatha's and St Therese's. The highlight of the day was the drawing one of the teachers, Andrew, did of me and Eleanor as I had earlier described in a shared story.

September 16: St Stephen's, Reservoir: Super Sima! The picture on the left is of Zoii reading her recount of our morning together. It was one o the nicest thank yousd I've ever been given! And this is the super singers of St Stephen's. Max was an outstanding performer as was Sima and Luna too. Thanks to Sesilia, Dallas and the choir for their lovely voices.

September 15: Be Glorified- A New School Song for St Finbar's, East Brighton: This is 5/6H who earlier in the year completed a unit called "Agents of Change" investigating how they could be people who acted for positive change in the world. As part of their unit they focused on the plight of the orangutan and even used my orangutan song "Hand to Hand" as part of the project. Just before lunch they invited me to come to their class and see the powerpoints, poems, movies and letters they had created as part of the unit. They have also educated the whole school and parent community about the impact of palm oil and its devastating effect on the orangutan's habitat.

The main reason I was at St Finbar's was to launch the new school song I wrote for them as part of a whole school concert. The song is called Be Glorified and it will be one of the first songs on the new CD due out some time next year. Great singing performances from Orla and Brigid as well as the four S girls: Sarina, Sarah, Sienna and Sophie. And yes, Phoebe, that's a "nice prize"!

September 14: Small Schools Day in Gordon: Today was one of those days that happen once or twice a year when a group of small schools get together for a big day of song and faith. St Patrick's in Gordon were the hosts and we were joined by St Mary's, Clarke's Hill, St Brendan's, Dunnstown, St Brigid's, Ballan, and St Michael's, Springbank.

There was big excitement during the day because famous AFL footballer, Shane Crawford, the boy from Finley, was running through Gordon. He's nearing the end of his run from Adelaide to Melbourne raising money for breast cancer research and we all went out to line the road and cheer him on. Our dear friend from Rosebery in Tasmania, Sr Pam Barlow, has moved to Gordon and is a big Hawks fan so she went and got her scarf signed by the man himself.

India, I loved your fish face, thanks to Kade and Charles for their Elvis work, and special thanks to our combined school choirs, especially the fabulous Clifford girls! September 13: St Mary's, Dandenong: Back to Victoria! Bernadette and I flew down to Melbourne on Sunday for a mini-honeymoon! I had to work on Monday but it was at the beautiful school of St Mary's so I had a really fun day. The highlight was the fabulous Akesh who can sing and dance and groove; there was the fabulous Goch and his bow; and Aaron and Yohan were great movers too. Thanks you to the beautiful choir: great singers from Yr 6 all the way down to Year 1- great work Julian!

September 10: Farewell to North Queensland: After a week in the north it was time to wrap up the tour working with the Years 5 to 7 at Ryan Catholic College. Highlights of the day were the beautiful voices of Steph and Charli, and the moves of Travis and Nathan. I look forward to heading north again in 2012.

September 9: St Anne's, Sarina, home of the famous Emily Patroni and Hannah/Montana! Two great singers in the one place! Four years ago when I visited St Anne's I came across Emily Patroni, a fellow redhead in Year 6 with a great voice. Emily came along to the North Queensland recording for Many Roads, One Journey and also came to Sydney for the launch. Since then her voice has come along beautifully. She helped out all day. She has an amazing voice that can now sing across a range of styles. And there's a new generation of singers coming through too. The amazing choir is singing two songs at the upcoming Eisteddfod: "I Can See Clearly Now The Rain Has Gone" and my very one "May God Be In My Heart" complete with some stunning harmonies. And Hannah Montana was in the choir!! Well Hannah and Montana! And how about Ty! Not only is he already two centimetres taller than me he probably has a better voice too!

September 8: Emmanuel Catholic Primary School, Mackay, the day when Melody and Harmony came together! Last week I met a great performer at one of my concerts in Sydney called Harmony and I said that day that it'd be great one day to meet a Melody and a Harmony at the same place. Well today it happened! Pictured below are Melody and Harmony who both happened to be singers in my choir at Emmanuel. Emmanuel is the home of the legendary GR- Geraldine Rostirolla, the APRE. I've been to schools all over Australia and her name is often heard. Great lady- once met, never forgotten! Now speaking of legends, meet Bronwyn Vella!! Bronwyn is a teacher aide training to be a teacher who made me feel most welcome and really made me feel that my work in schools is valuable. And not only that she invited me to share a meal with her lovely family too which was great. Just like being around my own family table!

September 7: St Joseph's, North Mackay and the BA Fans! St Joseph's has been 90% rebuilt since I was last there. I used to perform in an old upstairs Queenslander hall but now they have the world's biggest fans in a great new facility. And as you enter the school there is a very powerful image of Joseph to greet you along with St Joseph's motto, "With Christ We Grow". St Joseph's is right up there with Xavier College in Hervey Bay and Sacred Heart in Yarrawonga for the number and quality of redheads. We even sang a special version of the rainbow Song: "Red and orange, red and orange, red and orange, red and orange!" Thanks to Michael and Phoebe not just for their thank you but for being the sort of school captains who are full of life and energy. Holly was involved in everything and special thanks to my roadies Patrick and Nicholas.

September 6: Back to Ryan Catholic College. If your name is Ryan then this is the school to be! Your name's on everything! This was my third visit to Ryan since 2004 and visiting the Junior Campus is a dream day: P-4, great teachers, great kids and great fun! And I think they must have the best school sign in Australia too with messages of faith taking pride of place along with community notices. This is my friend Louise, who was the star of the show. Thanks to Callie too for all of her energy.

September 2: St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars Launched at Mary MacKillop Place

“St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars” A gift on its way to Pope Benedict! Book Launch, September 2, 2010,

Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney A new picture book, based on the life of Mary MacKillop, was officially launched on Thursday, September 2nd, at Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney. A copy of the book is being taken to Rome to be presented as a gift to Pope Benedict to celebrate the Canonisation of Mary MacKillop on October 17th. The book is co-authored by Catholic singer-songwriter Andrew Chinn and Sr Jill McLoughlin, a Josephite Sister based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Sr Jill flew in to Sydney to be part of the launch. “It was a privilege and honour to be part of such a project. I feel it is a book that every Catholic school in Australia and New Zealand should have, not just the Josephite schools. Mary MacKillop is a person we can relate to in our own context in this part of the world. She was a practical down to earth person. This book will enable many children to learn of Mary’s life. She is a great model for living the Gospel values.”

L to r: Sr Susan Connolly, Sr Josephine Mitchell, Sr Jill McLoughlin and Andrew Chinn

The book is based on Andrew’s Mary MacKillop song, “A Cross of Stars” and features a narrative of Mary’s life written by Jill McLoughlin. A timeline of significant events in Mary’s life runs throughout the book.

Front cover of the book, drawn by Eleanor Chinn, St Thomas Aquinas, Bowral The artwork for the book comes from primary school children in Catholic Schools across Australia and New Zealand. Sixteen schools from across five states and both islands of New Zealand contributed to the project. The following schools were involved:

St Joseph’s, Bundaberg, QLD; St Thomas More, Toowoomba, QLD; St Joseph’s, Kangaroo Point, QLD; St Joseph’s, Rockdale, NSW; St Thomas Aquinas, Bowral NSW; St Columbkille’s, Corrimal, NSW; St Joseph’s, Numurkah, VIC; Mary MacKillop, Keilor Downs, VIC; St Joseph’s, Hectorville, SA; Mary MacKillop Memorial, Penola, SA; St Pius X, Manning, WA; St Mary’s, Kalgoorlie, WA; St John’s, Mairangi Bay, NZ; St Peter Chanel, Motueka, NZ;

St Joseph’s, Pleasant Point, NZ; St Joseph’s, Temuka, NZ.

Students from nearby St Mary’s Primary School in North Sydney were guests at the event and assisted Andrew in singing his Mary MacKillop song at the conclusion of the launch. And four of the artists who contributed to the artwork were in attendance. Olivia Mandalinic, Elaine Wu and Carla Jensen all from St Joseph’s Primary School in Rockdale NSW and Eleanor Chinn, Andrew’s daughter from St Thomas Aquinas in Bowral, NSW.

Andrew Chinn with Year 5 and 6 students from St Mary’s Primary School, North Sydney The artists, Jill and Andrew all signed a copy of the book which Sr Anne will be taking to Rome for the Canonisation, with the hope of giving it as a present to Pope Benedict.

Artists Elaine Wu and Carla Jensen, from St Joseph’s Rockdale, with Eleanor Chinn from St Thomas Aquinas School Bowral, writing their messages on the book to Pope Benedict. As well as being seen as a valuable resource for Catholic primary schools the book also has a charitable dimension. One dollar from the sale of each book is going directly to the Mary MacKillop East Timor Mission. A cheque for $1000.00 was presented to the Mission at the launch. The book was officially launched by Sr Susan Connolly and Sr Josephine Mitchell from the Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timor Studies who received the cheque on behalf of the mission.

“The work of Mary MacKillop continues in East Timor today where the children struggle for an education. The money raised from the sale of this book will help to purchase reading resources for the children of East Timor,” said Sr Josephine.

Sr Josephine and Sr Susan accept a cheque for $1000 for funds already raised from the sale of the book. Congregational Leader of the Josephites, Sr Anne Derwin, was in attendance, as was Sr Ann Gilroy from the Congregational Leadership Team. Sr Anne asked each of the artists what had inspired their artwork. “I used trees to symbolise the country around Penola and the church to represent Mary’s great faith”, said Olivia Mandalinic.

Back l to r: Sr Anne Derwin, Congregational Leader of the Sisters of St Joseph, Andrew Chinn, Sr Jill McLoughlin Front l to r: Artists Eleanor Chinn, St Thomas Aquinas School, Carla Jensen, Olivia Mandalinic and Elaine Wu from St Joseph’s School Rockdale. “My aim was to produce a resource that would not only be a valuable teaching resource for children to learn about this great saint, but to also create it in the spirit of Mary MacKillop,” Andrew Chinn said. “In my years of visiting Catholic schools across Australia and New Zealand I have been stunned by the vastness of what Mary and her sisters achieved and continue to achieve. It was important that the book involve children from across both countries where Mary worked and to share this work with my dear friend Jill McLoughlin has been a great joy.”

Andrew singing “A Cross Of Stars” with the students from St Mary’s North Sydney, St Joseph’s, Rockdale and St Thomas Aquinas, Bowral, at the conclusion of the launch September 1: All the Andrews at Holy Trinity, Granville, NSW! I felt right at home at Holy Trinity. Great kids, for sure, but four of them were called Andrew, which I figure to be about 8% of the male population at the school! I'd also love to be part of their liturgy team because you get a great butterfly badge with a cross inside. Holy Trinity have been singing my songs for a long time and even knew "God Of The Morning". Great singing from Lillian, To-ela and all of the choir. Great moves from Charbel, Harmony and Joseph. Thanks to all the Sarkis boys and to Noel for his fabulous shoulder work.

August 30: Education Week at Our Lady Queen Of Peace, Greystaynes, NSW: OLQP at Greystanes do a pretty clever thing: they combine Book Week with Education Week in NSW and integrate their faith into a grand week of educational celebrations, culminating in an Education Week mass on Friday. I was given the honour of kicking off the big week with a day of workshops and a concert. Thank you to Katarina and Francesca and all of the great singers in our choir; congratulations to Mara for winning the quiz and to Kyla, Gabbi, Tim, Mark and Vince for their great moves throughout the day. The other highlight of the day was getting to meet many of the catechists from the parish who came along to the afternoon concert: Josie, Louise and Doris among

others. It was great for me to meet people who find my music helps them in their own mission.

August 27: DVD shoot at Hectorville: St Joseph's is a school who has made a lot of use of my DVDs over the past few years and have also created a Liturgical Movement Group under the direction of two very talented teachers, Nadia and Mary. Importantly they have made sure that the group includes

some pretty cool boys too as you can see by checking out Jesse and the boys. Mike Proctor is the APRIM at St Joseph's and last year asked me if there was any way we could involve the Liturgical Movement Group in my next DVD. So I took advantage of my trip to Adelaide to book Larry, my video engineer, to come to South Australia and film at St Joseph's. Over the course of the day we worked on two new video clips, one for Mark Raue's "The Face Of God" and the other for "I Light A Candle".

The Face Of God began with the most graceful yet powerful movements by Monica and Lauren. My red-headed friend Kate got to do some close up work on "I Light A Candle". Special thanks to Sophia and Maria-Luisa who helped

out all day long and got to put in a singing cameo performance at the end. We hope to put parts of the clips up on YouTube in October.

August 26: St Joseph's, Hectorville SA: This is a vibrant Catholic community. The liturgy is very much alive in Hectorville with music a big part of celebrations at the school and parish. It's also a school that I have had a lot to do with recently. In one of the pictures below you can see five artists who all contributed artwork to my St Mary MacKillop picture book. And St Joseph's will also feature on my next DVD, to be released in the second half of next year. I also had a trip down memory lane meeting an old friend, Rob Lucarelli, who is now a dad so I got to meet his lovely daughter Jessica too. And my old friends Shireen and Nathan were there too and Shireen collected the "nice prize"!

August 25: St Raphael's, Parkside SA: It was a wild old day in Adelaide today. So wild we couldn't have our whole school concert but instead had to have two mini-concerts . I was honoured to have some lovely thank you cards written for me by Sophie, Sienna and the gang and Thomas, who loved the nothing song. My favourite part of the day was when Joseph and Max did the wild dancing out the door moves for Aislinn, who couldn't believe her eyes! Lachie- great gopher face! Roisin- what a beautiful voice!

August 24: St Therese's, Colonel Light Gardens SA: There were several highlights today. There was the singing of the two Sarahs, Bonnie as well (she lies over the ocean!), the moves and grooves of Harry and Aaron, the joy and energy of Julie, Jessie and Georgie but in the end I'd have to say that it was Leo and his many faces that I'll remember for a long time: his pick me smile,

his fish face, his fuzzy wuzzy hair and best of all, his gopher face! Thanks to all at St Therese's and a special thanks to Mrs Gore for her hospitality.

August 23: St Francis Xavier, Wynn Vale SA: This is a school where I could work! You can tell how much music is valued at St Francis Xavier from the moment you enter. There are children walking around with instruments and they have a music centre, complete with several soundproofed tuition studios. They have a twelve piece rock band and several ensembles and a wealth of talented singers. I met Harry in Year 3 who has beautiful pitch. Thanks to Jade (both of you), Chelsea, Triple J, Ciara, Lori, Dylan and all of my helpers. Jordie and Katrina- you are stars!

St Francis Xavier have a collection of beautiful mosaics on display depicting different aspects of their school culture. The one with the cross is their school logo. I love their motto and how it links to their logo. The motto is "Together We Grow". Thank you to Mrs Coon and all the staff for hosting me so well! August 22: Mass at the Monastery, Glen Osmond, South Australia: I had the privilege of leading music at the Sunday evening Mass at the beautiful Passionist Monastery in the Adelaide foothills. I was joined by a keen bunch of singers as young as five to, well, a little bit older than me! The great joy of the night was working with the talented Claire and Trevor, who we hope might get together and play at Mass at the Monastery in weeks to come.

August 20: St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars- Officially Out Now! After many months of hard work our book on Mary MacKillop is now available and has already sold more than 500 copies. Here's what Sr Maree Riddler, Director of the Mary MacKillop Centre in South Perth has to say about the book: "Congratulations Andrew on the production of "St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars"…you know I think it is such a winner and so much thought and hard work in producing such a magnificent piece of work. I just LOVE IT! The art work, the story , the timeline, the song, Eleanor, your voice and Sr Jill’s- what a great team! You are going to make so many children around the world so happy learning about our wonderful Mary who loved children THEY WILL BE INSPIRED."

"St Mary MacKillop- Beneath A Cross Of Stars" will be officially launched at the Mary MacKillop Centre on Thursday, September 2. August 13: St Mary's, Mt Evelyn: Mother Ducks, plovers and an Irish Blessing: In the course of my life as a Catholic, I have been to many, many Masses in many different and beautiful places all over the world. I remember attending

the Cook Island Maori Mass in Rarotonga on a Sunday morning; Mass at St Norbert's Parish in Orange County California to hear one of the best homilies I've ever heard in my life; the Celtic Mass at the LA RE Congress was a lifetime memory too. But today's Mass was right up there with any of them. Fr Patrick and Fr John are two priests from Ireland currently on "holiday" in Australia but helping out at St Mary's Parish Mt Evelyn while the parish priest, Fr Pat, is away.

Every part of the liturgy was beautifully integrated: the prayers of the faithful, the music chosen and the amazing homily that covered plovers, ducklings but finished with the beautiful words of Fr John: "Where the Lord is present, there is no fear". In the afternoon concert we returned the blessing to them by singing them "An Irish Blessing" led by the amazing voice of Amy. What a day! Thanks to Paul, Liam, Paul, Annie (watch out for that hair), Eloise, Lincoln, Caitlin and Piper the superfish and everyone else. Thanks to Mrs Glennie and Mrs Roberts for their organisation of a stupendous day and a lifelong memory for me!

August 12: St Mary's, Ararat and my dear old friend Charlotte: Charlotte is a "lifter". I first met Charlotte Crowley when she was at Sacred Heart School in Colac. Not only did she have the most beautiful voice but what I noticed above all was her infectious joy and love of life. When she turned up to the studio to be part of the recording of "Let Your Light Shine" she lit up the studio and everyone else "lifted"! Charlotte has the amazing ability to lift the spiirits of others through both her voice and her love of life.

So ti was great to share another day of singing with her. her performance in Rainbow was amazing and took everyone by surprise (except me!). Her she is with her redheaded pals Shanna and Crystal. Driving away from Ararat I was greeted by a beautiful rainbow which arced over the highway and showed me the way! August 11: St Thomas More, Alfredton, A Dark and Story Night! It was a wild old day in Ballarat. The winds were howling and the rain was coming in sideways but still the children and parents from St Thomas More in Ballarat turned up in huge numbers for the first event in their brand new hall! And Genevieve Hawkes, the Religious Education Co-ordinator and next year's hot tip to win Masterchef went over the top in getting the hall in starry form for the

night. St Thomas More are big on stars with each class having a Star of the Week as well as the staff having their very own star too. Speaking of staff, this was one of the all time great staff performances on Lord of the Dance with nearly all the staff involved. The only schools to come close are St Therese's in Cranbourne, St Mel's at Shepparton and Good Shepherd in Lockridge, WA.

There were many amazing performances: the singing of Georgia and Danielle, my amazing dance partner Gemma and her dazzling sister Georgia, Patrick and Matthew, my roadies, and the real star of the show, Joosh!

August 10: Our Lady Help Of Christians, Wendouree: Another grand day in what is quickly becoming one of my very favourite dioceses in Australia. I receive great support from the schools and particularly from the Religious Education Advisers, Noreen McLeish, Martin Ryan and Bernadette Lynch, who also happens to be a parent at OLHC. Met some great teachers there too. Special thanks to Steve and Paddy for the welcome. There's a real genuine affection and indeed love that shows when teachers and children speak to each other here. I took the chance to walk the corridors and found some brilliant RE displays proudly on the walls. The choir

were stunning- great work Macca, Bailey, Mollie and Hollie and all of the gang!

Joyce Jackson is the sacristan at the church at OLHC and she spent the day with me and the kids. At the end of the day she gave me a quick tour of the church. I loved the stained glass image of Christ the King. One of the highlights of the day was being given a gift of a picture book made by Learning Group 6 who had illustrated my song "In The Beginning". I've promised them I'll take it to America in March to show the teachers there a good idea.

And the other highlight! What do these three girls have in common? That's right, they're all called River! Today at OLHC I met another River, and she like River from St Pius X in Manning, WA and River from St Anthony's, Pahiatua in New Zealand, received the gift of my book that bears her name!

August 9: St Mary's Colac: What Makes A Great School Great? This is something that fascinates me as I travel around visiting so many schools. St Mary's has grown from a school of less that 100 six years ago to a school of more than 200 now. One of the key ingredients to s a good school is good teachers. I know this sounds obvious but these pictures illustrate what is special about St Mary's. As I workshopped the Prep to Grade 2 children I was amazed with just how involved the teachers were, particularly in "If I Were A Butterfly" and "In The Beginning". So I tried something I've never tried before. Instead of using grade six children and preps to move to "May God Be In My Heart" I invited the teachers to partner a junior student. It was simply beautiful but what was more beautiful was that at the end of the song so many of the teachers and children gave each other a hug!

Scott had one of the best "fuzzy-wuzzy" heads of the year and I learnt a new face: the puppy dog face! There were lots of rainbows at the evening concert but none better than Bronia who was a rainbow from head to toe. Sage had rainbow slippers and Stacey's dancing gave great joy to the whole evening. Special thanks to Tessa and all the choir for their fabulous performances.

August 8: The Feast of Mary MacKillop: Sunday was Mary MacKillop's Feast Day. We spent much of the day getting ready to send out our new Mary MacKillop picture books and in the evening I had to fly south to Victoria to spend the week travelling to schools in the Ballarat Diocese. As I got on the plane I thought about Mary who travelled vast distances because of her belief in God and in the Catholic Education system. She did it in a very different time: no planes, no phones, no cars, all those modern resources that help me in my vocation. Her achievements leave me in awe!

August 5: Back to Bulahdelah: St Joseph's is one of those beautiful small community schools with just over 30 students. They're growing again- last time I visited there were just over 20 children. Of the 33 children we had about 38 of them come to the evening concert which was filled with many magic

moments, including a great Elvis impersonation, sunglasses and all. When I visited in 2008, I came across the beautiful voice of Michaela Mason and invited her to sing on "Let Your Light Shine". This time I came across the beautiful, and very young (she's only 7 or 8!) voice of Georgia who I'm going to ask to come to Sydney next year to be in the choir for the new album.

August 4: Celebrating the Feast of St John Vianney in Morisset: Headed back up the freeway to Newcastle on Wednesday and was part of the Feast Day celebrations at St John Vianney's, Morisset. They're one of those schools who now have some terrific facilities: a grand new hall and an outdoor amphitheatre as well. Over the years I've worked in some schools where we've had to squeeze into a library or a couple of classrooms. I'm hoping these new halls and multipurpose venues around Australia will give a new surge to performing arts.

August 3: Australian Catholic University Leadership Conference: I spent Tuesday with my mate Bernard Cumming presenting a paper on Catholic leadership. Well actually, Bernard did all the work, I just told a story or two as I often do. We raised some important issues ofr the future of Catholic education and had an interesting response from those who attended. August 2: St Joseph's, Kilaben Bay: It was great to come back to St Joseph's. I had such a good time there two years ago and it was even better this time around. The choir was a really enthusiastic bunch and there were a whole lot of natural performers, especially some of the boys like Sam, Connor, Ethan, Logan and William. Alex and Mia sang beautifully and the year 6 class was amazing in the afternoon.

1W wrote me a recount so I promised them I'd publish it for them. Here it is: 1W Andrew Chinn Recount: This morning we listened to Andrew Chinn singing with all of the infants classes. The best part was his funny songs and dance moves. We really enjoyed listening to all of his stories and our favourite songs were "The Nothing Song" and "Walking Out The Door". We liked being the last class out the door! July 30: Catholic Education Week ends at St Mary's, Beaudesert, home of "I LIght A Candle": Two years ago, when I was visiting St Mary's, I had a few quiet moments and inspired by a prayer written by Jill Gowdie, came up with the song "I Light A Candle". St Mary's love the song and sing it beautifully. I had the great privilege of leading the singing at their Catholic Education Week Mass in their grand old weatherboard church. Below you can see the fabulous choir who are led by the very talented Ros Gillespie.

Ella here was the star of the night concert with her groovy moves and her spellbinding fishface. And we had a few more fish who wanted to be part of the gallery too! Great singing from all the choir, especially from Millie, Kaitlin, Emily and Mikayla. And thanks to Eamon for being a great roadie!

July 29: Celebrating with St Kieran's, Brighton- Chinn and Mangan sing a duet!!!: This was my third visit to St Kieran's in three years, having shared their feast day and Christmas celebrations with them in the past. The day started so beautifully with the gift of a card from Beth with a bit of help from Sidonie. Beth was great at doing a toothless gopher face! Some of the students are performing at a Bayside Catholic Schools event on Sunday and they're going to sing my Mary MacKillop song, "A Cross of Stars". Brenna and Hannah took the lead vocals and were simply stunning. And then I had the great fortune to meet Sophie Mangan, daughter of the famous Michael Mangan and I asked her if we could sing my favourite Michael Mangan song, "Light of my Life". She has a breathtakingly beautiful voice and it was an honour to sing such a great song with her. Sophie does some performance art work with the children of St Kieran's.

I caught up with my old friend Luke and his cousin Ashlee at the end of the day and then my old pal Lois came by to say hello. I don't remember many people's names when I come back to schools but I remember Lois (and Coralie, Ingrid, Deborah and now Tatiana). He and Luke helped with load-out. Unfortunately my favourite berry in the world, Hannah Berry, no longer goes to St Kieran's but I asked her brother to say hello for me. Thanks St Kieran's and especially the beautiful Mrs Mac for letting me a small part of your school life!

July 28: Catholic Education Week in Toowoomba at Mater Dei: What a beautiful school and a memorable night! I had a dream day at Mater Die in 2007 and this visit lived up to my expectations as I made the early morning drive up the range. Gene, the guitar player on the right, was one of the first students I had the pleasure to meet. He has a voice that can sing the manly, deep stuff, and then can easily reach the higher soprano notes with his boy voice. Milly, with the fabulous pick-me smile sent me this note and I loved her picture of me. The colourful lady is the unforgettable Jane Loveday, one of the most generous and life-giving people I've met in my travels. She is an amazing cook who fed me all day. For the first time in a while I had a support act, called "Woodside" who played a pretty impressive original song.

Here are Bronte, Laurel, Nina and Julia and their special guest showing me their family fish faces. Perhaps the biggest thrill of the day was getting flowers! Thank you so much to Eden for giving them to me. I've actually kept them alive for two whole days! Many great singers but Stella was probably the find of the day.

July 27: Where the Rainbow Song Began, Christ the King, Deception Bay: Very early in 2003, just after I'd begun my full-time music ministry I visited Christ the King School in Deception Bay. The day I visited my name was up on the school board (I think it was the first time ever!) which cause me to look up at the school's motto, "Side by Side We Grow", and its logo, a rainbow. I tucked the idea away in my head and with some help from the APRE at the time, Alicia McFerran, as well as some children at St Joseph's, Warragul, in Victoria, and my old pal Kellie in Te Aroha, New Zealand, I came up with "Rainbow". You can see that the rainbow is still a vibrant part of their culture.

It was great to share the song, which is now song across Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada, with the school that initially inspired it.

July 26: Our Lady of the Assumption, Enoggera: OLA is a great welcoming school. As well as the sign, there were many students who went out of the way to say hello, but especially Laura and Mary! A truly outstanding choir and the best Year 3 and 4 singers of the year so far I think. Special thanks to Liam and Alex for their singing, to Meg and Brooke for their energy, Jasmine for the hair moves, and Tristan for the bow! Happy Birthday Ella and thanks for the cake!

July 24: Bronek and Francine and the Big Potato! On Friday night I picked up Bronek and Francine Korczynski. Many years ago I sent a gift of some of my CDs to a place in Canada that I used to live in, Kingston, Ontario. When I was in Los Angeles in March, I was amazed when Bronek walked up to say hello because I recognised his name as being the person who I had sent those CDs to. Since then we've arranged for me to visit schools in Kingston next March. Bronek and Francine's son Michael lives in Sydney and so they've been here in Australia visiting him and having a holiday. We took the

opportunity to bring them to the Highlands for part of the weekend. Not only did we all go on the Amazing Illawarra Fly Tree Walk but they also saw the Big Potato in Robertson!!

July 22-23: St Paul's, Moss Vale and St Mary's, North Sydney: Every time I go back to St Paul's at Moss Vale, the singing just gets better and better. Eric and Kate were outstanding but the whole choir were just fabulous. We had a big turn out for a cold winter's night in the Highlands and I got to catch up with some old friends like Kathryn and Sarah as well as meet a few new ones like Chelsea- well we had met before but a long time ago.

Check out this fish face! One of the best of the year and Jacob's in the running for gopher of the year too. My working week finished at St Mary's North Sydney, which is just up the road from Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney. We're hoping to launch our new picture book, "St Mary MacKillopBeneath A Cross Of Stars" on September 2 with some help from the children at St Mary's. Some great singing from Paloma and her sisters as well as Maddie and Angelo.

July 21: Rainbow News from St Mary Magdalen's, Elizabeth Park: I received this beautiful photo from Eugenia Stopyra who is the REC at two schools in Adelaide's north. She sent me this photo of a liturgy at St mary Magdalen's, who I visited earlier in the year. Eugenia's explanation of the photo is below.

Explanation of the Rainbow: Behind us on our wall is a rainbow of hands. All the students and staff members are represented by this colourful decoration. The hands represent the way we work, play and pray together. The hands represent the way we help each other at school, at home and how we reach out to help others in our community and the wider world. We used Rainbow and These Hands to support this message. July 19-20: Adelaide: I flew into Adelaide for what would have to be one of the most spectacular venues for a Staff Development Day, right on Glenelg Beach with the staff of Star of the Sea School, Henley Beach. I worked with some terrific teachers as well as the Parish Priest, Fr John and Joan Walshe, the parish Sacramental Co-ordinator.

We shared lots of strategies for teaching Religious Education as well as some thoughts on what makes a Catholic School Catholic. The mini-tour finished with a trip to St Joseph's School in Tranmere, where I had visited many years ago. I really loved the choir adn the great joy the whole school sang with but especially the amazing children of the 1/2 class!

July 16-17: Holidays and more food faces from Eleanor! We spent the last couple of days looking around Warrnambool. We saw some whales just off Logan's Beach and we collected a couple more of Eleanor's food faces. The lighthouse shot is taken on the bay at Warrnambool where there is some spectacular wild scenery.

Eleanor and I got up early on Saturday and saw the sunrise hit the Anglican Cathedral before we jumped on the ferris wheel for a spectacular Saturday morning view of Melbourne and the Yarra River. We managed to bump into our friend John Burland in one of the coffee alleys and caught up with him over a cup of coffee.

July 15: St Patrick's, Port Fairy: Port Fairy is a beautiful town on the southern coast of Victoria, home of the Port Fairy Folk festival every March. Some of my greatest musical heroes have performed here over the years: Mick Thomas, Paul Kelly and Eric Bogle. St Patrick's is a beautiful school with lovely new facilities. We shared a fabulous evening concert together with one of the highlights being Bridie and Matisse singing the Irish Blessing. Thanks to Liam, Jade,Kiera, Brigid and especially Blair, Crystal and Ayesha.

July 14: St Thomas', Terang: Cows! This one lives up on a raised ceiling in the school hall at St Thomas's School Hall! And a rainbow shone over the grand Anglican church across the road. The children and their music teacher Maree shared their lovely school song, written by Maree with the help of the children to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the school.

And this is Paddy Bourke, one of the real characters of St Thomas, indeed in all of Terang! Paddy told me that the number one rule in his Grade 6 class is "Never listen to Paddy Bourke"! Laneice had a very special fish face and thanks to Meg and Lucretia for their great work in being music captains and organising the choir for me, And William was a pretty good fuzzy-wuzzy too!

July 13: St John's, Dennington: First stop on the Warrnambool tour was St John's at Dennington. The stars of the day were Jackson and Maggie among many others. The beautiful Preps took some time to write some news about our day together. Any questions??

July 11-12: On Tour in Victoria: We headed down to Victoria for a night in Melbourne before heading west to Warrnambool. Had a night right on the Yarra River and then Eleanor extended her artistic skills with another food face at a bakery in Colac.

July 5-12: Home, Holidays and Mary MacKillop: Spent the week getting our St Mary MacKillop book ready for the printers. Lots of edits and reviews. Click on the picture below and you'll see some of the pages from the book. Eleanor had a few days at a "Clay Magic" workshop at Cloud Farm in Robertson and we celebrated our grandson Xavier's first birthday too. We also had a visit from our friends the Mercers from Adelaide.

July 2-4: On holidays in Perth: We love Perth so much that we decided to use some frequent traveller points and stay on for a couple of days holiday. On Friday we caught up with Sr Maree Riddler who runs the Mary MacKillop centre in South Perth. She gave us a very personal tour of the centre and we gave her a sneak preview of our new Mary MacKillop book- she loved it!

On the weekend we toured the sights of Perth, including the newly refurbished and spectacular St Mary's Cathedral. We visited the WA Museum and finally got to see the Pompeii exhibition. We spent a couple of hours at the WA Art Gallery and Eleanor made her very own contribution to the self-portrait section. And finally we made a reeturn visit to the Perth Mint.

July 1: St Pius X Manning: Home of Lachie and the little Lachies! They love their singing at St Pius at Manning. It's been a long time since I've seen a group of Year 6 boys sing like these ones! I can see David and Lachie and Dylan in the cast of Jersey Boys in the years to come. You can see from the last picture that the teachers love to perform. Mr T even sacrifices his time off class to be part of his class's Edudance moves! And when your teachers have such life, love and energy, it's sure to be infectious!

I met a girl called River so I had to give her a present of my book, "I Am The River"! Here's Lachie and Georgia who were stars of the day and night. Thanks to the Sarahs, to Isaac with the best "Pick Me Smile" and to Liam and everyone for a great day and night! June 30: The Official launch of "A Journey Through The Bible In Song" at Good Shepherd, Kelmscott: Today was my third visit to Good Shepherd so I decided with Mrs Newman that it might be a good time to launch my new concert, where we start the concert "In The Beginning" at Genesis, then work our way through songs from the old testament (Arky, Arky) including the prophets (Micah and Isaiah) and the into the Gospels, telling the story of Jesus in song, and finishing with Shine Among Them. I was really pleased with how it went and the way the choir supported me was outstanding as it is whenever I visit Good Shepherd. Western Australia is one of the most musically blessed parts of Australia and New Zealand in terms of Catholic Education and how it supports quality music through teachers like Mrs Newman.

The day started with a bit of a songwriting session with Tarra, Paris and the poet's gang. They were helping me come up with ideas for a song for a charity called "Love Angels". I think we made some good progress! Good Shepherd has the best girls' socks in Australia- I love them so much that last time I was here they gave me a pair which I still have. Thanks to Jessica for the jingling hair, to Tony for those magnificent eyebrow moves, and to my old pal Jack Newman, for dodging the magpies to come and say g'day.

At the end of the concert the Year Threes held up their Andrew Chinn posters for me to see. They were really thoughtful- not only because of the pictures but the words they wrote around the outside about how they felt about our time together. June 29: Happy Perthday Eleanor! It was a grand birthday surprise for Eleanor. We told her we were going out for dinner but we didn't tell her we were going to Perth! We got on the Qantas A330 bound for Perth. Eleanor used her DSI to draw pictures of planes and did a pretty good job too.

When we got to Perth we shared Eleanor's birthday with our good friends, the Newmans, the Bogonis and the Oorschot families at a pizza place called Sebastian's. I think Eleanor would rate it as her best birthday, I mean, Perthday, so far. Diana Newman made these spectacular cakes, pink for Eleanor and chocolate for John. You can see Emma and Annie who have sung on my albums in the past, and there's Eloise, my dancing partner, and my old pal, funny man, Joseph.

June 25: St Augustine's, Coffs Harbour: St Augustine said "When you sing you pray twice". And at Coffs Harbour we had a memorable day together. It was just amazing to look from one end of the church to the other and seeing

everyone so involved. I especially loved looking down the back and seeing the Year 6s more involved than anyone- thanks Carter and the gang and Happy Birthday Tahlia. June 24: St Mary's Bellingen: This was my fourth visit to St Mary's. On my last visit we wrote their school song "Live In Harmony". And the REC is Carmel Daggar, the beloved aunt of Claire Mannes from St Peter's Coleambally, who I dedicated "You Are My Rock" to. Had a great fun day with Paddy who can sing and move. I had the best conductors ever: check out their amazing introduction below:

It's A Girl! While I was working with Kindergarten and Year 1 and 2, the principal, Mrs Triglone came in and said "It's a girl!". It was her way of announcing that Julia Gillard had become Australia's first female and redheaded Prime Minister. My local paper rang me to get a redhead reaction and ran this story on Friday:

June 23: St Patrick's, Macksville: I have such fun memories of my day at Macksville in 2007. On that day we managed to get a photo of Katarina, who still reigns as the best fish face-fuzzy wuzzy bear ever! My day started with Moriah and Evronia. They had to miss most of the day because they were going to the Macksville Eisteddfod (it takes of years of practice to spell that correctly!). So I made them my special guests who sang their way through the infants workshop with me- just brilliant. And here's my namesake Andrew, who had many faces and is a real showman as is the fabulous MIchaela, except she's show-woman.

Fuzzy-wuzzy is still a strong suit at St Patrick's! And thanks to Bron who sent me some great photos of the day. I love the Rainbow shot from above!

June 22: Mary Help Of Christians, Sawtell: It's been about 8 years since I've been to MHOC. There were many highlights but the best of all was young Noah who became a bit of a star on the day. His mum rang me the next day to tell me that Noah was always a bit nervous about standing up in front of people but our day together had given him new found confidence- now that made my day! June 21: Lismore Diocese: St Anthony's, Kingscliff: The week began with some old friends at St Anthony's School in Kingscliff just on the New South Wales side of the border on the Gold Coast. I caught up with Ciara, Aidan and Fiona who I had dinner with a couple of years ago. Ciara's becoming a very good little singer.

June 15-18: Three Dioceses in four days! I flew into Melbourne late on Monday night to work with the staffs from St Jude's, Langwarrin and St Augustine's, Baxter. After I overcame my technical difficulties we had a great day and proved again that no-one sings and moves like a Prep/kindergarten teacher!

Last time I visited St Mary's, Mooroopna, I described it as the red-head capital of Victoria. Not so many anymore but what is amazing about St Mary's is the quality of their liturgical movement. So good is it that they have a team leader, Maddie, who works with guidance from the REC, John Gibson. Maddie wrote a lovely speech of thanks: "On behalf of St. Mary's school Mooroopna, we'd like to thank you, Andrew for coming all the way to Mooroopna. We have really enjoyed your visit and are really glad to have the opportunity to sing with you and learn new songs. Your songs are a BIG part of our school community. We use them all the time, in the morning at prayer, assemblies and school masses. We also use your songs to make up liturgical dances. We have used your DVDs to make up “actions” and they have really helped us to make up new movements. Your songs are very meaningful and are really fun to learn! We have known your songs since prep, and one of our favourite songs was, and still is, the Rainbow song. We know that we will continue to hear, and learn a lot more of your fantastic songs. So once more we’d like to thank you, Andrew Chinn, for coming all the way to Mooroopna, to help us learn more about you, and your songs.

MAY GOD BE IN YOUR HEART, AS MUCH AS YOU HAVE HELPED GOD TO BE IN OURS."

The week finished with visits to St Kilian's in Bendigo where I got to perform in the oldest weatherboard church in Australia! And on Friday I wrapped up the week at St Augustine's in Maryborough, where Jack was one of many stars. June 7-11: Sacred Heart Week and a song for Our Lady Star Of The Sea, Terrigal: I celebrated Sacred Heart week at two schools starting with Sacred Heart at Villawood. We had a great fun day and special thanks to the boys in the choir and to the fabulous Mikayla.

From there to Terrigal where I got to work writing a school song and received some terrific assistance from the leaders and poets of the school. And a couple couldn't resist showing me their amazing faces! And the week finished with some of the best behaved children anywhere, the children of Sacred Heart in Mt Druitt. On the right you can see Bol and his mates doing the Bol Bow. Bol is a real star and has some amazing moves.

May 18-28: New Zealand part 2: May 28, Homeward Bound: After eleven days away from home I made the trip from Rotorua to Auckland International Airport, stopping off at the tim dog at Tirau and saw the big tin Moses as well!

May 27: St Joseph's Opotiki: I made my way across the Bay of Plenty in the early hours to beautiful Opotiki, where I was received by a beautiful welcome party. Cilla Raukawa is one of the teachers at St joseph's who is passionate about her music and faith and passes this on to those she teaches. They showed me some beautiful movements, especially one to Jane Mitchell's Gifts.

May 26: St Thomas More's, Mt Maunganui- and the lights stayed on! Four years ago when I visited St Thomas More the little girl on the left put a stop to the concert as a toddler when she turned off the power! She was a lot more involved this time around! there were lots of Rainbows about as the children were asked to dress colourfully. And Noah is in the middle, he of many voices and faces and moves!

May 25: St Joseph's Hamilton- getting ready for "Hug-a-Ginga Day"! Friday is Hug-a-Ginga Day in New Zealand and St Joseph's was a great place to be to get ready for it. As I arrived there was a parking spot right in front of the Australian flag and a beautiful rainbow in the sky- waht a welcome! As well as the redheads there was an extremely talented young guitarist called...Andrew!

May 24: St John's, Mairangi Bay: On my first visit to New Zealand I went to St John's and have been going back every couple of years since with this being my fifth visit. They have an outstanding singing culture. Several St John's children have sung on my albums and they were part of my last DVD, Come Dance With Me. And now they're part of my new project, "St Mary MacKillopBeneath A Cross Of Stars". Here is one of the sample art pieces they have provided. We had a grand evening concert, with many gophers!

May 22-23: On Tour In New Zealand: I spent the weekend with my dear friends Martin and Ila Wehipeihana. We did some sightseeing in and around Cambridge, which is a lot like my home town of Bowral. The highlight of the weekend was seeing my first live kiwi at the Kiwi House at Otorohonga. They're surprisingly aggressive birds! Otorohonga also has a laneway dedicated to "Kiwiana" -all things distinctly New Zealand: Pavlova (yes, they really did invent it, not us Aussies), the All Blacks, the haka, and of course Sir Ed Hillary.

May 21: the last of the three St Patrick's: Taupo: We started the day singing in the rain- well it was sprinklng a little as we sang a morning prayer together. I collected a couple of more gophers and during the afternoon concert these two toddlers, one of whom was Riccardo, were the grooviest all, so groovy I had to give them a gift CD.

May 20: St Patrick's, Taumarunui: On the beautiful winding journey from Hamilton to Taumarunui I stopped to get this photo of the mist over Te Kuiti. St Patrick's is a school full of musical talent, including the teachers. The young fella on the end is not only a great mover but also a very good little singer too. And check out these beautiful glasses!

May 19: Catholic Schools Day: The Hamilton Diocese has been one of the most supportive of any Diocese over these last few years. It was a real delight to be asked to be part of their Catholic Schools Day celebrations. The day began with a Mass in the Cathedral with Bishop Denis. I wrote a song for the

occasion and in a mighty trans-Tasman effort Taylor from St Peter's Catholic School in Cambridge learnt the song after I sent it to her over the email. I was surrounded by old friends: Susie McCreery, the famous Molly and Nicole from St Peter Chanel.

From the Cathedral the schools gathered their banners and marched across the bridge over the Waikato to the museum for an outdoor concert with Molly and children from Catholic schools all over the Diocese.

May 18: A Musical Pilgrimage- St Patrick's, Te Awamutu: This was the school where Neil and Tim Finn of Spilt Enz and Crowded House fame completed their primary education. After a a great day of singing together with Kitiana and the gang I headed up to look at a really terrific local museum display about the Finn Brothers. Thanks to Emily for the butterflies!

May 8-17: Home week at last! here's a few pictures from a really relaxing week at home: a day out at Lake Alexandra; a possum in main street Bowral, and my granddaughter Eden at the local library.

May 6-7: Hamilton Diocese Conference in Rotorua: The week finished with a breakfast at my favourite cafe in New Zealand: the Fat Dog in downtown Rotorua!

I spent Thursday and Friday working with the principals and Directors of Religious Studies of the Hamilton Diocese. We shared a few songs and strategies and had Bishop's hour with Bishop Denis. I played and sang with Anthony Mills from St Thomas More, a pretty talented young teacher.

May 5: St Michael's Rotorua, home of Makese and Georgia: Five years ago, there was a young five-year-old groover at St Michael's who amazed everyone with his moves, especially to "The Walking Out The Door Song". And now he's an eleven-year-old groover, still called Makese!. Thanks to Georgia for the leaf and her lovely face.

May 4: Star Wars Day at St Mary's! May The Fourth Be With You! I was told today that with at least two people I was more popular than Justin Beiberthanks girls! And after singing Happy Birthday to her at Mystery Creek in Hamilton in 2005, I got to catch up with my dear old friend Molly, whose story I have told many, many times over.

May 3: From Bowral to Rotorua: Flying out of Sydney I captured the sun rising through early morning clouds. Then later on in the day as I drove from Auckland to Rotorua this amazing rainbow straddled the sky.

April 30: Mary MacKillop and Tenison Woods- a one day pilgrimage: