Principal's Update
Dear Families, Students and Community Members,
Remote Learning
We are now into our third week of remote learning and the majority of students have settled into the routine of completing their on-line lessons. We congratulate them on their positive attitude and preparedness to connect and complete the work set to the best of their ability. I would like to thank our parents/carers who have taken the time to contact the school to provide positive feedback. I do pass on these comments to my staff as it is so important to acknowledge the fantastic work they are doing and that they hear our parent community are most appreciative.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank the staff who are volunteering to come into school on a roster basis to keep the school running – this includes the office administration team working at Reception and in the General Office, the integration aides who work one to one with the few students who need to be onsite and the Principal Class team. And of course, our wonderful IT team of Adwine Narayan and Mark Pavicic, who are onsite each day to continue to support parents, students and staff, with Justin Wischusen and Simon Belluzzo doing terrific work continuing to support staff remotely.
Speculation in the media has already started about a possible return to school this term. At this stage Principals have been advised that remote learning will continue for the duration of Term 2 and that we should continue to plan for this. Rest assured if anything changes, I will communicate with families as soon as the official advice comes through to Principals from the Department of Education.
Lesson Structure and Length during Remote Learning
On Tuesday, Thursday and Friday when at school, our typical lessons are of 77 minutes duration and on Mondays and Wednesdays closer to 50-60 minutes. However, during this remote learning phase we are very conscious of the fact that students need to have time between lessons to stretch, walk around, and take a break from looking at the screen, therefore lesson times will be reduced to cater for this. To assist with how it looks at home, as a school we have agreed to structure our lessons in the following format. Please see the attached document below.
We want to have consistency across the year levels and have a shared understanding of expectations for lessons with both students and parents to allow predictability and routine in the remote learning environment. Thanks to Assistant Principal, Marina Walsh, for working with our Learning Area leaders to finalise this model.
An opportunity to provide feedback
Our teachers are missing working with their students in person and continue to work exceptionally hard to keep everyone connected with school and others in the class. They are most grateful for the support of parents in assisting to ensure this has been able to take place whilst managing the rest of the household and their own work commitments. If any student or parent would like to send a teacher or group of teachers a message of gratitude or thanks for what they have done, please send me an email via the College email address: mordialloc.co@education.vic.gov.au and I will collate them to send out at the end of the week or start of the following week for our staff to read. I can keep this anonymous or you can add your name into the message. If you aren’t sure what to write, it could be about what your teacher/s have done for you and the impact it has had.
Updated Transition Information
Year 7 2021 Transition: Applications for Year 7 enrolments for 2021 have been extended to Friday 29 May 2020 due to COVID-19. Parents will need to return their preference form to their primary school by this date along with the ‘Out of Zone Application’ form – if applicable. If you know any families of Grade 6 students considering Mordialloc College for 2021, please pass on the attached letter from me. This was posted on Facebook last Friday night.
Senior School Tutors
Thanks to our Director of Senior School, Jo Greenhalgh, for organising a number of our ex-students to be available to our current Year 12 students as tutors during the year. During this term the tutoring sessions will be conducted online. This is such a fantastic resource. If you have a son or daughter in Year 12, please encourage them to sign up and utilise.
The following ex-students are running the online tutoring for our Year 12s. For anyone who doesn’t know them, they are all 40+ study score achievers. The sessions started last week and there was a good uptake with excellent feedback from Year 12s making the most of this opportunity. They found the session/s to be very worthwhile.
Students can sign up for a whole session or they can sign up to ask the tutor to go through one particular area or question they are struggling with. They can also sign up to ‘fix’ errors in SACs they have already completed so that they are not forgetting about it until the end of the year.
Tuesday 3.30 pm Further Maths Rob McPherson
Wednesday 3.30 pm English / PE / HHD Gus McPherson
Wednesday 3.30 pm Chemistry / Psychology Mikayla Begent
Thursday 3.30 pm English / Biology / Chemistry Sabrina Berg
Thursday 3.30 pm Physics / Methods / History 40+ Tessa Love
Friday 3.30 pm English / History 30+ Josh Youngson
Postponement of Events
A number of significant events on the College Calendar have had to be postponed and we will be making every effort to still provide these opportunities for our students once we have all returned onsite for school, depending on the advice and direction from the Department of Education. For example, school camps (we have secured dates in the second half of the year for the Year 10 camp to Queensland and Year 8 camp to Phillip Island but still require department approval for these to go ahead) and Advance and Outdoor Education camps, Athletics sports carnival, Senior Formal depending on the size of gatherings allowed etc.
Our whole school review self-evaluation report completed in Term 1 was sent off to the region and school reviewer. However, the actual review panel dates scheduled in Term 2 have now been postponed to Term 3.
Andrew Fuller Article
Andrew Fuller, a Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist, offers the following advice about how students can use the time at home productively. Please see the article below.
Ms. Michelle Roberts
Principal