Assistant Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

What an incredible start to the year.  We have seen our students commence their classes with enthusiasm and our staff will support our students to perform at their best with all endeavours.

As we now settle into our classes and the routine of arriving on time each morning, we have seen our students quickly adjust to the physical changes within the yard, that is, the building construction site for our new two-storey building.  Our Principal, Michelle Roberts, mentioned in her article last week that there are only two main entry points to the school and that there are temporary changes to the locker bays.  We thank our students for adapting to these temporary changes. 

Achieving our Personal Best

We strive to continue improving with how we communicate with students and their families with how our students are progressing throughout the year.  We want to provide every opportunity for all of our students to achieve their personal best. By the end of the year, we want our students to demonstrate their readiness to progress to the next year level which includes successfully completing a sufficient number of subjects per semester at every year level.  Year Level Coordinators will work with teachers and the families of students who may need extra support throughout the year.

Reporting Schedule for 2021

With the implementation of more frequent communication to families reporting on how students are progressing in their subjects, we have created a reporting calendar for you to reference during the year showing intended dates for when progress checks and semester reports will be released to families.

Our reporting calendar is attached for you.  It includes such key items as:

• Release dates of Progress Checks and Semester Reports
• Final dates for work submissions for each semester
• Dates of Parent Teacher Student Interviews
• Dates of Student-Free Days

For our Progress Checks, we will be reporting on the three aspects of Attendance, Learning Behaviours and Academic Performance.

Attendance

Adequate attendance is integral to the successful completion of units of study.  At Mordialloc College, we want students to attend at least 90 % of their lessons.  Students and their families will know how they are tracking via the Progress Checks which are released approximately every 5 – 6 weeks.  The attendance on Progress Checks will be from the start of the semester up to the time of the Progress Check being released.  If our students are attending 90 % of the time, they are on track!  If they are below 90 %, the teacher will comment that their attendance in class is low and therefore impacting upon performance.  Twice a term attendance letters will be sent home identifying students in Years 7-12 with attendance concerns; below 80 % VCE Compliant/ School Percentage.

We are aiming to see an attendance level of at least 80 % for elective subjects and specialist subjects as these subjects occur less frequently in the timetable.  That is, if students are away for a subject that runs once or twice each week, the percentage will drop further than that of a subject occurring three or four times each week.

A copy of the College Attendance policy can be found on the Mordialloc College website in School Policies. Alternatively, please click the link below, which will direct you straight to the policy section.

Learning Behaviours 

We have a new rubric for students and families to reference when reflecting on how the student is behaving in class.  The areas connect to our School Values and also includes learning growth.

• Personal Best
• Integrity
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Learning Growth

Please use the attached rubric for more information.

Academic Performance

We will notify families of how students are performing in class.  We want to see all students on track.  If they are not on track with their learning, teachers will stipulate this with an appropriate comment.

Parents and carers are encouraged to contact relevant teachers via email at any time during the semester if they have any questions or concerns, or to celebrate successes.

New to our Year 7 – 10 Semester Reports this year is the addition of ‘Classwork’.  Students will receive an S (Satisfactory) or N (Not Satisfactory) for their classwork. This means during the semester students need to complete all classwork to achieve a satisfactory result unless special circumstances apply.  This is in addition to the Benchmark Tasks that they complete during the semester and are displayed in the Semester Report.

Changes to Learning Tasks on Compass

During 2020, Compass implemented a new feature to Learning Tasks tab. Learning Tasks are now colour-coded. It is a visual representation for students to see what type of work they have due.  Teachers will assign a due date for each task which will appear on the student’s schedule at the top of the day that the work is due.  This will assist our students with their organisation and parents/ carers will also be able to see these tasks.

If a student is not able to submit the task by the due date, they need to speak with their teacher, provide a note from home explaining why the deadline is not able to be met and then discuss and plan a new timeline for the work to be submitted.

Due dates may not be assigned immediately for all tasks on Compass as some tasks will be due later in the semester.  If parents/ Carers have a query about due dates, they can email the relevant classroom teacher. 

Exciting Events 

We held our first whole school assembly this week on Monday.  It was conducted remotely but it was great to see everyone tune in online.  Our House Assemblies were conducted in a similar manner.  Students also submitted the events they wanted to enter for both our House Swimming Carnival, scheduled for Wednesday 24 February, and our House Athletics Carnival, which will be on Thursday 1 April.

Next week, our Year 7 students will be out on their first year level camp to the Summit, located in Trafalgar East.  At this camp, the students will step outside their comfort zone by challenging themselves to complete activities like the Leap of Faith, Sky Walk and Flying Fox.  Students will work together in various activities enabling them to develop their skills in communication and working with others.

Our Year 9 students will all sit the General Achievement Test (GAT) comprising of 124 questions.  I anticipate our students working hard to complete as many questions as they can, whilst giving consideration to their responses.  The GAT data collected will be used by our teachers not only this year but in following years until this cohort completes Year 12.

Outside the classroom we have the House Swimming Sports Carnival, to which our students signed up for events during our House Assemblies held on Tuesday. It will be an exciting day for everyone! Don’t forget, consent for our carnivals needs to be given by parents/ carers.  This can be done via Compass.  On the day, students are strongly encouraged to dress up in their house colours.  Prizes are given out for best dressed.  Here is a reminder of our Houses:

Students are Required to Wear Masks

A reminder to all students and their families that students will need to continue wearing a mask at school in class and when they are not able to socially distance outside.  This includes all Year 7 – 12 students.  The Government has said people aged 12 or over must wear a fitted face mask when in public indoor spaces at school unless there is a lawful reason not to do so.

It is the responsibility of our students to check that they have a mask before leaving home.  We thank parents and carers for supporting this requirement.

So far we have been able to accommodate the few students that have not had a mask at school.  Unfortunately, our stocks are almost depleted so we will be asking students to purchase a mask when they come to school without one at a cost of $1.00.  This charge will allow us to replenish our stocks. 

Marina Walsh

Assistant Principal