Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Official Opening of our Year 7 & 8 Learning Centre

Today, the Premier of Victoria, Mr Daniel Andrews MP accompanied by Mr Tim Richardson, State Member for Mordialloc and Parliamentary Secretary for Schools, attended Mordialloc College to officially open our new two storey Year 7 & 8 Learning Centre. We had a number of other special guests attending, including, Jenny Cocks, the Director of MINX architecture, Gary Hartley, Director of Neo Construct, Mr Simon Hamilton Area Executive Director Bayside Peninsula, representing the Southeast Region, Colman Nolan, Project Officer Victorian Schools Building Authority and School Council president Ian Fox.

After taking the Premier and Member for Mordialloc on a short tour of the new building to see classes in action, the official proceedings took place in the “grand” staircase area, with a welcome by our School Captains, Emma and Daniel, speeches by myself and Mr Andrews, and then the official ribbon cutting! Our School Captains and Middle School captains all enjoyed being part of this ceremony with me.

We look forward to the substantial contribution this facility will make to the teaching programs in Years 7 & 8, where students are taught by significant teachers who team teach together for English and Humanities or Maths and Science. The individual learning needs of all students are catered for through the integrated approach to teaching and learning possible within this facility, with the centre providing flexible and collaborative learning spaces throughout.

There was much excitement amongst the student population who had the opportunity to interact with Mr Andrews on his tour of the new centre and also later when we toured the refurbished Senior School centre.

This was also an important opportunity for me to again speak to Daniel and Tim about further State Government funding to complete our masterplan and cater for the increase in our student enrolments. They again acknowledged that there was a need for further facility development and were receptive to our plans for the future including the development of a new Visual Arts/Technology Centre.

End of Semester – Reminder of Key Dates

A reminder of some key dates for students now that we are nearing the end of Semester One.

Semester 1 ended or will be ending on:

Friday 20 May for Year 11 and Year 12 students
Monday 23 May to Friday 27 May – revision week in all classes for Years 10-11 students
Thursday 9 June for Years 7 – 10 students

All major assessments in the form of assignments and projects needed to be submitted by:

Friday 20 May for Years 10 – 12 students
Friday 27 May for Years 7 – 9 students

Semester One exams for Years 10-11 students are taking place this week and next week. All students were provided with a copy of their exam timetable last week. Year 10 and 11 students have classes cancelled for the 2 weeks, however they are expected to remain at school if they have more than one exam on any one day. The Hub and new Senior School Centre have been provided as places to study in between exams. If students only have one exam during the day, they are expected to be studying at home for the rest of the day, preparing for their next exam.

Our Year 12 students have already started Unit 4 work and Semester 2 for all other year levels begins on Tuesday 14 June. Please note we have a pupil free day on Friday 10 June as our designated professional practice day for staff and they will be onsite finalising Semester One reports and preparing for the beginning of Semester Two.

Online Parent Teacher Student Interviews

Thanks for your feedback on the Term 1 parent teacher student interviews from the survey sent out for parents to complete earlier this term. As a growing school, we need to continue to consider how to best accommodate the needs of parents, students and staff so the interviews are a valuable use of everyone’s time and can be completed as efficiently as possible. Most parents are in support of our online interviews, however there are still areas identified for improvement from your feedback that will be acted upon in the future and we will continue to gather feedback to refine our processes. If you did not get to speak to one or more of your child’s teachers, hopefully you have taken the opportunity to contact them via email or phone.

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Link School

Last year I received an official invitation from David Howes, Department of Education and Training, Deputy Secretary for Schools, for Mordialloc College to be the link school in our region for this department initiative. PLCs are small teams of teachers working together following an inquiry cycle to improve the learning outcomes of students in their cohort eg Year 7 maths teachers. PLCs have been successfully implemented in primary schools and has now become mandatory in secondary schools. We completed the PLC training during 2019 and had started implementing this structure by the end of that year. Marina Walsh and I presented at the region Principal forum back in March 2020 to over 300 participants.

We were asked to present again last year, this time online, to showcase our journey and work in this area. As the PLC link school this year, we are leading professional learning for other secondary schools in our region and opening our school up for visits and observations. Last Wednesday afternoon we hosted over 20 staff from across five secondary schools. After listening to our formal presentation about our journey and the structures and processes we have in place to support the implementation of PLCs, participants had the opportunity to observe some of our PLCs in action, as it was our PLC meeting afternoon as part of our meeting schedule. Over the rest of this year we will be hosting more open afternoons and are also scheduled to present online again in a PLC showcase mid Term 3. Being the link school for the region also provides an opportunity for us to continue to reflect and strengthen our own practice in this space.

The school has received additional funding to support our leadership of this initiative. Thanks to our three instructional coaches - Bryony Lowe, Sally Mitchell and Janni Newson - and Assistant Principal, Marina Walsh, who all presented with me on the afternoon and are the key people implementing this initiative.

Literacy

Literacy underpins all learning and as such we cannot emphasise enough the importance of reading each night. This should be part of each student’s homework plan if they are not already reading for pleasure. Twenty minutes a day can make a huge difference for a student in developing their use and understanding of vocabulary. See article via link:

Students can make requests at the Hub help desk for future purchases if there is a book, they would like to read in hardcopy that is not in our current collection, and we also have our e-book borrowing system with a wide variety of novels.

Our whole school professional development sessions this year with staff have been focused on improving student writing, especially after our two years transitioning into and out of remote learning, and a lot of work being completed online. Building students' stamina (fitness) and their muscle memory for writing has been important and our initial focus over Term 1 and into this term. Meaningful writing should be happening in almost every lesson. Over the rest of the year and into 2023 we will be introducing students to the 6+1 traits of writing framework, thus developing a common language around writing. This will involve a series of Professional Learning sessions with staff in our Monday after school workshop meeting time. The six traits are Ideas, Organisation, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency and Conventions with the plus one being Presentation.

Year 8 Camp

Last week our Year 8 students attended camp at Phillip Island over three days and were very fortunate with the lovely weather. Students had the opportunity to participate in a range of adventure and team building activities including laser strike, twin flying fox, canoeing, initiative activities, archery, giant swing, raft building, high ropes, bushman’s breakfast and team rescue. What a way to spend three days!

Thanks to our Year 8 Level Coordinators, Georgia Davey, and Julia Hockey, for organising and leading this camp for our students, and the Year 8 team of teachers and integration aides who joined them over the three days to support their students: Jess Doherty, Julie Granger, Loretta Illot, Julie Pretty, Melanie Raike, Kelly Scurrah, Tracey Bastin, Daniel Williams, Blake Murray, Miku Nonaka, Sushil Raj, Di Douglas, Liz Ireson, Andrew Potter, Eleni Capp, Lily Freitag-Kenyon and Madeline Hatton.

District Netball Champions

A few weeks ago now, our senior girls' netball team won the district round robin and final, competing against other secondary schools in Kingston, Glen Eira and Beachside networks. Congratulations to all members of this team and our coach on staff, Krystle Woodbridge. They now progress to the regional finals.

District Cross Country

Congratulations to all students who represented the school in the District Cross Country event last week. A special mention to the following teams who came first: 17-20 years girls team, 15 years girls team and 15 years boys team. And a special congratulations to Celestine Debargue-Tamai who came 1st overall in the 15 years girls event.

Please see Mr Watters' report later in this newsletter. Thanks to Mr Watters and our other staff who supported the students on the day.

Charity Fundraisers

Last week we held our own version of the World’s Greatest Shave. Our students raised over $1700 for the Leukaemia Foundation during this special event held in the gym at lunchtime on Thursday. Congratulations to the students and staff who were prepared to participate and raise money for this important event. Thanks to our Publicity and Fundraising sub-committee of the Mordialloc Student Council for leading this event, supported by Ms Gorman and Mr Williams.

Last Friday, our Food Technology team and our Year 9 students studying Food hosted our own version of the Biggest Morning Tea held at lunchtime instead, for all staff to participate in. We enjoyed some very healthy and tasty treats to raise money to support the work of the Cancer Council. Thanks to Mr Sibly, Mrs Scott, and Mr Cummins for organising this event.

Michelle Roberts

Principal

VCE Support Group