Meet the Team

Principal - Michelle Crofts

I was asked on the holidays how I liked being the Principal of “Matthew Flinders Girls” and my response was:

I love it! The students and the staff are great. They all just get on with learning, really. The staff are dedicated, hard-working and, most of all, they want what is best for our students. As teachers we are quite blessed as we can focus on our teaching and how to keep improving what we do in the classroom.

Inevitably the second question was: “So how is it working in an all-girls school?”

My answer to this was:

It did not take long to realize how important it is for girls to have an option of an all girls’ school. I have never seen girls able to be themselves and to learn and play in such a way as they can at MFG. I love that they are able to challenge societal stereotypes and are encouraged to do so by our staff.

This is my fourth year as the Principal of Matthew Flinders Girls and I can honestly say that it keeps getting better and better. I am honoured to be the Principal of our school and very proud of the students who leave our community as strong, independent young women willing to embrace life and wanting to make a difference in the world.

This year as a school community we are focussing on expanding and consolidating the initiatives already started: refining our curriculum, encouraging greater school attendance, addressing wellbeing challenges such as anxiety, improving the literacy and numeracy levels of our students, building our House culture, celebrating the excellent work of our staff and students, improving links with parents and carers and further developing our STEAM initiatives.

Michele Crofts

Assistant Principal - Damien Toussaint

This is my fourth year at Matthew Flinders Girls and last year was a particularly memorable one for my kids (Daniel and Sage) and I as you can tell by this photo!

I live in Melbourne, play keyboards in a rock band and play hockey for Footscray Hockey Club. One of my main roles is to oversee our curriculum and its development, how we teach it and support our teachers with their endeavours to make learning engaging, challenging and relevant. This extends to overseeing how we assess what we teach and how we communicate this to students and parents and carers through our feedback and reporting. I work closely with Joy Carr and Simon Collier and we form the ‘Teaching and Learning Team’. This year all schools in Victoria will be teaching, assessing and reporting on the Victorian Curriculum and we’re particularly excited by the inclusion of the General Capabilities, like Critical and Creative thinking and Ethical understanding, which will be taught in and through the subjects we offer.

We’re also keen to improve how we use Compass, our online learning and communication platform, so that students, parents and carers feel they know what’s going on across our wonderful school and in our classrooms.

You can contact me at school or via email at toussaint.damien.a@edumail.vic.gov.au

Damien Toussaint

Assistant Principal - Fiona Taylor

Welcome back to the 2017 school year.  I am always very proud to be an Assistant Principal at Matthew Flinders Girls and have thoroughly immersed myself in the college community in this role for the past 9 years.

Personalising learning and developing curriculum for all students irrespective of their starting point is a passion of mine and area of expertise.  As an educator, I am excited in 2017 about using critical thinking and problem solving in student centered pedagogical approaches as ways to prepare students for success in their future world.

I am also excited about leading a restructured approach to deliver a safe and supportive learning environment for all our students so they can to the best of their ability achieve their goals with their learning.

Another focus with my leadership this year will be on school attendance and the habits of our community in the importance of our students attending school regularly.

Other aspects to my leadership at Matthew Flinders Girls and to our local network and state include chairing the Geelong Operation Newstart Board and being an executive board member of School Sport Victoria.

Outside of school, I enjoy keeping physically active and committed to my 5.30AM group training sessions.  I am also heavily involved in the leadership of South Barwon Football Netball Club and elite junior pathways in sport for adolescents in a range of sports.

Please do not hesitate to contact me here at the College if I can support your student in anyway at the college in 2017.

Fiona Taylor

taylor.fiona.m@edumail.vic.gov.au

Leader of Student Engagement - Jeremy Dyson

I’m Jeremy Dyson, the Leader of Student Engagement for 2017.

I have been at MFG for the past 8 years and I enjoyed working as part of this vibrant learning community. I teach Outdoor and Physical Education and love getting out and about with our students!

In my role this year, I will be working closely with the wonderful house leaders at the college, Julie McNamara (Beachley), Bryce Baumgarten (Freeman), Stuart Myers (Gilmore) and Jenny Gibson (Lipson), to ensure students are getting the most out of their school experience.

One of our big goals for 2017 is to ensure that student attendance is improved so that educational opportunities for our students can be maximised.  

If you have any questions, ideas or thoughts feel free to call the school or email me: dyson.jeremy.m@edumail.vic.gov.au

Leader of Safe & Supportive Culture - Kellie Walker

My name is Kellie Walker and I am so excited to be the Safe and Supportive Learning Team Leader at Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College.

I would like to introduce you to our multidisciplinary team...

Robyn Cameron - Program for Students with Disabilities Leader

Amanda Patterson - School Nurse

Jenny Eastwood - Pastoral Care

Sian Pritchard (Pritchard Consulting) - Primary Care Nurse Practitioner-Psychiatry/Drug and Alcohol

Rob Dunne - Classroom Teacher, Wellbeing and Literacy Support

Alanna Johnson - Speech Pathologist

Kerry Buckland - Learning Mentor

Ashlea O'Keefe - Learning Mentor

Colleen Rowe - Learning Mentor

Tammy Hanson - Learning Mentor

Jo Masek - Learning Mentor

Ann Mitchell - Learning Mentor and Manager of Support Services

We are located in the ‘Old Building’ in the new Safe and Supportive Learning Hub, where we will be working together closely, to ensure the learning and social and emotional needs of all of our students are met with care and the utmost respect. 

Carl Rogers’ ‘Unconditional Positive Regard’ theory underpins all interactions with our students.  Our team embodies this theory by consistently treating students kindly, genuinely, respectfully and with complete acceptance.  We recognise that learning and wellbeing go hand in hand and look forward to supporting our students and teaching colleagues in 2017.

Working in a multi-disciplinary way, our team will strive to ensure that all of our students at Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College feel that they belong, have robust and trusting relationships, experience success both with their learning in the classroom context, and socially and emotionally and that they see the connection between how their competence grows with the effort they put in and the support they receive.

We are looking forward to working with our students, colleagues, parents and carers and wider community to deliver on the school’s Key Improvement Strategies for our team. 

Please feel free to contact myself, or any member of our team at any time. 

walker.kellie.r@edumail.vic.gov.au

Kellie Walker and the Safe and Supportive Learning Team

Leader of Student, Staff & Parent / Carer Learning - Joy Carr

Hello to all families of MFG students. I hope that everyone has coped with their first week of school which has meant finding uniforms, buying new stationery and being creative with packing lunch boxes.

I would like to introduce myself as one of the members of the MFG Leadership Team this year. My name is Joy Carr and am the Leader of Student, Staff and Parent/Carer Learning, which is abbreviated to PLC Leader. One of the foci of this role is to continue to build strong connections between the key players of the MFG community.

Keeping communication channels open between parents/carers and the staff of MFG is essential. To kick start this communication in term one, we invite all parents/carers of year 7 students to a Welcome Session on Thursday February 16th between 4 and 5pm. This will be a great opportunity to meet one another and for families to learn how to use our online learning platform called Compass. This is an efficient medium for communication as we try to navigate our busy daily lives.

Lots of communication will come your way through newsletters, social media, emails, Compass, hard copy information letters, phone calls, interviews and personal chats. Please embrace these opportunities to be informed and to inform us, so that we can all be an effective team in progressing your child’s learning.  

If you have any questions, ideas or thoughts feel free to call the school or email me: carr.joy.e@edumail.vic.gov.au

Leader of STEAM Initiatives (Maths & Science LAL) - Joanne Toone

Welcome back everyone.  My name is Jo Toone and I am very proud to be the Leader of STEAM initiatives at Matthew Flinders Girls.

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths and my role is to build on, and develop further, the fantastic learning we already have occurring at MFG in these areas.  STEAM is about solving practical problems that requires a range of knowledge from different subject areas.

I will be working very closely with the Math and Science teaching teams as well as with Arts and Technology teachers.  We all want to make learning more fun and engaging while providing our students opportunities to use content knowledge and skills in ways that are practical and applicable to the real work, just like they would if they were out in the workforce. We need critical thinkers, problem solvers and creative minds.

I am especially looking forward to leading the development of a band new STEAM program.   What this might look like and how it might work are all still up in the air!

If you have any ideas, thoughts or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at the school or email me. toone.joanne.j@edumail.vic.gov.au

Leader of Curriculum Initiatives and Effective Teaching in Every Classroom (Technology LAL & SEALP) - Simon Collier 

My Name is Simon Collier and my roles this year include:  

Leader of Curriculum Initiatives and Effective Teaching in Every Classroom

Leader of the Technology Learning Area

SEALP (Select Entry Accelerated Learning Program) Leader

I am looking forward to working with our staff and students as a collaborative team this year to ensure that the School’s Strategic Plan (SSP) is fully implemented.  

My focus is to lead our transition to the Victorian Curriculum and the development of an exciting and challenging curriculum at MFG for all students.  Across the college staff will focus on designing learning programs that will have a focus on learning capabilities with feedback that provides students with advice for improvement and success. Our first stage in this process is to document and map the school curriculum at a whole school level, grade/year level, curriculum level and unit/task level.

I look forward to sharing this work with students and parents throughout the year and will be seeking feedback and input as we equip our students for their future.  

 If you have any questions, ideas or thoughts feel free to call the school or email me: collier.simon.s@edumail.vic.gov.au