Dear Students, Parents, and Carers,

As Term 3 draws to a close I wanted to take a moment to stop and reflect on our journey as a community.

The impact of COVID has been significant on our community and the College, we have seen changes in student attendance patterns, changes in age-appropriate behaviours, and a delay in some of the learning behaviours that support student success - such as reading, studying, questioning and seeking feedback. This has become more evident as we meet with families and discuss the challenges that they are facing at home.

When we ask parents, what are their goals for their children? they will often refer to, "I want my child to be happy". As a parent of three, I can understand this, and I am often caught between the uncomfortableness of dealing with short term satisfaction and the longer goal of preparing my children for the world beyond school. Balancing the roller coaster that is adolescence and keeping the bigger picture in mind. In order for our children to be successful and happy we need to ensure that we continue to challenge them to be connected and committed learners and in doing so succeed in their learning.

I know that when we all work together in partnership, we can have a shared understanding of purpose and create a culture of high expectations for learning and student behaviour. This can lead to better learning and life outcomes for students and ultimately increase the potential for a successful and happy life.

This partnership has been evident in your recent support of the Colleges approach to uniform.

Whilst on yard duty this morning I did not see a single student out of uniform as they entered through the main college gate, this transformation is not possible without the constant support from parents and carers. This support over the past two weeks has been exceptional, as we reaffirm the College uniform expectations, and we are seeing a rapid improvement in the way students are presenting themselves at school. This strategy has also seen a dramatic shift in student behaviours in the classroom and in the yard. It is always interesting how one subtle supported change can have such a dramatic impact in the mindset and attitude of our students.

With this shared success in mind, I wanted to revisit our roles as parents and guardians, to continue to support the key strategies around student attendance, student behaviour, and student learning outcomes. Being successful at Secondary school requires an increasing amount of dedicated time outside of school rehearsing and learning key skills, information and concepts. One evidence-based strategy that supports student learning outcomes is reading practice. When it comes to reading skills, I encourage everyone no matter the year level to engage in 30min of sustained reading every day, we hope that this simple strategy can support and foster a love of reading in all students along with improving their attainment of knowledge and skills.

This term I wanted to celebrate Year 9 student performance on the NAPLAN writing assessment we saw a 10% increase in the number of students who performed in the Top 2 Bands and a 15% reduction of students in the bottom two bands when compared to the 2021 data. This is a wonderful outcome for all our students.

Our Year 12 students have been working incredibly hard this year in preparation for the completion of their senior certificate. For our scored VCE students the next 4 weeks are pivotal, as they prepare for their final exams. We have implemented a dedicated VCE improvement plan this year which has focussed heavily on the VCE examination process, and to ensure that the students have the strategies, confidence and work rate to maximise the return on their effort, and be able to access their university pathway of choice.

Schools are wonderfully safe places where students get to learn from their mistakes and build a toolkit that will not only help them survive but thrive in life beyond the school gates. At EMC this year we have invested heavily in the building of an intensive program of events and curriculum initiatives that continue to support our students to be ‘good humans’, this has included;

Pat Cronin Foundation (anti violence)
Blurred Minds (vaping)
StKilda FC Play to your strengths
StKilda FC Point and Be Proud
Richmond FC Korin Gamadji REAL Schools Program
Sexual Health Victoria Consent and Sexuality Education
Red Frogs (Schoolies safe partying)
Frankston Youth Services What? Bus
Clothing the Gaps Foundation
Koorie Engagement Support Officer cultural education sessions for staff
First Peoples Assembly of Victoria (Treaty)

As a college we are incredibly proud of the work we have done with these partners and are looking forward to expanding these programs in 2023 as we look to partner with:

The Resilience Project - Year 8 focus
One Love Australia - whole school

We will continue to share information about these key actions in 2023 and hope that in partnership you will engage in discussions about the key messages of safety and positive engagement with peers and help us to create the daily habits that will underpin the creation of a school culture and vision where we are inclusive and supporting every member of our community to realise their potential. This partnership between home will foster a deeper understanding and more consistent outcome at school for everyone.

As we go into the term break it is important that we take a moment to celebrate some of the outstanding achievements from Term 3;

Appointment of Terry Kiat to a substantive Assistant Principal role
College Production – The Addams Family was a huge success, and the entire cast and crew are to be congratulated
Our students have once again achieved some outstanding results on the sports field with many students making their way to divisional and state finals
Jenaya Bartlett has been success in her application to attend the World Indigenous Peoples' Conference on Education in Adelaide
Max Pollard on his performance in the state school spectacular
Felicity Symons and her nomination and recognition as a finalist in the VTA – Teacher/Trainer of the Year awards.
Student performance on NAPLAN
The launch of the Student Attributes program
The successful outcomes and participation in the student leadership school

I would like to thank you for your good will, engagement, and partnership as we continue to work hard to make a difference for the young adults of Elisabeth Murdoch College.

Wishing you a safe break and I look forward to supporting everyone to succeed in an exciting Term 4.

Kind regards,

Dean King

Principal

VCAL Update