Mornington Secondary College Newsletter

From the Principal

Good morning everyone, 

 

I hope you have had a wonderful week. This week began with our annual Awards night recognising student achievement. Students were recognised for their community participation, sporting prowess, work habits and academic achievements.  

 

The DUX of each year level was identified by their academic achievement for semester 1 and 2. They are:

 

Year 7 Chloe Smith 

Year 8 Madison Lillecrapp 

Year 9 Seren Chespy 

Year 10 Emily Smith 

Year 11 Benn Schmidt 

 

And the DUX of Mornington Secondary College with an ATAR of 96.7 is Jacob Tout.

Congratulations to all. 

 

Jacob joined us for the evening and spoke about his time at Mornington Secondary College.  

 

The guest speaker was Alex Dekker. A twenty-one-year-old who spoke about wanting to help others. Alex began cooking meals for health care workers during COVID lockdowns and his business has continued to grow, known as ‘Alex Makes Meals’, supporting and cooking thousands of meals for people in need. Alex was nominated as the Victorian Young Australian of the Year 2021.   

 

The Awards night is our most prestigious event for the year and this year did not disappoint. It was a great night. It was lovely to see so many families in the audience, supporting our young people.  

 

Tuesday was Orientation day. We welcomed our new Year 7 students to our community. They had a great day. Staff and students went home exhausted after participating in activities all day and many new friendships were made. 

 

This will be the last newsletter for the year. I wish to thankyou for your ongoing support. We are a great school within a great community. I look forward to working with you next year. In preparation for next year, all Victorian government schools have been asked to remind families of the mobile phone ban for students.  

 

'A reminder that the Department of Education has in place a mobile phone ban that requires students who bring mobiles phones to school to have them switched off and securely put away during school hours. 

The department is requiring all schools to ensure this ban is in place and enforced from the start of the 2024 school year. 

The ban applies equally to all government schools right across the state. 

This helps ensure that school is a learning environment free from unnecessary distractions and disruptions. 

By ensuring mobile phones are kept away at recess and lunch times, students can interact with each other face-to-face, without the distractions and social pressures that mobile phones can cause. 

 

I ask for the support of all our families, staff and students in continuing to support the implementation of this policy in our school. 

 

Further information 

Exceptions: For a small number of students with particular health needs, an exception to the policy may be granted. Please contact me if you would like to discuss this. 

Emergencies: In the event of an emergency or if you need to immediately contact your child, I ask that families contact the school office who will pass on a message as required. 

School mobile phone policy: A copy of our school’s local mobile phone policy, which implements the government’s mobile policy in line with our local context, is available on our website Mobile Phone Policy

Parent support: The Mobile phones in schools webpage Mobile Phones – Student Use: Policy | education.vic.gov.au provides links to resources for families to help them balance their children’s time using mobile phones’. 

 

If you have further questions, please contact the General office. 

 

Merry Christmas and happy New Year. Have a safe and peaceful holiday.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda Stanton

Principal

 

A delightful email received

Hello,

I believe the wonderful young ladies and gentlemen who “rescued” me from where I tripped in the centre of a pedestrian crossing at Benton Square last Wednesday, may have been pupils at your school.

One (beautiful) young lad in particular came instantly to my aid and within minutes several other boys and girls came to help. As I am an old girl of 82, I was unable to get up off the road and these boys and girls got me up, made sure I was ok.

You may well understand how very grateful and impressed I was by their actions. They and their parents, as well as your school, should be so very proud.

They restored my faith in the young folk of today and I hope you will convey my thanks and admiration to them all.

Yours sincerely,

Jan 

Important Dates

DECEMBER

19/12/23 | Last Day of formal classes for 2023

 

JANUARY

30/01/24 | Professional Development Day (Student free)

31/01/24 | 2024 First day of school for students

 

FEBRUARY

02/02/24 | Swim Trials Year 7

05/02/24 | School photos

08/02/24 | Whole school college swimming carnival

15/02/24 | Parent Numeracy Evening

15/02/24 | Catch up photo day

 

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Middle School

Dear parents and guardians, 

 

We had a fantastic Awards Presentation on Monday evening. It was a lovely evening as we celebrated the success of our students acknowledging their academic excellence, effort and community service and engagement.

 

Personally, I am very grateful dear families as your support has been invaluable. 

 

I wish all students and families a Merry Christmas filled with joy and warmth.

 

I look forward to another great year and I look forward to seeing you in 2024.

 

 

 

 

Denise Leggett

Middle School Assistant Principal

 

 

 

Senior School

 

To students and families of the Mornington Senior School,

 

In my last message for 2023, I wanted to acknowledge the hard work of our Class of 2023 students in the VCE ATAR program, who received their results on Monday morning. We had so many examples of fantastic scores, with 3 scores in the 90s, and almost 40% of our students achieving an ATAR of over 70 (meaning they were ranked in top 30% of the state). Congratulations to our dux, Jacob Tout, who achieved a terrific ATAR of 96.7.  

 

To the rest of the senior school students, we look forward to supporting you to achieve your dreams in 2024 and beyond. Have a great festive season and summer holidays. Our students seem to grow with both size and maturity over the summer break and we can’t wait to welcome them back to school in 2024 (in perfect clean uniform, with all of their learning materials and holiday homework completed 😉).

 

Dare to Dream everyone! Thank you for your support in 2023, my first year at this wonderful college.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

 

Nick Evans

Senior School Assistant Principal

 

 

 

Senior school Edrolo information

2024 Edrolo subscription access is being paid directly to Edrolo this year by families of VCE students.  In prior years, this cost was included with the College contributions.  Please follow the link for more information Edrollo  

Goodbye for now!

 

Student academic reports are now available on compass. These reports are accumulated throughout the semester and communicate a summary of the achievements of students against the curriculum in each specific subject. Take the time to discuss your child’s report, celebrate the successes and help them come up with a plan for renewed efforts in 2024 for areas of improvement.  If you would like to discuss aspects of your child’s report please reach out to the individual class teacher, via email, as they are best placed to discuss the results.

 

We have setup a range of in school activities for students to round off the last 2 days. These activities are now visible on compass. If you are choosing to not send your child to school for this program then please ensure that you go onto compass and mark them as absent.

 

We have had a fantastic year and I wish everyone a safe and happy holidays. 

Can’t wait for 2024!

 

Kind regards,

 

 

 

Mike Parker

Assistant Principal

 

 

Mornington Medal 

The Mornington Medal is a school citizenship award open to all schools in the Mornington electorate. Recipients are students that display attributes such as being respectful, following school rules, displaying exceptional character (e.g. responsibility, honesty, good listening, kindness, care for others, resilience), applying themselves in school activities, looking out for their peers, showing school leadership, or pushing through adversity to achieve success. Recipients are chosen by their school, and awarded with a 'Mornington Medal' engraved with their name, and their name is engraved on the perpetual shield displayed at the school.

 

Congratulations to Owen Norton who was awarded the Mornington Medal by Chris Crewther MP - Member for Mornington.

 

Gumbuya World orientation  excursion for 2024 Year 8 students

 

Tuesday 12th December saw the Year 8 Coordination and teaching team take out our 2024 Year 8 students to Gumbuya World for the day. We had over 100 students attend the day and the weather certainly cooperated. The waterpark and water slides were the most popular in the heat and our braver students took on the big roller coasters. 

 

The day was a great opportunity for the teaching staff to spend some time getting to know their students. Some of the staff joined the students on the water slides, down the lazy river and some even took on the roller coasters. Students should be commended for their excellent behaviour and participation on the day.

 

 

Year 10

 

This week has been a busy one for our new Year 10's with both the Presentation Evening on Monday evening and our Orientation Day excursion to the Melbourne Cable Park on Tuesday.

 

We would like to extend a number of congratulations to the numerous students who received awards and recognition for your efforts in Year 9 throughout 2023. It is great to see that we have taken in so many dedicated students into our cohort for 2024.

 

Under the heat of a 30 degree sun we where proud to take a number of students out to Melbourne Cable Park where they had an opportunity to engage with two separate activities, high ropes climbing and aqua inflatables. The group that attended had a great time and the staff that attended commented throughout the day that the new students in Year 10 were polite, respectful and all-round great kids. Thank you to Mr Malligan, Ms Stroud and Ms Nicholls who joined in the activities with the students throughout the day. Thank you to Ms Bremner, Mr O'Connor, Ms Henry and Dr Watkins who supervised. Biggest thanks however must go to Ms Rolls whose efforts and organisation ensured that the day ran without issue.

 

We would like to wish the new students and families of the Mornington Secondary College Senior School a wonderful holiday period ahead, a Merry Christmas, a safe New Year and that we hope to see you all ready for Term 1 classes at the end of January in 2024.

 

Year 11 Biology

Fast Forward Year 11 Biology hit the ground running with practical activities. Students made slides of onion and agapanthus leaves and observed them under a microscope. They also observed the effect cell size has on the absorption of nutrients, using agar with a pH indicator into vinegar. The colour change from blue to yellow demonstrated nutrient absorption. 

 

 

2024 Contributions

Contributions for 2024 can now be found on Compass in the Payment Centre.  These contributions are used towards subsidising the cost of classroom consumables and resources. An example of these are:

  • Art supplies eg paint, paint brushes, papers, crayons, clay and general art and craft activities
  • Food Technology ingredients – flour, sugar, fruit, vegetables, etc
  • Science experiment supplies and equipment used in practical classes
  • Woodwork and Technology materials – wood, robotics, nails, glue and associated consumables
  • Photocopying for all subjects
    • Handouts, samples of texts, tests, exams
  • Class sets of books and resources used in subjects such as English and Maths

For a complete breakdown of all parent contributions please see our 2024 Parent Payment Information, available from our school website.  Booklists for 2024 can also be found on the website.

 

We continue to welcome your other voluntary contributions which support non-curriculum items and activities that relate to the school’s functions and objectives.  You can make a general voluntary contribution that goes towards all of our school’s important priorities for 2024 as well as providing additional activities and services for all students. 

E.g., College Building Fund, Wellbeing Fund, First Aid Equipment Fund, Sports Equipment & Squads Fund, Student Services.

 

Mornington Secondary College offers a range of items and activities that enhance or broaden the schooling experience of students and are above and beyond what the school provides in order to deliver the Curriculum. These are provided on a user-pays basis and are also available for payment on Compass.

 

Examples of this would be:

  • Extracurricular camps or excursions – charged for closer to the activity
  • Music Lessons
  • VCE Software (Edrolo which is paid for via the Edrolo website.  Instructions emailed to families)
  • Other software that enhances the experience – see each year level for details

 

Payments can be made on Compass either in full or by payment plan. You can find the plan details in the Parent Payment Information booklet on the website.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact the office in writing, by telephone or in person if you have any questions about the above.

Mornington Secondary College School Tours

2024 School tours will commence on Wednesday 7th February from 9am.

Please follow the link to book a time Book a tour

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A SAFE NEW YEAR!

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