Principal Team Report

Dear MSC Community!

The final day of term has arrived – where did Term 1 go? It's certainly been busy and enjoyable - jump onto Facebook and scroll through this edition of Links to reflect on the many achievements and events our students and staff have enjoyed this term.

Monday’s O’Neill House out-of-uniform day raised a further $778 for our Five Peaks Virtual Challenge for Canteen. It was reassuring that so many staff and students were prepared to engage in walking or running laps of the oval for this fundraiser. Congratulations to the O'Neill leaders for engaging the community so effectively (ably assisted by Kathy Halpin). They have set a high bar and thrown out the challenge to the other Houses to increase participation and the community feel. My personal thanks to Mr Mike Ford (father of Anneliese 7F) who joined me running laps on the oval for the final 30 minutes of the day.

We wish you all a happy Easter and a pleasant break (if you are lucky enough to get one). Hopefully, the weather is perfect for the Easter long weekend at the end of the school holidays – but hopefully not too hot for the chocolate eggs hidden in the garden! My family will be dying hard-boiled eggs as usual (our German custom), and undertaking various activities with them, like ‘Eierrugeln’ (egg-rolling).

Stay safe and healthy and see you all in Term 2, when we look forward to our ANZAC assembly, the Dawn Servcie inn halliday Park, the House Athletics, Open Night, more debating, lots of SkillZ excursions, the Debut & Mid-Year Music Concert, and lots more.

See you all on Tuesday 22nd April.

Term 2

A reminder that we start back on Tuesday 22nd April (thanks to the Easter Monday public holiday), and have two key events in the first two weeks:

The whole school ANZAC assembly on Wednesday 24th April, followed by the ANZAC Day public holiday and Dawn Service in Halliday Park on Thursday 25th April.
The whole-school athletics carnival on Tuesday 29th April.

Some critical future dates – please save these:

Thursday 1st May – MSC Open Night 6-8pm
Saturday 3rd May - Federal Election P&CA BBQ fundraiser – more details for volunteers soon
Thursday 29th May – debut / mid-year concert
Thursday 26th June from 6pm to 8pm - 2026 Subject Expo and Information Night for current Year 9 & 10 students and families
Saturday 13th September - P&CA Comedy for a Cause – 2024 saw 100 guests, so let’s break that record!
Sunday 2nd November (Cup Weekend) - P&CA Bunnings Nunawading BBQ fundraiser

Staffing update

Today, we farewelled Di Visser from our General Office admin team. Di played a critical role in our transition and senior school administration teams – she will be sorely missed, especially next term with the Year 7 enrolments.

Louise Alford will take on this role full time.

Joining Holly Kruse (Monday to Wednesday) at Reception will be Vera Rakic (Thursdays and Fridays), from our Learning Support team.

Next term, we will welcome Myriam Gad, our new German Language Assistant, who will be with us for the rest of the year, assisting especially with our Year 9s, 10s, 11s and 12s.

Premier’s reading Challenge – this year celebrating its 20th anniversary

A shout out to all of our avid readers (and also the not so avid – give it a go!) - the Premier’s reading Challenge is here again. See Kathleen Robinson in the library or your English teacher for or more information.

State Schools Spectacular

We are excited that at least six of our students will be participating in this year’s State Schools Spectacular:

Lucy (Year 11) as a principal dancer
Liam (Year 7) is part of the lighting team
William (Year 9) on double bass (having switched from electric bass to meet a demand for this instrument)
Jan (Year 10) on keyboard
Jessynta (Year 11) on trumpet
and Ada (Year 12) in the stage crew.

Donation of laptops

Our thanks to Mullauna parent (and P&CA member) Simon Huppatz, who has managed to secure a donation of nine (9!) laptops from his employer to our Wellbeing area to support students.

Does your employer or business support local causes like us and might be looking for an opportunity to assist?

Top Designs

Last Friday evening, I had the great pleasure of joining Asher Littlejohn (Class of 2024) and his family, along with Jess Anderson (Asher’s VCD teacher) and Rebecca Holmes (Head of Visual Arts), at the Melbourne Museum for the launch of Top designs, celebrating the 77 pieces that were selected from over 1000 entries of 2024 VCE and VET projects. Asher’s design project for the ‘Brauhaus Brewery’ was one of only 14 VCD pieces selected. Please refer to Facebook for photos (and check the display

Goethe Institut Austria Scholarship winner

Congratulations to Year 12 German student Amelia on being awarded a prestigious and fabulous prize. Refer to the separate page below.

Term 1 Progress Reports

Feedback on student learning and performance is a critical and ongoing process within the college and takes a variety of forms. Throughout each class, teachers can be seen moving around the room offering feedback to students on the work they are undertaking by correcting errors or misconceptions, challenging ideas and supporting students to apply their knowledge across a range of tasks. They also offer written feedback and a performance grade on formal learning assessment tasks which appear on Compass for students, parents or caregivers to view.

At the end of each term, we provide feedback in the form of a progress or end of semester report which outlines a student’s learning habits and performance in the following areas;

Demonstrating effort and readiness to learn - Student arrives at class with all necessary materials, is cognitively ready to learn, has proactively prepared for classroom learning and participates in all classroom activities

Meeting classroom expectations - Student models exemplary behaviour, is respectful, follows instructions and actively engages in learning opportunities

Persisting with learning - Student independently experiments with new skills and knowledge and persists over time, valuing incremental improvement in performance. They demonstrate the ability to self-regulate when completing tasks

Processing and producing - Student routinely practises and experiments with production to extend expertise. They seek enrichment opportunities and use all available resources to undertake their learning

Seeking and applying feedback - Student seeks and uses feedback from a diverse range of authoritative, trusted or experienced sources

These five learning habits form the basis for successful learning and we encourage all parents and caregivers to view and discuss your child’s progress in these areas each term when reports are published.

Student Learning Conferences

It was fantastic to see so many parents and caregivers, along with students attend the Student Learning Conferences this week. Although we increased each interview time by a couple of minutes to allow a deeper conversation, we still facilitated close to 1000 bookings throughout the day. We hope that you enjoyed the opportunity to talk about your child’s learning as much as our staff did.

The hybrid model of on-site face to face meetings followed by online meetings using WEBEX, appears to be the best model to provide flexibility for busy families. Should you have any follow up questions for teachers, please do not hesitate to email them directly via Compass.

Year 12s - working hard ...

Our Year 12s were recognised for their efforts so far with an assembly at lunchtime today.

They all received a small self-care pack to aid them in achieving the critical and (often) challenging balance and focus that is required to successfully complete Year 12.

See Facebook for images.

Taking a break – the holidays and learning

Breaks from school can have a negative impact on learning, especially on the retention of material studied over the course of the term. For this reason, while it is important that all students have a break from schoolwork and recharge their ‘batteries’, it is also important that some time be given over to revision and study, especially for students in the Senior School (Years 10 to 12).

We recommend that Junior School students take the opportunity to exercise, connect with friends and pursue hobbies etc., but also to ensure they read a book.

Our Year 9s have a big term looming with a SkillZ focus on your Pathway, leading up to the Subject Expo in late Term 2. Their academic outcomes this semester and particularly in Term 2 will have quite some bearing on course selection for Year 10, particularly for access to an Advanced Placement Unit 1 & 2 VCE study or a VET in 2025, but also for the level of English, Maths and Science they have access to. With this in mind, we suggest Year 9 students use the break to set themselves up for the best possible achievement outcomes in Term 2.

Senior Students should develop a study plan for the two-week break, to ensure they complete all tasks set by their classroom teachers, to revise key materials, and then to prepare for the return to classes on Tuesday 22nd April.

For our Senior School students in Years 10, 11 and 12, we recommend a balance of a restful break with exercise and fun, alongside some structured reflection and study of the work covered in Term 1 and preparation for Term 2. Obviously, the amount of time and effort should be proportional to the year level.

Year 12 students need to complete set revision tasks and make good use of their Edrolo. For English, they must complete the revision tasks set by their English teachers.

MSC Facilities update

Unfortunately, we have no news yet on our Stage 2 Building Program funding. School Council has sent a letter to Shaun Leane (MLC) following up on this issue.

Jeff mcMIllin and Luke Handley remain busy maintaining our grounds and buildings. Many maintenance projects continue over the upcoming school holidays and into Term 2. These include the following key projects:

The PAC will receive some love with brand new carpet and the replacement of some old air conditioner units.
Term 2 will see the installation of five major ramps in the college. This will ensure our ramps are compliant and meet current building code. Keen an eye out on Compass newsfeed for further info about this project.
Staff will have access to a new bike shed in Term 2. With more staff riding to work, a lack of storage is creating an OHS issue and this will encourage more staff to ride to school.
We have added some acoustic ceiling panels to reduce noise in our heavily used staff centre.
We are excited to be installing 2 steel cabinets near the canteen. These will be home to 4 microwaves for general student use, particularly at recess and lunchtimes. More info will follow in upcoming Compass newsfeed updates.
General maintenance painting will also occur in the school holidays to ensure our spaces stay fresh and clean.
New fencing will be added near the stadium entrance, to ensure wheelchair access after school hours for users of our stadium.
We continue to investigate further improvements to the stadium – stay tuned for more info over the upcoming months.

Whole School Production – Mamma Mia

Rehearsals are coming along well for the 2025 School Production of Mamma Mia. With almost 60 students in the cast, they have benefited from the expertise of our two external to Mullauna staff, Director Cody Rikker and our choreographer Rebecca Fortuna. They are being supported by Mullauna staff, Mr Brodie, Ms Baldry and our Voice teacher Omar Moustafa. The ensemble will perform at least 3 shows in August with tickets expected to sell out.

Year 8 Medieval Day

Our Year 8s enjoyed a leap back in time today, to the life of feudal times. Check Facebook for images.

2025 Mullauna Open Night - Thursday 1st May at 6pm

Our Mullauna families may wish to share the information of the upcoming Open Night with other potential primary school families. We look forward to welcoming potential students and their families to the 2025 Open Night on Thursday 1st May. The event commences with the Principal address at 6pm in the Performing Arts Centre (PAC). See our website for more info or contact the college. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtwmd8dJLfQ

Warm regards and happy Easter!

Harry Ruff, Jeff McMillin and Michael Bray 

The MSC Principal Team 

Term 2 Student-free Days – please note for your family planners:

Friday 20th June – Assessment & reporting Day (student free)

Term 2 - 22 April to 04 July

Monday 21st April – Easter Monday public holiday
Tuesday 22nd April – Term 2 commences
Wednesday 23rd April - 2026 Central Australia Tour info session - 5.30pm in the PAC
Thursday 24th April – MSC ANZAC assembly (Period 4)
Friday 25th April – ANZAC Day public holiday – Dawn Service in Halliday Park – please join us!
Tuesday 29th April – whole-school Athletics Carnival
Wednesday 30th April – interschool debating
Thursday 1st May – Open Night!
Saturday 3rd May - P&CA Election Day fundraiser BBQ
Tuesday 20th May – School Council onsite
Thursday 29th May – debut / mid-year concert
Monday 9th June – King’s Birthday public holiday
Monday 16th June – Semester Two subjects/units commence
Friday 20th June – Assessment & reporting Day (student free)
Thursday 26th June - 6pm to 8pm 2026 Subject Expo &Information Night for current Year 9 & 10 students and families

Term 3 - 21 July to 19 September

Saturday 13th September – P&CA Comedy for a Cause night

Term 4 - 06 October to 19 December

Sunday 2nd November - P&CA Bunnings Nunawading bqq fundraiser

Recommended Reads

April 2025

Books! Holiday Reading!