Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

I have returned from my long service leave and travels around Western Australia, with my first day back at school on Friday 11 August. I would like to thank Rachael Stone and Tracey Bastin for their leadership of the College during my leave. 

Reporting to Parents and Parent Teacher interviews

Last Friday, our latest round of progress reports were released on Compass for student and parent access. Please make sure you check to stay informed about your child’s progress. 

A reminder about our arrangements for our online Parent Teacher Student interviews for Years 7 - 12 to be held on Wednesday 23 August from 10.00 am - 6.30 pm. Classes will not run on this day as students are expected to attend the online interviews with their parent/s. Bookings will open this week through Compass and you will receive notification of this. Please contact the general office if you have any issues or need assistance in making the bookings. Assistant Principal, Tracey Bastin will be sending out instructions to parents and students regarding how the online interviews will work on the day utilising your child/ren’s google account for a google meet interview. 

Whole School Assembly: Personal Best and Aiming High

On Monday, we held a whole school assembly to celebrate Personal Best – Aiming Higher, one of our core values.  I spoke to students about this and we were fortunate to have Mr Tim Richardson MP, Member for Mordialloc also attend our assembly to speak on this topic. Our special guest speaker was former student Imogen Kane who I reported on in one of my Term 2 articles. Imogen graduated from Mordialloc College in 2017 and is the Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations for 2023. One person across Australia is awarded this honour each year, so it is an absolutely outstanding achievement for Imogen. Imogen spoke to students about her journey since graduating, her work as AYR to the United Nations and on aiming higher. Imogen spoke about making the most of opportunities and your lived experience being so valuable in developing various skill sets.  “You can always say no, but you can’t say yes if you never applied.” She also spoke about being the best version of yourself and the importance of not giving up, demonstrating persistence and resilience to achieve set goals, and having the right support network behind you. Things may not always go as you had planned or hoped for,  but bounce back and keep working hard and learn from any mistakes made along the way. 

Homework Policy

The College believes that to promote student engagement with their learning, some homework should be set and done regularly under the coordination of the teacher. The work completed at home by a student is a vital and necessary extension of the class lessons to enable them to consolidate and reinforce the work covered during the day.  This is best done some hours after the lesson and when the student is alone.  Students’ work at home is divided into two categories:

HOME STUDY      

students should independently follow-up on class work to ensure that work is understood, and relevant facts are committed to memory as a foundation for future learning, and

HOMEWORK

which is a task set by the teacher or the completion of work not finished in class.

Please find attached here our Homework Policy for further information about our expectations for each year level, holiday homework and our shared expectations and responsibilities as a college including teachers, students, and parents/carers. 

See policy here: 

Student Numbers 2024

Endorsing our reputation as a leading education provider in the area is the continued demand for places in Year 7. Given we have reached our enrolment capacity we are now limited to taking only 200 students in Year 7 each year. For Year 7 in 2024, given our relatively small zone, we have still been able to accept some out of zone enrolments residing closest to the College, to reach our total of 200 students. Unfortunately, we did still have to knock back some out of zone applications after reaching 200 students based on distance from the College. Our total student population next year will be approximately 1250 students, and we need to bring this back to around 1200 students in future years. 

SEAL and SEP applications for Year 7 2024, open only to students who have been accepted into the College for next year, have now closed for SEAL and will close for SEP on 21 August. We will begin our selection processes shortly for these programs. We have the SEAL test day coming up this Friday. Thanks to SEAL coordinator, Amelia Hargreaves for her organisation of this. 

NAPLAN results

Overall, our results were very positive in comparison to like schools and network schools across all measures on NAPLAN. We are still waiting for the state data for comparisons. As has previously been reported, the way NAPLAN data has been categorised has changed this year. We no longer have ten ‘bands’, instead, we have four Proficiency Levels (Needs additional support, Developing, Strong and Exceeding) that describe some of the skills and understandings students can generally demonstrate at the time of testing.

Congratulations to the following Year 9 students for receiving a NAPLAN Certificate of Achievement award from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. These will be presented to students in a Year 9 assembly.

Parent Opinion Survey

The use of opinion data to monitor school performance is a very important step towards making our school the best it can possibly be. Annual and anonymous opinion surveys for staff, children and parents are conducted and the information gained is used to drive school improvements and shape the future direction of the College. Over the next few weeks, it is the parents' turn to tell us what they think. Instead of the DET randomly selected families option, we have elected to send it to all families to participate and have the opportunity to provide feedback. All families/parents should have received information about the online parent opinion survey and we ask that parents please take the time to complete the survey. The survey is anonymous, is conducted online by ORIMA Research Pty Ltd and only takes 15 minutes to complete. Access has been available to all families since Monday and it closes on Friday 8 September. The survey will help our school gain an understanding of how you view our school climate, student engagement and relationships. Results will be sent to the school by the start of next term.

Production

The excitement is building in anticipation of this year’s school production of the play Bully! to be held in the Performing Arts Centre over four nights this week – Wednesday 16 to Saturday 19 August. The final tech run through in front of staff and families occurred on Tuesday after school. Thanks to all members of our community who are supporting our students with their attendance at one of the performance nights. There are still tickets available if you are keen to attend and are yet to purchase tickets. 

I would again like to congratulate and give my sincere thanks to my staff producing the show and supporting our students - Mara Sears who has been leading the production, with support from music teacher, Kelly Ferguson. We also have two former graduates (Year 12 2022) Bronte Taylor and Eliza D’Alberto, who have led the choreography and they have attended all of our rehearsals after school since Term 1. It is so wonderful to see former students wanting to stay connected and giving back to their school. I congratulate all students who are involved, whether in the cast or crew, for their dedication throughout the year in preparing for this event. 

Facility Development

After a few delays due to complications with the footings and availability of some of the materials required, we are now on schedule to have the two-storey building balcony and back wall refurbishment completed by the start of September. 

The interview process for the appointment of the architects to lead the planning and development of our next major project with the $12.6 million allocated by the State government is close to completion. Once finalised, we will begin the planning process alongside the Victorian Building Authority and Architects for the development of a new Arts/Technology centre.

High Energy Drinks

A reminder that the College does not recommend the consumption of high energy drinks due to the high caffeine and sugar content of several popular brands in the market. Some contain the same amount of caffeine as two to three cups of coffee and, as they are drunk cold, deliver caffeine faster that a cup of coffee would. This can lead to sudden peak in energy followed by a crash that can leave you feeling worse than before. The short-term effects of energy drinks include alertness, stimulation of the nervous system and an increased heart rate, while excessive consumption can aggravate symptoms like anxiety, cause insomnia, nausea, vomiting and heart palpitations. As such we seek parent support in not allowing their child to bring high energy drinks to school, and this includes when students are on an excursion.

Staffing News

We have welcomed Matthew Smith to the College last week, our new Learning Area Leader for Health and Physical Education. He is replacing Matina Rodrigues who will be commencing maternity leave in a few weeks’ time. We have allowed time for a thorough handover with this leadership role and in the handover of classes. We wish Matina the very best with the arrival of her second child. 

Winter Uniform Reminder

I would like remind students of their responsibility in relation to uniform. The College expectation is that all students will be in the correct winter uniform, and that this uniform is worn correctly (shirts tucked in, ties done up properly) just as it would be expected in any workplace. This also means no hoodies worn under or over your jumper.  The only year level permitted to have a hoodie are the Year 12s who have a special final year top that is approved by school council each year. In addition, long pants worn by boys and girls need to be the official school grey pants and not grey tracksuit like tight fitting pants, that some girls have started to wear. In relation to school shoes, these need to be black polishable leather lace up shoes with a heel. Black sneakers in any form are not allowed. Our uniform is a very important part of the image we project of our College community and therefore I expect all students to wear their uniform correctly and with pride to, from and at school. I would ask parents to reinforce these expectations at home. 

The uniform policy has been reviewed during Term 2 with feedback from staff, students, and parents. There have been some modifications to the policy as a result of this feedback and this has recently been ratified by school council. The revised policy will come into effect from the start of Term 4. I will provide a copy of the revised policy and a summary of the main changes in my newsletter article closer to the end of this term. 

Ms Michelle Roberts

Principal