From the Principal
Good morning, Tuesday night we farewelled our visitors from Osaka. Great memories and friendships will last for many years. We are now planning our trip to Osaka, 2025. Already interest has been shown by our host buddies.
Our students performed before students at Benton Junior College this week. Students spoke about their experiences at Mornington Secondary College and the opportunities afforded to them. This was followed by the final rehearsal of our senior Aerobics team, Boultify. They fly to South Australia this weekend to compete in the national competition. Good luck to the team. During the assembly, our students also performed songs from our production, The Lightning Thief. On Thursday, we went back to Benton Junior College with our Drum and Flag Corps. Our students always love to perform.
Next week, students from Mornington Park Primary and Osborne Primary will join us in our Science Laboratories.
Today is a pupil free day. All staff are engaged in learning with facilitator, Angela Scaffidi from Senate SHJ. During the day, staff, will explore aspirations for our students and identify how we will work together to bring these aspirations to life.
This is timely, given the announcements from the Deputy Premier, The Honorable Ben Carroll MP. In his media release, dated Thursday, 13 June, 2024, Minister Carroll announced the updated Victorian Teaching and Learning Model, with explicit teaching at its core and systematic synthetic phonics approach, both reforms to begin implementation 2025.
I have included the media release for your information, titled, ‘Making Best Practice Common Practice in the Education State’.
Linda Stanton
Principal
Important Dates
Term 3
August
Friday 9th August - Staff Professional Development Day - Student Free
Thursday 22nd August - Parent Teacher Interviews - At school and online
September
Thursday 12th September - Year 7 2025 Parent Information Evening - 5.00pm to 6.00pm
Monday 16th to Friday 20th September - Year 12 completing Units 3 and 4 - Trial Exams
Monday 16th to Thursday 19th September - Year 12 Revision Lectures
Friday 20th September - Last Day of Term 3 - 2.30pm Dismissal
Don't forget to look on compass for sport sign ups, excursions and any other information sent to students and parents.
Below is a link to help guide you in your use of compass.
https://mornsc.vic.edu.au/for-parents/compass-parent-guide/
Middle School
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We have had a wonderful week hosting our Japanese visitors, and our host families have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. On Tuesday evening, we held a Sayonara party where students shared heartfelt farewells before our guests departed for the airport. There were tears, and lifelong friendships were made!
Additionally, our students presented at whole school assemblies at Benton Junior College. The primary children squealed with excitement as our Production team sang and our national aerobics team performed. We also had past Benton’s students from Year 7, 8, and 12 speak to the students about life at secondary college. It was heartwarming to see Ms. Tipping and their primary school teachers express pride in the wonderful young people they have become. Ms. Tipping remarked to the college assembly, “Our hearts are full.”
It is fantastic to maintain such strong connections with our feeder schools.
Our Year 8's have had an excellent time participating in their Olympics, with the tug of war being a particular highlight!
Year 9 students are focusing on selecting their courses for Year 10 and planning more fundraising events.
Our Year 7's are still savouring the Japanese immersion experience with activities, songs, and dances from our Japanese students.
Thank you, everyone, for your involvement and support.
Wishing you a great week.
Denise Leggett
Middle School Assistant Principal
Senior School
To students and families of the Mornington Senior School,
40% of the term is complete already and the days are starting to seem a little bit longer, the weather is getting slightly warmer as we begin our approach to spring. I wanted to commend the efforts of our senior school students who have generally been attending school on time, in correct uniform (signifying a belonging to our community), with their learning materials and working hard in class to produce evidence of their learning.
It was great to see so many Year 10 students in the course counselling last Friday and hear the rich and exciting conversations about the futures of our young people. It is the reason we are here, to prepare young people for what they want to do next in their journey to becoming positive Australian citizens. Students who set high expectations for themselves and dare to dream can go on to achieve great things.
For the minority of students who are not attending class on time, not wearing correct uniform, occasionally skipping classes, failing to produce meaningful work in class and failing to attend support sessions, I’m worried for you and your future. I know your parents will be worried too.
Attendance, uniform, lateness and work avoidance are normally indicators of something bigger and I urge you and your families to seek support. I ask parents of these children not to give them an out, don’t cover for them. Insist that they wear school uniform, attend all classes and complete work or face the consequences from both school and at home.
We need young people to learn lessons early before it gets to the point where it really matters and they lose a job, a place in a course, a partner, default on a loan etc all because they hadn’t learned the basics of following basic instructions, being respectful and kind, meeting minimum expectations of being on time and meeting company policies, while looking the part for that company.
Course Counselling season
Course counselling season will conclude in the next couple of weeks as we will have the bulk of programs selected by this weekend. My team will be reviewing all the Year 11 into 12 programs individually and ensuring we have selections from all students.
We’ll also be doing some follow up of any Year 10 into 11 students who require further conversations or assistance.
Students will find out about their 2025 programs in term 4 but VCE students going into Year 11 and 12 will be informed earlier if the subjects they chose did not attract enough student interest (to run in 2025) in the next few weeks.
Applying for courses after Year 12 – Special Entry Access Scheme (SEAS)
While many university courses use the ATAR as part of the admissions process, there are also mechanisms to assist students who may not have achieved as a high an ATAR as they might potentially have done due to circumstances outside of their control. This support is known as the Special Entry Access Scheme. Students can apply for up to 4 categories:
1. Personal Information & Location - It considers things like first in family to attend university, under-represented school, mature age, living or school location, and non-English speaking background
2. Financial Disadvantage (student and/or family) - Disadvantaged background applies to applicants whose daily life is affected by financial disadvantage. Relevant for students/families who are in receipt of Centrelink Benefits, have excessive financial obligations, individual or family economic hardship or poverty.
3. Medical condition or disability - Disability or medical condition applies to applicants who have experienced educational disadvantage due to any learning, physical, sensory, psychiatric or mental health medical condition, illness or disability.
4. Difficult circumstances - applies to applicants who have been prevented from reaching their educational potential because of family or other life circumstances. Circumstances already claimed in any other category should not be restated here.
Circumstances considered include: refugee or asylum seeker status, domestic, family and sexual violence, homelessness or formal out-of-home care, natural disasters, other difficult and life circumstances.
Circumstances not considered include: Medical conditions experienced by you, the applicant (apply for this through Category 3), absence of restaurants, art galleries and cultural activities in curriculum, school captaincy (Sorry Bridie and Molly), lack of sophisticated equipment within the school, participation in theatre or sporting activities, anything already claimed under one of the other categories i.e. rural isolation; school location, financial disadvantage, short-term teacher absences, life choices.
Other than Category 1, all other categories will require evidence to support the application. All year 12 ATAR students have been provided with a PowerPoint presentation in the ROADMAP program which provides the detail about SEAS. I would encourage every student applying to university to apply for as many SEAS categories as possible. All students should tick the box for category 1.
For parents who wish to do their own research about SEAS please visit https://vtac.edu.au/access/seas.html and/or contact a member of the Year 12 team (Jo Reeman, Victoria Milner, Jo Dixon or myself).
Senior Aerobics – Team Boultify
Good luck to our amazing Senior Aerobics girls who make up team Boultify. They are off to Adelaide this weekend to defend their National Championship. Coach Indie Jowett and I will be supporting the team in Adelaide. They have worked incredibly hard and to actually make it to another National Championships is a fantastic effort, irrespective of the outcome. I know you will all join me in wishing them the best of luck. Go team Boultify!
Term 3 key dates for Senior School
Fri 13th September – Final Day for Unit 4 coursework (Yr 12 VCE ATAR)
16-20th September – Trial exam period for Year 12 classes
September 30 – Timely VTAC applications close (Year 12 students only)
Nick Evans
Senior School Assistant Principal
Year 10's Leading the Way in Keeping Our Community Safe
Year 10 students are once again participating in a suicide prevention course run by Mental Health Safety Net, a not for profit group based here on the Mornington Peninsula. The program focuses on how to notice when a friend or family member is not travelling well and how to help them GET help. It is a great time to have the conversation with your child about how they are travelling and making sure they know they can come to you when they need help. Mick Symons, who runs the training, has supplied all Year 10 students with a fantastic booklet which details all the supports available to them on the Peninsula, I’ve provided a link below and I think it would be great for all families to download a copy and just have the information handy.
Mick funds the program in schools through many community partnerships and fundraising events, see the website for details if you would like to see how you can support this very valuable work supporting our community.
https://www.mentalhealthsafetynet.com.au/
Booklet
https://online.fliphtml5.com/hhogy/dqpj/index.html#p=1
We want to hear from you….Parent Survey 2024
Every year the Department of Education runs a survey for all parents to help provide feedback to the school. The parent opinion survey is now available as a link on the STAR menu on COMPASS. Last year we had 169 families participate (which is a high value compared to other schools) but this year we would like to try and beat that number. So please take a moment to jump onto COMPASS and complete the survey. I’ll provide regular updates through the newsletter.
I would like to hear from at least 300 families!
Kind regards,
Mike Parker
Assistant Principal
Year 8 SMR Netball - Head to State Finals!
Tuesday 6th August saw our Year 8 girls Netball 8 team compete at SMR.
The girls started strong beating Koo Wee Rup Secondary College18-7. They went on to a very strong first quarter of 20 goals, beating Keysborough 51-2. Finally, beating McClelland College 23-8 to make it to the grand final.
The girls played one of the best games they have ever played, all seven on court players giving 110%, coming away with a 23-8 victory against Alkira College.
The girls will spend the next month training for State Finals which will take place on September 6th at Waverley.
Awesome work girls!
Kim Rattue & Zarah Carnie
Osaka PTA Student Exchange Program
On behalf of the Mornington Secondary College and the Japanese Department, it was a great pleasure to host 15 students from Osaka , along with the accompanying Osaka PTA staff.
Throughout their 10 day home stay program, the students experienced visiting various places on the Mornington Peninsula with their buddies and their chaperone teachers. They visited Benton Junior College , Willum Warrain Aboriginal Centre, Main Street Market on Wednesday, Queen Victoria Market and Moonlit Sanctuary. They thoroughly enjoyed all of these diverse experiences, especially feeding native animals and connecting with Australian wildlife while chatting with their buddies.
Students were fortunate enough to engage in a cooking class and make a kangaroo burger and some honey joys, as well as participating in workshops with the MSC drum corps.
Mornington Secondary students were given a real dose of Osaka culture with year level assemblies held as they treated us to a traditional Soran Bushi dance .
It was wonderful to see so many smiling students and host buddies engaging in so many activities, classes and adventures together.
We are very fortunate to continue the connection between Mornington Secondary College and our sister city Osaka. It continues to foster our strong bond and allow the cultural diversity between Australia and Japan to continue to grow.
Thank you to our host families for welcoming an exchange student into your home and making them a part of your family. This exchange seems to have been a great success, and Mornington Secondary College is lucky enough to be invited to participate in a reciprocal Exchange Program next year.
Thank you to everybody involved in making this exchange program such a wonderful success.
Domo Arigato Gozaimashita.
Mel Brindle Kirsty Hamson
Head of Languages Japanese Teacher
Year 8 Olympics
Over the past few weeks, the Year 8 Captains and connect captains worked with the Year 8 Coordinators to help create a Year 8 Olympic games tribute! Since the beginning of term 3 we have run meetings with our Year 8 connect captains, planning 5 events for the Year 8 students to participate in. The Olympic Games was designed on a class versus class basis with each team assigned a colour of the Olympic rings. Events included; a green post contest, a dodgeball competition, a golden child tournament, class versus Class tug of war, a trivia game and Lego Masters! All the Year 8 Captains have very much enjoyed organising and running these events!
Golden child was a blast. All the connect classes competed in a run and shoot game. Each connect classes gave it a real hard go, but the winners were 8C! With 8E and 8D runners up. The golden child tournament included every student, as it’s a very inclusive game, with each student able to join and participate.
The second event that we organised was a dodgeball competition. It was held in the stadium on Friday period 1 in week 3. This event was a huge success, and everyone loved it. We all had a great time, and everyone was participating. All the games were very tense especially the grand final between 8E and 8D with 8E the eventual winners.
Our tug of war competition was held on Monday period 5. Each class would compete each other once, in a best of three, and then we had a grand final between the two best classes. To make it fair, there had to be an even number of girls and boys on each side for each round. Many rounds went to best of three with 8B and 8E fighting out the grand final, 8E once again taking top spot.
Trivia took place Wednesday period 5, run entirely by the year 8 captains. There were 5 categories: General Olympic Knowledge, Olympic History, Olimpic Sport, Famous Olympians and Flags. It was so much fun running the event and having our peers all participate and be respectful.
With the Year 8 Team left to judge our Lego Masters competition and the green post finishing at the end of the week, the Champion class will be announced week 5, their prize, a class lunch!
We have learnt so much and developed so many skills organising and running this event and are so grateful for the opportunities we are given at Year 8 .
Lulu Ramalinga, Chloe Smith, Grace Estcourt & Ella Pleiter-Singleton
Year 8 Captains
Aerobics National Championships - Go Team Boultify!
Rotary Club of Mornington
A local marine biologist, Dr Sue Mason, has started 'Cetacean Sisters' to encourage female secondary students with an interest in science and marine science, particularly dolphins and whales, to connect with other like-minded people.
Dr Mason has set up 5 two-hour workshops on consecutive Saturdays in Mt Martha, to provide insights into marine science careers, highlighting the opportunities and realities of working with marine wildlife.
'Join us for a series of five, two-hour workshops, held on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula on the shores of Port Phillip. Each workshop is designed to further your Science skills and your understanding of the cetaceans that can be observed in our local waters. Sessions are run by an experienced, local cetacean scientist and teacher who is passionate about sharing good science and mentoring future female scientists.'
https://www.cetaceanscience.com.au/girls_in_science/
The cost of the 5 workshops is $500, Rotary Club of Mornington would be prepared to sponsor an enthusiastic and competent student.
Please see Alli Betts in the General Office for contact details.
Campion Education Vouchers
Did you know that Campion vouchers are available for purchase in-store?
We are looking at ways to support families and ease the cost of living impacts. By purchasing vouchers through the year, families can effectively start a lay-by program to spread the cost out and alleviate financial pressures at the end of the year.
Families can stop by a retail service centre to pick up Campion vouchers, redeemable for their child’s back-to-school needs online or in-store.
Your school's local store is: Unit 5, 151-155 Princes Hwy, Hallam
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