Melbourne Girls' College

Acting Principal’s Report

Andrew Arney

Building Update

 

The MGC Theater renovation works are underway with much of the demolition being completed as we speak. I would like to thank our whole community for their support during this project, but in particular our amazing Year 12 students for their patience as we navigate the daily impact this will have on our school.

 

The facility promises to be a real feature for our school. I will keep you posted with updates as the building progresses.

 

 

Rotary

 During the 8 days between these two most recent lockdowns I was the invited guest speaker at a Richmond Rotary function held at the Amora hotel. It was lovely to sit with former staff members and Rotary members Sue Bolton, Nia Holdenson, Maria Makris and Emily Rochette and celebrate the past 18 months

 

We have had a fabulous relationship with Richmond and Melbourne Rotary clubs for many years, and they have supported a great number of our endeavors including the facilitating the Mock Job Interviews at year 10, scholarships for MGC students to attend the National Youth Science Forum, participation in the Rotary clubs "Clean up Australia Day" program, and taken advantage of Rotary exchange and other scholarship on offer.

 

I took the opportunity to talk with the club members about the challenges in youth mental health and ask them to look for ways to support growth in this field in Richmond. The club already support a PHD candidate who is specialising youth mental health, but they have committed to looking for others way to support this.

 

As part of the presentation I showed some clips of students and staff sharing their perspective on these three questions:

  • What has been the biggest challenge of remote learning and why?
  • What are you proud of?
  • How has COVID and the lockdowns changed you?

 

The responses were similar, many noting that they liked the extra hour of sleep in, staying in their oodie all day and drinking tea in class. They also realised they had built a greater appreciation of the small things, appreciated being at school more than ever, and increasingly saw the importance of the connections we sometimes take for granted.

The key message of the presentation however was hope. Even through all the challenges we have faced in the last 18 months, it only takes 2 minutes with any of our fantastic students to reinforce how bright the future is and how pivotal MGC students will be in our society moving forward.

Trans-seasonal Uniform

 

We have been working with our students during term 2 to seek feedback on the idea of moving to a Trans-Seasonal uniform. A Trans-seasonal uniform removes the idea of the Summer and Winter Uniform and moves to a model where students may wear suitable combinations of the existing uniform depending on their preference on any given day. 

 

The feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive on this as a concept, and we are continuing to work with SRC, School leadership and our uniform supplier on how this will be implemented. We hope to have more news on how this will be look in our school in the coming months.

 

Wellbeing Supports during lockdown

 

Our wellbeing team remain on hand to support students and families in ensuring they are feeling safe, supported and listened to. They can be contacted via:

 

 

I would also like to bring to your attention the following external supports:

 

As well as these for parents and carers:

Once again I would like to thank all of our MGC community for your ongoing support during this most recent lockdown, particularly those who have taken the time to email staff with messages of encouragement and thanks. These have been a great boost for us all and are greatly appreciated.

 

Stay safe!

 

Andrew Arney - Acting Principal