Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

The chilly short days remind me that we are well into the season of winter and the school year is swiftly moving along. We look forward again to opportunities to implement our range of wellbeing programs and some new ones we are planning as we celebrate the reduction in COVID restrictions. Fingers crossed this continues through Term Three.

Year 7 Parents and Carers can look forward to an upcoming invite to a Morning Tea that has been postponed several times, due to limitations on gatherings as well as remote learning.

I will now hand over to members of the Wellbeing Team to share some of the events and programs they have planned for the term ahead:

Hi, I’m Katie,

I am a Youth Worker and part of the Mordialloc Wellbeing Team. In addition to supporting individual students, I also help run a Breakfast Club on Thursday mornings, 8.15.am in the Wellbeing Rooms.

We make delicious cheesy croissants and pancakes each week, and look forward to catching up with friends. I also run a Year 9 boys basketball group each week, where we shoot some hoops and take some time to have a chat and see how everyone is travelling.

Looking forward to the rest of the term to see how the Wellbeing Team work together to support students of Mordialloc College.

Hi, my name is Annette,

I work 3 days a week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) as a mental health practitioner with my background in social work.

For Term 3 I’ll be facilitating an art therapy program that will be run by an external art therapist for a select group of students from Year 7 to Year 9 over 6 weeks. This program was previously run back in Term 4 of 2019 with positive feedback from students and so we look forward to running the program again this term.

My name is Alexis,

I am one of the Mental Health Practitioners at Mordialloc College. I provide individualised counselling, mostly for Year 7 students.

I am working on some very exciting material for Term 3. Starting in August, I will be running a mindfulness and meditation program for a small number of students over an 8 week period. I would also like to focus on celebrating days of significance related to diversity (such as disability, gender and sexuality, and mental health). I will also be liaising with BGKLLEN to bring in a student lunch time program called "managing stress and anxiety".

Hi, I'm Linda Walsh – School Chaplain,

We have started Term 3 by acknowledging and celebrating NAIDOC week with a whole school assembly and special morning tea for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Our Koorie Engagement Support Officer, Brian Walker, visited the school and shared the important role all Australians play in understanding our Indigenous culture, and how this can make for better schools, workplaces and communities. Part of my role at Mordialloc College is to work alongside Brian to support our ATSI students to engage in their education and achieve their goals.

Term 3 also marks the beginning of my maternity leave as I head off to welcome the newest member of our family in August. I will be taking 12 months off school and will miss the wonderful students, staff and families that are part of the Mordialloc College community.

We look forward to continuing to share with you throughout the term the range of different activities and programs we are implementing to support students to feel happy, safe and connected at Mordialloc College.

As always, students can email the Wellbeing Team at wellbeing@mc.vic.edu.au to make a time to meet with a member of the team. Parents and carers are also invited to use this email to link with the Wellbeing Team or contact the College 9580 1184.

Diane Douglas

Director Student Wellbeing

College News

Responsibility - Personal Best - Integrity - Respect

Issue 20 · 14 Jul 2021

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