Principal's Update
Dear Families, Students and Community Members,
Premiers Award
Congratulations to one of our Year 12 students from 2018 who was awarded a Premiers Award for achieving 50 in English last year. On Monday, Acting Assistant Principal, Jo Greenhalgh (Annie’s English teacher) and I attended the special award ceremony held at the Melbourne Convention Centre. The awards recognise the very top performing students in the state last year who excelled in particular subjects and this is certainly an outstanding achievement for Annie! We were very proud to share in this significant celebration with her, along with Annie’s mum.
Future Facility Development
As all in the community are aware, Mordialloc College was promised $8.5 million by Labor in the lead up to the state election last year. I was hopeful this would all be allocated in the May state budget so we could immediately start our project given we already have the plans for the new Year 8 Learning Centre. However, we were only allocated planning funding for our future capital works projects (Year 8 Learning Centre, Senior School learning hub including classrooms and a senior study centre and upgrades to the Year 7 learning centre), with a commitment that the rest of the funding will come through in the next state budget to begin construction. The planning process with the Victorian School Building Authority is a lengthy process and I will have more information once the official timeline is made available to me.
Staff Service Awards
On the afternoon of Friday May 24 we held the Mordialloc College school service awards. This is an annual event we have held since 2016 to celebrate and recognise staff who have spent a considerable part of their career to date at Mordialloc College. It is a most worthwhile event sponsored by school council. This year we had six staff being recognised. All received a framed certificate, with any staff serving 25 years or more eligible for a small gift. Staff presented include: Justin Wischusen, Tim Wischusen and Lisa Ip for 10 years; Di Douglas, James Evans and Emily Court for 15 years. We also recognised Tracey Gabell with an official certificate from the Department of Education and Training for the time served on School Council (eleven and a half years).
DET 35 Year Service Awards
Our school was asked by the SEVR region to provide the pre-ceremony entertainment at the SEVR 35 year service awards held during the evening of Thursday 23 May at the Dingley International Hotel. Congratulations to Sarah Carey and Bronte Taylor from Year 9 and Ava Collison and Noreigh Zuniga from Year 11 for providing such high quality entertainment. It was a fantastic experience for them to perform at a formal event outside school. Thanks to music teachers Demis Dandoudis and Kelly Ferguson for their support of the students in helping them to prepare, and their attendance with me on the night.
Student Attendance and Educational Outcomes
Daily attendance is important for all children and young people to succeed in education and to ensure they don’t fall behind both socially and developmentally. Studies show that absence does affect learning growth and that there are no safe number of days. A child missing one day a fortnight will miss four weeks in a year, and more than a year of school by the time they are in Year 10. It is important that children develop regular attendance habits at an early age. In addition, a student who is half an hour late each day misses the equivalent of 16.6 days of learning each year. This is not acceptable. It is not ok to be away or late without a medical certificate! School participation maximises life opportunities for our young people by providing them with education and support networks. School helps children to develop important skills, knowledge and values that set them up for further learning and participation in their community. If you are having difficulty getting your child to school, please contact the Wellbeing Team at the College to discuss strategies that may assist you.
Sleep for Wellbeing and Academic Performance
Sleep is food for the brain. During sleep, important body functions and brain activity occur. Skipping sleep can be harmful — even deadly, particularly if you are behind the wheel. You can look bad, you may feel moody, and you perform poorly. Sleepiness can make it hard to get along with your family and friends and hurt your scores on school exams, on the court or on the field. When you do not get enough sleep, you are more likely to have an accident, injury and/or illness. Sleep is vital to your well-being, as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage the stress of being a teen. Biological sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence. This means it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm. Teens need about 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night to function best however unfortunately most teens do not get enough sleep. One study found that only 15% reported sleeping 8 1/2 hours on school nights. Teens tend to have irregular sleep patterns across the week, typically staying up late and sleeping in late on the weekends, which can affect their biological clocks and hurt the quality of their sleep.
Please see the article to follow for some helpful tips
Student Attitudes to School Survey
We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of our school. The Attitudes to School survey is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Our school will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience.
This will be the sixteenth year that the survey has been offered, now in its third year of being online. Students from Year 7 to 12 at our school have been participating in the survey over the last few weeks. The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to compete and all responses to the survey are anonymous. The survey results will be reported back to the school in July and will be communicated to parents through the Annual Report.
Michelle Roberts
Principal