Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Coronavirus Update

I hope everyone in our community has taken the time to read my letter sent out to all families in multiple ways on Monday morning. Here is the link to the letter if you did miss it for some reason.

We are remaining open and classes continue for all year levels. Since this letter was issued, the latest advice from the Department of Health and Human Services is that schools will continue to remain open. The feeling is that pre-emptive school closures are not likely to be effective as a public health intervention to prevent community transmission of COVID-19 at this time. See attached the latest advice in more detail.

A reminder that, if you are electing to self-isolate and keep your child/children at home, please utilise Google Classroom and the resources listed in my letter to support your child’s learning. If your child is showing signs of cold or flu then please keep them at home. If you have a child returning from overseas, they will now need to self-isolate for fourteen days before returning to school. Please continue to encourage good hygiene practices as we will do here at school. We are checking daily that there is an adequate supply of soap and paper towelling in all toilets throughout the school. We are also getting hand dryers installed. In addition we are sourcing extra disinfectant to regularly clean classroom tables and door handles throughout the day.

The following Tip Sheet for Children may be of assistance when discussing COVID-19 with your children.

Reporting to Parents

As per my letter, it is unfortunate that we have had to cancel Parent –Teacher - Student interviews for this term. We have already had one round of progress reports and a second progress report will be issued by the end of this term on Compass for you to check your child’s progress. If you have any concerns about your child and were hoping to discuss these at the parent teacher interviews, please don’t hesitate to email or call your child’s teacher/s.

How to best support your child with homework

This article from the online publication “the conversation” may be of interest.

https://theconversation.com/how-to-help-your-kids-with-homework-without-doing-it-for-them-126192

Transition

An important part of our publicity in the lead up to our Open Events: Sports Excellence Program Information session 6pm and SEAL information session 6.45pm (both on Thursday 16 April) and Open Night (Thursday 23 April – note this event will most likely have to be cancelled now due to anticipated numbers of well over 500 people) are the visits we make to our main feeder primary schools. This started last week and involves myself, Tracey Bastin and Daniel Williams taking some of our students to visit each school for 30-40 minutes. Most schools are keen for us to speak to Grade 5s and 6s. On each visit we have taken a group of current Year 7 students and two Year 12 students to speak about their experiences as students of Mordialloc College. They have represented the College with distinction and the pride they feel in their school is obvious in their respective speeches complemented by a PowerPoint presentation and video clip about the College and programs offered. I would like to thank all students for their involvement in this program.

Student Position on School Council

A couple of weeks ago we held a ballot for the one vacant student position on council. There were three nominations: Jeremy Thai-Chan – Year 9, Thomas Carter – Year 11 and Timothy Whitford – Year 10. Congratulations to Timothy Whitford who was elected and will remain now on council for two years. School Captains Elisa Barone and Jack Phillpotts join council as community members and James Vicendese in Year 12 was successful in joining the council in 2019 in a two year position.

Whole School Review Update

Thank you so much to the parents who attended the parent forum held on 4 March at 7pm. All parents were highly engaged in the process and really appreciated the opportunity to have all of the data presented to them for the past three years and then time given for feedback as to future directions of the school. A link to a survey has been sent out to all parents by Andrew Moffat, if you would still like to contribute to our review process. I have included it here if you missed this email. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9LZ88HN

This closes by Friday 20 March. A number of student forums have also be held to allow all year levels to have an opportunity to become actively involved in the process. A sample of students across all year levels received an invitation to attend.

The staff forum has also been completed and we are close to completing the very detailed self-evaluation report for our appointed school reviewer, Stephen Daly. The review days are scheduled for May next term.

Intervention Program

This year our Years 7-9 intervention program continues with identified students in Year 7 and 8 receiving support from Julie Pretty or Eleni Capp in literacy, numeracy or both. We also have two classes of our Year 9 Literacy/Numeracy support elective running at Year 9. Last year there were two new positions funded by the Department to support Year 10 students who were below national benchmarks in Year 9 NAPLAN. We were allocated a 0.6 literacy teacher and were sharing a Numeracy network teacher with three other secondary schools. This year the program extends into Year 11, following these students up and also supporting current Year 10s identified again by results from Year 9 NAPLAN. Our funding increased to 0.8 literacy teacher and an extra day of support for numeracy. Lisa Ip (Literacy) and Damien Power (Numeracy) continue in these roles from 2019. The outcomes for the past four years of our Years 7-9 intervention program have been so positive with the majority of students showing growth over the year, along with an increase in their confidence and self-esteem.

The focus on Years 10 and 11 is to support these students in the successful completion of secondary school and in the attainment of meeting the new literacy and numeracy proficiency standards to be introduced from 2021 in Year 12, with all students required to sit the GAT. Currently VCAL students aren’t required to compete this test held in June each year, but they will be from 2021.

Staff Professional Learning

Two of our Key Improvement Strategies in our 2017-2020 Strategic Plan are to “

Important Dates

March