Mentone Girls' Secondary College Newsletter

Principal's message

Dear MGSC Community

 

What a difference a few weeks make!

 

In our last newsletter our Principal, Linda Brown provided a recap to term 2 and wished us all a restful holiday break. It is now week two of term 3 and we are back into remote learning. Resilience is certainly what MGSC staff and students excel in and this has been tested since the term began. 

 

In our four days on campus we welcomed new students and staff to our community; congratulated our Aerobics teams on their success in reaching the Nationals later this year; held meetings and assemblies as planned; and welcomed more than 100 people on the first College tour of the term led by our wonderful MGSC Ambassadors.

 

Our instrumental music students were excited to attend the annual three day music camp only to have to return on the same day they departed when the latest lockdown was announced.

 

As always when circumstances suddenly change, it is a source of great pride that our staff are able to adjust quickly. Non-teaching staff also moved quickly to prepare for working off-site. Teaching staff proceeded with remote learning with a calm, measured and collaborative approach. I have said this many times before but will repeat it here: our students are in good hands at Mentone Girls’ Secondary College. Members of our community frequently tell me how wonderful our school is in providing quality education for our students, including during periods of remote learning.

 

I hope the current conditions can revert to face-to-face learning soon. There is no replacement for on-site learning from both an educational and wellbeing perspective.

In brighter news I would like to welcome the following staff members to our community:

  • Detta Gordon, Assistant Principal
  • Fiona Bracken, Mental Health Practitioner
  • Susana Lopez, Student Wellbeing Counsellor
  • Emma Dickson, French teacher
  • Trish Sullivan, Humanities/Legal studies teacher
  • Dilber Akdag, Science teacher

Last week we bid farewell to two staff members who are now on family leave and extended our best wishes in welcoming new additions to their families

  • Anne-Claire Brunet, French teacher
  • Tiffany Peach, Humanities teacher

Congratulations to Lisa Blumenstein, Media teacher who got married just before the school holidays.

 

You will read more from Detta Gordon in this newsletter however wanted to add how much our school community is looking forward to working with her. Detta replaces Bronwyn Moline who was Assistant Principal for approximately 12 years at Mentone Girls’ Secondary College. We hope to arrange a farewell for Bronwyn later in the year.

 

Regards

 

Carol Duggan

Acting Principal

Introducing Detta Gordon

Hello MGSC students, parents, staff and greater community! 

 

Thank you for the warm welcome from everyone I have met so far. Despite it being a strange start, it is already evident how resilient the students are and how dedicated our teaching and support teams are.

 

I am very excited to join Linda and Carol in the principal class team. I started my teaching career as an English and Drama teacher and quickly became very passionate about improving student outcomes and supporting student engagement and wellbeing.

 

I come to Mentone Girls’ Secondary College with over five years’ experience as an Assistant Principal, having worked at both Narre Warren South P-12 and Keysborough College in this capacity.

 

I look forward to returning onsite and going back to face to face learning and hopefully meeting you all in person very soon.

 

Until then, stay safe.

 

Detta Gordon

Assistant Principal