Acting Principal’s Report

Andrew Arney

It has been a very big term here at Melbourne Girls', one filled with some challenges but also a great number of successes, and we couldn’t be prouder of the growth our MGC students have shown over the past 10 weeks.

 

Resignation of MGC Principal - Karen Money

 

As you will have read from newsfeeds this past few weeks and in the preface to this week's newsletter, our amazing Principal Karen Money has resigned from her position here at MGC.

 

Karen will be taking on the role of Executive Director, Performance Division for Schools and Regional Services at DET, which is fantastic recognition of the work she has done in education, not only here at MGC, but also more broadly in the public education system. 

 

Personally, Karen has been an inspiration to me. She has forever set in my mind the model of what an outstanding Principal does and has reinforced in all of us the importance of visibly living our values in everything we do, every day.

 

At this stage, we are expecting that the substantive position will be advertised in either late term 3 or early term 4, for a 2022 start. We are also in discussions on how to thank Karen and recognise her contribution to the school, and as always we are grateful for any feedback from our students and the community on how we might do this.

 

We will be forever grateful for her contribution to our school and know that in her new role she will continue to have a positive impact on all of us here at MGC.

 

End of semester reports

 

The end-of-semester reports here at MGC are yet another valuable chance for students and parents to reflect on students' growth.

 

Although the main body of the reports are a collation of ongoing assessment available to families on COMPASS, when read as a whole they are an opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness of learning strategies and can assist in the broader setting of goals. Importantly a discussion about these reports is also a valuable chance to celebrate the wins, to discuss how students are feeling in their learning, and makes a very visible statement to students that their learning journey is one we are on together as a team.

 

Our tradition at home after reports come out is to prioritise time to sit and talk through the whole report, starting with the learning habits (effort, behaviour, etc.) and finishing with what we see as the key component, the teacher comments. We break down the feedback, their perceptions on why they got that feedback, and how we can continue to grow in each of these areas. Often we will make comparisons with previous reports so that their growth is visible, and then as with all good celebrations - we conclude with chocolate cake.

 

However you choose to do this, approaching these discussions while modeling a growth mindset will pay huge dividends to a students learning in the long run (even more so than the addition of cake!)

 

I hope everyone gets some downtime and a chance to renew and refresh over the upcoming school holidays, and I look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday the 12th of July.

 

 Andrew