PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
Facilities Upgrade and Master Planning
Melton Secondary College was recently identified by the Victorian Government to receive funding to plan and prepare for capital works. Last year the College Council worked with the community to develop a Master Plan.
Over the coming weeks I will be working with council to prepare an Asset Management Plan which will assist the Department of Education to determine the cost and budgeting of work.
With this plan in place the college will be entirely ready when the government allocates funds for construction.
College Council has also engaged Katz architects to build a new outside Sports and Recreation Court as well as to upgrade the Technology Wing and other site infrastructure. Council has allocated locally raised funds for the recreation court.
This facility will include a basketball court and small soccer field (with artificial turf) and will provide students with much needed additional space for games. The remaining works will be funded through the department's Planned Maintenance Program. These projects mark an exciting development in the history of our school as we expand in size and programs and develop as a school that provides a truly 21st century learning environment. Parents and students interested in seeing the college Master Plan can view it below.
STEM Grant Success
The study of STEM (the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics curriculum in inovative application) will prepare students for working in emerging careers and industry in the 21st century. Melton Secondary College has been successful in its application for entry into the STEM Catalyst Program and will receive a $25,000 grant to support the development of our STEM curriclum for students in years 7 & 8. Thank you to Ms Poulter for developing the application for this grant.
Together with Science Specialism leader, Mrs Clarke, Ms Poulter will lead the implementation of this project in the College. We expect to see Junior School students fascinated by new STEM related curriculum later this year. (Click to learn more about this new area in this STEM Motivational Video).
Positive Wellbeing and Academic Success
Empathy is the ability to notice, understand and positively influence other people's feelings. It is shown when people pay attention to other people's feelings, when they support others who may be experiencing strong or upsetting emotions and whey they are there for friends and loved ones in both times of happiness and times of hardship. At Melton Secondary College we aim to develop our students' empathy because we know when young people use this part of their emotional intelligence they become part of a social group (be it their class, their friends, or the wider school) that is more stable and they are more able to stick with the challenging things they are learning.
The Bucket and Dipper Theory is an excellent way of thinking of empathy and how we can all influence other people's emotions.
"Each one of us has an invisible bucket. It is constantly emptied or filled, depending on what others say or do to us. When our bucket is filled we feel great. When it is empty it feels awful." (Rath & Clifton, 2004).
The Bucket and Dipper Theory reminds us to:
- Consider how other people are feeling.
- Be careful not to dip from other people's buckets by doing or saying hurtful things.
- Act with kindness to fill other people's buckets (especially if they are feeling sad, low and depleted).
Our college-wide positive wellbeing approaches are about building positive wellbeing and happy and helpful relationships so that students are confident in their studies able to achieve their very best results. The Bucket and Dipper Theory is one of many ways of reminding ourselves that other people's emotional wellbeing is everyone's responsibility.
Mr David Reynolds
College Principal