Principal Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Season’s Greetings; I hope that this newsletter finds you very well! 

This fortnight has been a hive of activity for our incoming, outgoing, and existing Mordialloc College students. As a school community, it has been wonderful to spend time celebrating all of our students’ efforts throughout 2024, and getting excited for 2025. 

Excellent VCE and VCE-VM Results.

Congratulations to every single Year 12 VCE student who received their results on Thursday 12th December. So many students came into the college for Morning Tea, and to share their results with staff and friends; it really was a pleasure to be a part of this experience.

The staff here at Mordialloc College are very proud of our Year 12 2024 cohort, all of their hard work really paid off, and I am pleased to report that Mordialloc College students in 2024 achieved an excellent success rate in completing their VCE and VCE-VM studies.

I would like to take this opportunity to share some of those VCE highlights with you:

• 13%  of students achieved a 90+ ATAR, 29% of students achieved an 80+ ATAR,  54% achieved a 70+ ATAR. Our median ATAR was 70.67.
• We achieved a median Study Score of 30
• 7% of our Study Scores were over 40. 
• Mordialloc College Dux 2024: Junze (Oliver) Huang who achieved a near perfect ATAR of 99.85. Oliver also achieved Study Scores of 50 in Accounting (awarded in 2023), English and Psychology.
• Mordialloc College Dux Proximus: Charlotte Zaph who achieved an ATAR of 99.15. Charlotte also achieved a Study Score of 50 in  Art Making & Exhibiting.
• Mordialloc College 90+ students: Cooper Russell (including a perfect Study Score of 50 in General Maths awarded in 2023), Fu (Roy) Zhu, Isabelle Vicendese, Nissar Ali, Jake Hickey, Liam Walsh, Jasper Partington, Kadin Astfalck, Amelie Askew, Nellie Clarke, and Tony O’Brien. 

And some of our VCE-VM highlights:

• 99% completion rate 
• Successful VCE-VM students are now receiving offers to complete diplomas, traineeships, and apprenticeships in IT, carpentry, hairdressing, event management, early childhood, allied health, construction pathways, and electrotechnology. 
• Mordialloc College VCE VM Dux 2024: Jade Tsiros. Jade is now completing her apprenticeship in hairdressing.

Doanvy Roberts (Career Practitioner) has been available over the last few weeks for any conversations around careers, and for change of preference appointments for university or TAFE courses. Our students are applying for a range of university courses including: Physiotherapy (Honours), Engineering (Honours), Science, Arts, Architecture, Speech Pathology, and Nursing.

On a subject level we achieved some excellent results that exceeded the state average. 

Those subjects include: English, General Maths, Maths Methods, Physics, Health and Human Development, Outdoor and Environmental Studies, Physical Education, VET Music, Food Studies, Visual Communication and Art Making & Exhibiting.

On VCE Results Day, the Department of Education called and asked us what the key to our success was; I was so proud to share that success at Mordialloc College is down to great professional relationships between staff and students, a relentless approach to always evolving our teaching to meet students at their personalised point of need, and so much hard work! 

While we will always take every opportunity to celebrate individual student success stories, it is important to remind everyone in our wider school community that the ATAR does not define any of our students. Ultimately, it is a rank for tertiary admission; it is no reflection on how hard any individual student worked, it won’t necessarily determine where you will go in the future, or how happy you will be. Every one of our students should feel delighted with their efforts, proud in the knowledge that they gave their personal best.

I know everyone is thrilled with these fabulous results but of course, a special mention must go to the 2024 Year 12 teachers: thank you.

Year 7 Statewide Transition Day

On Tuesday 10th December,  our new Year 7 students came and visited us for the day. A huge thank you to Jo Hannan and Brenden McFarland who organised new mentor groups, lockers, taster lessons, activities to support getting to know new friends, and a BBQ for nearly 200 students!

We also held additional transition days throughout the previous week; all amazingly supported by our Year 10 Peer Support students, and our Student Services team.

We are nearly full for Year 7 2025; we can’t wait to welcome our next new cohort in January 2025!

Middle School Celebration Day and Year 9 Celebration Day

On Tuesday 10th, 450 students were invited to Gumbuya World to celebrate their success in Middle School 2024. A huge thank you to Mick Haber for organising this colossal off-site event, and also to the staff who supported this great day out. The weather was particularly kind to us, with staff and students all reporting back on an excellent day. 

To celebrate the last day of Year 9, Mick Haber also arranged a fun day out to Caribbean Rollerama; a big thanks to all staff involved, and judging by the photos, we have some amazing staff and student skaters here at Mordialloc College!

Save the Dates: 2025

I would like to take this opportunity to share some key dates that I feel you will want to know for 2025; we will still continue to add other pertinent dates to the weekly newsletter but presume the below information might be useful from now for some of our families. 

A reminder that term dates and Professional Learning  Day 1 are all set by the Department of Education, and that subsequent Professional Learning dates are arranged to avoid impact to other calendared events including externally arranged dates such as NAPLAN.

Term 1:

Professional Learning Day #1: Tues January 28th, (Student Free Day)

Online Parent Teacher Interviews: Tues 1st April (Adjusted day for staff / students work from home)

Professional Learning Day #2: Thurs 3rd April (Student Free Day)

End of Term 1: Fri 4th April (Early finish for students – 1.30pm)

Term 2:

Open Night: Wed 30th April (Early finish for students – 2.30pm)

Professional Learning Day #3: Friday 13th June (Student Free Day)

End of Term 2: Fri 4th July (Early finish for students – 1.30pm)

Term 3: 

Professional Learning Day #4: Mon 25th Aug (Student Free Day)

Online Parent Teacher Interviews: Weds 3rd Sept (Adjusted day for staff / students work from home)

End of Term 3: Friday 19th September (Early finish for students – 1.30pm)

Term 4:

Professional Practice Day: Friday 21st November (Student Free Day)

Awards Night: Wed 10th December (Adjusted day for staff / Early finish for students – 1.30pm)

End of Term 4: Friday 19th December (Early finish for students – 1.30pm)

Have a Wonderful Summer!

As Jason Allan shared last week, I will be the substantive Principal of Mordialloc College from January 2025; it has been an absolute privilege working with you all throughout 2024, and I am really excited to continue on with that great work when we come back in Term 1, 2025.

All that is left for me to do now is to wish you all an amazing Christmas, and a wonderful summer together with your favourite people; I really do hope that you get to switch off and find time to relax. My family are coming over from the UK for their first ‘hot Christmas’ and we really cannot wait to see them, and to show them some wonderful Australian sights. 

Seasons Greetings to you all from Mordialloc College.

Rachael Stone

Principal