Principal Team Report

Dear Mullauna Community,

Welcome to the mid-term Links, the first for 2026! Included in this edition, we have:

The Swimming Carnival

Combined Year 7 Welcome Assembly and Student Leadership Assembly

Class of 2025 Alumni Afternoon Tea

Welcome to Country Assembly with Mitcham Primary School

Year 7 Transition Camp

Year 12 Study Camp

Plus a range of general reminders and updates for you

The year has certainly kicked off with a great amount of energy with students now settled back into their learning and already making great progress in many areas. Our staff have also hit the ground running with their professional learning as they continue to collaborate in their regular Professional Learning Community meetings and focus on using student data to better inform their learning and teaching programs.

One of the highlights at the start of the new year is the Year 7 Welcome Assembly. In typical Mullauna fashion, we welcomed the Class of 2031 to great applause, music and a sea of happy faces. At this same assembly, we celebrated the raft of Student Leadership opportunities that we offer, supported by Kathy Halpin who passionately works with our students to develop their skills and confidence in their own leadership journey. We also use this assembly as an opportunity to welcome back the Class of 2025 and acknowledge and celebrate with them, the many successes they have achieved in terms of both their academic results and selection into their chosen pathways, which includes University and TAFE studies, apprenticeships, traineeships or for some, travel or other opportunities. We certainly wish them all well. We also congratulate Zeke Jackel as School DUX for 2025 with an ATAR of 99.4, an outstanding and well-earned result. Following the assembly, staff and students from the Class of 2025 were able to enjoy an afternoon tea and some time to catch up to chat about the next steps in their exciting journeys ahead.

In addition to these events, our students have already enjoyed camps at Year 7 and Year 12 and the whole school swimming carnival which provides further opportunity for students and staff to build on their relationships and share positive experiences that help provide that sense of belonging and engagement within their community. Congratulations to O’Neill house who won the swimming carnival this year. The competition was fantastic and great to see such a great level of participation from all year levels.

We look forward to this level of energy continuing throughout the term and encourage all students to participate in all events and opportunities that the college offers throughout the various programs such as music, sport, arts and STEM.

Welcome to Country

We were joined by the staff, students and many parents from Mitcham Primary School for our annual Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony. Dion Edwards, an elder from Mullum Mullum Aboriginal Gathering Place officiated, and all present were able to cleanse themselves in the smoke of the gum leaves and cherry ballart (used specifically for youth to represent strength and resilience). Please see Facebook for some photos.

The assembly provides an opportunity to acknowledge and be grateful for our two wonderful schools and communities, to reflect on the opportunities we are provided in our beautiful country, and to be mindful that we can’t simply take it for granted.

Also in attendance were Matt Gregg (federal member for Deakin), Nick McGowan (state member for Eastern Region), and three of the Koorie Engagement Support Officers for our area: Lauren Sheriff, Anne Jenkin and Tegan Gittins. Lauren will be working directly with Mullauna this year.

School Council

Last Tuesday evening, we held our first School Council meeting for the year, the final one for our current councillors.

We farewelled and thanked long-term parent member Fiona Allen. Fiona is to be commended for her seven years’ service as a member along with her active involvement in the Parent & Community Association.

Easing into adolescence: resources for families

Free resources for families of adolescents aged 10 to 14 years.

The Department of Education has launched an Easing into adolescence webpage for families of students aged 10 to 14 (Grade 5 to Year 8).

The webpage has information and strategies you can use to help ease your child into adolescence and secondary school. These include:

a guide to emotion coaching. Staff from The University of Melbourne’s Tuning in to Teens Kids program developed the guidance.

how to support your adolescent with their studies and more generally. Parenting expert and clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller helped develop this resource.

Subtitles for videos by The University of Melbourne on the webpage are available in 10 languages. You can select your preferred language on the translations page.

For questions about these resources, contact the Strategic Partnerships, Transitions and Student Voice team. You can email them at Secondary.School.Transition@education.vic.gov.au.

Warm regards,

Harry Ruff, Jeff McMillin and Michael Bray

The MSC Principal Team

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February 2026