Acting Principal Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

As the Spring weather tries to make its mind up, we have been busy getting Year 12 ready for their final weeks in school, celebrating our Mordialloc College artists, working with local primary schools to support charities of their choice, getting ready for our 2025 timetable, and celebrating our amazing teachers as part of World Teachers’ Day. 

Farewell to the Class of 2024

This week has been a mix of emotions as we prepared for our formal graduation for Year 12, and said some heartfelt goodbyes to a great cohort of students. I really must commend all of the Year 12 students this week: they have been mature, they have spent time making great memories with their friends, peers, and teachers, and they have shown themselves to be a wonderful group of young adults. Year 12, we are so proud of you!

On 22nd October, we came together as a school community to celebrate our Year 12 students. It was wonderful to be able to congratulate those Year 12 students who worked to the best of their ability in either the VCE University pathway or VCE Vocational Major pathway, and who are now preparing for the next step in their journey.

This final year can be challenging for Year 12, and it requires them to be resilient and to have the courage to ask for help when it is needed; this is where our amazing staff have always been available to support our students, and we are so proud to say that no matter what challenges have been presented to them, Year 12 2024 have repeatedly demonstrated that when they put their mind to it, they can achieve amazing things.

The Graduation Day, and all recent Year 12 activities ran as smoothly as they did because of the amazing work of Angela Holloway (Year 12 YLC) and Kodilee Strahan (VM Coordinator); a big thank you to them both for giving our Year 12s the beautiful send off that they all deserved.

On behalf of the whole Mordialloc College Community, I would like to wish every success to our Year 12 students, it has been a pleasure to have been a part of your success story. 

Year 12, my challenge to you all: make this world a better place, I know that you can do it.

Changes to 2025 Timetable

Headstart begins on Monday 25th November and with that new start, there are a few minor changes that we will be making to our school day so that we can continue to deliver on achieving exceptional student outcomes. Whilst I will be sending out a letter later on in the term with all 2025 information in one place, there are some key pieces of information that I am confident you will want to know now:

1. Starting from week commencing Monday 25th November, every day will begin at 8.55am, and finish at 3.10. Our current early finish on a Wednesday means that we do not deliver the mandated instruction time; this is something that we will rectify with the new timetable. We really hope that this consistent approach to day length, and to lesson time will also support organisation, and punctuality for our students.

2. As mandated by the Victorian Government, Mobile phone use is not allowed in DET schools. We absolutely share family concerns about the disruption that devices have the potential to cause to our students’ school day, and we are using a phased approach to making our school a genuinely ‘mobile free zone’ for 2025. We cannot achieve this without the support of our families. 

Phase 1 is asking for your help with supporting your child to use their locked locker to safely store their mobile devices during the school day. Simon Cummins (Assistant Principal) recently contacted all members of the Mordialloc College community around the need for all students to have locks on their lockers. 

It has been great to see many students purchase a lock this term but there are many more that still need to do this. We will be conducting an audit of unlocked lockers shortly and will email families of students without locks on their lockers.

Phase 2 is streamlining how food is paid for at the canteen. Please be advised that the canteen will cease taking phone payments by HeadStart (Week 8) this term.

The QKR App is a cashless ordering option that is available to all families. Many of you successfully used the QKR App to order food when your child was at primary school and will be happy to see us move to that system at Mordialloc College. 

(QKR How To Guide). 

QKR allows families to make online payments for all lunchtime canteen purchases. This is a really quick and easy way to ensure your child has access to all the canteen offerings for lunch. QKR orders for lunch can be made a week in advance right up till 8.30am on the day of the order. Not only will this reduce the time at the cash tills, we are also optimistic that it will reduce time in the canteen queue, and provide more time for playing at recess and lunchtime! 

Please see the link on the college website for the current 2024 menu and prices.

Alternatively, students may continue to use cash and cards for all their purchases at all other times.

3. A gentle reminder that during Headstart (Monday 25th November) the whole school will rollover into the 2025 academic year. All current Years 7-11 students will be rolled over into their 2025 classes, thus becoming Years 8-12 (2025). We will be following our new timetable for 2025 and students will have the opportunity to work with their new teachers in their new year level.

• For Years 11 and 12 (2025) students, Headstart will run from Monday 25th November to Friday 6th December.
• For Year 10 (2025) students, Headstart will run from Monday 25th November to Tuesday 10th December. Students who require Progress Interviews will be on site Wednesday 11th December to Friday 13th December; these students will be contacted later on in Term 4. 
• For Years 8 and 9 (2025) students, Headstart will run from Monday 25th November to Friday 13th December
• An alternative program will be in place for Years 8 and 9 (2025) students during the last week of school from Monday 16th December to Friday 20th December.

World Teachers’ Day 2024: Friday October 25th 

I started teaching in 2000, what seems like a lifetime ago! So many things have changed (can you believe that in my first year I had to teach using a chalkboard?!!) but one thing has absolutely stayed the same, the utter enjoyment that every day working with young people brings to my life. 

Whilst there have been many ups and downs in the profession over the last few years, World Teachers Day is about celebrating the amazing work of teachers because when done well, teaching has the power to positively transform the lives of children.

World Teachers' Day is an opportunity to say thank you to the teachers who continue to make a positive difference today, and everyday to your family. I hope you will feel able to join me in thanking the Mordialloc College teachers who do an amazing job with your child and, thank you to those families who reach out to us acknowledging the great work our staff do every day, it is always a pleasure to hear good news from you.

I hope that you have an amazing fortnight.

 Rachael Stone

Acting Principal