Update from Middle School Director

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

To say that this year is different is a complete understatement. This year has been more demanding of students, parents and College staff than any in the 96 year history of Mordialloc College. The staff thank both the parents and students for the effort, flexibility and resilience that they have shown over the past 17 weeks.

On Friday 14 August, the first progress reports for Term 3 were released on Compass, highlighting the many great achievements that our students have achieved over the past 5 weeks (all of which were under remote learning conditions for Years 7 to 10).

For the first time ever, Mordialloc College is, today and this evening, conducting parent teacher interviews remotely through Google Meet. This is so far proving to be a great success and we would like to thank all parents who are participating, especially any of those who have so far experienced any technical difficulties, which, thankfully, have been minor.

Parent survey

A final reminder to all parents regarding our parent survey, looking at the second instalment of remote learning. The link to complete this survey can be found on in the Compass newsfeed. The survey will be closing at 6:00 pm on Thursday, so please get in quickly if you haven’t already. Your feedback is extremely important to us.

Getting enough physical activity?

During remote learning and lockdown in general, physical activity is really important. I know that it is easy to neglect this part of our lives in current circumstances, but considering the proven positive effects physical activity has on both our physical and mental health and wellbeing there has never been a more important time to be as active as possible.

A number of years ago, the Australian Government, in conjunction with the World Health Organisation, released guidelines to inform all Australians of the minimal levels of physical activity that is required to maintain health.

For children aged 5 to 17 the following guidelines are recommended:

Frequency: Every single day
Intensity: Moderate to vigorous intensity
Time: 60 minutes per day (this can be accumulated throughout the day)
Type: A range of aerobic activities and at least 3 days of activities that strengthen muscle and bone

Along with the activity guidelines there are also suggestions for reducing sedentary behaviours. They are:

Break up long periods of sitting as often as possible
Limit non-school related screen time to no more than 2 hours per day
When using screen based electronic media, positive social interactions and experiences are encouraged

Students of the Middle School all have a physical activity component built in to their Physical Education lessons but, with Sport Education not running during remote learning, it is important to ensure your child is partaking in more physical activity to compensate.

It is also very important for parents and carers to be physically active, not only for their own health, but to role model this behaviour to their children. With this in mind the physical activity guidelines for those aged 18 to 64 are slightly different. They are:

Frequency: Most days, if not all
Intensity: Moderate to vigorous intensity
Time: Accumulate 150 to 300 minutes of moderate intensity, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous intensity physical activity (or a combination of both) each week
Type: A range of aerobic activities and at least 2 days of activities that strengthen muscle and bone

If you are looking for further information on these guidelines, please refer to Australia’s physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines which can be accessed below.

Australia's Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines

Course counselling and subject selection

Since the start of Term Three course counselling for Year 11 into Year 12, Year 10 into Year 11 and Year 9 into Year 10 has been taking place. In that time over 500 individual Google meetings have taken place with students and parents to ensure that the subjects they are selecting throughout senior school suit the individual student and ensure that each student is following a pathway that leads them where they would like to go. A special thank you to all the staff who assisted with the process this year.

Earlier this term, Year 8 students also undertook an online process of selecting electives for Year 9 2021. This process was daunting, as it was done completely during remote learning, but with the assistance of a video and a number of emails this process also ran very smoothly. Thank you to the staff who assisted in the creation of the video, which made the process run that much more smoothly.

Support staff at Mordialloc College

Along with the teaching staff, the support staff of Mordialloc College have been working extremely hard to ensure the smooth running of the school.

Alex, the Facilities Manager, has been working tirelessly to ensure the school is in tip-top shape for when all students are back on site. Adwine and Mark (the IT department) have been doing a fantastic job - not only ensuring the technical issues associated with remote learning are dealt with, but also upgrading facilities throughout the school. The integration aides, who some parents may have seen in different classes' Google meets, have been working tirelessly, ensuring that all students are making the most of the opportunities afforded to them, by working with small groups and students in a one-on-one manner. The office staff have been working extremely hard during the remote learning period, being rostered on-site a number of days a week to ensure that there is always someone at school to answer calls and complete tasks that are physically impossible to complete off site. The wellbeing team has been working around the clock to ensure they are supporting all the students during this sometimes stressful time. A special thank you to all of the support staff who work so tirelessly to ensure the smooth running of the school.

To the parents, students and community members of Mordialloc College, we hope that you, your family and friends are keeping safe at this time and every member of the Mordialloc College staff is looking forward to having all students back in the classroom as soon as possible.

Daniel Williams

Middle School Director