Principal's Message

The exams are now over, and the students and teachers have commenced the Headstart Program where they commence their 2024 subjects. The 2024 Year eight students are in their new form groups and have started their “Our Worlds Project”. The objective of this week-long project-based learning experience is to engage Year 8 students in a comprehensive learning experience where they will create and showcase their own fictional countries and compete in sporting events. This program aims to foster teamwork, creativity, critical thinking, and global awareness among students.

The 2024 Year 9 students have been immersed in the “Design Thinking Project” where the students work in their new form groups to plan a mini suburb for the future.  The classes comprise of a residential group, commercial group, institutional group and park or activity centres. The students undertake 3-D printing Masterclasses, Robotics Masterclasses and VR Masterclasses. At the end of the project, they marketed their project and made presentations to the judges. 

This week we have hosted the first Year 10 Passion Project Workshops where students could sign up to activities such as Sugar Cookie Making, Spaghetti bridge making, pinhole camera making, Cricut cases, painting and drawing, coastal trails, murder mystery, money matters, Yoga/Pilates, manga/animation, school garden, tie dying, robotics, jewellery making, trivia quiz, musical theatre, chemical experiments, 3D printing, Meaning of Life, AI Art, sudoku & crosswords, VR and Filmo. I would like to thank Diana Gibert and Jenny Connolly who have driven these three projects and the wonderful teams of teachers from across the subject areas who have been facilitating the process. All of this is happening whilst the 2024 Year 10 to Year 12 students undertake their formal classes. 

We also hosted two “A Day in the Life of a Mentone girl” where Year 5 students from across a range of primary schools signed up to experience what life is like at Mentone Girls’ Secondary College and why we are so unique.  There were over a hundred students present on both days and they enjoyed classes in Languages, Food Technology, Mathematics and Physical Education. It was terrific to see the parents collecting their children at the end of the day with big smiles on their faces. I would like to thank Detta Gordon, Assistant Principal who has created this immersion day so that potential future students and their parents can make an informed choice about what school they wish to attend in Year 7. My thanks are also extended to Josh Sinclair, Anne-Claire Brunet, Jeannie Ta, and Justine Bowers who ran the subjects’ specific classes.

On the evening of Wednesday 29 November, we held the Presentation evening and presented a range of awards to students. Each student who received an award has taken pride in their studies, and they have endeavoured to achieve their personal best. It is our privilege, as educators, to be part of their learning journey and to acknowledge their endeavours and achievements on the evening. Our thanks to our guest speaker Evie Tripp (Class of 2016). 

I also acknowledge the teachers who have guided the students along this pathway.  They are dedicated, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and boundless in their energy.  They see the individual child as well as the class and year level.  As teachers we can track student learning growth by looking at assessment task results, NAPLAN, and PAT testing results, and ultimately VCE results. However, the students who received awards on the evening demonstrated so much more than their results. They have demonstrated perseverance, commitment, self-confidence, and endurance along the way which were recognised and acknowledged by their teachers and Student Managers.

The Year 10 Social has taken place after disappearing from the MGSC calendar since 2019 due to the lockdowns. Kate Allison, the Assistant Director of the Middle School worked with the Year 10 students to organise the festive event. The students had a wonderful time on the night, and we will host this again in 2024.

Early this week hosted the annual Whole School Picnic on the Oval. There was a band, a BBQ held by the SRC team and students were able to wear casual clothes to raise money for the SRC to donate to a worthy cause. My thanks to Wendy Harvey who has worked with the student leaders to make this day a lot of fun. 

It was great to see our students together again at our final all-school Assembly of the year held today.  A fun way to finish our year. 

Best wishes

Linda Brown