From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers, Students and Community

Good morning, I hope your week has been enjoyable. For the last two weeks students and staff have watched as the old portables at the back of the school and some at the front be demolished. We were hoping this would have been completed before school resumed but the work was delayed. The demolition has caused a little distraction, but we are hoping by the end of next week most of the work will be complete.

Year 7’s have had fun this week, trying to play a musical instrument, including beating the drums with the Drum Corp. Classes are in full swing and are calm and orderly. Each tour I take with families, I explain our classroom mastery processes and they watch the entry routine in action. Families are very interested in learning about our routines.

School photos took place and another day has been scheduled for the Year 12 students with their bomber jackets and for anyone absent on the day.

Our Open Night carnival is scheduled for 24th March. It was a great night last year. Everyone is welcome. Bring your friends and family. 5-7pm.

Have a great week. Thankyou for your ongoing support.

Linda Stanton

Principal

Important Dates

Middle School

Dear Parents and Carers,

I have just returned from watching our Year 7 students playing dodgeball during their Connect time. The noise of joy, laughter, and friendly competition was loud — but it was wonderful to see everyone having such a great time together.

We are looking forward to our Year 7 Meet and Greet evening on 19 February. We have already received an excellent response from families attending. This will be a great opportunity to meet your child’s teachers and say hello.

By now, your child will have noticed some of the differences between primary school and secondary school, including:

• More subjects and teachers
• Possibly more homework
• More challenging schoolwork
• The responsibility of getting to different classrooms on time
• Managing themselves, their learning, and their equipment
• Using lockers and carrying books and laptops between classes
• Adapting to different teaching styles
• Having a designated Year 7 area, including dedicated toilets and play spaces

It is amazing how quickly students adjust to new routines and schedules. Consistent routines at home greatly support children in being prepared and ready for learning each day.

Year 8

The Year 8 Coordination Team is very pleased to see students wearing their uniform with pride and working diligently across all their subjects. Year 8 Camp is fast approaching, and Mr Pirrie will continue to keep families informed with updates and important information.

Year 9

Year 9 students have settled well into their new Year 9 area and are demonstrating strong commitment to their learning. This is reflected in the number of green posts they have received — a fantastic achievement.

Mrs Jones is very excited about our inaugural Year 9 interstate trip to Cairns in far North Queensland and will shortly be communicating the next steps with families. We are very much looking forward to getting this program underway next term.

Wishing our families a great week.

Denise Leggett

Assistant Principal

Senior School

To students and families of the Mornington Senior School,

This week has been the first full week of classes for most year levels, though our VCE students had their Term 1 inter-school sports day yesterday. 

Our Year 11 and 12 ATAR students had a session as part of their study skills program, focusing on setting up successful environments for study at home. The recommendation and expectation from VCAA is that students undertake 3 hours of independent study (homework, revision, preparation etc) for each subject, each week. Students were given a planner where they could map out their week, including sports, work, leisure time, family time etc and try and locate the 12-15 hours they can use for this study. In the coming week they’ll be setting a short-term SMART goal for each subject and using selecting specific strategies to help them achieve it. They’ll review progress towards that goal later in the term. 

Edrolo subscription for VCE ATAR students

Some subjects in Year 11 and 12 have a learning enhancement that families are strongly encouraged to purchase based on the results seen by students with high usage of this program. Health & Human Development (Units 1-4), Physical Education (Units 1-4), Physics (Units 1-4), Psychology (Units 1-4) currently have access to these resources. We are hoping to add Art Making & Exhibiting, Media and General Maths in the coming days. There is an expectation that students hoping to succeed in VCE will access this resource.

For families to subscribe to this resource at the school negotiated rate of $35 per subject (reduced from $20 per month for one subject or $40 per month for all subjects for single subscribers), families need to:

1.Go to https://edrolo.com.au/ and click on the activate button (see below) and then enter the schools activation code - cza-eqx. 

2.Then follow the prompts to setup your account. For students who have already created an account in previous years, you simply login (you’ll need to use your current school email).

3.For students who have an account they’ll see this on entry…

4.Then families can proceed to the payment screen to finalise access and support their child’s VCE success. 

The sooner payment is finalised, the sooner students can start maximising their VCE performance.

VET classes

Our on-site VET classes have been opened to the peninsula in 2026 and yesterday we had around 50 students from other local schools attend Mornington to access a variety of VET programs, including Sport and Recreation, Small Business, Building & Construction, Visual Art, and Electrotechnology. It’s unsurprising to see such a large number of students externally seeking access to the school, given our recognition as the leading applied learning practiced school on the peninsula last year. I’d like to recognise the work of our Mornington SC VET trainers; Chris Jones, Lea Gilbert, Scott Dean and Shaun Doherty. They are ably supported by our VET coordinator Fiona Cornwall and Applied Learning leader, Rebecca Slater.

VET attendance is hugely important and students who have not attended all VET classes prior to the cut-off date in mid-March (without exceptional documented circumstances), are likely to be withdrawn in line with the VET agreements all applicants have signed. 

What is coming up this term in the Senior School? 

Kind regards,

Nick Evans

Senior School Assistant Principal

Helping Teenagers Navigate Challenge

Adolescence is a time of enormous growth. Alongside academic expectations, social changes and increased independence, young people are constantly learning how to manage challenge. As a school, we see challenge not as something to avoid — but as something that helps students grow.

Productive Struggle

Not all struggle is negative. In fact, learning requires effort. When students encounter difficult work, feel unsure, or need to try again, they are building resilience and deeper understanding. We encourage students to sit with the challenge, ask questions, seek feedback and keep working. The goal is not instant success — it is steady improvement.

Parents can support this by resisting the urge to “rescue” too quickly. Instead, ask:

• What have you tried so far?
• What’s your next small step?
• Who could you ask for help?

These questions promote independence and problem-solving.

Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that ability develops through effort, feedback and practice. When students believe they can improve, they are more likely to persist.

Simple language makes a difference:

• Instead of “I’m not good at maths,” encourage “I’m still learning this.”

• Praise effort, strategy and persistence rather than natural ability.

   

This reinforces the message that progress matters more than perfection.

Encouraging Effort Over Outcome

While grades are important, they are not the full picture. Effort, organisation, and consistent application are the foundations of long-term success — particularly as students move toward their senior studies.

At home, conversations might focus on:

• Study habits
• Time management
• Completing tasks on time
• Reflecting on feedback

When effort improves, outcomes usually follow.

All these things support our current push on work completion via unit checklists.  Now might be a great time to check in on how your child is going with keeping up with their work.

Playing up a storm.

This week we had our second session of “So you want to be a Musician”. Last week year 7 students got to try a range of brass and woodwind instruments, this week they picked one and they spent the lesson learning their first 5 notes.  We then got the whole class together and formed a class band playing a fairly loud version of “We will rock you”.  There are so many great benefits from learning a musical instrument and we are looking forward to working with those Year 7 students who are going to take advantage of the opportunity to take on instrumental music lessons.  Information will be sent to Year 7 families next week.

If your child is not in Year 7, it's not too late for them to start to learn a musical instrument. Please reach out to Mr Joe Tobias (joseph.tobias@education.vic.gov.au) for more information.

Mike Parker

Assistant Principal - Curriculum and Student Wellbeing

Year 8 Students of the Week

Year 8 Aria Oakley 

Favourite food: Chicken Kiev and Lasagne

Hobbies out of school: Horse riding 

What sports team do you follow? Essendon

Favourite movie/TV show: Two Broke Girls

Do you have any pets? Dogs- Boosh and Fergus. Horse- Quinn

What do you enjoy most about being at Mornington Secondary College? Lunch

What career do you wish to follow when you finish school? Paramedic or Horse Training

Year 8 Knox Wehner

What's one skill you have that makes you unique? I'm pretty good at sport

What's one goal you're currently working on outside of class? To be more street smart

What's your greatest strength? Football

What's your superpower? My identical twin

What three words best describe you? Happy, Sporty, Kind

Open Night 2026 – Experience MSC in Action

We warmly invite our school community to help spread the word about our upcoming MSC Open Night, to be held on site on Tuesday 24 March, from 5.00–7.00pm.

Open Night is an exciting opportunity for future students and families to experience the vibrant learning environment that makes Mornington Secondary College such a special place.

The evening will be action-packed, featuring:

• Interactive, hands-on displays across our Key Learning Areas including Art, Health and Physical Education, Technology, Japanese, Food Technology, Design Technology and more
• Live performances from our Vocal Group, School Band, Aerobics Squad and Drum and Flag Corps
• Tours and opportunities to speak directly with our staff and students
• A BBQ to enjoy as you explore the school

If you have primary school-aged children, we encourage you to come along and give them the chance to see, hear and experience everything MSC has to offer — firsthand.

We also ask our current families to help us share the excitement. If you have friends, relatives or neighbours with primary school-aged children, please encourage them to attend and discover why MSC is the school of choice for so many families in our community.

Families are invited to pre-register their attendance by clicking the button below.

We look forward to welcoming you to Open Night 2026.

House Swimming Carnival

On Thursday 5th February we held our House Swimming Carnival at the Pines Forest Aquatic Centre. The very well contested best dressed competition was held at the start of the competition so that the students dressed up could swim in events. There were some magnificent entrants to the competition with some very creative designs. 

It was incredibly difficult to determine our top three contestants as they were all very worthy of top billing. The third prize went to the very large contingent of Minions. I was a little concerned that the pool would turn yellow with all the body paint washing off. Our second placed prize went to the icy pole crew with our top billing reserved for the trio of Trolls with very fancy hairdos. Well done to all our fancy dressed contestants which help to create a real carnival atmosphere.

It was great to see everyone getting into the spirit of the day and enjoying themselves in friendly competition. The giant waterslide was immensely popular, as was the wading pool activities which attracted hordes of students with the allure of winning chocolate prizes. Our 2026 AFL trainees Amelia and Shine did a terrific job of running the wading pool events. 

The basketball court had a constant rotation of challengers, and spectators. 

The teacher verse student relay was a highlight of the day with many student teams from Years 7-12 taking on the teachers. The teachers, to the dismay of the students, were able to again hang on to claim another victory with back-to-back wins in 2025 and 2026! I think that the Tiller brothers did take it easy on us though. The students were able to level the score in the board relay, easily out classing the teacher team.

Congratulations go out to all race winners and to all competitors who challenged themselves to have a go in an event! Well done indeed! 

At the conclusion of our swimming carnival tradition dictates that we must tally up the points and declare the House swimming champions for the year. This year’s results are as follows:

• 4th place on 352 points: Beleura
• 3rd place on 535 points: Balcombe
• runners up on 582 points: Tuerong
• 2026 House Swimming Champions on 814 points: Coolart House! 

Congratulations to Coolart House who have re-established their domination of the House swimming championships.

Now that the House swimming competition is over, our top swimmers will now look to representing the college at the Southern Peninsula Division Swimming Championships on Thursday 26th February at the Pines Forest Aquatic Centre. 

John Walker

College Sport

Year 12 Outdoor & Environmental Studies: Kayaking Skills

Year 12 OES recently headed down to Mothers Beach for a paddle session in preparation for their upcoming Murray River camp. It was a bright and sunny day, perfect conditions for getting out on the water and practising paddling skills. Students had a great time building confidence, working together and enjoying some time outdoors as they continue to prepare for their Murray adventure.

We were fortunate enough to have a friend to Mornington Boat Hire onsite who captured shared some amazing drone photos of our day out!

Madison Nicholls

Maths/OES Teacher

VET Programs Commence at MSC

Wednesday 11 February marked the first day of our VET programs at Mornington Secondary College. We welcomed 50 students from secondary schools across the Peninsula, along with 72 of our own students, who began learning across five different VET programs.

Excitement Overload for VET Building and Construction Students from Across the Peninsula

Our Certificate II in Building and Construction students were especially excited to receive a delivery of brand-new tools on the morning of their first class. We extend our sincere thanks to the Lions Club of Mornington for their generous $5,000 donation towards the purchase of these tools.

The Lions Club of Mornington has been a long-standing supporter of opportunities for our students to learn and develop practical skills, and their ongoing generosity is very much appreciated by the entire MSC community.

All students had a fantastic first day, and we look forward to seeing their progress and achievements throughout the year.

Fi Cornwall

VET/Workplacement/Careers Administrator

Senior Sport

Senior Girls Tennis

Our senior girls’ tennis team, consisting of Maddie, Rhiannon, Avantika and Regan, competed at Civic Reserve this week. After a delayed start, due to inclement weather, the girls won their first match against Dromana 2-0. Next they came up against Somerville and won both matches convincingly. The last match of the day, against Mount Eliza, would determine the overall result of the round robin. The match was played in rain, wind and eventually sunshine. All four of the Mornington team played their best games but were overcome by a stronger team on the day. The girls finished second overall for the day, a brilliant effort! 

Jenny Vanin

Health & PE Teacher

Senior Girls Volleyball

On Thursday 12th February the Year 11/12 girls Southern Peninsula Division Volleyball Championships were held in our school stadium. We were represented by two teams across the A & B divisions. There were 5 schools represented in the A division and 4 teams in the B division. The competition was fantastic with great rallies and a high level of volleyball skills on display. 

Our A team had a cracker of a game against Mt Eliza in their first round. The game is first to 25 points, but you must win by 2 clear points to claim victory. Our girls tied at 24-24 with Mt Eliza but unfortunately we eventually went down 27-25. The very next game was against Rosebud which was another super tight contest. The game was again tied at 24-24 but this time the girls rallied to win 29-27! The A team had two games left against Somerville and Dromana. The girls easily defeated Somerville 25-15 but went down against Dromana 25-21 who eventually went on to win the competition. Our A team girls placed third in the competition, but the top three teams were very even which made for an excellent competition.

A Team 

• Jeannie Brenton
• Georgia Wright
• Immy Morrison
• Holly Montgomery
• Lucy Ferlazzo
• Milly Wyer
• Edie Baard

Our B team girls’ competition was also exceptionally close. Our B team girls won their first game against Dromana 25-21, which was a great start. Their second game against Rosebud was super close with a 24-24 tie that unfortunately went Rosebud’s way 26-24. Their final game was against the eventual competition winner Mt Eliza, with the girls going down 15-25. The minor placings had to be determined by percentage as all other teams in the competition finished with a win and two loses. Fortunately, our girls placed second 1% higher than Dromana.

B Team 

Milla Dooley

Mya Stynes

Sienna Bradshaw

Jess Gyorosi

Mollie Dentrey

Alice Knight

Zara Brown

Taylah Hollingworth

John Walker

College Sport

Senior Boys Ultimate Frisbee

On Thursday, improved weather conditions allowed twenty of our MSC boys to compete in the Ultimate Frisbee competition held at Mount Eliza Secondary College. The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all participants, including our two student coaches, who provided excellent leadership and support.

While neither of our two teams claimed the overall victory, the blustery conditions ensured that the wind was the undeniable winner of the day.

A special thank you to our AFL trainee, Shine Swartz, for assisting with the organisation of the event and managing the game timing throughout the competition.

Scott Dean 

Humanities Department 

Health and Physical Education 

It has been a fantastic start to the year in Physical Education! 

Our Year 7 students have hit the ground running, completing their initial fitness testing. These sessions help students set personal goals, track their progress, and build a strong foundation for an active and healthy year ahead. Year 8 students have been working hard on their athletics training in preparation for the upcoming House Athletics Carnival. It has been great to see students demonstrating teamwork, effort, and a positive attitude as they refine their skills and build confidence in a range of track and field events.

A friendly reminder to parents and carers: if your child is unable to participate in PE for any reason, please ensure they bring a written note or that you email their PE teacher beforehand.

We are looking forward to an active and successful term ahead!

Rob Horwill

Head of PE

School Photos 2026

Annual school photos including sibling photos were taken by Arthur Reed Photos this week for Year 7 to 11 students. 

Year 12 photos will be taken on Photo Catch Up day, Monday 23rd February.

Reminders:

Unique image codes will be issued to all students in home group in the coming days. Families use that code to register online to view images when they become available in the Arthur Reed Web Shop. Once registered, please wait for a SMS notification that 2026 images are online to view and make your purchase.

Please contact Shellie in Student Services if you need assistance.

Aerobics Squad Sign Up

All students interested in joining the Aerobics Squad in 2026 please submit your interest through the below link.

Training details are in the below flyer.

Indie Jowett

Aerobics Squad Coach

 Don’t Miss a Moment at MSC!

Follow Mornington Secondary College on Facebook & Instagram for news, events, and more so you never miss a moment of your student's learning journey.

To learn more or to reach out to us