Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Excellent VCE Results and Dux 2023 

Congratulations to all our Year 12 students who received their results on Monday. I am pleased to report that Mordialloc College students in 2023 achieved an excellent success rate in completing their VCE studies. 

Some of the highlights include:

• Nearly 8% of students achieved an ATAR in the 90’s, 16% of students achieved an ATAR in the 80’s, (nearly 24% of the cohort above 80) and 19% of students scored in the 70’s, and thus 42% of the cohort scored above 70.
• We achieved a median study score of 30
• There were 6.4% of study scores in the 40’s
• Two perfect scores of 50 were achieved by Cooper Russell in Year 11 studying a Unit ¾ sequence in Year 12 General Maths and Junze (Oliver) Huang in Year 11 studying a Unit ¾ sequence in Year 12 Accounting

A wonderful set of results and a credit to all staff and students who have all worked so hard to achieve so much not only this year but over the course of the six-year journey for these students.

In addition, congratulations to all our Year 12 Vocational Major students for completing all course requirements and receiving offers to complete diplomas, traineeships, and apprenticeships. 

All of our Year 12 students can all be very proud of their achievements. 

Special mention must go to our very high achievers who scored in the 90’s. 

Congratulations first to our DUX for 2023, Lucas Van Leeuwen achieving an ATAR of 97.4, an excellent result that he can be very proud of. As such Lucas is in the top 3% of the state. 

I would also like to congratulate the following students:

In the top 5% of the state, Anna Kuppe for achieving an ATAR of 95.05; in the top 6% of the state, Zali Logan achieved as ATAR of 94.35. 

In the top 7% of the state: Gabby Colquhoun achieved an ATAR of 93.85 and Reema Ababneh achieved an ATAR of 93.3.  

In the top 8% of the state, Ben Curtain achieved an ATAR of 92.3.

In the top 9% of the state: Amber Page achieved an ATAR of 91.05; and in the top 10%, Ulyana Biaroza achieved an ATAR of 90.3.

We held a special celebration morning tea for students and staff on Monday. Emma White our Senior School pathways coordinator has been available throughout the week for any change of preference appointments for their choice of university or TAFE courses. Our students are applying for a range of university courses including: Law, Psychology (Honours), Engineering (Honours), Science, Arts, Architecture, Secondary Teaching, Commerce, Nursing along with a number of other courses.

On a subject level we achieved some excellent results far exceeding the state average. This includes for English, General Maths, Applied Computer Software Development, Health, Outdoor Education, History, Psychology, Media Studies, VET Music, Product Design, Food Studies, Visual Communication and Art. 

While we celebrate individual student success stories, it is important to remind everyone that your final ATAR score does not define you as a person. In the end it is a rank for tertiary admission. It won’t necessarily determine where you will go in the future or how happy you will be. All students should feel proud of their efforts and be satisfied they have given their personal best.

Awards night

On Wednesday 13 December we held our Awards Night at the Frankston Arts Centre for the first time. Hopefully parents found this to be a more convenient location than the City of Kingston Town Hall in Moorabbin and easier to find a park. It was a such a wonderful celebration of student’s determination and dedication to achieve their Personal Best throughout the year. We had the opportunity to celebrate student successes in a variety of areas such as Academic Excellence, Achievement Endeavour, the Arts and Technology, Sport, and Community involvement. High quality entertainment was also provided by students in the areas of Music and Drama. My thanks must go to Tom Facey, Jasmine Vermeer, Miranda Wilson, Tracey Bastin and Catherine Boulton for all their work in putting the evening together for us, and to all my teaching staff who all had an allocated role on the night to ensure the effective running of this significant event. 

It was lovely to welcome back our DUX from 2022, Aaliyah Zaph who scored an outstanding ATAR of 99.45. Aaliyah gave a very thoughtful speech reflecting on her first year of University and her experiences as a student at Mordialloc College. Our School Captains, Amelia Davidson and Jeremy Thai-Chan were our MCs for the night and did a terrific job and they also gave their final speech in their capacity as Captains! Ethan Simons and Reny Zhang also gave their final speeches as Middle School captains. Lucas Van Leeuwen was announced as our 2023 DUX with an ATAR of 97.4 and will be invited back to speak at our Awards night in 2024. 

At Awards night, there are many prizes awarded on the night. Students are nominated by their teachers at the end of each semester, and this can be in one or more categories: Academic Excellence ­- The ‘Academic Excellence’ award is bestowed upon students who have demonstrated outstanding academic results within a subject. They have consistently worked above the expected level and/or have achieving a B or an A (in relation to Victorian Curriculum Achievement levels) on their reports where possible. At a VCE level students need to be consistently attaining high or very high on all assessments; Achievement Endeavour - The ‘Achievement-Endeavour’ award is awarded to students in recognition of consistent efforts made to strive for their personal best.  They have demonstrated academic progress within a subject and have made significant improvements to reach their learning goals; and Community Service - The ‘Community Service’ award is awarded to students from across each year level who have served the College in a particular way. For example, participation in a variety of school activities as determined on an annual basis, such as: Student Leadership as part of the Mordialloc College Student Council, House Athletics, House Swimming, School Production, subject competitions, contribution to the College Magazine, participation in open night, primary school visits, participation in lunchtime events and clubs etc.

Unfortunately, given the size of our school we can’t recognise all students at the awards night presentation and thus we have set criteria for each year level (how many awards nominations they must receive) to be invited on the night. Thus, invitees are the top performing students in their year level. All other students who were nominated by their teachers for an award should have received these academic or achievement certificates before their last day at school. They should still be very proud of their positive work ethic and achievements this year.

I would like to highlight our DUX of each year level based on close examination of achievement data over the year. The DUX for each year level was only revealed on the night, and thus students weren’t named in the program.

Congratulations to the following students:

Year 7 – Ella Beckett

Year 8 – William Fleming

Year 9 – Tallain Connell

Year 10 – Rebecca Dowling

Year 11 – Junze (Oliver) Huang

Year 11 - Charlotte Zaph

Orientation Day

All our new students (197) starting next year in Year 7 had Orientation Day on Tuesday. This is always a wonderful opportunity to make some new friends, become more familiar with the College and get to know the Year 7 teaching team. My thanks to all staff involved in running or supporting this program, especially our Year 7 Coordinators Jo Hannan and Andrew Potter, and Director of Middle School Brendan McFarland. 

As in previous years, we also ran a special transition program in the lead up to this day for students in Grade 6 identified as needing extra support in transitioning to Secondary School. This was run over two days last week by our Wellbeing Team and Year 7 Coordinators and included our 2024 Year 10 Peer Support student leaders to support the grade 6 students on these days with the activities. This program has been so important in ensuring Orientation Day isn’t so daunting to them (and of course the start of the next year). 

Centenary Celebrations

Preparations are nearly finalised for celebrating our Centenary year in 2024. I have been leading a Centenary committee who has been working alongside the Mordialloc College Alumni Association to assist in organising this significant milestone in our school’s history. 

The key dates for our celebrations will be on Friday 16 February from 12pm - 3.30pm and Saturday 17 February from 10am - 2.30pm. 

On Friday 16 February we will be holding a whole school assembly at 12 pm. Tim Richardson MP State Member for Mordialloc and Parliamentary Secretary for Health Infrastructure and Mental Health with either the Premier or Deputy Premier of Victoria will be in attendance and both will speak at our assembly. In addition, Mark Dreyfus MP Federal Member for Isaacs and Attorney General will also be attending and speaking. Other people speaking will include me, Ian Fox, our school council president, and our school captains.  We also plan to have the oldest living former student attend with our current youngest student, along with our longest serving teacher and longest serving Principal. Several notable former students have also been invited to attend. Lyndell Thompson has volunteered to prepare a slide show of photos to play at the assembly. At lunchtime, we will hold a barbeque and after lunch I will be running tours of buildings and classrooms in action for any interested former students, staff and special guests attending. Members of the Mordialloc community along with former staff and students will also have an opportunity to tour the school buildings and classrooms on the Saturday. We will be seeking student volunteers from the MCSC to support both days events. A special memorabilia display will also be set up for both days in the hub. 

Paula McCarthy our local historian is in the process of developing a book recognising the significant role the school has played in our community for the past one hundred years. We thank her for her dedication and commitment to this important publication. The City of Kingston have provided $3000 towards the book and the school will pay for the remaining costs and will get this back through sales of the book. It will be released at our Annual Art Show in October 2024, with some chapter samples available in February for pre-orders.

College Production

Our Production next year has been announced – GREASE, a very popular previous production at the school and alumni members and current staff have been asked if they would like to play a cameo. Auditions have been happening over the last few weeks and we have had plenty of student interest. Our 2024 Year 7 students will have the opportunity to audition in February. The performance nights are planned for August 2024. 

Parent Opinion Survey follow up survey.

Thank you to the parents who took the time to complete the parent follow up survey I sent out on Tuesday 28 November and closed on Wednesday 6 December. We had a similar response rate (13%) to the original survey. All results and feedback have been shared with School Council and the College Leadership team. There are some key areas we will action as a result of the feedback. In addition, next year is our whole school review (conducted every four years) and we will complete the "pre-review self-evaluation" during Term 2. During this process there will be student focus groups for each year level and an opportunity for parents/carers to participate in a parent focus group onsite. Key dates for our whole school review will be published in our weekly College newsletter. 

School Magazine

We recognise that the school magazine is an important opportunity to reflect on the year, and we hope it can be kept as a memento of 2023 for many years to come. My thanks to teacher, Vicky Vrettos for leading the development of this year’s magazine. Our 2023 Venture magazine was distributed to students last week. If your child did not receive their magazine, please collect one from the General Office before the end of the school year or in the first week back next year. 

Richard Williams Scholarship Fund for Mordialloc College students

Please refer to the promotional flyer later in this newsletter, with applications opening for this wonderful scholarship opportunity in December and closing on 1 March 2024. This year we had seven lucky students being awarded this scholarship, $1000 each to purchase goods and equipment to support them to pursue their interests. It is an annual scholarship all students can apply for each year. Richard Williams was an unsung, local hero. He worked tirelessly for others and always put other people before himself. After his passing last year, a few of his close friends who have known him since they were students here together, got together to create this Scholarship Fund in his memory. On behalf of our students, I thank the Alumni for working with Richard’s friends and family to set this fund up, for the benefit of our current students.

Staffing 2024

As with all public schools across the state we are still experiencing the post covid trend of staff reflecting on their future directions. We have some staff moving to the private system or to positions closer to home. We have been able to successfully recruit to fill most vacancies, with just one Science position still to fill as I write this. 

Di Douglas - our Director of Student Wellbeing for the last 19 years, is retiring at the end of this year. When I first arrived at Mordialloc and we were a smaller school, Di also taught Food Technology. As the school has grown her teaching load was reduced to eventually becoming full time leading the Student Wellbeing team at the College. Di has been wonderful in the role and a huge advocate for student wellbeing at the centre and she will certainly be missed. We thank her for her dedication to the role and the significant service she has provided to all in the Mordialloc College community. We have employed a psychologist from the region to replace Di, and we have also changed the role to bring the Wellbeing team and Inclusion team together. Sarah Letho, brings a wealth of experience in both areas and is our Director of Student Services, starting from 2024.

Tim Randell - has given 14 years of dedicated service to Mordialloc College, not only as a teacher but also, he has been a wonderful Year Level Coordinator for many years. Tim has taken a position at Casey Grammer for 2024 which is closer to home. We wish Tim the very best for the future and thank him for his commitment to our school and support of our students during his time with us.  Andrew Read, teacher of VCE Business Management /Accounting and Humanities from Narre Warren SC will be starting with us from January 2024 to replace Tim.

Alex Brown - teacher of senior Maths, has given 8 years of dedicated service to Mordialloc College, and this year has been our Year 11 Year Level Coordinator. Alex has taken a position at Mentone Girls Grammar for 2024. We wish Alex the very best for the future and thank her for her commitment to our school and support of our students during her time with us We have appointed Tae Seong Kim to replace Alex, a graduate teacher who completed one of his teaching placements with us and worked part-time as a tutor so he is known to our students. 

Maria Bitzios, teacher of Science and Digital Technologies and our Science Learning Area leader for the past few years, has given 6 years of dedicated service to our school and is moving to a school very close to home, South Oakleigh SC. We thank Maria for her dedication in leading the Science team and to the students she has taught over your time here. We were able to absorb Maria’s teaching load so we didn’t need to find a replacement. 

Kate Rhodes, teacher of Psychology, Humanities and English has been here for 5.5 years has been appointed to a teaching position closer to home, at Flinders Christian College. We thank Kate for her dedication to her students during her time here and for being a champion for inclusive education, having been the coordinator of this very important area this year. We have been able to absorb her teaching load, however, are currently in the recruitment process for an Inclusive Education Coordinator. 

Emma White our Careers and Pathways coordinator for the past five years has been appointed to a similar position at Camberwell Grammar. Emma has been a terrific pathways leader as part of our Senior School team and will certainly be missed by our students and parents. We thank her for her dedication and commitment to fulfilling her role during her time with us. Doanvy Roberts, has been appointed to replace Emma from next year. 

Hayley Gregory, teacher of English and Humanities is taking maternity leave and family leave for 2024. We wish her the very best with the arrival of her first child and look forward to her return sometime in the future. Chris Beasley, a recent graduate and one of our Literacy tutors this year, has been appointed to replace Hayley in Year 7. 

Prakhar Verma has been on contract with us for the past 18 months teaching Science and Maths and has a position at Sirius College next year. We wish him all the best for the future.

Kerry Archer has been here this year teaching Science and in the second half of the year, led the MCSC and house system and did a great job. Kerry has a position with CERES as an Education consultant for next year, but it is still possible we may see Kerry back here in the future. We are currently completing the recruitment process to replace Kerry for 2024. 

Kai Yin has been working with in our International Student Program as a multicultural aide for the past 18 months. Kai has found a similar position much closer to home and we wish him all the best. We have appointed Charmaine Ji to replace him to support our international students.

We do have some additional new staff members who we will be welcoming at the start of next year:

• Julia Hockey, a former teacher from here who took up a position at Albert Park SC for this year, will be returning to our school in January 2024 in a leading teacher role with us, Director of Student Engagement. Julia will also be teaching Maths. 
• Kodilee Strahan, has been appointed to a leadership role, as our new Vocational Major Coordinator and is coming to us from Narre Warren SC. Kodilee teaches numeracy, PDS and Food Studies.
• Sally Mitchell, legal studies, and humanities teacher returns from family leave on 19 February at 0.5 time fraction.
• Sebastian Trividic, graduate teacher of Mathematics and Physics, has been appointed to a new position.
• Garima Dipti, graduate teacher of Mathematics, has been appointed to a new position.
• Bournik Kabengele, experienced teacher of French coming from Padua College, has been appointed to replace Ivy Ma who resigned for personal reasons during Term 4. 

We held an induction day on December 8 to welcome our new staff and introduce them to the key processes and policies of the College, along with Professional Learning on our instructional model and coaching program. They are all very excited to have secured a position at our College. 

It has been a difficult year for me with the passing of my dear Mum so I will taking Long Service Leave during Term 1 next year, to spend more time with my father. The Senior Education Improvement Leader (SEIL) for the Kingston Network, Tim Wilson conducted the selection process to replace me and Ian Fox our council president joined him on the panel. Rachael Stone has been appointed Acting Principal for Term 1. We then ran an internal process for the Acting Assistant Principal position for Term 1 to replace Rachael and Aaron Davis has been appointed. Aaron will continue to teach his Year 11 Media class during this time. Even though I will be on long service leave for Term 1, I will be returning for our special Centenary events on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 February. 

As this will be the last newsletter for the year, I would like to recognise our committed and dedicated teaching staff and education support staff at the College and thank them sincerely for all their hard work throughout the year on behalf of the students. I would also like to acknowledge and thank the parents, students and staff on our College Council and all members of the College leadership team for their leadership and commitment to the ongoing improvement of the College.

Finally, I would like to thank all members of the College community for their ongoing support. I wish everyone a safe and restful Christmas and holiday break with family and friends. We look forward to celebrating our Centenary year in 2024!

Ms Michelle Roberts

Principal