From the Principal

Dear families and community members. It is often said, ‘Melbourne is four seasons in one’ and this was certainly true of Tuesday. I am certain the thunder and lightning that occurred at the end of the school day was directly on top of MSC. We were without power for a short time, limbs were broken from trees and there were a few minor floods. I was reminded of the day we all experienced a couple of years ago with grey skies, trees down, play equipment in the park damaged and no power for many hours. I hope your homes were safe and secure.  

This term, we have focused on classroom routines to ensure students are ready to learn. We do this by students lining up outside the classroom with laptops and writing materials in hand. When quiet, students walk into the classroom and sit down when asked. This routine creates a very calm classroom, where all students are engaged and ready to learn. A similar process is used at the end of each class.  

We have also spent time getting to know each other. The student management teams have been extremely proactive talking to students assisting them with their daily needs. All students are encouraged to speak with student managers or wellbeing staff. They are here to support every student with their learning.   

Thankyou for your ongoing support. 

Linda Stanton

Principal

Important Dates for 2024

Term 1

February

Thursday 22nd February - Year 7 Meet and Greet the Parents

Monday 26th February - Year 7 Grandparents Morning Tea

Tuesday 27th February - College Open Night

March

Monday 4th to Friday 8th March - Year 8 Camp - Phillip Island

Monday 11th March - Labour Day Public Holiday

Tuesday 12th March - College House Athletics Carnival

Thursday 14th March - School photos catch up

Wednesday 13th to 25th March - Year 7 and 9 NAPLAN

Wednesday 27th March - Parent Teacher Interviews - Hybrid online and face to face

Thursday 28th March - Whole School Assembly

Thursday 28th March - Last day of Term 1, 2.30pm dismissal

Friday 29th March - Good Friday Public Holiday

Follow us on

Don't forget to look on compass for sport sign ups, excursions and any other information sent to students and parents. 

Below is a link to help guide you in your use of compass.

https://mornsc.vic.edu.au/for-parents/compass-parent-guide/

Middle School

Dear parents and guardians, 

Today, we had the privilege of hosting Japanese visitors, providing an enriching cultural exchange for both our students and guests. The interaction between our students and the visitors has been a memorable and educational experience for all involved. Ms Brindle and Ms Kugimiya organised the event and eloquently translated English to Japanese impressing our visitors.

As we have introduced our classroom routines, students have adopted the practice of lining up in twos and silently entering the classroom. This routine certainly creates a calm and orderly classroom and establishes an immediate learning environment.  

I have been visiting lots of classes and I have witnessed firsthand the dynamic learning environment at our school, from the intricate workings of electronics to the creative expression fostered in art class.

Wishing you a great week.

Denise Leggett

Middle School Assistant Principal

Senior School

To students and families of the Mornington Senior School,

As we near the end of week 3, the term is starting to settle into a rhythm. Our VCE ATAR students are starting their first SACs over the next couple of weeks. Teachers will be pushing out the first semester SAC information as learning tasks (including which key knowledge and skills will be assessed) and their due dates so parents and students can see them and be prepared well in advance.

The Senior School team have been monitoring attendance patterns and in general, attendance has been good across 10-12. Some students and families will receive some email notifications where we are concerned. The department of education considers there to be no safe number of days for missing school. Statistically, children who attend school every day and complete year 12 have:

• Better health
• Better job opportunities
• Higher income across their lives

An area of focus for Senior School students currently, is improving their punctuality. Our lateness data, particularly at year 10 could be improved. Students need to be at class on time, to listen to the teacher instructions as part of our MSC entry routines. An important part of producing evidence of learning is being in class on time to be part of the starter and teaching elements of our STAR instructional model. I look forward to reduced lateness in the coming weeks and thank the year level teams for their role in intervening and training students to be punctual. 

Congratulations to the Coolart Crocs for their performances at the Swimming Carnival. It was great to see many of our Senior School students getting involved in the activities on the day.

Nick Evans

Senior School Assistant Principal

Get Our Hands Dirty

Hands on learning is back up and running again for 2024. Hands on Learning is a practical school program that builds wellbeing, engagement, and attendance by creating opportunities for students to discover their talents and experience success through significant and authentic hands-on projects. This year Hands on Learning is being run by Mr Pirrie (Wednesday) and Mrs Slater (Friday) supported by Bron and Maddie from Wellbeing.  We are looking forward to all the amazing projects that they will complete over the year.

Kind regards,

Mike Parker

Assistant Principal

Year 7

A big welcome to all our Year 7 students and families.  It has been a pleasure over these first few weeks getting to know your child through our classes and Transition activities.

All students have become involved in many activities that help them transition into secondary college.  These have included our Year 7 swimming trials followed by our Whole school swim day at the Pines, Digital Literacy sessions, a Cybersafety workshop, STEM sessions and more.  All these activities have helped students get to know their new classmates and their teachers.

Next Thursday the 22nd of February, we have our Year 7 Meet and Greet afternoon for families.  I look forward to meeting many of you there.

Ms Jo Reeman

Year 7 Team Leader

Year 10 

Spotlight on Year 10 by Year 10 Leader Mr Jake Uhlenberg

The Year 10 Team would like to say a huge thank you to the students of the cohort who have returned to school in 2024 with the right attitude for learning. It has been great to visit classes and see so many students engaging with their teachers, fellow students and their learning as a whole.

It is also a great pleasure of mine to say that both Mr Alex Malligan and Ms Jen Rolls have remained as Coordinators at Year 10 and will be available to support your child alongside myself throughout 2024.

Over the past three weeks we have seen an incredible improvement in regard to both our uniform as well as lateness to class. We will continue to follow up with students who develop large numbers of lates throughout each week with support sessions to ensure that they are making up for missed learning time. 

We are also happy to support students and families in regard to uniform, so please, if you need some form of support to ensure that your child is wearing the correct uniform, please feel free to contact any of the Year 10 Team.

We are very happy to say that our first session of Year 10 Connect Clubs this week was also a great success with students engaging in a common interest to form and establish new connections with one another. These sessions will be repeated throughout the year every three weeks, so we hope to see students continuing to get involved and have some fun.

Mr Jake Uhlenberg 

Year 10 Team Leader

College Swimming Carnival

On Thursday 8th February we held our House Swimming Sports at the Pines Forest Aquatic Centre. It was a very colourful day with great imagination applied to the special house costumes worn by our students. It was great to see that everyone was getting into the spirit of the day and enjoying themselves in friendly competition. The giant waterslide was very popular as well as the wading pool activity games with the draw of chocolate prizes. The music was pumping providing some great atmosphere to our little swimming festival with the Nutbush and Macarena, drawing a fair dance mob. The basketball court had a constant rotation of challengers. The best dressed competition was bigger than ever making it exceptionally difficult to judge winners. All of this was happening while the marshals were doing a great job of organising our students into swimming races throughout the day. The swimming carnival is always a great day where the school can come together as a community and have fun. Congratulations go out to all race winners and to all competitors who challenged themselves to have a go! Well done indeed. At the conclusion of our swimming carnival tradition dictates that we must tally up the points and declare the House champions for the year. This year’s results are as follows: fourth place on 357 points Beleura, third place on 472 points Tuerong, our runners up on 510 points Balcombe and our 2024 champion house on 610 points Coolart! Congratulations yet again, to the Coolart Crocs who have been very dominant in our House competitions for many years! Perhaps the Coolart Crocs will find winning more difficult at our next major whole school House event which will be House Athletics to be held at Ballam Park on Tuesday 12th March.

John Walker                                                                            

College Sport Coordinator

School Student Broadband Initiative

The Australian Government has established the School Student Broadband Initiative to provide freehome internet for one year for up to 30,000 eligible families with school-aged students.The initiative aims to boost education opportunities. NBN Co is leading the rollout of this initiative across the country.  Please refer to the attached for further information.

Saver Plus - Back to School Campaign

Access to an extra $500

Saver Plus is a program for people on lower incomes. It’s about bolstering their financial skills, so they can develop (and keep) good savings habits.   

Sustainable School Shop

📚 🎻 ⛹🏻‍♀️ We have partnered with Sustainable School Shop to provide families access to second-hand textbooks, uniforms, calculators, musical instruments, sports gear and much more!

Sustainable School Shop have preloaded items specific to our school onto their site. This makes it super easy to list your items for sale and to buy items.

👉🏼 See all the second-hand uniform items for sale here: https://www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au/stocktake/mornington-secondary-college 

👉🏼 See all the second-hand textbooks for sale here: https://www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au/booklist/mornington-secondary-college 

So jump onto the site, register and list your items for sale, you will be:

• reusing items rather than adding to landfill
• making money on items you sell
• saving money on items you buy
• providing another family in our school with cheaper items
• helping to create a culture of contact amongst our school community families!

💻 Login or Register here: https://www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au

Free Workshops for Parents

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