Principal's Report

Rotary Youth Exchange

Please come along to a gathering to celebrate Rotary Youth Exchange 

Wednesday 29th May

6:00 -7:15pm 

Room 9 at Mount Beauty Secondary College

Parents and students from years 7 to 11 are invited to join an informal gathering to celebrate Rotary Youth Exchange in our community.

Roberto is approaching the end of his year spent with us in Mount Beauty, and is keen to thank the community for its hospitality and to share his experiences with us.

Likewise, our own Harri was hosted by a community in Northern Italy last year, and he has much to tell us about his adventures and learnings.

Tea and coffee available, plus a Q and A forum, and time to mingle. 

Report to the School Community

Thanks to the group of parents and school councillors who attended the meeting to present the 2023 Annual Report to the School Community on Wednesday evening. There were lots of questions and discussion throughout the presentation, as well as useful suggestions and ideas being collected. I appreciated the discussion and interactive nature of the presentation. This report reflects on the 2023 Annual Implementation Plan (AIP), which outlines the goals and targets to be worked on in 2023, set from the 4 year Strategic Plan.

While the 2023 parent data was fairly negative relating to parent satisfaction, and the staff data was fairly negative on school climate, this just reinforced to me that the careful, and strategic planning that took place towards the end of last year was clearly targeted towards improving these factors this year. Hopefully families and staff have seen some changes from the start of Term 1 and this data will lift in 2024.

The planning included updating the school leadership structure; developing school upgrade plans, which started last year; updating the school values; further planning for implementation of the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) framework; and a focus on curriculum development and planning.

 Our student learning data was strong again in 2023. Well done to all our students! Our Year 7 and 9 NAPLAN data in Reading placed our Year 7 strong to exceeding results almost 30% above similar schools or the state (well done to all the work the Primary Schools have done to teach these students). Our Year 9s strong to exceeding results were about 13% above. Year 7 Numeracy strong to exceeding results were about 22% higher than similar schools or state results, with our Year 9 strong to exceeding results just over 1% lower than similar schools or state results, placing us roughly on par.

Our Year 12s last year had a mean study score of 28.5, which beat the target we had set, and was only 0.2 marks behind the state result. However, more importantly, 100% of our students completed their Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) or the VCE Vocational Major (replacing VCAL).

Our student wellbeing data, while still low, showed improvement from the previous year. School connectedness increased 4% on the previous year and was only 4% below the state average. Management of bullying increased 4% from the previous year and was only 3% below the state average. Our AIP was looking to improve the ‘Student voice and agency’ and ‘Teacher concern’ results in the student data. We met the first target, but while not meeting the second target, our data did improve slightly from the year before.

Attendance rates remained fairly high in 2023, with the average absence for each student being 32.1 days absent, but the students attitude to attendance data was quite high, being 73% positive and ‘motivation and interest’ increased from the previous year to being 56% positive.

The data from 2023 was used to carefully plan the work for 2024, based on the goals in the Strategic Plan. While there is always room for improvement, we should all be proud of our small school. We have polite, kind, caring and thinking students, who achieve well. We have families who are interested in their children and what they do at school. We have caring, passionate and dedicated staff, who help nurture our students to be the best they can be. Our buildings and facilities may not be the latest, or up to date, but I am so proud of what happens here, each and every day in our school. There is quality learning and the development of collaborative relationships between staff and students. I want to keep building on our great foundations to ensure we provide the best opportunities for every one of our students.