From the Principal

Good morning everyone, we have had a fantastic start to the year. I have entered many classrooms this week and students are actively engaged in their learning and many have told me how happy they are to be back at school. 

Our Yr 7 students have participated in a range of activities to assist them in getting to know the school as quickly as possible. I look forward to them signing up for a club, squad and/or leadership position. They are not limited to one extra curricular activity, they can sign up for many, including ‘Adopting a Dream Catcher’. 

School photos took place on Monday and there will be a catch up session 15th February. 

The swimming carnival was a huge success with many records being broken. Students had a great time, looking amazing in their house colours. 

School Council Elections

‘School Council elections take place in Term 1 of each year and they are 2 year appointments.  Each school council operates according to Ministerial Order 1280, which details the objectives, functions and powers of a council and its size and composition.

There are three separate electorates within a school community: 

• parent electorate 
• school employee electorate 
• student electorate.

In addition, there is an optional community member category, and for a small number of school councils, a nominee member category.

A candidate for school council must be a person who is eligible for election to the membership category to which they are seeking election. 

• The nominator of a candidate standing for election to the parent member category must be a member of the parent electorate of the school. 
• The nominator of a candidate standing for election to the school employee member category must be a member of the school employee electorate of the school. 
• The nominator of a candidate standing for election to the student member category must be in Year 7 or above and be a member of the school student body.

At Mornington Secondary College we have several vacancies. These are:

• 3 x parent representatives
• 1 x staff representative
• 1 x student representative 
• 4 x community representatives

I would like to publicly acknowledge the work of the outgoing school council members for their commitment and dedication over the last 2 years. Thank you for your work and support throughout. 

If you are interested in joining School Council and would like details please ring Alli Betts in the General Office.

The timeline is as follows:

This week, I was provided with information about educational outcomes for the State of Victoria and I thought I would share this information with you.

Data snapshot from the National Report on Schooling in Australia - Victorian education outcomes

Student attendance

Victoria continues to have the best school attendance rates for Grade 1 to Year 10 in the country — and they are improving. 89.3% in 2023 is up from 87.7% in 2022.

Victoria also has the highest school attendance rates for indigenous students. 81% in 2023.

In 2023, Victoria’s attendance level improved by 10.1 percentage points.

This means that compared to 2022, 80,000 more students are attending school 90% or more of the time.

Engagement

In 2023, Victoria led the nation in the proportion of 15-to-19-year-olds engaged in education, training, or work by 90.4%.

Year 12 attainment

In 2022, Victoria had the second highest Year 12 attainment rate (82.6%). The slight decline from 2021 (83.7%) was the smallest of any jurisdiction.

Digital literacy

Victorian students scored above the national average for the proficiency standard in the National Assessment Program — Information and Communication Technology Literacy (NAP-ICTL) assessment.

Grade 6 at 61% with National Average at 55%.

Year 10 at 50% with National Average at 46%.

NAPLAN

Victoria ranked first or second in 16 of 20 domains, more than any other state and territory.

In 19 of 20 domains the mean score gaps between Victoria’s disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students were the smallest or second smallest in Australia.

Victorian Grade 3 students achieved the highest results in the country for reading and numeracy.

Smallest proportion in the country needing additional support in reading across grades 3 and 5, and years 7 and 9.

PISA

Victorian students performed above the OECD average in all domains, with performance holding steady compared to 2018.

In mathematics, Victoria performed on par with the strongest-performing Australian jurisdictions.

Victorian students were among the strongest performers in science and reading in Australia, behind only the ACT on mean score.

Many OECD countries saw their average score fall significantly particularly for mathematics and reading.

Victoria is 1 of only 2 jurisdictions that have not declined in reading and scientific literacy performance since 2006.

Thankyou for your ongoing support. I look forward to working with you throughout the year.

Linda Stanton

Principal

Important Dates for 2024

Term 1

February

Thursday 15th February - School photos catch up

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

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 Facebook and Instagram

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,

It brings me great pleasure to share some wonderful news about the fantastic start we've had at school, particularly with our Year 7 students. It's been wonderful to witness our newest members settling in so well, contributing enthusiastically and positively to our school community.

It feels like a seamless integration of our Year 7 students into the school environment. From day one, the students have embraced the challenges and opportunities of our comprehensive transition program. There have been many activities including the Scavenger Hunt. Through this interactive activity, students explored key locations within the school, such as the library, canteen, and sports facilities, while completing fun challenges and tasks along the way. Not only does this foster a sense of camaraderie among students, but it also instils a sense of belonging within our school community.

Walking around the college, I am delighted to report that our classrooms and yards have been characterized by calmness and positivity. The calm and orderly classrooms and excellent behaviour in the yard has laid a solid foundation for effective teaching and learning, allowing students to focus their energy on their learning.  Teachers have remarked on the cooperative spirit exhibited by students as we work together to build a wonderful learning and caring community.

Denise Leggett

Middle School Assistant Principal

Senior School

To students and families of the Mornington Senior School,

The year has begun well in the Senior School with students working hard to quickly establish good routines in the classroom. It was great to attend each of the 10, 11 and 12 year level assemblies last week and observe the energy and positivity in each of the year levels. The student management teams at each year level will be working closely with their cohorts this year to help them achieve their full potential. 

On a personal note, I am enjoying my role in working with 50 or so year 12 students through our ROADMAP program, which is a study skills, goal-setting and mentoring program designed to help students. The SAC (assessments) calendar for the first semester has been released to year 12 students and will also be published for year 11 students and families in the coming days.

Being prepared is an important part of achieving success for Senior School students and we want our students to know well in advance, so they can plan and prepare to maximise their outcomes in these assessments.

I know our students enjoyed themselves at the College Swimming Carnival this week and they’ll be back into their classes and working hard towards their first round of assessments.

Nick Evans

Senior School Assistant Principal

Bad Habits.......

Lets face it we all have one or two things that we do, habits, that we probably wish we didn’t. I wonder if you have ever thought about where those bad habits came from. Our habits form from the things we routinely do over and over, we can change them, but it is often hard, sometimes we have habits that we don’t even notice.  So what has this got to do with school? As a College we are working hard to help students form good habits, sometimes this can be challenging for students as it requires them to change their “usual” way of working, but forming good habits is an important part of growing up.  Our current focus is on lateness and the process is starting to work. Over the first 5 days of school we have seen a 50% reduction in student lateness, that’s a big change in such a short time. 

You can support this by helping your students form good habits around school.

Kind regards,

Mike Parker

Assistant Principal

Spotlight on Year 12

Year 12 coordination team. 

• Scott Kirkby  - Year 12 Team leader
• Victoria Milner - Year 12 Coordinator
• Jo Dixon - Year 12 Coordinator

Welcome to the start of 2024. My name is Scott Kirkby and I am the Team Leader of Year 12. This is my fifth year leading a Year 12 specific cohort and I thoroughly enjoy the role. Watching students apply themselves to their best and achieve their goals is one of the greatest joys of being a teacher. 

Attendance is essential for VCE students of both certificates. 90% is required and medical certificates are required for absences. Any assessment tasks that are missed require a medical in order for the student to attempt the task for a score on an alternative day. For VCE VM students, with the reduced school contact days, it is even more essential that students are in attendance to maintain their 90% attendance (students should aim for 95% and above as this has shown to achieve higher scores in most cases). 

In order for students to do their best this year, the best thing for them to do is to make a plan and set goals. We discussed some strategies during Connect and ROADMAP sessions to help students make plans and set themselves individual goals for the year. For VCE ATAR students, the requirement to ensure up to date work completion is 3 hours of independent work each day. This can be challenging for students. Please remind students that Year 12 is a shorter year than others and the summer break is extensive after Year 12, so work hard now and reap the rewards. Building positive work practices early will assist students to succeed, so we recommend starting this immediately. The alternative to this work completion is generally stress for the students and negatively impacted performance. We as a Year level team are happy to help and the roadmap teaching team will continue to mentor students with their planning and time management. 

VCE VM students have different but still challenging program requirements. It is essential that VET and work placement is attended each week and all tasks are completed in order to meet the requirements of the program. With so many moving parts in the certificate, attending and completing tasks at the time they are delivered is essential. 

Year 12 students have access to the R block area. This area has some microwaves, some toasties machines and a kettle. A study centre is the centre piece to the space. 

Half of the space is for social and eating and half is for quiet study. It has been great to see students using the space effectively and meeting the expectations of cleanliness in the area.

Mr Scott Kirkby

Year 12 Team Leader

Semester 1 2024

Weekly Support Groups for Students.

Students are welcome to attend, there is no requirement to book a place.

College Squads

Did you know we have these wonderful squads on offer.  All students are welcome to attend.

Senior School Edrolo Information

2024 Edrolo subscription access is being paid directly to Edrolo this year by families of VCE students.  In prior years, this cost was included with the College contributions. 

Please follow the link for more information Edrolo  

To make a payment please log onto the students Edrolo account.

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to read our school’s collection notice, found on our website https://mornsc.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MorningtonSecondaryCollege_Privacy-Collection-Statement-Policy-1.pdf

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use [Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education] safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using [Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education], please contact the school. 

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:

* Amharic

* Arabic

* Dari

* Gujarati

* Mandarin

* Somali

* Sudanese

* Turkish

* Urdu

* Vietnamese