Acting Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Leadership Induction Whole School Assembly

On Tuesday 12th March, it was an absolute pleasure to formally recognise our students who have been successful in achieving a leadership position on the Mordialloc College Student Council for 2024.  

Mr Tim Richardson, MP, State Member for Mordialloc, attended to make a speech and to join me with the presentation of the leadership badges and certificates. Thanks to Mr Mark Dreyfus MP, Federal member for Isaacs for providing the certificates, however, he was not able to attend due to parliament commitments in Canberra. Julia Hockey, Director of Student Engagement, did a wonderful job organising and leading the assembly, along with our School Captains. 

Our student leadership structure provides opportunities for authentic student agency across our six student-led sub-committees: Curriculum, Wellbeing and Community, Facilities and Environment, The Arts, Sport, Publicity and Fundraising.

We also recognised our School Captains, Middle School Captains, Year 12 captains and House Captains.

I congratulate all students who were prepared to nominate and go through our selection process, it wasn’t quite Australian Idol but, it was up there!

Mordialloc College Student Council 2024

College Captains: Antonio Marques Vaz Serra and Isabelle Vicendese

College Vice Captains: Jaylyn Clarke and James Wilson

Middle School Captains: William Fleming and Zoe McPherson

Middle School Vice Captains: Ava Wilson, Nathan Krummel and Jamie Thai-Chan

Sub- Committees

Curriculum: 

Year 12 leader: Jordan Walklate

Sub-Committee Members:

Georgia Tilley, Will Wang, Eden Handfield, Jake Hickey, Liam Walsh and William Fleming

Facilities and Environment

Year 12 leaders: Dennis Li and Nissar Ali

Sub-Committee Members:

Jensen Srisuwan, Rebecca Dowling, Nathan Krummel and Jamie Thai-Chan

Promotion and Fundraising

Year 12 leaders: Antonio Marques Vaz Serra and James Wilson

Sub-Committee Members:

George Horejsi, Ben Roberts, Praniska Chand, Ethan Simons, Pilippa Letch and Ruilin Zhang 

The Arts

Year 12 Leaders: Performing Arts: Caitlin Ford, Eden Lasbury and Lachlan Welsh

Visual Arts: Brandon Bamford and Charlotte Kypriotis

Sub-Committee Members: 

Performing Arts: Lucy Beckett, Kylie Wolfe, Charlotte Ellem and Zoe McPherson

Visual Arts: Chloe Thompson, Laura Rhind, Chloe Moore and Lacey Davidson

Wellbeing and Community

Year 12 leaders: Claudia Siddall and Jaylyn Clarke

Sub-Committee Members:

Alber Tun, Keilahni Merkle, Suu Mon Naing and Darcy Pietrzak

Sports

Year 12 leaders: Piri Faid and Isabelle Vicendese

Sub-Committee Members:

Stella Riley, Mia Scott-Cunningham, Lucas Sansfacon, Emily Northey, Jake Stanguts, Hugo Mills and Ava Wilson 

Year 12 House Captains

Kalura: Callum Grieve and Douglas Hawkins

Yerlonga: Emre Aslan, Owen Joy, Ben Alford and William Fraser

Iwala: Alexandra Healy and Charlotte Kerr

Bunurong: Darby Blinco, Mika Faid, Tim McQuiston and Emma Medin-Dodd

AGM and School Council

In the recent call for nominations for parent vacancies on School Council I am pleased to share that we received enough nominations to fill all School Council vacancies.

At the AGM held on Thursday 14th March, the following parents were elected to the School Council Executive:

• School Council President – Jason Allen
• School Council Vice President – Jenny McCulloch
• School Council Treasurer – Stuart Kerr

Alongside our School Council Executive, our School Council parent members for 2024 are: Amelia Mastorakos, Richard Evans and Mirela Karup; I would also like to extend a warm welcome our new parent members Shelley Connell and Alison Read.

We had one nomination for one DET vacancy, Tracey Bastin has been elected to this position and will serve alongside Simon Cummins and myself. Aaron Davis as Acting Assistant Principal will also be on School Council whilst Michelle Roberts is on Long Service Leave. 

We had one nomination for the vacant student position on School Council, Liam Walsh was duly elected and will serve alongside Tallain Connell. 

School Captains Antonio Marques Vaz Serra and Isabelle Vicendese join Council as community members for 2024. 

I would like to thank them for the extra commitment they are prepared to make to our school community in taking on the responsibilities involved in these important roles. 

We have three outgoing members of School Council: Ian Fox, Rosa Westrup and David Shephard; I thank them all for their most valuable contributions and service over this time. 

Drills

You may have heard from your child about a drill that was conducted at the College last week. All DET schools are required by the DET to conduct emergency response exercises (also known as drills) at least once each term. The College has successfully been carrying out this exercise for several years.

The benefits of conducting a drill are: 

• staff get to know and practice their emergency response responsibilities 

• students become familiar with different response procedures 

• the College learns from the drill by reviewing and improving response procedures. 

Conducting drills for different types of emergency situations keeps our students and staff safe as it helps us to be better prepared in case we need to respond to a real emergency. We fully recognise the importance of rehearsing our response procedures to emergency incidents.

Following each drill, we hold a staff debrief to ensure we address any issues so that we can make continual improvements. This drill was conducted successfully so please pass on our thanks to your child.

Reporting to Parents

On Friday 15th March, Progress Check 1 reports were released to families and students via Compass. These progress checks focus on our students’ learning behaviours which link to our school values, their attendance, and their academic progress.  Please download these reports from Compass to make it easier to discuss them with your child/ren. 

As mentioned in my last newsletter, our students receive specific written feedback from their teachers on benchmark tasks and SACs, some of which is shared via Compass. Students are given class time to reflect and identify areas for improvement and it is really useful when families also engage in conversations with their child/ren about the feedback that they have received this term on their benchmark tasks and SACs.

A reminder that we have our upcoming Parent/Student – Teacher Interviews on Wednesday 27th March. After looking at Compass, if you have questions about your child’s progress, lesson plans, feedback and learning tasks, then those interviews are the perfect time to speak with Subject Teachers. We are really looking forward to speaking with you!

COMPASS LINK

Rachael Stone

Acting Principal

Mordialloc College would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land – the Bunurong/Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation, and pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging. 

As a school and community, we are committed to a greater understanding and appreciation of Indigenous culture.