School News
Mirboo North Community Op Shop
The College is managing the Op Shop from the 9th to the 21st of September. We are still looking for helpers to assist in its running. Please contact the Office if you have some free time on 5667 9000.
Clean out your cupboards and donate to the shop any pre-loved goods that you no longer need to help support the College with this fundraiser. (No electrical items, household furniture or baby furniture.)
Thank you.
STEM
Are you a hands-on person? Have you always been curious about how things work? Do you enjoy thinking outside of the box and coming up with new solutions? Do you want to make the world a better place? Do new scientific discoveries and advances inspire you? A career in STEM could be just for you. Check out this Careers In STEM Newsletter. For more information about Careers in STEM or pathways to Careers in STEM, come and see Nicole in the Careers and Pathways office.
Valedictory Dinner
This year we look forward to bringing our Year 12s together to celebrate completing Year 12 at their Valedictory Dinner. The event will be held at the Moe Racing Club, on Wednesday 20th November with guests arriving at 6.30pm.
A reminder to parents/guardians/carers that payment for tickets can be made via Compass or the General Office. Initial tickets are to be paid for by the 30th of September, and for those who have requested extra tickets, these need to be paid for by the 11th October.
Breakfast Club
A reminder that there is NO breakfast club in Term 4.
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
MNSC currently has a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) on loan from GTAC. Students have been able to explore the microscopic world both during classes and at recess and lunchtime.
The Year 10 Life Ready - Foodbank Cupcake Activity has been a huge success!
Today the Thursday Life Ready class presented the Mirboo North Foodbank distribution with the combined classes supply of cupcakes, produced by the students at MNSC as part of Life Ready Skills program.
They also helped assemble another 27 food hampers with the Equip Church/Foodbank organisers ready for collection. A service provided to aide our local community members in need.
School Saving Bonus
In Term 4, 2024, families with a child enrolled in a government school from Prep to Year 12 in 2025 will receive the one-off $400 School Saving Bonus.
The $400 School Saving Bonus provides families with support for education-related costs, such as school activities and/or school uniforms and textbooks.
The School Saving Bonus is not available for full-fee international students, home schooled students, TAFE students and students attending kindergarten in 2025.
Actions for parents and carers
Before 18 October 2024, the Department of Education is asking parents and carers to:
- Complete enrolment: If your child, or children are changing government schools for Term 1 2025, or starting Prep or Year 7 in 2025. For more information, read about Enrolling in School.
- Check your contact information: Ensure your email address and phone number is up to date with us. You can check this information by contacting us directly.
We need to ensure your contact information is up to date as the Department of Education will email you twice:
- in October, to verify your email address
- in November with your $400 School Saving Bonus code and access to an online system.
Please check your junk mail regularly to make sure you do not miss an important email.
To learn more about the School Saving Bonus, download the School Saving Bonus Information sheet for government school parents and carers or visit vic.gov.au/school-saving-bonus.
Code Red Fire Danger
A reminder to all families, that on days of Code Red in the West & South Gippsland Fire Zone, the College will be closed.
We ask families to be aware of this in preparation to when summer returns.
School preparations for the bushfire season
Each year, to prepare for bushfires and grassfires, schools and early childhood services complete a range of activities.
The Department of Education runs an annual fire risk assessment of schools and early childhood services. They are allocated a category of risk (categories 0 to 4) and are published on the Bushfire At-Risk Register (BARR).
All schools and early childhood services listed on the BARR and Category 4 list will also close when a Catastrophic fire danger rating day is forecast in their fire weather district.
When the Bureau of Meteorology provides public fire danger rating forecasts or fire weather warnings, they use fire weather district areas. In Victoria, there are 9 fire weather districts, which are based on Local Government Area boundaries. Our school is in the West and South Gippsland fire weather district.
As part of preparing our school for the fire season, we have updated and completed our Emergency Management Plan and prioritised any maintenance works that may assist in preparing for the threat of fire, and cleared our facility’s grounds and gutters
What does this mean for our school?
Our school has been identified as being at risk of bushfire or grassfire and is a Category 3 school.
Our school will close on a day forecasted as Catastrophic fire danger rating in West and South Gippsland fire district.
What is the department’s policy?
The department’s Bushfire and Grassfire Preparedness Policy requires all schools and early childhood services on the BARR and the Category 4 list to close when a Catastrophic fire danger rating day is forecast in their fire weather district. All school bus routes which travel in or through a district with Catastrophic fire danger must also be cancelled.
When will our school be closed due to Catastrophic fire danger?
Our school will close on a day forecasted as Catastrophic fire danger rating in West and South Gippsland fire district.
Closure of the school due to a forecast Catastrophic day will be confirmed on the day prior and we will provide you with advice before the end of the school day. Any information regarding potential or confirmed Catastrophic fire danger days will be communicated to you by Facebook and Compass/ email.
Once confirmed, the decision to close will not change, even if the weather forecast changes. This is to avoid confusion and help your family plan alternative care arrangements for your child. It is also important to be aware that:
- No one will be on site on days where the school is closed due to a forecasted Catastrophic day.
- All bus routes that travel through the Catastrophic area will be cancelled.
- School camps will be cancelled if a Catastrophic fire danger rating day is forecast for fire weather district in which the camp is located, or if the travel involves passing through areas that have Catastrophic fire danger.
Families are encouraged to action their Bushfire Survival Plan on Catastrophic fire danger rating days. On such days, children should never be left at home alone or in the care of older children.
For those of us living in a bushfire prone area, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) advises that when Catastrophic days are forecast, the safest option is to leave the night before or early on the morning of the Catastrophic day.
What can families and the school community do to help us prepare?
- Ensure we have your current contact details, including your mobile phone numbers.
- Keep in touch with us by reading our newsletters, checking our website Mirboo North Secondary College - Strive To Serve (mnsc.vic.edu.au) and the school’s social media.
- Make sure your family’s bushfire survival plan is up-to-date and includes alternative care arrangements in the event that our school is relocated, undertaking learning from home and/or closed due to elevated fire danger or closed due to a Catastrophic fire danger. Further information can be found on the CFA’s website.
- Action your family’s bushfire survival plan if your own triggers are met. Our school community may be spread out across many areas and some families may be at higher risk than others. Your family’s safety is critical, so please let us know if you are actioning your bushfire survival plan and if your children will be absent on these days.
- If your child is old enough, talk to them about bushfires and your family’s bushfire survival plan.
You can find more information on emergencies, warnings and preparedness actions here:
- Vic Emergency app – that can be downloaded on your android and iOS mobile devices
- Vic Emergency Hotline (1800 226 226)
- Website https://emergency.vic.gov.au
- ABC local radio, Sky News and other emergency broadcasters
- Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/vicemergency)
- Twitter (https://twitter.com/vicemergency)
German Poetry Competition / Deutscher Gedichtwettbewerb 2024
Our Annual German Poetry competition was held in August with our Year 7s and Year 8s. Students gave up their lunchtime to recite a German poem with correct pronunciation and intonation. We’re proud to present the 2024 winners:
Year 7
Raiden Knabe
Lenny Gray
Logan Richards
Year 8
Oscar Draper
Maverick Lewis
Davis Molesworth
Gut gemacht Leute! (Well done guys)
XSEL & MNSC
School Bus Reminder
Reminder to all fare paying bus traveller families that Term 4 fares are due by Friday 20th September.
GRAND RIDGE RAIL TRAIL RECOVERY PROJECT
The College would like to thank the Wednesday Warriors and the South Gippsland Bass Coast LLEN for providing some of our Year 10 cohort the opportunity to gain more work experience. Although the project was interrupted by the weather, students were still able to gain invaluable experience in landscaping, planting and mulching. The lunch provided on the last day was also greatly appreciated.
NEWTON’S LAWS AND EGGS?!
It was time to put Newton’s Laws of Motion to the test with an ‘eggciting’ egg drop. Students only had 20 minutes to design their safety devices with limited resources in the hope that they would keep their eggs alive. They did such an ‘eggcellent’ job that we finished with an egg hurl instead of a drop. Two slippery eggs still survived.
Footy Colours & R U OK? Day
On 12/09/2024 we had our annual footy and RUOK day? at school where we dress up in our favourite footy clothes to support our teams or wear yellow colours for wellbeing. On this day our VOS (Voice of Students) team organised and ran a number of different activities for the students. These were, a best goal competition, a handball challenge, a three-legged race, Jenga and connect 4, all of which came with prizes to the best performers. Throughout the day it was difficult to find someone that wasn’t having fun, whether it was hunting for ducks, stacking up a Jenga tower or kicking snags everyone had a smile on their face.
We were also lucky enough to have HookStars Fairy Floss come out and provide us with cooling snow cones and delicious fairy floss sticks bigger than your head.
Overall the day was a great success that ended with everyone being as happy as can be after a fun-filled day. The money from the gold coin donations will go towards an outdoor ping-pong table available to all, with the rest going to the Cancer Foundation.
Clancy Mills and Oliver Mahoney
VOS
Sports News
On Tuesday 10th September, we had 24 students head to Newborough for Gippsland Athletics. We had some really good results throughout the day with students representing the College well.
Congratulations to the follow students:
Spencer O’Connor – 1st Shot Put
Gemma Filtness – 5th 500m
Kaedan Connor – 1st Discus AND Javelin
Charlotte Evans – 1st High Jump, 3rd in Triple Jump and 200m, 4th 100m, 5th 400m
Angus O’Connor – 1st Shot Put
Noah Bradley – 3rd 200m
Aleeah Munnich – 5th Long Jump, 4th 100m
Miller Jackson – 4th 1500m
Charlie Bickerton – 4th Javelin, 6th Discus
Mia O’Brien – 2nd Shot Put, 6th Javelin
Imogen Nash – 3rd Javelin
Zac De Beer – 1st Hurdles
Jenna Dourley – 2nd 400m
14 Girls Relay (Charlotte Evans, Beth McDuffie, Cora-Lynn Munnich, Kal Francis) – 2nd
15 Girls Relay (Lottie McCulloch, Rose McColl, Zoe Briscoe, Matilda Read) – 5th
17 Girls Relay (Mia O’Brien, Aleeah Munnich, Zali Budd, Gemma Filtness) – 6th
Those who finished first in their respective events advance through to the State Finals on Monday 21st October at Lakeside Stadium, Albert Park.
SUBJECT SELECTION PROCESS FOR YEAR 9 – 2025 Not long now!
Our current Year 8s will soon be going through the exciting process of choosing their electives for their Year 9 program in 2025. As students enter their final year of the Middle School, we aim to offer learning opportunities which are both engaging and focused on the development of life skills, leadership and employability skills. We do this through the core subjects we offer, X-SEL (our Social and Emotional Literacy subject), as well as the electives we offer each year.
In 2025, we are also excited to offer two new Technology based subjects, pending the training of two staff members. ‘Trade Taster’ and ‘Fashion Design & Textiles’ are designed to provide specific pathways into further VET (Vocational Education & Training) units in Senior years, and post-secondary school. They will run for One semester only, and also require students to complete an Expression of Interest (EOI) form, which has been advertised through Compass this week.
Please see Ms Neill in the Middle School for more information & an application form if you are interested
The outline of the elective subjects we will be offering is below. Please note that some hands-on learning opportunities come at a significant cost to MNSC (costs not covered by Department of Education), and therefore we request that you consider paying the additional fees if you select these subjects. These are outlined in detail in the 2025 Year 9 Handbook. Please find the link here.
Schools may request payments for extra-curricular items and activities. These are items and activities that enhance or broaden the schooling experience of students and are above and beyond what your school provides for free to deliver the Curriculum. https://www.vic.gov.au/school-costs-and-fees
All Year 8 students will undertake a group course counselling session early in Term 4, where we will guide them through the online program; Web Preference Manager. This will generate student choices & sends students an email, to take home and discuss with families, before final decisions are made.
Please feel free to contact the Middle School for further information & explanation of this process.
Melissa Neill
Assistant Principal.