Assistant Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

What a busy few weeks we have had finishing out the 2023 school year and starting 2024 Headstart this week! 

Whole School Assembly

We started out first day of the 2024 Headstart program with a Whole School Assembly to welcome our 2024 Student Leaders. 

Congratulations to our new College Captains Isabelle Vicendese and Antonio Marques Vaz Serra for presenting to our students – 2024 is going to be another great year!

Valedictory Evening

Well done to our Year 12 VCE students as exams finished last week. It was great to see so many students working with their VCE teachers during the examination period. We are looking forward to celebrating your hard work paying off when results are available next month. It was great to see all of our Class of 2024 students, along with parents, carers and staff at our Valedictory Evening at The Grand on Cathies Lane last night. It was a great night filled with lots of presentations, awards and laughs. Thank you to our Year 12 Coordinator, Tim Randell and Director of Senior School, Susan Cochrane and our for Promotions and Fundraising Leaders, Jordan Shenouda and Ava Bridger for their work on this wonderful event. Also thanks to Reema Ababneh for supporting Jordan and Ava. Thank you to our School Captains, Jeremy Thai Chan and Amelia Davidson, Principal, Michelle Roberts, our School Council President, Ian Fox for their speeches on the night.

Courage to Care Incursion

Thank you to our Assistant Principal, Rachael Stone, for organising with our Head of Humanities, Kate Duggan, the Holocaust Incursion for our Year 9 Humanities classes and Year 8 SEAL class. This day included various activities on defining the Holocaust and working to understand the six phases of the Holocaust. This was a powerful series of sessions which built upon our students' understanding from their previous work from studying ‘The Boy in Striped Pyjamas’ as part of our Middle School Communications Curriculum and via the ‘Courage to Care’ program. The lessons of the Holocuast can be universally applied and allows students to develop the capacity and willingness to be informed and active citizens. Learning about the dangers of hatred and discrimination in the Holocaust is important to fighting intolerance and prejudice in today’s world.

Student Led Conferences

Congratulations to our Middle School students for completing their Student Led Conferences last week. We had a near perfect online turn out and our Middle School teachers were impressed with the majority of presentations. Thank you to Simon Cummins, our Acting Assistant Principal for coordinating the SLC program for over 650 students! Thanks to parents and carers who were able to attend the online conferences with our students and for following up with your child if you were unable to make the online conference on the day. 

After preparation and presentation of our student led conferences our Middle School students were able to enjoy the next day together with their teachers for an enjoyable time at Gumbaya World in Tynong. Although the weather has been colder than usual the students and staff still took full advantage of the waterslides, thrill rides and other fun attractions. A big thank you to our Director of Middle School, Brendan McFarland, for organising a wonderful day. 

Year 10 and 11 Exams

Our Year 10 and 11’s also completed their exam period last week. Most students rose to the challenge during the exam period and it was impressive to see the growth and increased exam stamina of the students from last semester. We look forward to even more improvements and preparation in 2024. Thank you to our Senior team for coordinating nearly 70 individual exam groups as well as reschedules while our Year 12’s were also completing their VCAA exams. A big thank you to Kelliann Roberts, who coordinated the Special Exam arrangements for our Year 10 and 11 students. 

2024 Headstart Program

The students have made an enthusiastic start to the 2024 Headstart program. It has been great to see our students in their new classes ready to learn. A reminder that our bell times have changed for the 2024 school year.  Students all received a copy of the new bells via email and have received a hard copy this week. 

As starting the 2024 Headstart year can be a period of adjustment, please utilise the support available from our wellbeing team if needed. You can contact the Wellbeing Team via the Wellbeing Team email wellbeing@mc.vic.edu.au. A Wellbeing Team member will be in contact you via MC email to organise a check in.

Finally I’d like to thank all of the staff, students and the wider school community for their support of each other and making the transition from our 2023 school year into our 2024 Headstart program such a positive one. 

Tracey Bastin

Assistant Principal