Principal Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

A huge welcome to the 2025 school year and a special welcome to our Year 7 students and any other new students who are joining us this year for the first time; we are so happy to have you here with us at Mordialloc College. I hope that your holidays were fantastic, that you got to spend time with some of your favourite people, and that you are now looking forward to a positive 2025.

We have had a really settled start to the year; the heat has not stopped our students from enthusiastically joining in with school life! As I have walked around classrooms, I have seen your children engage with their learning, be respectful to their peers and teachers, and make the most of the opportunities that we have on offer; it is an absolute privilege to lead Mordialloc College.

As shared with students in our first whole-school assembly, that particular assembly is always my favourite: it is so inspiring to look out and see over 1200 faces with so much potential! In return, we ask students to put our Mordialloc College values into action and to:

 * Be responsible: you will make mistakes but let us help you to learn from them and to be successful.

* Be respectful: it takes courage to accept others and to treat everyone as you would prefer to be treated

* Have integrity: do the right thing, even when it is a challenge and others may try to influence you otherwise

* Discover what you need to do to achieve your personal best and be brave enough to let us help you to do it. 

Yesterday, I contacted each family via Compass with a letter regarding our expectations for the year. Can I ask you to please keep this letter safe as it will help you to support us to create a positive environment focused on learning, and a supportive school community underpinned by respectful relationships. Our focus is always on creating a learning environment where all students can experience success.

Welcome to Year 7!

The first day for our Year 7 students involved rotations between ICT set up, developing their class codes of cooperation aligned to our four core values, relational activities to get to know their new classmates and home group teacher, locker allocation and getting organised e.g. how to set up all their exercise books for their various subjects, starting to look at their first project for the year, Me in the LC, and of course meeting staff and friends who will accompany them on this next stage of their school journey.

 I managed to get into every Year 7 class to say hello and ‘Welcome to Mordialloc College’ and all Year 7 students were having a great time; I even got to have a lunch time chat with lots of Year 7 students, which really did make my day! 

A big thanks to Jo Hannan and the Year 7 team for such a successful start to the year for our new Year 7 students.

A Big Year for Year 12!

Our Year 12 students spent their first day rotating through fun team building activities run by The School of Play. It was an incredibly positive start and a great reminder for students to approach this year as a team, to engage in self-care, to have an optimistic mindset, and to focus on success in 2025. Students then later spent time reflecting and setting goals, developing habits required to achieve the aspirations that they have set for themselves this year.

Students also had their locker allocated and an introduction by Ms Cochrane (Senior School Director and Acting Year 12 Coordinator) around our expectations of our Year 12 students and the use of the Senior School Centre.

Year 12 is an important year for students and their families, and some deep discussions have led to some helpful tips for success that I would like to share with you so that you feel better placed to support your child this year:

• regular completion of practice exam questions and getting feedback from teachers,
• taking on feedback and re-writing answers or paragraphs for improvement,
• prioritise work that is challenging, not work that is easy,
• take regular breaks,
• utilise your study periods and before and after school time in the senior study centre,
• do not let one disappointing SAC mark get you down,
• set goals for your pathway beyond school,
• take the time to build a strong relationship with your teachers and make the most of the support offered by teachers in and out of class time,
• little and often (do not need to write an essay every time for feedback) instead regular submission of paragraphs for English to get feedback,
• take time out to enjoy the activities you like to do,
• you can lead a balanced life of schoolwork/study, work and sport or social activities.

Students need to bring their Personal Best consistently over these final three terms in order to achieve their goals.  The number one piece of advice? Nothing beats effort in Year 12.

Utilise the support of our fantastic Year 12 teachers and Senior team, support each other through the highs and lows, stay optimistic, make the most of all opportunities presented and, of course, enjoy your final year at Mordialloc College.

The cherry on the cake to a great start for Year 12 was the annual rollout of our Year 12 hoodies; they have been really popular amongst Year 12 and I am sure you will agree, they wear them well!

A big thanks to Susan Cochrane and the Senior team for an inspirational start to Year 12.

Positive Behaviours for Learning

Throughout 2024, we listened carefully to students, families and staff about the behaviours we knew needed to be consistent in order to support student learning and wellbeing.

We worked closely with a variety of external providers to develop a matrix of evidence-based practices that are conducive to positive learning and wellbeing outcomes for our students.

During HeadStart, our students worked with their teachers to create Codes of Cooperation based around the Mordialloc College Positive Behaviours for Learning, the feedback from students about their ownership of that work was really positive and has given each class absolute clarity about the behaviours we need to consistently engage with as a community.

There will continue to be student work on the Mordialloc College Positive Behaviours for Learning matrix, we really want to get this right. The aim is that later in the year, we will reach out to families for their feedback on what more they need to know about this work so that they can continue to support the college.

Mr Cummins will be sharing further insights in his newsletter article in Week 3.

Teaching & Learning 2025

Our Teaching and Learning this year will be centred around our new Mordialloc College Instructional Model. Led by Aaron Davis (Acting AP of Teaching & Learning) and our wonderful group of Instructional Coaches (Bryony Lowe, Matt Smith, Amanda Keen), we have utilised contemporary evidence about the way students learn and the most effective teaching practices and approaches to achieve strong learning outcomes to create a framework for Teaching & Learning at Mordialloc College.

Over this coming year, you will see this great work reflected in how we plan, how we engage in feedback with students, and how we engage in conversations with you.

Mr Davis will be sharing further insights in his newsletter article in Week 4.

 Building Program Update

This has been a long and extremely thorough process! Throughout 2024 we continued to work closely with Minx Architecture and the VSBA to further develop the plans for our new ArtsTech Resource Centre build. These documents will be ready for tender over the coming weeks, the aim being that we are then fully prepared to move quickly if we are successful when the State Budget is delivered in May. I will continue to pass on information as I receive it.

School Strategic Plan 2024-2028

All work in this space was completed on time by Mordialloc College, a huge thanks to the staff students and families who gave up so much of their time throughout 2024 to create this plan.

We are now waiting for the go-ahead to be able to share this with School Council, and then the school community. I look forward, as soon as I am able, to sharing this work with you.

Student Pick Up and Drop Off

There are not enough car parks for parents to enter the school grounds by car. This includes the car park out the front of the main building and the very small car park near the Senior Centre (near the railway line). As road works start to become more frequent along Station Street, you will also find it increasingly challenging to drive around the streets near to the college entrance.

Please arrange to collect your child offsite. The safest way to pick up your child is via Governor Road, with students exiting the school near the Discovery Centre and crossing the creek via the bridge just outside our school that runs into this carpark. You must not leave your car unattended on the Bike Ramp car park, as there is a fining system in place. We have reached out to the council to support the Mordialloc College community with a way forward for us all to utilise that carpark during the Level Crossing works, when it happens,  I will share the outcome of that continuing conversation with you. 

We have several new staff starting/returning in 2025:

• Tim Roche - Teacher of English (started in HeadStart)
• Amanda Keen - Instructional Coach (started in HeadStart)
• Karmen Cataldo - Teacher of Sci/Maths (started in HeadStart)
• Gunjan Behl - Teacher of Maths (started in HeadStart)
• Linda Walsh - Youth Counsellor (return from leave)
• Kerry Archer - Teacher of Science (return from leave)
• Samantha Wells - Teacher of OES (return from leave)
• Julia Cooper - Front Office (return from leave)
• Moira Philp - Career Pathways (started January 2025)
• Kim Lenc – Teacher of HPE (return from leave)
• Hayley Gregory -Teacher of English/Hums (return from leave)

 Over the Christmas period, Blake Murray (English/Hums) and Mara Sears (English/Hums) took positions at other schools. I am happy to share that we have recruited two new English/Hums teachers who will both be with us before the end of March. More information will be sent out to students in their classes in due course.

Key Contacts

Please don’t hesitate to contact us here at the College if you need to speak to someone.

Introducing the College Leadership Team for 2025

• Principal: Rachael Stone 
• Assistant Principal: Senior School/ Attendance/ International Students –Tracey Bastin
•  Acting Assistant Principal: Middle School/T&L/ Assessment– Aaron Davis
•  Assistant Principal: Junior School/ Student Services / Facilities & OHS – Simon Cummins
• Director of Senior School (Years 11-12) – Susan Cochrane
• Director of Middle School (Years 9 - 10) – Angela Holloway
• Director of Junior School (Years 7 - 8) – Brendan McFarland
• Instructional Coaches: Bryony Lowe, Matt Smith, Amanda Keen
• Director of Student Engagement - Julia Hockey
• Director of Student Services– Sarah Letho

 Introducing the Year Level Coordinators

•  Senior School – Susan Cochrane (Acting Year 12), Kellie Goebel (Year 11), Mick Haber (VM)
•  Middle School – Georgia Davey (Year 10), Daniel Mayadas and Elizabeth Ireson (Year 9)
•  Junior School - Andrew Potter and Claire Bruce (Year 8), Jo Hannan (Year 7)
•  International Students – Brigitte Podesser

 Introducing the Learning Area Leaders

•  Maths – Amelia Hargreaves
•  English – Kate Mottershead
• Humanities – Kate Duggan
• Science – Allan Thompson
• Acting Health/PE – Matt Smith
•  The Arts/Technology – Quinn Daly
• LOTE – Eleni Capp
• EAL – Brigitte Podessor
• VM – Kodilee Strahan

Mobile Phones

We had an amazing success with our roll out of keeping Mordialloc College a mobile free school. Thank you to the families that supported this initiative, I hope that you have seen the benefits of reduced screen time for your children. We will continue to have high expectations in this space for 2025.

Uniform and Jewellery

Our Uniform Policy was created over a period of six months with members of the School Council, school community, Mordialloc College Student Council and staff all contributing ideas and time to create a policy that reflects the needs of our school community. Wearing the correct school uniform embraces our values, promotes equity amongst our students, and reflects a real pride in the processes that we follow to uphold what is important to our Mordialloc College community. We therefore have high expectations about wearing the correct school uniform. 

I would like to congratulate the majority of students who have started off the year in a positive way by wearing the correct College uniform and I thank all families for your support with this. A reminder that all students should be wearing black leather lace up school shoes not fabric sneakers; this is an OHS consideration, we want your child to be safe whilst working in spaces such as Science and Technology.

For PE and Sport, a reminder that students are required to be SunSmart and wear a broad brimmed or bucket hat when participating in outdoor activities. More information about PE/Sports uniform is in the Expectations for 2025 letter sent out this week to all families.

All students should also be using the official Mordialloc College green school bag available from Dobsons.

A reminder of the rules outlined in the College uniform policy regarding jewellery. There are OHS issues associated with wearing jewellery in many of our learning spaces; we really would appreciate family support in keeping our school a safe space to move around.

Jewellery is not to be worn apart from a wristwatch, a plain stud or sleeper for students with pierced ears, and one plain stud or sleeper for a nose piercing. 

College Council Elections

School Council elections are approaching.  Further information will be in the newsletter next week and nominations forms available from Reception.  Please give some thought to contributing to the College by participating in School Council – there are generally two evening meetings per term, and it can be very rewarding.  School Council decides, to a large extent, the policies and direction the College takes and is therefore an important part of the College community.

Communication

The function of our weekly newsletter is to celebrate Mordialloc College, showcase our community, and to keep you up to date with pertinent information that helps you engage with Mordialloc College. We know that successful relationships with families and our wider school community contributes to student success, and our newsletters are just one way we communicate with you. A reminder that newsletters from previous years can be found on our website:  Mordialloc College Newsletters.

Compass is our preferred method of daily communication. Please make sure that your contact details are correct on Compass. We will hopefully be running a drop-in session to support your use of Compass later on in the year, watch this space!

All the very best for an amazing term of supporting every child’s success at Mordialloc College.

Rachael Stone

Principal