Principal Update

Dear Families, Students and Mordialloc College Community,

Welcome to Week 4! Having absolute clarity about our PB4L routines, and our new Instructional Model has really paid off; our students and staff have quickly got back into the swing of things. Our new Year 7 students are engaging well with the Mordialloc College way: high expectations around Personal Best, Integrity, Respect, and Responsibility.

Connectivity and Belonging

School connectedness (a sense of belonging to school and the wider community) is intentionally fostered through our 7-12 curriculum, where staff have designed opportunities for students to engage successfully with their classmates, to build relationships with members of the Mordialloc College community, and to be actively involved in activities that allow them voice and agency.

At the beginning of this academic year, every student will have been involved in creating their own ‘Codes of Cooperation’, these are the rules that they know are needed for their learning, and which they agree are important to them in each of their classes.

Our Mordialloc College Student Council has been actively engaged in speaking with Department of Education colleagues about what works at school, and what needs to be evolved to better improve their experience at school. We will be reflecting and acting on this feedback as we move forward through 2026.

Year 7 in the Community

Our Year 7 students went to Mordialloc Beach last Friday. They played volleyball and cricket, wandered along the pier, and enjoyed the simple joy of sand, sea and being with classmates and staff. A great opportunity to connect, unwind, and strengthen our school community.

Swimming Sports Carnival.

What a great day! Student behaviour was wonderful, watching students support each other and their house-mates was amazing, and the swimming was exceptional. All of our competitors had one thing in common: they threw their very best effort at joining in.  Yet again, our Mordialloc College Staff Swimmers put in a valiant effort against the students but didn't quite grab the gold medal, maybe next year?! 

I should not have expected anything less; the whole event represented how brilliantly Mordialloc comes together! The recreation ground was left spotless (big thanks to Year 12), staff and students were exhausted but fulfilled, I was really proud of everyone who joined in on the day.

A huge thanks to everyone who made it happen, and to all of our students who represented our college so positively. 

For those of you with a competitive streak, this year’s swimming champions were Iwala (red house). Congratulations to you!!

Mama Mia!

Lunchtime clubs have commenced with great enthusiasm and our Mordialloc College Captains, and other student leaders are continuing to discuss how to make this year’s whole school House and fundraising events become the best ones yet for participation and engagement. 

Alongside those extra-curricular activities our “Mama Mia!” cast started their rehearsals, and we will soon be reaching out to our community to support us in making this a show that would make Hollywood jealous!! 

All information about clubs, house points and leadership can be found on the ‘MoreMordi’ section of Compass (under the star menu); there is also the option of giving us your ideas about a club that you would like to see here at Mordialloc College!

College Council Elections

College Council elections are approaching, and this is an amazing way for you to get involved with supporting Mordialloc College; we are fully aware of the importance of family involvement in student success..  Further information about School Councils can be found on this link, and nomination forms are available from the Front Office.  

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 therefore contributes some really important work for our Mordialloc College community. Further information about the School Council Nomination Process can be found in our official notification later on in this newsletter. 

Homework

The College believes that to promote student engagement with their learning, some homework and home study should done regularly under the coordination of the teacher, and with the support of families. I know too well the sound of my own children telling me that they ‘have no work to do at home’ so, I hope that I can offer some ways to support you when that message makes its way to you!

Homework and home study are best completed as close to the lesson as possible, in quiet conditions, and as far away from the distractions of a mobile phone as you can muster. The Department of Education has further information about homework but to surmise, students’ work at home is divided into two categories:

HOME STUDY is where students independently follow-up on class work by creating notes, revision posters, and annotating work from the day to ensure that work is understood. Home study is a great opportunity to apply understanding to practice tasks, and for students to reflect on what they need to highlight to their teacher for further support, or extension. If you need a good place to start, then please use your child’s lesson plans on Compass to inform your next step around supporting your child with the content that they are currently covering in each subject.

HOMEWORK  is a task set by the teacher and will have parameters, for example a due date..

Please reach out to your child’s subject teacher if you need help with supporting your child’s schoolwork.

To further support your child, we run a variety of Home Work and Study Support sessions throughout the College, the most popular being Study Support sessions for Years 10-12 in the Senior Centre (these run most days after school), and Homework Club sessions for Years 7-9 in the LC (these run on Wednesdays after school). Students should also ask their subject teacher if they have lunchtime study sessions, as many Mordialloc College staff will give up their own time to run small study sessions for their own students on an ‘as needed’ basis. 

Year 7 Information Afternoon: Wednesday 4th March

On Wednesday 4th March (3.30 - 4.30) we will hold our Year 7 Parent Meet & Greet in our Year 7 and Year 8 Learning Centre.  We hope our new Year 7 families can attend as it is always a real pleasure to meet new members of our college community.

The session will provide an opportunity for families to be introduced to the key features of the Year 7 program, as well as meeting key Mordialloc College staff. In addition, a number of our core Year 7 teachers and home group teachers will be available to introduce themselves to parents. Our new Year 7 students are always so proud to show us off to you and so, I really do hope that you are able to attend!

 Communication

To segway in from the above, it is easy to see how the transition from primary school into secondary school might cause a little anxiety for some new families, our college is often a lot bigger than your primary school was! Whilst we put many measures in place to smooth out this process, we know that communication is the key ingredient for a successful relationship with you.

Communication is slightly different at secondary school in that our main method of communication is via Compass. You will find the Compass App an invaluable way of quickly checking your child’s attendance, your child’s lessons for the day, events you need to give permission for, and any upcoming Learning Tasks and/or Benchmark Tasks. If you need help with resetting passwords, support ensuring your child has permission for an event etc, please contact the Front Office.

If I can encourage you to look at the Learning Tasks regularly, you should clearly be able to see the due date and the submission status for each learning task. Via your Compass App, you will be able to see information similar to this:

If you access Compass via your browser, you will have the option to not only see upcoming Learning Tasks, but to also see any overdue Learning Tasks.

If you click on the ‘Send email to’ you will be provided with the option to choose which of your child’s teachers to contact as regards a subject-specific concern. Please feel free to contact a classroom teacher if a Learning Task does not have the due date provided, and this is therefore stopping you from better supporting your child’s organisation.

We really want families to be aware of exactly what their child is doing in class, we know that this information can help you to feel empowered to better support your child with their progress at Mordialloc College.  Using Compass to share this information with you is an evolving space for us and we are far from perfect but, we are on a journey of continual improvement, and we have made great gains! 

So that we can evolve our pedagogical practice and further develop our curriculum. we have dedicated a lot of Professional Learning time to evolving our Instructional Model 2.0 and  Positive Behaviours for Learning matrix, our vision being success for every student when they leave us in Year 12.  We will continue to prioritise research based pedagogy, and Wellbeing for Learning; I am absolutely confident that our Mordialloc College families will benefit from our focus on meeting our students at their personalised point of need.

Rachael Stone

Principal