Principal's Report
Melbourne Girls’ College and the Centre for Higher Education Studies, Melbourne High School
I am pleased and excited to announce that Melbourne Girls’ College is one of the five inner-city schools to have access to courses at Melbourne High School’s Centre for Higher Education. The 2018 State Budget included a commitment of $27.5 million to construct the Centre of Higher Education Studies on a site adjacent to MHS. The Centre will be designed as a hybrid between a secondary and tertiary learning environment. Congratulations to the MHS principal, Jeremy Ludowyke and the MHS Foundation who have worked for the realisation of this project for over eight years.
The Centre is an innovative project to ensure that highly able students enrolled at Melbourne Girls’ have access to yet another range of facilities designed to support the transition to tertiary studies. University studies require greater independence and the Centre will look like and operate more like a contemporary tertiary facility. Students will be able to book into syndicate rooms for self-directed collaborative group work. Multi-purpose design studios can be reconfigured for a range of hands-on activities. Some learning spaces will cater for 10 students and others 300.
The Centre will be used for standard VCE classes and will offer two types of Higher Education courses. Firstly, University Extension units which are equivalent to first year courses offered at university and taken as an additional study outside of the VCE. Secondly, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority Higher Education Studies that sit within the VCE but still carry first year university credit equivalence such as the Higher Education Scored Study (HESS) Algorithmics. Expanding the number of HESS studies available will be explored as this provides a preparatory experience of tertiary curriculum and allows able students to fast track into second year subjects on arrival at university.
The Inaugural MGC Writer’s Festival and re-opening of the Library
The official opening of our newly refurbished library will take place on 11 May to coincide with the inaugural MGC Writer’s Festival which has been running all week. Jessica Watson is our guest speaker and many students are keen to meet her in person. We hope many of our families can join us for the celebrations. Many thanks to Lisa Rosos, Shaunagh O’Connell, Sylvan Dorney, Paul Carter, Louise Excell and Emma McCowan for their tireless efforts in leading the festival and the launch of the MGC Anthology.
Visible Wellbeing and Respectful Relationships
Thank you to our many parents who attended the Visible Wellbeing evening session on 9 May. The expertise of Professor Lea Waters in positive psychology and wellbeing is a valuable resource for our students and the College. Every DET school is implementing the Respectful Relationships program http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/Pages/respectfulrelationships.aspx. Enormous thanks to Lisa Rosos who has been working on a project incorporating the program into our strategic Visible Wellbeing work at Melbourne Girls’.
Rotary: Making A Difference at Melbourne Girls’ College
The Richmond Rotary Club hosted a student leadership conference in the MGC library on 9 May to great success. The guest speakers were Georgia Retallick, Founder of Y-House and Amanda Wendt of the Melbourne Park Rotary Club who spoke about, “How Young Leaders Make A Difference”. Georgia certainly illustrated this theme as she discussed her pioneering work as an 18 year old saddened by the plight of young people with acquired brain injury whose only resort was to live in an aged care facility. Georgia is raising funds to build purpose built facilities for the 7000 young people in Australia who face this situation.
Students from MGC and a range of secondary schools brainstormed ideas on their “passion” projects for the community. Many thanks to Nia Holdenson, Jo Cowling, Maria Makris and Brooke Sandilands of Richmond Rotary who organised and hosted the event.
Year 11 Formal
Many thanks to Sefija Demirova, Brooke O’Callaghan and all of the staff who supported our very excited Year 11 students attending their formal on Friday 4th May. This type of commitment to the girls over and above normal working hours makes MGC the great school we enjoy.
Information Night and Open Day
Over 700 people attended the information evening and over 800 Open Day on 24 and 27 April. Congratulations to our Public Relations Captains, Maya Welsch and Jade Leung who led and trained our Junior Ambassadors. Many thanks to Ms. McDonald, Mr. Houghton and our talented MGC students and staff teams who illustrated the excellent work they do every day to our community.
Staffing
It is with pleasure we welcome Veronique Yan-Lung to Melbourne Girls’ College as our new French teacher and colleague.
Notice of Election and Call for Nominations for the Student Member Category of School Council
As more nominations were received than the two student representative vacancies, a ballot is currently being conducted from 4 May to 4pm 15 May, 2018. The current School Council are very excited about two students, with full voting rights, being part of our decision making.
Kind regards,
Karen