Principal's Update
Dear Families, Students and Community members,
DUX 2017
Congratulations to all of our Year 12 students who received their results last Friday. I am pleased to report that Mordialloc College students in 2017 achieved an excellent success rate in completing their VCE studies. Special mention in this newsletter must go to our DUX for 2017, Jemima Cleaver achieving an ATAR of 92.9, a fantastic result. Jemima achieved scores of 40 plus in four of her subjects. A student scoring over 40, means they are in the top 8% in the state for that subject! Jemima has applied to complete an Arts degree at Melbourne University. We held a results celebration morning tea on Monday for all our Year 12 teachers and students.
While we celebrate individual student success stories, it is important to remind everyone that your final ATAR score does not define you as a person. In the end it is a rank for tertiary admission. It won’t necessarily determine where you will go in the future or how happy you will be. All students should feel proud of their efforts and be satisfied they have given their personal best.
Orientation day
All of our new students starting next year in Year 7 enjoyed orientation day last Tuesday making new friends, becoming more familiar with the College and getting to know the Year 7 teaching team. My thanks to all staff involved in running or supporting these programs, especially our Year 7 Coordinator Liz Evans and Director of Middle School Daniel Williams. As in previous years, we also ran a special transition program the previous week over two days for students in grade 6 identified as at risk in transitioning to Secondary School. This was organised and led by our wellbeing team (Di Douglas, Lana Paten and Ann Marsh), supported by our wonderful Year 10 Peer Support student leaders. This program is so important in ensuring Orientation Day isn’t so daunting to these students and of course the start of the following year.
Staffing 2018
Next year we have a few staff taking leave without pay, retiring or relocating and with our increase in enrolments a number of new teachers have been employed.
Melinda Smith, teacher of Food Technology – after taking LSL in 2017, is now retiring. Melinda has been a teacher here for 25 years! Over this time she developed an excellent rapport with the parents and students within our community. We wish her the very best in retirement.
Jennifer Roep, Assistant Principal is taking 3 months leave to take up an Acting Assistant Principal role at Melbourne Girls College for Term 1.
Emily Court, teacher of Art/Technology is taking 12 months leave to spend time with her young family.
Kelly Mc Conville, teacher of Drama/English is taking 12 months leave to start her PHD.
Sara Marianne-Souris, teacher of French, has taken family leave and is returning to Mauritius.
Mark Moule, teacher of Maths/Science, is seeking other employment opportunities.
Luke Wesselingh, teacher of ICT/Maths/Science is relocating to Adelaide.
Erika Trickett our Lab tech is moving to John Monash Science school with Tanya Reimers returning from leave.
Lyn Butler, our teacher assistant in Year 7&8 is retiring, having worked here for 16 years. Lyn has been such a fantastic support to our teacher teams and students over the years.
Sue Beckwith, our Library Technician is taking long service leave for three terms.
We have quite a number of new staff starting with us in 2018 and a few returning from family leave. We will be welcoming:
Sharonne Crossley – PE/Health/Food – returning from family leave
Alana Singh – Maths/Science – returned during headstart from family leave
Julie Chambers – New leading teacher – Director of Numeracy Improvement (Maths/Science)
Sally Mitchell – New leading teacher – Director of Student Engagement (teaches Humanities)
Leah Bright – Art/Technology
Kate Daly – English/Humanities
Maria Bitzios – ICT/Maths/Science
Tahn Watson – French
Peter Vicary – Humanities/English
Kym Lenc – PE/VCAL/Maths
Georgia Davey – English/Humanities
Integration aides – Kelly Roberts, Sharon Wienert and Maria Roman
Beth Glover – moving from reception role into Middle School Teacher Assistant role
Lauren Sinclair – new receptionist
I am currently working through the selection process internally for an Acting Assistant Principal for Term 1. There will then be a flow on effect of needing to employ a new teacher to take the successful applicants teaching load, although if they are a Year 12 teacher they will retain this class.
Digitech Grant
Mordialloc College has been selected to take part in the DET DigiTech start up initiative which aims to support the implementation of the Digital Technologies Curriculum. Thanks to Justin Wischusen Director of eLearning, for submitting the application. We are receiving up to $10,000 to purchase robotics and other digital equipment. There is also professional learning support to build teacher capacity if required.
Reports
A reminder that the end of semester reports for 2017 are available via the parent and student portals of Compass. Please contact the College if you have any trouble accessing or if you would prefer a hardcopy.
As this will be the last newsletter for the year, I would like to recognise our committed and dedicated teaching staff and education support staff at the college and thank them sincerely for all of their hard work throughout the year on behalf of the students. I would also like to acknowledge and thank the parents and teachers on our College Council and all members of the College leadership team for their leadership and commitment to the ongoing improvement of the college.
Finally I would like to thank all members of the college community for their ongoing support. I wish everyone a safe and restful Christmas and holiday break and I look forward to seeing you all in 2018.
Ms. Michelle Roberts
Principal