Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Term 1 has been such a fantastic term through the Middle School. It has been great to see students having an extended period of time with no interruptions to face-to-face teaching. In Term 2 we are aiming to continue to build on the positives that came out of Term 1 and have an even more successful term.

The 2022 Year 7 cohort has made a fantastic start to their schooling at Mordialloc College. After having two years of interrupted face-to-face learning at primary school, they have made the most of a full Term 1 in 2022.

Early in the term, the Year 7 students attended the Summit Camp in Trafalgar East, where many students challenged some of their fears, including the fear of heights on activities such as the giant swing, and highwire, a fear of small, enclosed places during the cave challenge and even the fear of snakes in the snakes and nails activity. Every student had a favourite activity that they participated in, but to many students’ surprise, a clear favourite was the Monster course, which was a team challenge much like Tough Mudder, where teams had to work together to complete a challenging course as fast as they could. Not only did each team complete the course twice, but they also became extremely muddy in doing so!

As well as making new friends, both at school and while at camp, the Year 7s have been learning the ins and outs of life at Mordialloc College and have now become fully integrated members of the Mordialloc College community.

Year 8s have also made a great start to the year. A major event that took place within the Year 8 program was students attending an incursion run by ‘Courage to care’ called the Upstander program, which is designed to educate participants on how to counter the dangers of racism, prejudice, discrimination and bullying. The session included stories from the Holocaust, which linked in with the English text The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The main message of the excursion was to be an upstander, not a bystander, when you see something that you know is not right. It was a great session and all of the students who participated were able to take something positive from the experience.

Like always our Year 8s participated in the school swimming and athletics carnivals to a very high level, with a large portion of the year level signing up and engaging in multiple events at both carnivals. It was great to see the effort a number of the cohort took in dressing up for the days.

Just a quick reminder that the school cross country day will be on Tuesday 3 May from 2.00 pm.

As of day 1 of Term 2, both Year 7 and 8 students now have a new home within the school, following the completion of our brand new Year 7 and 8 Learning Centre. Speaking with a large number of Year 7 and 8 students, they are very excited to have such an amazing facility to assist them in their learning.

Late last term, as a part of the Careers program, the Year 9 cohort undertook Morrisby testing, which is the first step in a process designed to assist and guide students in looking into career options for their future. With the information derived from the testing they completed late last term, each student will soon have an individual meeting with a trained careers counsellor to assist them further in exploring options that may be of interest to them.

During participation in the Mordialloc Experience (MEX) program throughout Term 1, students worked in groups, researching, creating surveys, conducting surveys and finally presenting their findings on an ethical topic of their choice. This project took students outside the school setting to collect primary data, which they then compiled and presented back to the rest of their MEX classes. All students enjoyed the opportunity to engage with the wider community and, although some were nervous presenting to their peers, everyone did a fantastic job and should be very proud of their efforts.

On Tuesday 5 April, the Middle School ran its first Middle School Assembly for the year. Having not run an assembly for an extended period of time, due to Covid restrictions, it was great to get back to some normality. The assembly was led by the Middle School Captains who did an amazing job. For Term 1, 144 students were nominated for awards, with 29 students being nominated for two or more awards. The 29 students who received two or more awards were presented with their certificates during the assembly, whilst those students who were nominated for one certificate will be presented their certificates in an upcoming year level assembly.

The three categories of awards students can be nominated for are:

LEARNING LEGEND: This is an award given for a student who has achieved outstanding results academically

EXCELLENCE ENDEAVOUR: This award is for students who always try their hardest and is achieving their personal best in every lesson they are part of

ALL ROUNDER: This award is for students who have been outstanding in a particular class all term. They have been achieving outstanding results, have a great attitude towards learning and always try their best.

The following students were the award recipients for Term 1:

YEAR 7
Airlie Keogh	Faye Woldemar	Max Kavanagh
Amelia Bianchi*	Finlay Muirhead	Metaiah Iosefo*
Amy Cosic	Grace O'Brien	Nathan Issa
Anita Prudkov	Grace O'Brien*	Nathan Krummel
Ariane Schellebeck*	Ingrid Heins*	Niki Liokaftou*
Athan Papadopoulos	Jack Hedley	Pouy-You Sok
Ava McIntosh	Jai Gothwal*	Sarah Luong
Aylen Yildirim	Jamie Filatow	Saxon Mead*
Bella Granger	Jasmine De Wever	Tahlia Northam*
Collin Joo*	Lara Holland*	Taytum Barr*
Daniel Vincze	Lucy Fletcher	Tori Savage
Declan Visser	Macey Cole*	William Duke*
Ella O'Halloran	Matilda Savage	Yagiz Yilmaz
Emma Walklate	Matthew Ridley	Zak Hoogwerf
Evie-Rose Rennison

YEAR 8
Abbey Quantrelle	Ethan Simons*	Maya Fagan
Abbie Whetstone	Evan Susil	Michael Robinson
Aislyn Harvey	Grace Erlandsen	Oscar Goudy
Alex Wragg	Hayley Everett	Pippa Neville
Alexander Bletas	Hayley George	Prabhath Kota*
Alfie Vos*	Humaira Humaira	Reyhaneh Nouri
Ana Chalela Sabogal	Jensen Srisuwan	Ruiying Zhang
Angus Woodhouse*	Joshua Coxhell	Sergej Anciferov
April George	Kai Seedeen	Seth Pratt
Sebastian Weller	Lara Seeary	Spencer Curtin
Bonnie Blinco	Leny Lee	Tayla Gibbons
Charlie Leek	Liv Patterson	Tora Murphy
Chloe Heath*	Lucy Beckett	Verity Maywald
Daniel Broadley	Mackie Taylor	Verity Wilson
Dante Morabito	Maisey Blann	Willow Jensen*
Ella Scott-Cunningham	Maverick Lisi Gray

YEAR 9
Adam Robinson*	Harvey Feild	Lachlan Jowett
Amy Bourne	Harvey Silvey	Leilani Tovia
Amy Kuuse	Hayden Finkelde	Leroy Rockman
Auburn Hewet	Holly Pearse	Linh Ngyuen
Ava Creaser	Hunter Mead*	Maddie Wakefield
Beth Mitchell	Jack Hayes	Martin Hyatt
Bodie Remedios	Jake Hill	Matilda Lakeland
Bree Elliott	Jake Ridley	Mia Murnane
Caitlin Monssen	James Arvanitakis	Mitch Norton
Celestine Debargue-Tamai*	James Marlow	Piper Charters
Charli Adamson	Jarvis Barr	Raphael Debargue-Tamai*
Chloe Payne	Jenelle Sauli	Rebecca Dowling
Cooper Hewitt*	Jessica Rees	Riley Feild*
Daniel Bianchi	Kate Hicks	Romeo Davies
Eden Handfield	Kate Schultz	Ryan Azzopardi
Ethan Jong	Katinka Ellis	Ryan House
George Rachele-Burtt	Kaymiah Heath	Shakked Cooper
Harrison Powell	Kiala Kruse*	Sunju Kang

*Denotes two or more award nominations.

All of the above students are to be congratulated for a fantastic first term.

Daniel Williams

Director of Middle School

Ventured Magazine 2022