Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Welcome to the 2022 school year, and a special welcome to our Year 7 students, and any new students at other year levels who either joined us during Headstart towards the end of last year or are joining us this year for the first time. Although it may not have been the holiday break everyone was expecting, I hope everyone had an enjoyable time with family and friends and look forward to a positive and productive year ahead.

This year we have 246 Year 7 students starting with us, which will make a Middle School of close to 700 students and our total school enrolment is approximately 1200 students. We are hoping to stabilise the student population at this number.

We look forward to all students taking a positive attitude into 2022, staying focused on achieving their personal best and always striving to improve. I am proud to be the Principal of Mordialloc College and I hope that everyone is proud to be a part of the Mordialloc College community. I am looking forward to the year ahead and hope that all students make the most of the opportunities and challenges that are presented to them. Given our experience of the previous two years, I really hope students have a genuine appreciation for what it means to be back onsite for face-to-face learning. We should take nothing for granted and cherish the vast range of experiences that our school provides for our students.

COVID Safe Behaviours

Collection of free rapid antigen tests

Thanks to parents and carers who were able to collect the tests for their child/ren on Monday and Tuesday. From Wednesday, any students who still don’t have them will be able to collect a box of five tests from Reception. This should happen before school, at recess, lunch, or after school (not in class time).

Twice-a-week testing is strongly recommended for both students and staff. This first box will cover the first 2.5 weeks of school. We should be getting another delivery to distribute to cover the remaining time (first 4 weeks of school). It is recommended students make this part of their before school routine and test twice weekly on school days.

Students will do the tests at home; they only need to report their result if it is COVID-positive. We will not be testing students at school; this is the parents and students’ responsibility.

As previously communicated, parents/carers should complete the Student COVID-19 COVID Test Portal if a student tests positive to COVID-19 (via a PCR or rapid antigen test). Where a parent/carer informs the school by phone or written notification, the school will complete the Schools COVID Case Management Tool.

Parents/carers also need to report a positive result to the Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form or call centre on 1800 675 398.

Students who report a positive result must isolate for seven days and not attend school during that period. They will be able to check Google Classroom for their respective classes to stay up to date to the best of their ability during their isolation period. Teachers will not be able to run remote lessons along with their classes onsite.

Where a student is a household contact of a positive case (that is, they have spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility) they must inform the school and isolate for seven days and not attend school during that period.

A negative test is not required to return to school the following completion of 7 days of isolation. However, if the student is still presenting with symptoms, they should remain at home until they are better.

If there has been a positive case attend onsite, once notified, I will let the school community know so you are aware to monitor for symptoms. The identity of any positive cases, of course, remains strictly confidential.

A few reminders about the key behaviours required for reducing COVID-19 transmission risk - they include staying home when unwell, washing hands regularly and use of hand sanitiser, no sharing of drink bottles or food and, where possible, social distancing. Students should always carry a mask with them and they must be worn when inside at school and on public transport and school buses.

Teachers will be carrying hand sanitiser to their classes and regular use is advised. Hand sanitiser is also located in key areas of the school for student and staff use. Both students and staff are encouraged to cough or sneeze into their elbow or tissue. Air purifiers have been placed in each classroom.

Any staff member or student who becomes unwell while at school with symptoms of COVID-19 must return home immediately and get tested. Students need to report to our first aid officer at the General Office first and she will call a parent/carer to arrange pick up as soon as possible. The student will be isolated in an appropriate space with suitable supervision until this can happen. It is not acceptable for an unwell student to travel home unsupervised.

All visitors to the school need to wear a mask, be double vaccinated (three doses by 25 February if fully vaccinated before or on 25 October or if after the 25 October, by March 15) and check in at Reception.

School events like house carnivals, interschool sport, excursions and camps are allowed. However, during these first four weeks especially, they will be pending a risk assessment and if staffing has been impacted due to the pandemic, at the time of the event.

Excellent Year 12 Results and DUX 2021

I would like to congratulate all our 2021 Year 12 students on achieving excellent Year 12 VCE and VCAL results after such an extraordinary and most challenging two year period. Some of the highlights of our Year 12 VCE achievements include:

9.1% of our Year 12 students achieved ATARs over 90, and 13.6% over 80, thus close to a quarter (22.7%) scoring over 80
6.5% of study scores were in the 40s

Congratulations to our top performing VCE students who were in the top 2-10% of the State of Victoria:

Charlie Guo achieved an ATAR score of 98.3 and was awarded College Dux for 2021.
Meike Berg achieved an ATAR of 96.85, Victoria Vasilenko an ATAR of 95.55, George Newton an ATAR of 93.25, Samuel Bloxham an ATAR of 92.5, Fasika Abera with an ATAR of 92.4, Natalie Politova with an ATAR of 92.35 and Hannah Grieve with an ATAR of 91.3

These students have been successful in receiving offers in the following courses: Biomedicine, Science and Arts at Melbourne University; Science/Global Studies, Psychology (Honours), Engineering (Honours)/Science, Arts at Monash University; Architecture at RMIT and Psychology (Honours) Deakin.

In addition, congratulations to all our Year 12 VCAL students for completing all course requirements and receiving offers to complete diplomas, traineeships, and apprenticeships.

These are a wonderful set of results and a credit to all staff and students who have all worked so hard to achieve so much not only over the past two years amid a pandemic with many transitions into and out of remote learning, but over the course of the six-year journey for these 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 that they have given their personal best.

Positive Start

We have had a smooth first week to date, with Year 7 and 12 students commencing on Tuesday to undertake a special program for these year levels; our Year 8-11 students except for Year 10 and 11 VCAL resumed on Wednesday, with 10 and 11 VCAL starting on Thursday.

The first day for our Year 7 students involved rotations between ICT set up, developing their codes of cooperation, relational activities to get to know their new classmates and home group teacher, locker allocation and use of the Resource Hub.

Our Year 12 students spent their first day hearing from some of our high achievers from last year, rotating through team building sessions facilitated by leaders from Lord Somers Camp and locker allocation. At the start of the day, it was fantastic to welcome back some of our high achievers from Year 12 last year who participated in a panel led by Ms Greenhalgh with our the theme for this year “Teamwork is the Key to Success”; sharing their strategies for achieving their personal best with the current cohort of Year 12s. Questions posed to them by Ms Greenhalgh included: How important are your peers in Year 12? How important are your teachers in Year 12? How important are connections with other people when you are in Year 12? What are the most important study tips you can give to this year’s Year 12s? What is the most important piece of advice you would give to Year 12 students?

Some of their advice included: regular completion of practice exam questions and getting feedback from your teachers, taking on feedback and re-writing answers or paragraphs for improvement, making use of the former students who come in to tutor onsite after school (this is free for students with the College paying the tutors), prioritise time on the work you find most challenging not what you find easy, take regular breaks, focused study on what matters most, don’t let one disappointing SAC mark get you down, set goals for your pathway beyond school, utilising the support offered by teachers in and out of class time, talking to parents about what they're learning, little and often (don’t need to write an essay every time for feedback) instead regular submission of paragraphs for English to get feedback.

Ultimately there is no substitute for effort in Year 12. Students need to be prepared to work to their Personal Best consistently over the year to achieve their goals. Utilising the support of our fantastic Year 12 teachers and Senior Coordinator team, supporting each other through the highs and lows, staying positive, making the most of all opportunities presented to them and, of course, enjoying their final year together of secondary school are keys.

Thanks to Meike Berg, Samuel Bloxham, Natalie Politova, Hannah Grieve, Lorenzo Mortimer and Carl Ockwell for giving up their time to take part. We look forward to seeing them return, along with some other students from 2021, throughout the year to act as tutors to support our senior students.

Thanks to our Year 7 Coordinators, Andrew Potter and Liz McConville, and Director of Senior School, Jo Greenhalgh, and Year 12 Coordinator, Tim Randell, for their organisation of these programs and to the staff involved in leading the sessions for the day.

Building Program Update

Students are now able to enter and exit the school at one of our main entrances near the Discovery Centre and new Year 7 & 8 Learning Centre, with the completion of the new pathway. We are still on track for an end of Term 1 handover of our new building for our Year 7&8 students to occupy from Term 2. The complete upgrade of our four outdoor courts will continue into Term 2 with a completion date yet to be finalised. The refurbishment of our Year 7 LC and outside grounds to create our new Senior School prescient will commence ASAP, once our new building is complete. Once Senior School move into their new area, the refurbishment of D1, D3 and office spaces will occur for the development of our new Wellbeing Centre.

Student Pick Up and Drop Off

Please be aware we don’t have 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 carpark near the current Year 7 centre (near the railway line). There was a near miss on Tuesday after school with a car backing out and nearly seriously hitting another parent and child on foot. Please arrange to collect your child offsite. A popular pick-up spot is the carpark off 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.

Mobile Phone Policy

For the past few years Mobile Phones have been banned by the State Government from school use during the school day. As all should be aware now, the State Government last year issued a new mobile phone policy banning them from use during the day at school. This wasn’t a huge change for us. The main thing for students to get used to, especially after a long holiday break, is to actually lock them away in their locker for the day rather than carrying the phone on them in silent mode. As such, it is even more important that students have a lock on their locker to keep all of their belongings safe. A copy of our mobile phone policy can be found by following this link.

Welcome to new and returning staff

We have several new staff starting with us this year, to cover staff mainly on leave. We welcome or welcome back the following staff to Mordialloc College:

Alex Myer – STEM – new learning specialist and member to our leadership team, relocated from Perth where she was a leading STEM educator
Courtney Richmond – senior English teacher
Shane Galloway – Physics, Science and Maths
Kirsten Roe - Middle School Assistant
Melanie Raike – new Mental Health Practitioner – Social Worker
Angela Hateley and Natalie Wikman – our new aides.
Sushil Raj – Maths/Science – Year 8 Discovery and Year 9 Maths
Tutors – Numeracy Phil Steinberg full time and Rosemary Russo returns 0.6, Literacy Samantha O’Rourke full time
Started during Term 4 or in Headstart: Miku Nonaka, Ayako Lyons, Liz Ireson, Liz Scott, and Kym Lenc returned from family leave

Introducing the College Leadership Team

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

Principal – Michelle Roberts
Assistant Principal – Marina Walsh (oversees Teaching and Learning)
Assistant Principal - Tracey Bastin (oversees Middle School)
Assistant Principal – Andrew Moffat (oversees Senior School)
Director of Senior School Years 10-12 – Jo Greenhalgh
Director of Middle School (includes 6-7 transition) Years 7 - 9 – Daniel Williams
Director of STEM (includes Science & Digital Technologies LA leader) – Alex Myer
Director of Numeracy Improvement Years 7-12 (includes Maths LA leader) – Julie Chambers
Director of Literacy Improvement Years 7-12 (includes English LA leader) – Jamie Towsey
Learning Specialist – Instructional Coach – Teaching and Learning Year 7&8, Co-teaching and coach to new staff and PLCs – Bryony Lowe
Learning Specialist – Instructional Coach – Teaching and Learning 9&10, coach to new staff and PLCs (includes MEX, I&E, Pathways and Study Skills) – Janni Newson
Learning Specialist – Instructional Coach - VCE Achievement, Teaching and Learning 11&12, coach to new staff, PLCs, and small groups of VCE teachers – Sally Mitchell
Director of Student Engagement (includes House system, Student Voice, Agency and Leadership, and My Mentor programs) – Simon Cummins
Director of Wellbeing and Counselling Services – Di Douglas
Business Manager – Yvonne Aird

Introducing the Year Level Coordinators

Senior School – Tim Randell Yr 12; Robyn Wilson Yr 11; Amelia Hargreaves Yr 10 and Megan Furphy Assistant Yr 10 Coordinator
Middle School – Mick Haber Yr 9 and Madeline Hatton Assistant Yr 9 Coordinator; Julia Hockey and Georgia Davey Yr 8; Andrew Potter Yr 7 and Liz McConville Assistant Yr 7 Coordinator
VCAL – Krystal Collyer
International Students – Jenny Tran

Introducing the Learning Area Leaders

Maths – Julie Chambers
English – Jamie Towsey
Humanities – Josie Stephens
Science and Digital Technologies – Alex Myer
Health/PE – Ebony Powell/Matina Rodrigues
The Arts/Technology – Kathryn Bevan
LOTE – Sehenaze Peerbux
EAL – Lorna Griss
VCAL – Krystal Collyer

Uniform and Jewellery

Our uniform is a very important part of the image we project of our College community and therefore I expect all students to wear their uniform correctly and with pride to, from and at school. I would like to congratulate the majority of students who have started off the year in a positive way in the wearing of the correct college uniform and I thank all parents for your support with this. A reminder that all students should be wearing polishable black leather lace up school shoes with a heel, not suede or sneakers. And plain grey, white or grey socks with NO logos.

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. Students in Years 7-9 are allowed to come to school in their PE/Sport uniform on the days they have PE or Sport, as long as it is the correct PE uniform.

All students must also be using the official Mordialloc College green school bag available from Dobson’s.

A reminder of the rules outlined in the College uniform policy regarding jewellery. Jewellery is not to be worn apart from a wristwatch and a plain stud or sleeper for students with pierced ears. Piercing of other body parts must not be visible.

College Council Elections

College 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 College Council – there are generally two evening meetings per term, and it can be very rewarding. College Council decides, to a large extent, the policies and direction the College takes and is therefore a most important part of the College community.

Michelle Roberts

Principal