Acting Principal’s Report

It has been a jam-packed fortnight of events including Years 8-12 information evenings, Year 7 Welcome Night, Year 7 and 12 camps, rowing regattas and Chinese New Year. It was a great week that turned quickly with the Premier announcing that Victoria would go into a 5-day circuit breaker. We are very grateful that our year 12 and year 7 students were able to attend camp. 

MGC was prepared and responded quickly to news of another period of remote learning where we were able to ensure the teaching and learning program continued. A huge thank you to all MGC staff for their flexibility and ensuring our students were supported during this time. 

With lockdown in place, MGC continued with the Year 8-12 information evenings online. Thank you to our Assistant Principals, Year Level Leaders and Assistant Year Level Leaders for running such engaging and informative nights for our parent community. 

A real highlight over the fortnight was the Year 7 Camp. Students headed off to camp during the week of the 8th of February with the focus on making new friends and connecting with their teachers. I was lucky enough to spend the day at camp and see how inclusive, encouraging and supporting students were of one another. It was great to see some of our students overcome their fears and take on the big swing and flying fox. A big thank you to Brent Houghton, Bridget Tellefson and Emily Miller for all their work on leading the camp and all the MGC staff who attended and supported our Year 7 students.

On Tuesday 16th February we welcomed our new Year 7 parents to the College. The night looked a little different than anticipated as we headed back online to welcome our parents virtually. Despite not being able to mingle and have the normal gathering it was still a good opportunity for parents to meet the Year 7 team and ask questions about the year ahead. 

The Year 12 Study Camp was held from the 8th-10th of February at Federation University in Ballarat. This was a great opportunity for students to prepare themselves for the year ahead. Our Year 12 students participated in a range of sessions relating to study skills, time management, team building and careers. There were several guest speakers including former MGC students and Sandor Kazi who educated our students on VCE data. A huge thank you to Sefija Demirova, Brooke O’Callaghan and Leigh Hanley for their work in leading the camp and all MGC staff who gave up their personal and professional time to support our Year 12 students.

MGC Rowing has had a busy start to 2021. Our year nine crews raced for the first time at the recent Morongo Regatta. At most, our juniors had rowed eleven times on the water, and the day was successful in that all crews participated, there were no crashes and most importantly, everyone stayed largely dry and had a great time.

At the same regatta, our intermediates also debuted for the season. While it was clear that they were lacking race practice, they were competitive against their rivals. The regatta provided our crews with the experience and race pressure that they needed to bring extra focus to their training sessions.

Our senior crews have performed extremely well this season, with all of our crews being highly competitive. Highlights have included winning the prestigious Division 1 races at the Melbourne Head, Barwon Regatta and Nagambie Regatta and Division 3 at Nagambie.

This weekend, our year nine and ten crews raced again at the Junior State Championship regatta and demonstrated significant improvement relative to their competitors.

We look forward to hearing the results at the Senior State Championships this weekend where we are hopeful that our senior crews will challenge for several gold medals across the regatta.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Brent Houghton on his appointment as Acting Principal for Coburg High School. Brent has been a long-standing member of MGC and will be greatly missed by all. We wish him all the best in his new role. The College will be appointing an Acting Assistant Principal to replace Brent for the remainder of 2021.

Finally, I would like to thank Sally Karlovic for her contribution and commitment as a parent volunteer to the MGC finance committee over the last few years.

Kind regards,

Jackie Knight

Acting Principal