Principal Team Report

Principal Team Report 

Welcome to our first edition of Links for Semester Two (and Term 3!).

We have much to look back on and celebrate, and much to look forward to and anticipate, and in the meantime, our regular schedule rolls on. Our Year 12s have settled into their final full term of schooling and have already completed a range of School Assessed Coursework (SACs) – we wish them well!

It was great to visit some classrooms today to view the many interactions and learning going on, including:

• 8A Science working with the periodic table of elements with teacher Bronwyn Quint and Learning Specialist Nathan Hughes;
• 9A and 9B Science with teachers Nik Smith and Jordan Perree working in the Makerspace on their 3D elements models;
•  Year 11 Chemistry learning about acids and salts with Daniela Taglieri;
• Year 12 Visual & Communication Design working on their portfolios with teacher Jess Anderson and preparing for their pitches next week – I will visit again (no pressure!).

Please  also refer to the further reports later in this edition from 'Science and Chemistry' (Jordan Perree) and Year 10 ctivities (Nik Smith - Year 10 Level Coordinator).

POPSTARS! Don’t miss out

A reminder that tickets for our production of ‘Popstars’ are now on sale, and they are selling fast! Three shows will be performed, on the evenings of Thursday 25th, Friday 26th and Saturday 27th August, as well as a matinee for local primary school students on Wednesday 24th August.

Semester One awards assembly

Last Friday, we held our awards assembly to recognise and celebrate all of our high achievers, and also to acknowledge and thank our Year 10 Peer Leaders for their work in smoothing the transition of our Year 7 students over their first semester at MC. The assembly was opened by our MC Rock Band, playing an impressive cover of Green Day’s ‘Holiday’ - I look forward to hearing more from them. Due to Covid constraints, only the award recipients were present, but the event was filmed and uploaded to our Facebook page. Our thanks to Peter Vapp and Joel Porter for enabling this. 

I have included the text of my speech below and I encourage you to enjoy the photos included with this edition of Links, as well as those on our Facebook page. 

Good morning students and welcome to our Semester One awards assembly – your assembly - to acknowledge you and your contributions and achievements over the first semester of this third very unusual year.

I am proud and appreciative to be celebrating your achievements with you, my first opportunity to do so as college principal. I am also glad that we are back holding this event on site and in person, together.

As you all know, our college name, Mullauna, reflects our focus on one of our college values: community; it is a Koori word meaning ‘together’. Our college motto, ‘Success through learning together’, exemplifies our approach: a successful combination of staff, students and families, primarily through positive and powerful learning interactions in this place, our place, our school. But it is not just our place. 

In reflecting on our name, the word together, I am drawn to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land our college is on, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. I recognise, acknowledge and respect the history, culture, diversity and value of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and I pay my respects to the Elders, both past and present, and to the descendants of our first nation people who are proudly members of our Mullauna Community.

We share this place with the traditional custodians, just as we share a name, and hopefully also a successful future. So just as we acknowledge the traditional custodians, I would like to acknowledge you and your efforts.

To our Peer Leaders here this morning I say thank-you and well done for your work as leaders in building our community by guiding our Year 7 students through their early days of transition to Mullauna. Your generosity reflects well on you and the college.

To our students being recognised for your academic achievements in Semester One, I say be proud of what you have achieved in the first semester and celebrate it. You have achieved outstanding results and excelled in our core business: learning. But do not rest on your laurels, because the job is only half done. Now is the time to reflect on your outcomes, take on board the feedback, engage with your teachers, and strive to excel again in the second half of the year. In encouraging you to commit yourself to continuing to do your best, I also encourage you to look around you now, acknowledge your peers, and commit to supporting and encouraging each other. You are the learning role models at our college; do not underestimate the positive impact you can have in your classrooms and among your peers. You are part of a community, so have the courage and the curiosity to ask your teachers the extra question, seek the extra idea or response that you need or want, extend yourself through engaging with additional concepts and tasks, and have the community spirit to step up and support others – set the tone and lift them too.

All the best for Semester Two and I look forward to celebrating your next achievements at the end of the year!

Debating – more success

I have now had the pleasure of seeing both senior debating teams in action, most recently our Debating ‘A Team’ of Sophie Jones, Marisa Hagihara and Daniel Seymour. Under the guidance of their coach Tamsin Davidson, they defeated a team from Yara Valley Grammar, with Sophie Jones being declared best speaker on the night.

The debating program, led by Julie Whittington (Head of the English Faculty), is just another successful aspect of our college co-curricular program that offers our students so much breadth and depth in their school experience. It is also a reminder that the work of college staff goes beyond the classroom, and well beyond the dismissal bell at 3.15pm.

Please refer to the debating report in this Links edition for more details.

Sport – parent volunteers welcomed!

Our thanks to the parents who have already responded to our request for support, and a ‘shout out’  to any others who may have time during the day to support our staff taking sport teams to outside venues. This is an ideal opportunity to directly support our program.

Please refer to the senior girls AFLW report in this Links edition.

NEVR Music – ‘Spotlight’

On the evening of Monday 18th July, I had the pleasure of attending the Northeast Victoria Region music concert, titled ‘Spotlight – a night of musical excellence’, and indeed it was! Held at the impressive Melbourne Recital Centre, it showcased a range of solo and ensemble performances from our government school region, and while no performers from Mullauna were present, I was pleased to see that a number of art pieces used as part of the presentation between items were from past students of Mullauna – you can admire them in the foyer and corridor of our Admin building.

The evening was produced by the NEV Instrumental Music team of Val Becker, Cheryl Morrow and Carl Williams, whose office is located here at Mullauna College.

Looking forward to 2023

Year 6-7 Transition planning is in full swing, as this annual process gathers pace towards its culmination (for this year) on the State-wide Orientation day on Tuesday 13th December.

Our course counselling team continues to engage with students and parents as they make their subject selections for 2023. Many factors need to be taken into account when making these decisions, especially for senior school subjects: passions and interests, strengths and abilities, pathways plans and career goals, prerequisites for VCE and tertiary study, just to name a few.

There will also be some structural changes to the college day in 2023, to take into account changes to the Victorian Government Schools Agreement, that came into force on Monday 25th July 2022. We will continue to provide updates and information as we finalise decisions.

In 2023, our college day will still commence at 8.45am and conclude at 3.15pm, but we will restructure our lessons and some of the subject allocations. Our current school day compromising six 50-minute periods will change to one of five 60-minute periods, thus:

There will be some curriculum changes in the Senior School, including offering Psychology as a stand-alone semester subject at Year 10. This will offer students interested in this subject far more insight before selecting it as a VCE study. As announced previously, we will also be offering the new VCE-VM (the vocational major) as an alternative to the traditional VCE under the new ‘one VCE, many talents’ directive.

Our MC VM team, under the guidance of our Assistant Principal Margaret Graham, has already spent several days developing the new curriculum for the new subjects: VM Literacy, VM Numeracy, VM Work-Related Skills and VM Personal Development Skills. Our thanks to the following teachers undertaking this work on top of all their usual duties: Nik Smith and Amanda Leahy; Kathy Halpin and Sophie Moore; Anthony Lam and Sean Weatherill; Tamsin Davidson and Naomi Jallais.

Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) progress

The college Leadership Team recently conducted a review of our progress against the goals and targets set in our current Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) for the 2022 school year. Despite the impact of Covid and its demands for a more flexible approach, we are well on track.

The School Review

This year is the final year of our current School Strategic Plan (SSP), and as such, we will be undergoing a full school review of our progress against the goals and targets set for the current SSP and the four AIPs that flowed from it.

To prepare for the review, we completed a Pre-Review Self-Evaluation (PRSE), informed by our staff, the Student Representative Council (SRC) and the school council.

The formal review commences next Monday 1st August, and continue on Thursday 11th and Wednesday 17th August. We will be led by our reviewer Wendy Larcombe, and joined by Eva McMaster (our Senior Education Improvement Leader – SEIL), April Walsh and Liesl Coulthard (our MC school council president and vice-president respectively), and two challenge partners: Marika Ferguson, the principal of Rangeview Primary School, and Tom Daly, the principal of Upwey High School.

Together with our full school leadership team, we will critically examine the school’s performance over the last four years, engage with a range of students and teaching staff, conduct ‘learning walks’ and observations around the school, and begin to formulate the new School Strategic Plan for the next four years.

Child Safety Standards - to be published on the MC website form Monday 1st August

Another aspect of the School Review is a thorough compliance check against a range of policies and processes. A large and critical aspect is our care for our students’ safety from harm and abuse. This is covered by the Child Safety Standards, which have recently been revised in Victoria. Our new MC Child Safety policy and Child Safety Code of Conduct were recently approved by college council, and we will now publish these for your information and feedback. Please note that they apply to all college staff and the community.

The new standards and the associated requirements have led to some new initiatives here, including a revised process for the induction of new students, and a more targeted role for members of the SRC (both for the review and for their implementation).

Community members with questions or feedback should contact Harry Ruff or Margaret Graham at the college.

Harry Ruff

Principal

For the MC Principal Team

Coming key dates:

• Monday 1st August – School Review commences
• Thursday 11th and Wednesday 17th August - School Review continues
• August 25, 26 & 27 – Popstars – book now!
• Wednesday 31st August – whole staff Professional Practice Day – student-free (no scheduled classes)
• Wednesday 7th September – General Achievement Test (GAT) for all Unit 3-4 students (no VCE classes scheduled)
• Thursday 8th September – Music ‘Spooktacular’ Concert evening
• Monday 12th September – Learning Conferences - student-free (no scheduled classes)
• Friday 16th September – final day of Term 3
• Term 4 – the annual MC Art Show – more details soon!