Mount Eliza Secondary College  ​ 'Educated for Excellence - Prepared for Life’  

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

PRINCIPALS REPORT

As we settle in to what will be the last term for our year 12 students, I would like to thank parents and members of our community in relation to the following:

  • Our students are looking fantastic in their uniform which is being worn with pride. We frequently receive very positive feedback from our local community about this
  • We are seeing a strong increase in the number of parents who regularly visit Compass, both to keep well informed about all that is going on at the college, and to keep track of your son or daughter’s learning progress
  • We are also seeing an increase in the number of parents supporting us by encouraging their son or daughter to use Compass to prepare for lessons or complete work. Teachers are using Compass more and more to let students know about their learning in advance, so that they can enter the classroom ready to learn
  • Attendance is improving and the number of students arriving late to school has reduced to a very small number. This is extremely important to us as we feel we have limited time to best support our students, and know that every minute counts
  • We have good support for our upcoming school musical, “Popstars” which will showcase the many weeks of rehearsal for almost one hundred students. Large scale involvement like this cannot occur without much support from our wider community

These are just some of the things that are contributing to our continued success.

We are also quite unique as a secondary college, in our relentless focus on improving the quality of teaching and learning, and it is a feature of MESC that teachers are continually challenged to reflect on their practice and to develop as professionals. This of course, is for the benefit of our students, and we know that we are genuinely ahead of the game in terms of the value we are adding to the learning of our students. This is the true measure of a great school!

In our quest for continuous improvement, we very much value the feedback from our community. Students have recently completed the Attitudes to School survey, teachers are about to complete the School Staff survey, and next week, we will distribute the Parent Opinion survey to a random selection of parents. If you receive this opportunity can I please strongly encourage you to take the ten minutes required to complete the survey and share your views. This is important feedback for the college, and School Council looks forward to considering your thoughts.

Steiner Stream

In case you hear anything about this, we are currently investigating the viability of running a year 7 Steiner class at the college next year. Mornington Park PS currently operates this program along with a mainstream program, and I have been approached by parents asking if we would consider accommodating students here next year. I have done some research and spoken to School Council about it, and they have agreed that I investigate further. If it was to occur, we would need around 15 students and they would be in a separate class for the Steiner core subjects – English, Maths, Science and Humanities. They would need to be taught by a Steiner trained teacher for that part of their program, and would then integrate with other students for the remainder of the program. Art and Music are also key components of this approach, so every student would be required to learn an instrument and participate in Music. It is just a proposal at this point. I have written to the grade six parents at MPPS and asked for their feedback. Once we have that, we will either abandon the idea at this time or proceed with our research, consultation and planning.

If this was to go ahead it would be in addition to our already strong year 7 enrolments for 2017, where we currently have more students ‘on our books’ than in the last five years. It is a feature of this school that we are not enormous in size, which allows us to genuinely know our students and meet their learning needs as individuals. Our achievements and results are well recognised by the Education Department, and whilst we do wish to cater for the schooling requirements of our community, we will also ensure we maintain our enrolments at a level that will not compromise our successes.

International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program

Another line of inquiry we have pursuing has been around the possibility of MESC seeking registration as an MYP school. We currently have four local primary schools delivering the Primary Years Program of the IB, with another four down the line in the Edithvale, Carrum and Aspendale areas. There is no Middle Years Program school outside of Melbourne.

But perhaps more importantly, there is a great similarity between the IB enquiry approach and the work we have been doing here at the college in recent times. Once again, we are in investigation stage, or in IB terminology, we are considering an application for Candidacy. We will pursue this further this term seeking staff, student and parent feedback with a view to applying for Candidacy by 1 October if we decide to go down that path.

I trust you will enjoy reading of the many success and involvement of our students in the remainder of this newsletter.