Principal's Update
Dear Families, Students and Community Members,
Leadership Induction Whole School Assembly
On Tuesday 23 February we formally recognised our students who have been successful in achieving a leadership position for this year, in a whole school assembly conducted remotely from our Performing Arts Centre with all classes viewing via Google Meet, along with parents who were able to attend online. Unfortunately, both Mr Tim Richardson, MP Member for Mordialloc and Mr Mark Dreyfus, MP and Federal Member for Isaacs, were not able to make it this year. Ms Joanne Greenhalgh, Director of Senior School, led the assembly and I presented students with their leadership badge from the College and a formal leadership certificate from Mr Dreyfus. I am proud of the leadership structure we have in place at Mordialloc College, with many opportunities being available to our students. This includes School Captains, Middle School Captains, Year 12 leaders across a number of areas, House leaders from both sub-schools and SRC representatives from each year level, for a total of over 60 leadership roles. I congratulate all students who were prepared to nominate and go through the selection process.
The College community acknowledges the crucial role that leadership at every level throughout the school plays in continuing to provide a forum for student voice and providing opportunities for student led initiatives; in inspiring pride in the College and in reinforcing the importance of setting high expectations in everything we do.
In my speech during the assembly, I spoke about the most powerful leadership tool you have being your own personal example. I expect all of our student leaders to be positive role models, both in school and out in the community. This will involve leading by example on a daily basis through proudly demonstrating our agreed College values of Personal Best, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility in all actions and behaviours; and inspiring others to seek leadership opportunities in the future.
Student Leadership Team
Senior School
College Captains – Meike Berg and Lorenzo Mortimer
College Vice Captains - Celina Lum and Bianca Davidson
VCAL Captains – Isabelle Philpot and Auben Phillips
Environmental Captains – Matthew Grice and Abigail Brown
Visual Arts Captain – Natalie Politova
Performing Arts Captains – Tahlia Peacock and Tomas Graves
Sports Captains – Matthew Parsons and Aidan Boyd
Special Events Captain – Sophia Sharman
International Students Captain – Elaine Deng
House Captains:
Bunurong – Hannah Geers-Watson
Iwala – Ben Mencaraglia
Kalura – Sam Bloxham
Yerlonga – Matilda Wilson
Middle School
Middle School Captains: Charlotte Zaph and Lachlan Welsh
Middle School Vice-Captains: Caity Ford & Antonio Marques Vaz Serra
House Captains:
Bunurong – Darby Blinco and Jacinda Jacobs
Iwala – Charlotte Kerr and Bailey Charters
Kalura – Eden Lasbury and Jaya Abaloz
Yerlonga - James Wilson
Student Representative Council (SRC):
YEAR 12:
Lauren Ditchfield Natalie Politova Spencer Halse
Samuel Bloxham Meike Berg Aidan Boyd
Hannah Grieve Hannah Geers-Watson Benjamin Mencaraglia
Matilda Wilson Tahlia Peacock Celina Lum
Bianca Davidson Matthew Grice Matthew Parsons
Lorenzo Mortimer Abigail Brown Tomas Graves
YEAR 11:
Chantelle Ferguson
Aston Hewet
Emma Schultz
YEAR 10:
Amelia Davidson
Imogen Croft
Jeremy Thai-Chan
YEAR 9:
Antonio Marques Vaz Serra
Charlotte Zaph
YEAR 8:
Leilani Tovia Kyle McDonald Angela Mihas
Ella Barnard Kara Vigh Isabella Basile
Auburn Hewet Kylie Wolfe Elishka Collis
Liliana Bell Linh Nguyen
Year 7:
Sean Kanth Reny Zhang Chris Naing
Charles Horejsi Maadi Rogers Jensen Srisuwan
COVID Safe Behaviours
A few reminders again about the key behaviours required for reducing COVID-19 transmission risk. This includes 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 carry a mask with them at all times and they must be worn when on public transport and school buses. Following the Government’s recent announcements, face masks are recommended, but are now not mandated in schools, in situations where physical distancing of 1.5m cannot be maintained Individuals can choose to wear a mask at any time. Density limits do not apply in classrooms and other spaces for the purposes of student use including corridors and other shared areas.
Teachers continue to carry hand sanitiser to their classes and regular handwashing is advised. Hand sanitiser continues to be 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. Any congestion within the school is being managed with a one-way flow of foot traffic inside of buildings, eg, front two storey building. Additional cleaning is in place (COVID safe routine cleaning) in line with public health advice, eg, a particular focus on cleaning and disinfecting high touch surfaces.
All visitors to the school should wear a mask and sign in and out, using our Compass kiosk located near Reception in the front two storey building.
Reporting to Parents
We distributed our first round of progress checks at the end of Headstart last year. At the end of next week, our next progress checks will be released to students and their families. These progress checks focus on our students’ learning behaviours which link to our school values, their attendance and their academic progress. As a reminder, we have attached the new Learning Behaviours Rubric for students and their families to reference as they reflect on results.
Continuously during the semester, students will receive specific written feedback from their teachers on benchmark tasks and SACs in which they will be given some class time to reflect and identify areas for improvement. As Assistant Principal Marina Walsh wrote in her newsletter article three weeks ago, our teachers will be listing due dates for benchmark tasks and SACs on Compass. Benchmark tasks and SACs will be listed under the ‘Learning Tasks’ tab for the student and teachers will be listing due dates for these so that parents/ carers/ students will be able to see these keys tasks appear at the top of the student weekly schedule on the days that the tasks are due or scheduled to take place in class.
Parent/Teacher/Student interviews
We have allocated a full day with altered hours of attendance for this important event in Term 1 this year. School Council have endorsed Wednesday 31 March 11am -7.30pm for our parent/teacher/student interviews, in the last week of this term. Classes will be cancelled for this day and students are required to attend the interviews with their parent/carer, wearing their school uniform. Bookings will open on Compass after 5pm on Wednesday 17 March. A map of teacher locations will be available via your Compass log in to assist you in making your bookings in the most efficient way. We expect that parents and carers will value this opportunity to speak with teachers about their child/children’s progress this semester and will therefore be in attendance at the interviews. Even though we conducted very successful online interviews during Term 3 last year when in lockdown, we would like to conduct these first interviews for the year in person, reliant, of course, on there being no further state lockdowns this term. If you have any issues with making the bookings on Compass, please contact the general office for assistance or Assistant Principal, Andrew Moffat.
Student Planner
A reminder to parents/carers and students about the use of our student study planner as a valuable organisational tool to support learning and as an important means of communication between school and home. Students should take their planner to every class and keep it graffiti free and tidy. Students should record home study, important dates e.g. upcoming excursions and due dates for class work. Teachers will use the planner to inform parents about matters of importance within their specific class. I ask that parents/carers please check their child’s planner on a regular basis.
Facility Development Update
Apart from losing three days during our short lockdown period, our projects are on track. The new locker shed and new bike shed being constructed at the Year 7 end of the school should be ready for student occupation in a couple of weeks. The site of our new two storey building has been cleared and levelled, with footing excavations and screw pile installation happening this week, followed by in ground services and slab preparation.
School Production
On Tuesday 2 February the school production was launched to the student body and they were all very excited to hear we are putting on the show We Will Rock You – The Musical, under the direction of Adelle Stevenson, supported by Mara Sears and Cameron Young, with Claire Bruce leading the backstage crew. Our teachers will be supported by former students (Year 12 2017) Natalie Wood, Hannah Blavo and Imogen Kane who are very happy to be returning to the College again to assist in directing the show. We had huge interest in auditions with so many interested students which was fantastic to see. The final cast has been selected and rehearsals have been running since mid-February. We are introducing a fifth performance night to meet the demand for tickets in recent years. So, put it in your diaries now - Tuesday 27 – Saturday 31 July.
I am sure everyone is really looking forward to seeing it this year, given we were not able to run the production last year due to COVID.
Congratulations to the following students for successfully auditioning for our lead roles this year:
Galileo Figaro - Tomas Graves
Scaramouche - Bronte Taylor
Killer Queen - Eliza D’Alberto
Khashoggi - Brodie Stewart
Buddy - Meike Berg
Brit - James Collins
Oz - Tahlia Peacock
Please see the attached list for our full cast:
College Council Elections
In the recent call for nominations for parent vacancies on Council we received a number of nominations which was most pleasing. It is my pleasure to welcome back Adam Wade, Ian Fox and Jason Allen; and welcome David Shepard who will attend as a visitor each meeting. Marina Walsh and Andrew Moffat have been nominated for the two DET vacancies and therefore have been duly elected.
We had one nomination for the one vacant student position on council, Jeremy Thai-Chan (Year 10) and thus he is duly elected to this two year term on School Council. School Captains, Meike Berg and Lorenzo Mortimer, join Council as community members for the year and Timothy Whitford (Year 11) has one more year to run in his two year student position. I thank all members for their commitment to Mordialloc College.
Year 7 Information Night
On Tuesday 23 February the Year 7 Parent Information Evening was held, with participants spread across the Year 7 Learning Centre, Performing Arts Centre and Year 8 Enquiry Zone to meet COVID guidelines. This was an opportunity for parents to be introduced to the key features of the Year 7 program (structure of a typical day, communication with home group teachers and leadership team, home study, learning tracker, Compass, Google Docs and assessment). Thanks to Julia Hockey, one of our Year 7 Coordinators, Tracey Bastin, Assistant Principal for Middle School, and Acting Director of Middle School, Mick Haber, for organising this night along with Alice Dunn, Director of Pedagogy and Programs, and the home group teachers and members of the leadership team for their support and attendance to work with the parents on the night. I received a number of positive emails from some of our new parents to the College who found the night to be most valuable.
Year 10 VCAL Camp
This week our Year 10 VCAL class are away for the whole week attending Fifteen Mile Creek Outdoor School, approximately a three-and-a-half-hour drive north-east of our school. Thanks to Nick Mann, Ebony Powell and Kelly Roberts for leading this camp with our students and providing them such a valuable opportunity to integrate their studies with the environment along with participating in a range of team building activities and personal challenges.
Morrisby Report
This week all Year 9 students will be completing the Morrisby Online Report Assessment, a highly regarded and reliable career guidance tool, which is fully funded by the government. Thanks to Jane Jamieson, Careers and Pathways Coordinator Years 7-10, and Kim Cowain-Menzies for their organisation of this with our students and liaising with the external careers counsellors who will be working with our students one on one in the analysis of their results next term.
College Photos Day
The new date for our school photos will be on Tuesday 23 March. On this day, we will see all of our students have their portrait photos and class group photos taken wearing their full summer uniform. Our Year 7 students will need to arrive at school in their summer uniform and will then have the opportunity to change into their sports uniform ready for their afternoon sport lesson during the second half of lunch and Period 4. A schedule has been released to staff and classroom teachers will remind the students as the day approaches of the time they will be photographed. Thanks to Amelia Hargreaves for her organisation of this event and for being quick in securing a new date this term with the photo company.
Ms Michelle Roberts
Principal