PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents, Staff and Students

I would like to start by thanking all families who attended our recent student led conferences. This event represented a shift away from parent/teacher interviews, toward a format where students were asked to do the talking, and were encouraged to reflect on their successes and identify some challenges to work on in future with parent and teacher support. It goes hand in hand with the information now provided to parents at least every five weeks via COMPASS, and represents our efforts to make the ‘conference’ experience a unique opportunity to expand learning rather than a repeat of information already provided. Feedback from teachers suggested that this approach was generally successful, even though some parents attended without the students, and some students found this expectation difficult.

This new approach reflects the work we are doing in classes, where we are supporting students to take greater responsibility for their learning, and to reflect on their performance and work ethic in order to make improvements and progress. We will be continuing with this approach in future meetings, and feel confident that students will continue to develop the skills which can be used in any situation in their lives.

International Baccalaureate

Next term will see the commencement of our work with staff around the IB Middle Years approach. Whilst we will build our skills progressively over a two year period, all staff will receive initial training on May 22 and 23, both of which are student free days. We appreciate this valuable opportunity as a whole school group to commence the learning that we know will translate to greater success for our students, both at school and after they have graduated.

Thank you

As we approach the end of term I would like to thank all staff for their focus on our school goals, and the work that they put in to make MESC a school that truly knows and develops each student as an individual. We frequently receive feedback from parents around the safety and security their children feel as a consequence of being known and this is a product of both our smaller size as a secondary school, and the caring and dedicated approach of our staff.

I would also like to thank parents for their support of the college, demonstrated through your willingness to send the young people with whom we work ready to learn with materials, resources and correct uniform.

Best wishes to all families for the school break, and for a Happy Easter.

Angela Pollard