Principal’s Report

Principal Report – Newsletter One 2022

Welcome to the 2022 school year. It has not taken long for students to get into the swing of school life and to be looking forward to the year ahead, in particular, our new Year 7 students have had a smooth start to the school year given the complexities of a pandemic. It has been wonderful to be able to welcome students back to face-to-face learning and it has been impressive to see students embrace the return to school in such a positive and studious manner in their classrooms. 

Even for our most experienced staff, parents, and students there is always a lot to take in at the start of a new school year, more so for the new members of our community, including myself. I continue to be impressed by how helpful and supportive the community have been in making our new staff and students feel welcome at MGC.  A welcoming and supportive environment aligns beautifully with our school values of Teamwork, Diversity, and Excellence, and will go a long way to supporting and stretching our students to “Lead and Achieve” in their chosen pathways. 

The first few weeks have been extremely busy for students, staff, and families alike. This week, we ran our Year 7 and Year 12 camps, and next week we are holding our Year 7 to 11 information evenings in an online forum. These events are deliberately scheduled early into the school year because we know the critical importance in establishing foundations for successful home school partnerships. 

COVID Safe Practices

We sincerely thank all families for monitoring and acting on communication from the school over the last few weeks. As I am sure everyone can appreciate and understand, our duty of care for all students, staff, parents, and carers is our highest priority. Together we can make the greatest impact and therefore we strongly advocate for our students to undertake the following:

• Engaging in the surveillance Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT). 
  • This is a recommendation from the Department of Education and only positive results need to be reported to the College.  We thank families and students for being willing to take part in this to help any positive cases that may have gone undetected.
• Wearing face masks when indoors.
• Maintaining personal hygiene practices.
• Maintaining physical distancing where possible.

If anyone has any questions about the College’s COVID Safe practices, or requires support, please do not hesitate to contact the College. 

Congratulations

I would like to congratulate Darby Wells from Year 10 on behalf of the MGC community who was recently awarded The Flight Lieutenant Ack Loveless Memorial Award. This honour is awarded to an individual based on achieving the highest marks in both the theoretical and practical aspects of the leadership course. 

What a wonderful achievement! 

It is with great excitement that I also have the opportunity to share with the community that Beth Pert, Year 12, is performing her 2021 VCE skills-based solo, and VCE cohesive composition solo in Top Class Dance 2022. Top Class is part of the VCE Season of Excellence managed by Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. The Season showcases work produced by outstanding VCE students who completed performing or visual arts, technology, design, or research studies in 2021. Events are presented at Melbourne’s major cultural venues, alongside associated education programs.  The Top Class Dance concerts will be taking place on Wednesday 16 March at 10am and 2pm at Melbourne Recital Centre.

A full list of performers appearing across the Dance programs are available via the Season of Excellence website – www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/seasonofexcellence.  Tickets are available via the Melbourne Recital Centre: www.melbournerecital.com.au/events/2022/top-class-dance-2022. 

Additionally, Grace Paulmbieri from the class of 2021, has had her sculptural installation exploring the theme of 'Repurpose' selected for exhibition at Top Arts at the National Gallery of Victoria. The exhibition is open for viewing from the 18 March - 24 July 2022 at the NGV Australia, Ground Level, NGV Design Studio. 

Congratulations to our students for these wonderful achievements!

I am excited by the year ahead and we look forward to celebrating and sharing the stories of Melbourne Girls’ College through 2022. 

Tamy Stubley

Principal