Principal's Update
Dear Families, Students and Community Members,
School Council
At the AGM, held on 21 March, the following parents have been elected to the Council Executive:
Council President – Ian Fox
Vice President – Amanda de Boer
Treasurer – Adam Wade
I thank them for the extra commitment they are prepared to make to the College in taking on the responsibilities involved in these important roles.
Intervention Program
The new funding model introduced three years ago which includes the Gonski funding, termed equity funding, is continuing this year. Liz Evans (primary school specialist) who we initially employed to run an intervention program for literacy and numeracy in Years 7-9 is on family leave for this year. Julie Pretty, one of our Integration support staff is working full time in the intervention program, and teacher James Sadler also has time within his teaching allotment dedicated to this program. The outcomes for the past three years of the intervention program have been so positive with the majority of students showing growth over the year, along with an increase in their confidence and self-esteem.
This year there are two new positions funded by the Department to start in Term 2. One is a 0.6 Literacy intervention teacher to be focused on students in Year 10 who were below national benchmarks in Year 9 NAPLAN and the other is a full time Numeracy intervention teacher working across four secondary schools (shared with Parkdale, Patterson River and McClelland), thus just one day each, again focused on supporting students in Year 10. I was asked to lead the selection of this cluster teacher and Mordialloc will be their base school. We have appointed Damien Power from Mornington SC to this position. For the literacy role, three days a week at Mordialloc, Lisa Ip was the successful candidate. As she is already on staff, we have been through a selection process to find a new VCAL teacher.
Update on Staffing
Jennifer Roep, who was due to return from family leave in June, has been appointed to the Principal position at Maffra Secondary College, starting next term. Jennifer worked at Mordialloc College as Assistant Principal from 2014-2017 and spent most of 2018 as Acting Assistant Principal at Melbourne Girls College. We congratulate Jennifer on this appointment and wish her every success in the future.
Rochelle Travitz, an experienced VCAL teacher from another school, has been appointed to replace Lisa Ip in the VCAL team and will start from Term 2.
We are currently working through the selection process for an English teacher to replace Sarah Robinson, who resigned from her position due to personal reasons.
Matina Rodrigues begins family leave from Term 2 and so experienced teacher Rachael Pierce returns to teaching full time to take over Matina’s teaching load. We wish Matina the very best as she begins this exciting new phase of her life having her first child. Matina does plan to return to the College in 2020.
Satomi Nakai, our Japanese language assistant, will work fulltime at the College from Term 2.
Region Performance Review
A few weeks ago I was invited to attend the South East Region's performance review in my capacity as the Network Chair for Kingston. This is a process all regions must go through every six months with the Victorian Board of Education. It is like the school review process where progress against set targets is analysed, reasons given for achievement levels that have been achieved and also where targets were not met and suggestions made for improvement by looking at exemplar schools. The end result is that new targets are set for the next 6-12 months. All key personal from the SE region of Victoria were in attendance.
Mordialloc College was put up by the Board of Education as an exemplar school for our 2018 VCE outcomes in English compared with other schools who had similar Year 9 NAPLAN literacy data back in 2015 for this cohort of students. Normally the Region Area Director would speak on behalf of the school, however, as I was in attendance, he asked me to address the board. I received very positive feedback about what I had to say about our improvement journey and this has certainly placed Mordialloc College in the spotlight as a high performing school.
DET Literacy Case Study
In addition to our excellent VCE results, the Department of Education have been impressed with our NAPLAN results and last week I was contacted by the Department's Performance Division asking if we would participate in a case study to be published to showcase our school and support other schools' professional learning. Only eight schools in Victoria have been approached to do this and it is an honour to be one of them. After an initial phone interview with me they will be sending a team out in the second week of next term to visit classrooms, interview key leaders and teachers and talk to students. A video will also be made. The focus of the visit and questions will be around our literacy intervention program and teacher practice focused peer coaching which is supporting literacy improvement at the College.
World’s Greatest Shave
Congratulations to our SRC who organised this very important fundraising event last week. A number of staff and students took part by either having their head shaved or legs waxed with many spectators also donating money on the day. The College raised close to $3000 on the day, a fantastic effort. Thanks to Ms Campbell and Mrs Brown for leading this event.
Year 9 Wellbeing Day
Congratulations to Sally Mitchell, Director of Student Engagement, and Ann Marsh from the Wellbeing team for organising a very successful Year 9 Wellbeing day on Tuesday and to all staff who supported the event by assisting with supervision. Students participated in a range of activities. The boys were involved in fitness activities, patrol boat and sailing at Mordialloc Sailing Club and the girls participated in the Mind Body Pedal program. It was a highly engaging day and students thoroughly enjoyed themselves in beautiful weather. We had some wonderful feedback about our students from the adults running the activities. The staff from Mind Body Pedal said that the girls were the best students they had ever worked with. Mordialloc Sailing Club trainers were also very impressed by how well behaved and polite the boys were during the day.
Reporting and Parent Teacher Interviews reminder
Last week all parents/guardians received notification that interim reports are now available to access. I hope you have had the opportunity to read and discuss with your child/children. In addition, benchmark tasks that have been assessed to date are also available for parents and students to read comments and results. Our parent/teacher/student interviews bookings have been opened now on Compass for the past week for parents to book in times for our interviews on Wednesday 24 April 12-8pm. Bookings will remain open until Tuesday 23 April 5pm. If you are experiencing any difficulties in making these bookings please call the general office for assistance.
Ms. Michelle Roberts
Principal