Assistant Principal News
Welcome Back to 2020!
This year we are very excited to continue in our combined Assistant Principal roles. This structure of leadership has enabled us to work together to achieve our goals in the areas outlined in our Annual Improvement plan of:
These areas will be targeted through whole School initiatives such as the continuation of a Staff Wellbeing program, a renewed focus on our Year 6 Transition Program, the embedding of our Student GROWTH Goals as well as our Staff Professional Learning Plans and Gr8 Walks, Student Learning Interventions, focus on Numeracy and continued involved in the Diocesan wide Learning Collaborative.
This year we have listened to the feedback from staff, students and parents and implemented some new processes around various areas including Mobile phones, parking permits for senior students and senior study lessons.
Previously students have been permitted to have their mobile phones in class and break times as long as they adhere to a Code of Conduct. However, research supports the removal of mobile devices from the classroom to ensure a strong learning focus. As a result, mobile phones are no longer permitted in classrooms. Students have the option to leave their phones in their bags or they may turn them off and place them in the Mobile Phone boxes provided in the classrooms. If students do not adhere to these new procedures their phones will be removed for the lesson or the remainder of the school day.
Students who are eligible to drive are asked to collect a Permission to Drive form from the office and return it asap. Those that return the form will be allocated a Driving Permit that they will need to display on the dash of their car. In order to park in our Student car park all cars must have a permit on display, if the permit is not present students will be asked to remove their cars from the College site.
Our Stage 6 students (Year 11 and 12) have settled into their learning well in the opening two weeks. These students are fortunate to have allocated study lessons throughout the week. This time is to be used to complete assessment, compile class notes and study class content. Previously students were allowed to sign out of school during their study lessons. However, this year, students will be expected to be at school for the entire school day. All senior students are allowed to ‘sign out’ every Thursday at 1pm and every second Tuesday at 2pm, to cater for our extension subject and TAFE students. We appreciate parent support around this, as this study time is valuable for all students.
Our new Year 7 students have also started the year with enthusiasm. The students have now had all of their new classes, and I am pleased to have witnessed some of the wonderful learning occurring. Year 7 students will all take part in the Diocesan wide Best Start Tests on Monday and Tuesday the 17th and 18th of February (Week 4). These tests act as diagnostic indicators of student prior learning in reading and numeracy and are invaluable for staff in planning differentiated learning for their students.
Finally, we would like to invite Year 7 Parents and Guardians to our New Parents evening next Thursday 13th February. The evening will be held at 6pm in the College Learning Centre and will run for approximately 1 hour.
It will be a great opportunity to meet some of the leaders of MCC, and for students and parents to witness some of the exciting initiatives offered by the College.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Yours in learning,
Lora Segrave and Damien Herb
Co Assistant Principals