PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

It is funny when you get to this time of the year and reflect on what has been, there is often commentary on how fast the time has gone. This year, many of us have felt each day and 2021 cannot end quick enough. It is, however, important to focus on what we as a community do have and be grateful for that.

I am immensely proud of our school community and the way we have all supported each other. I want to thank parents and carers for the emails, phone calls and Social Media comments of thankyous, encouragement and understanding. The time you took to write these made a big difference in staff momentum and feeling of appreciation. In these times of adversity our students have surpassed our expectations and returned to school ready to learn, re-build their social connections and prepare for a positive start in 2022.

Words on a page do not seem enough to express how thankful I am for all of our college staff. Anyone that works in a school has lived through two years of uncertainty, and like the students, on a steep learning curve.

Our Education Support Staff are the face and voice of our college, often our first responders to family requests and concerns.

They are the staff that work with our most vulnerable students in the classroom, and they are our staff that provide essential support to teachers in practical subjects. Like teachers, they have had to adapt how they operate to ensure teachers can do their work, to ensure the college is operating and to ensure students that need that extra support are getting it. Thank you.

Our teaching staff. To every day be online, working so hard to engage with their students, often met by voices but not faces, shows dedication and unwavering support for our students. I mentioned earlier in the year in a newsletter that we do not profess to ‘always get it right,’ but we do pride ourselves on being reflective and responding to community feedback. All decisions come from a good place, trying to cater for most of our students and families. Our teachers can walk away this year and know that they have given their all and contributed to the success of our 2021 school year.

We are also incredibly proud of our students and the way they have demonstrated adaptability and resilience, particularly with the ups and downs of continued lockdowns for a second year in a row. Our staff and students worked collaboratively and ensured connection to each other and the College both during remote learning and whilst onsite. We continue to focus on developing our students as global citizens, improving their awareness of issues at a global scale, developing empathy and a willingness to improve our world. There has been much to celebrate in this space from students 7-12 throughout the year.

On the Sporting Front – MESC has continued to grow our sports program with amazing success coming from our dedicated Sports Education program being embedded into the curriculum. Despite our school being considerably smaller than our neighbouring schools 2021 has continued to provide outstanding results for our students. Here are 3 that are well worth a mention.

1.) Padua Cup (year 7): 2nd place

2.) Summer Cup: 2nd Place

3.) Winter Cup 3rd Place.

All this challenging work and dedication has been recognised by the Department of Education and training for a second year in a row we have been identified as an INFLUENCE school. It is extremely rare for a secondary college to have such accolade. Schools are allocated to a performance group through the Differentiated School Performance method that utilises two dimensions of performance results: current performance and change in performance over time, using selected school performance measures, like results from NAPLAN, VCE/VCAL and DET surveys.

There are exciting things happening at the college in 2022, we cannot wait to share them with you all in the new year. Celeste, Micah and I wish you all a safe and happy summer break.