Principal's Message
MFG Way
Thank you to the parents who completed the MFG way survey and who attended the parent evening for the MFG way. The graphic below shows your thinking on the following questions. The larger the words the more times they were reflected in your thinking.
- What traits, qualities, habits and dispositions should we develop or foster in all MFG students?
- What traits, qualities and habits make us known as someone who has been a student at MFG?
When we did this activity with staff this was their thinking:
And this was the students' thinking with respect to these questions:
So what now?
We will work with students, staff and school council to refine these values, traits, habits and dispositions to a reduced set that we as a school will embrace and focus on developing in our students. We will keep you informed of the progress.
Attendance
Attendance at school is a key focus for us this year, it is part of our Annual Implementation Plan.
KIS PCL1-1: Continue to build a culture where attending school is seen by the school community as important by further improving attendance processes in the school and further promoting the importance of attending school to students and parents.
Non- attendance can occur for a range of reasons.
Thank you to the parents who participated in our attendance survey at the student conferences. Below is a summary of the data we collected from you.
Daily attendance at school is rated as being extremely important by 81% of parents. The most common reasons for absence from school included illness, attending appointments, family events, extended holidays. 72% of parents stated that attendance at school became a more important issue with seniority of students.
A number of excellent suggestions on how to improve attendance were made by parents. The school has implemented a number of measures to monitor and report on attendance. Some of these include: SMS messages to home if a student is not marked as present, certificates, points and recommendations for high and consistent attendance. The safe and supportive team are available to assist with any student who is experiencing difficulty with attending school.
Our non-attendance data for Term 1 2018 is shown below.
As you can see students in Years 8-11 are taking more days off than in Year 7 and 12. If students have 5 days off a term that is 20 per year which is 4 weeks of lost learning. This is significant.
When students attend school regularly they:
- Can achieve their potential
- Have better career prosects
- Learn how to look after themselves and their health
- Grow in confidence
- Keep up with the work and homework
Ms Michelle Crofts
Principal
Matthew Flinders Girls' Secondary College