Principal's Message

Dear Parents & Families

Many of us have family who live overseas, we travel far and wide or we study a language. These global connections make our life richer by promoting empathy, understanding and tolerance. At Mentone Girls’ Secondary College we celebrate diversity through our welcoming of our international students and we embrace the challenges of travel to developing countries through World Challenge.

I would like to share some statistics with you that demonstrate how diverse we are as a community.  Twenty percent of our student population are born overseas mostly represented by United Kingdom, China, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Russia. More students than this have one or more parents born overseas which means that there are global connections that stretch around the world.

Seventy-two students speak a language other than English at home.  I think this is wonderful.  We also offer Japanese and French languages at our college and just over 500 students out of 1150 students at our College choose to study a language.  Many of you will have your first experience of visiting another country through one of our trips to France and Japan. 

Statistically, this year over 10.7 million overseas trips have been taken by Australians. That is just under half of the population of Australia which is 24.7 million people. Many of our students have already travelled with their family and some students in Year 12 will be contemplating the first solo overseas trip.

This is a very exciting time to be growing up. It is a terrific time to explore the world and build bridges instead of walls. Every time we extend a hand, perform an act of kindness or display empathy to people beyond our shores, we grow as a community. Our College values of Respect, Personal Best and Resilience will prepare our students to be part of a global community.

This week we welcomed students and staff from our sister school, Nakamura High School. Many of our families have opened their homes to our guests and, by doing so, have demonstrated these values.

The warm welcome and resounding applause that our students gave to the students from Nakamura High School, who presented a comedy act or spoke at the assembly, demonstrated how inclusive we are as a community.  

Regards

Ms Linda Brown