College News

Principal's Update

Michelle Roberts
Michelle Roberts

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

 

School Production 

Congratulations to all students (cast and crew) who were involved in this year’s school production Matilda: The Musical. I am sure everyone in our school community would agree with me that it was a fantastic show of the highest quality - so professional in every sense of the word and it showcased our wonderful talent pool at the College. The event was even more significant this year as it was the first live show since 2019 and everyone in the cast, crew, and the audience over the four performance nights certainly appreciated that. Special thanks must go to our wonderful teachers: Cameron Young – Production Coordinator and Producer, Bella Barker – Director, Claire Bruce - Head of Crew and Sets and Mara Sears - Production Assistant. Highlighting the sense of community that prevails at the College, former students from our graduating class of 2021, Lorenzo Mortimer and Tahlia Peacock, volunteered their time - Lorenzo in working with the crew and Tahlia with choreography. 

 

Parent – Teacher Interviews

I hope parents/guardians and students found the remote parent teacher student interviews last Thursday to be effective and worthwhile. It certainly was a taxing day for teachers conducting up to 60 Google meet appointments, however, teachers also reported how enjoyable it was to connect with parents face to face. I hope it was also an opportunity for students to showcase their learning to their parents and teacher/s, along with discussions around areas to improve to achieve their personal best.  If you were not able to attend the interviews, please do not hesitate to contact any teacher you wish to speak to to organise a time to speak on the phone. If you have any feedback about the online interviews, please get in touch with Assistant Principal, Tracey Bastin. 

 

Instrumental Music Showcase 

This week we have three nights celebrating Instrumental Music at our College. On Monday we showcased vocal and piano, on Tuesday brass, woodwind and percussion and tonight it is contemporary (guitar, piano and voice). The event will be running from 7 pm - 8.30 pm in the Performing Arts Centre. Three wonderful nights of celebration for our instrumental and vocal students along with their family members. A credit to our dynamic music team - Demis Danoudis Coordinator (and teacher of guitar, piano and voice), Nigel Maas (woodwind), Damien Maughan (brass), Jason Liacos (guitar), Adrian De Luca (drums) and Kelly Ferguson (voice). I thank them for their ongoing support of our students.

 

Education Today - Published Article

Congratulations to our eLearning and STEM leader, Simon Belluzzo for featuring in the latest edition of the Education Today magazine. Simon was interviewed recently for this publication.

 

“Mordialloc College’s Tech Teaching Solution” Please click on this link to read this article: https://www.educationtoday.com.au/news-detail/Mordialloc-College-5710

 

Safety on Bikes

A reminder to all students to be wearing their bike helmets when riding to and from school. In addition, with our increased student population, extra care needs to be taken when leaving the school grounds. Students should push their bikes through the school grounds at the end of the day, not ride them, and  be vigilant to what is happening around them as they enter the roads at such a busy time with cars and, on some afternoons, buses on the roads surrounding the school. 

 

Awards Night Wednesday 7 December 2022

This is one of the key events on the College calendar! Every year we come together as a college community to celebrate student successes in a variety of areas such as Academic Excellence, the Arts, Technology, Sport, and Community Involvement.  There are many prizes awarded on the night, thanks to the generous sponsorship of many organisations in the school community. After the last two years of recorded awards proceedings onsite, it is very exciting to be heading back to the City of Kingston Town Hall for our live event. 

 

Students are nominated for these awards by their teachers, home group teachers and year level coordinators and these nominations are based on specific criteria for each award. I encourage all students to strive to achieve their best for the many awards celebrated at this important occasion. These include:

  1. Academic Excellence: The ‘Academic Excellence’ award is bestowed upon students who have demonstrated outstanding academic results within a subject. They have consistently worked above the expected level and/or have achieved a B or an A (in relation to Victorian Curriculum Achievement levels) on their reports where possible. At  VCE level students need to be consistently attaining high or very high on all assessments. Students also need to have demonstrated very good to excellent learning habits in the learning area.
  2. Achievement- Endeavour: The ‘Achievement-Endeavour’ award is awarded to students in recognition of consistent efforts made to strive for their personal best. They have demonstrated academic progress within a subject and have made significant improvements to reach their learning goals
  3. Community Service: The ‘Community Service’ award is awarded to students from across each year level who have served the College in a particular way. For example, participation in a variety of school activities as determined on an annual basis, such as: SRC, House Athletics, House Swimming, School Production, subject competitions, contribution to the College Magazine, participation in Open Night, primary school visits etc.
  4. Sport Champion: Awarded to one female and one male student from Year 7, Year 8, Intermediate level, and Senior level in recognition of outstanding sporting achievements made throughout the year.
  5. Special Awards: These awards are contributed by organisations to recognise achievements made by students in particular categories. For example City of Kingston, Rotary, Victoria Police, Australian Defence Force etc.
  6. Year 12 Subject Awards: The ‘Subject Award’ is bestowed upon the student who has consistently attained the highest academic results in all assessment tasks within the subject (for each Year 12 subject).
  7. Year 12 VCAL Awards: The ‘Year 12 VCAL Award’ is awarded to students who have demonstrated significant achievements and progress within the VCAL program.  A total of four awards will be given to four students in the subject areas of Numeracy, Literacy, Personal Development and Word Related Skills.
  8. Year 11 VCAL Award: The ‘Year 11 VCAL Award’ is awarded to a student who has demonstrated significant achievement and progress within the Year 11 VCAL program. 
  9. Year 10 VCAL Award: The ‘Year 10 VCAL Award’ is awarded to a student who has demonstrated significant achievement and progress within the Year 10 VCAL program. 
  10. Art Award: Awarded to students across all year levels in recognition of outstanding art achievements and progress made throughout the year.
  11. Quality Learner Award: Awarded to a Year 7 and a Year 8 student who has shown high quality commitment to individual learning excellence achieved through teamwork, a process of continual improvement and taking responsibility for their learning.

We also award the DUX of each year level based on the number of Academic Excellence awards they have received and close examination of achievement data. 

 

This night is also a significant event for our Year 12 students.  It is here that we celebrate the achievements of the graduating class by presenting all students on stage in academic gowns. Students are presented with a graduation certificate in front of the rest of the college community. Subject awards for Year 12 and several special awards will also be presented. We look forward to this very special event, held at the City of Kingston Town Hall in Moorabbin on Wednesday 7 December at 7pm. Please enter the date into your diary now!

 

Parent Opinion Survey

In my last newsletter article, I stated that randomly selected families would be receiving this survey to complete online. We ended up deciding to send it to all primary parent contacts on our system, to provide more parents with an opportunity to complete this department survey on our school. The use of opinion data to monitor school performance is a very important step towards making our school the best it can possibly be. Annual and anonymous opinion surveys for staff, students and parents are conducted and the information gained is used to drive school improvements and shape the future direction of the College. Parents/carers have already received the information about the online parent opinion survey, and we ask that you please take the time to complete it. So far, we have 10% of parents who have completed the survey. It would be wonderful if we can get this to over 30% of parents. The survey is conducted online by ORIMA Research Pty Ltd and only takes 15 minutes to complete. It can be accessed from Monday 15 August to Friday 16 September. The survey will help our school gain an understanding of how you view our school climate, student engagement, and relationships. Results will be sent to the school by the start of next term.

 

Facility Development Update 

Our new Wellbeing Centre was due for opening this week; however, we need to replace the doors on the individual private consultation rooms and are awaiting the builders to provide a timeline for this to occur. 

 

Unfortunately, I am still awaiting the new scope of works and costings; and the revised construction program for our four new outdoor courts. It has become quite complicated overcoming the poor soil conditions and, therefore, a lot more expensive than budgeted for, so several options are being explored by the architects and engineers. We will hopefully get an update this week on the revised program, cost and completion date. Our PE staff and students are really looking forward to having access to these new plexipave courts and I thank them again for their patience. 

 

Michelle Roberts

Principal