Principal's Update

Michelle Roberts
Michelle Roberts

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

 

I hope everyone was able to enjoy the holiday break and are now refreshed and ready to focus on the final stretch.

 

Focused on achieving Personal Best

 

Thanks to our Acting Director of Senior School, Tim Randell and Year 12 Coordinator, James Nicklen, and all Year 12 staff for the timely completion of Unit 4 content to enable our practice exams in all subjects to be completed during the last week of term 3. This has provided more focused time on targeted revision in the lead up to the important final Year 12 exams starting on Wednesday 26 October with English. My thanks to all teachers for their timely marking of the papers, to provide students with valuable feedback to assist their preparation for their final exams at the College. As mentioned in my last newsletter article, during the exam period, students can be onsite to study and /or see their respective teachers for assistance. Teachers may also continue to run classes in the lead up to their respective exam.  Students are encouraged to maximise time with their teachers in person for revision work and support in the lead up to each of their exams.

 

All students in Years 10-12 will be completing final assessments and continuing the rigorous planning and preparation for their final exam weeks that are fast approaching. It is so important for all students to remain focused and use class and home study time effectively. VCE students should seek help from their teachers to work on any identified weaknesses, complete unit summaries and continue to work on exam performance by completing past exam papers under the exam time constraints.

 

Students in Year 9 will have exams in English, Maths, Science and Humanities during week 6 or 7 of this term and will be required to attend their normal lessons in between the exams. Further information will be distributed soon to students. Students in Years 7-9 will also be completing assessments throughout the term leading into the final reporting period. All students in Year 7-9 also need to present a Student Led Conference to celebrate their achievements for this year before moving up to the next year level in our 2023 headstart program, beginning on 21 November. More information will follow about the Student Led conferences arrangements occurring during week 7 this term. It is our clearly stated expectation of everyone to continue to strive to achieve their personal best in everything they do.

 

Mordi Idol

 

It was absolutely sensational to return to a live event for our traditional end of Term 3 event, Mordi Idol held in the Gym with the whole school in attendance (except some Year 12 students who were in a practice exam) during period 4 on Thursday 15 September. Thanks to our Performing Arts Coordinator, Cameron Young, and our Performing Arts Captains, Bronte Taylor and Stephen Elkington, for putting the event together. Thanks also to two of our Middle School Captains Lilianna Bell and Anoushka Jithesh for joining me on the judging panel where we scored each act based on set criteria - entertainment value, quality of delivery and creativity.

 

Congratulations to the fourteen student entries across Years 7-12 for this event, who were all prepared to put themselves out there in front of the rest of the school community and give it their personal best. It is always such a wonderful event to bring the whole school together in celebration and appreciation of student talents and it always leaves me with such a warm feeling of pride in our students.

 

Congratulations to:

First Place: Ben Woolridge Year 9 singing and playing piano – “Lovely” by Billy Eilish

Runner Up: Jeuno La Year 9 performing a Piano medley

Third place: “The Heights” Student Band Year 10 (Lachlan Welsh, Dylan Henderson, Liam Jong, and William Fraser) performing “Do this again”

 

School for Student Leadership

 

We have two of our Year 9 students attending the Snowy River Campus in Marlo for the School for Student Leadership for all of Term 4 this year. Congratulations to Anoushka Jithesh and Isabella Drury for nominating and being selected for this fantastic leadership development program for Year 9 students across the state.

 

The School for Student Leadership is a Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) initiative offering a unique residential education experience for Year 9 students. The curriculum focuses on personal development and team learning projects sourced from students' home regions.

 

 

Mordialloc College Student Council 2023

 

As families should be aware we introduced a new student leadership model this year, the Mordialloc College Student Council. Our Director of Student Engagement, Simon Cummins, and I, along with the captains, have been speaking at year level assemblies and sub school assemblies over the last three weeks of Term 3 to promote the council and start the information sessions and explaining the application process to Years 7-11 students, for the formation of this student council for 2023. The key goal of this new structure has been to provide opportunity for greater student voice, agency, and leadership across the College.

 

We still have our School Captains and Vice Captains, along with Middle School Captains and Vice Captains. Then we have six sub-committees lead by a Year 12 leader and teacher to assist. House Captains for each year level will be able to join one of these sub-committees. The aim has been to have a spread of student leaders across each sub-committee, with these leaders reporting back to their respective year levels in our weekly Year Level Assemblies.

  • Performing Arts
  • Visual Arts
  • Community and Student Wellbeing
  • Curriculum (Years 7-12) including VCAL to be called Vocational Major from 2023
  • Facilities and Environment
  • Promotions and Fundraising
  • Sports

 

The selection process of an application letter, speech and interview will continue for all roles, except house captains at each year level will not need to deliver a speech. The applications for our 2023 Mordialloc College Student Council close next week. The selection process will be completed in time for Headstart 2023 when our new leaders will take up their positions.

 

Annual Art show

We look forward to the return of our onsite Annual Art Show, with our opening night to be held next week on Tuesday 11 October from 6.30pm in the EZ. This is part of our Arts Celebration week and is a true community event with the talents of our students and staff on show. All members of our community are invited to attend to celebrate the works of our Year 7-12 students across the visual and performing arts. Our local MP and Parliamentary Secretary for Schools, Mr Tim Richardson, will be in attendance to officially open the night.

 

An incredible amount of work has gone into the preparations for this significant event and the Art and Technology team deserves the highest praise for their commitment to the College and dedication in ensuring the successful delivery of this quality event. Special thanks to Leah Bright for coordinating this event, with our assistant coordinators Alex Trevisan and Megan Furphy.

 

Facility Development 

In my last newsletter article, I reported on the new scope of works and costings due to complications with our new outside courts’ re-development. We now have a confirmed timeline for our new courts and unfortunately it has been extended into next year, with a completion date now set for the end of the first week in February. The main reason for this being the need to cure the concrete before the plexipave is applied. The construction company will be back onsite from the end of October to resume work on the re-development. 

 

We will be moving into our new Wellbeing Centre over the first few weeks of this term. 

 

Year 7 2023 Transition information video and Q&A session

 

We have a video presentation for our new parents, carers and students that has been sent to families via email on Monday. This important 30-minute video includes information about our Bring Your Own Device program operating at the College. As a follow up to this video, there will be the opportunity for parents and carers to attend an online Q&A session via Webex on Tuesday 18 October at 6.30pm. All key leaders will be in attendance to answer any questions parents/carers may have from watching the video. Again, details of this session were communicated to families on Monday. There is also a detailed information pack to be collected from the reception over the next couple of weeks.

 

We look forward to welcoming all our new Year 7 students for next year officially to the school on the state-wide Orientation Day on Tuesday 13 December.

 

Uniform

 

All students returning to onsite learning should be wearing the summer uniform this term. For students wearing shorts or long pants, just a reminder that for summer this includes wearing the short-sleeved business shirt with College logo. Also, to our current Year 9 students, a reminder that you will need to purchase the grey Senior School jumper for 2023 Headstart as you will be entering Year 10 and the Senior School. Headstart will begin from 21 November for all students moving from Years 7-11 to Years 8-12 in 2023. Further information about this whole school program will be outlined to all families closer to the time.

 

Staffing News

 

We have welcomed Kristen Whitman, our new youth counsellor to the College this week. Kristen is replacing Katie Haywood who is undertaking further studies in a Master of Social Work. Kristen will be working three days a week, Monday-Wednesday each week.

 

Ms. Michelle Roberts

Principal