Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Practising Gratitude

Practising gratitude on a regular basis can be instrumental in helping one become more optimistic. It can also have a big impact on your overall mood and perspective. Happiness inspires more happiness.  Gratitude can help people recognise the goodness of life and help one to maintain a positive outlook in uncertain situations. 

To encourage your family to practise gratitude every day you could try these conversations starters depending on the time of day.

Morning Starter questions:

What are you looking forward to today?

Who are you excited to see today and why?

What are you going to try and do really well today?

What is something that you can do to make someone else’s day better?

What is something that is going to make you feel happy today?

Evening Reflection questions:

What was something that you did well today?

What was the biggest win you had today?

What did I learn today about yourself and others?

What are two things that you are most grateful for after today?

What are you looking forward to about tomorrow?

How did you make someone’s days better with an action or gesture?

Valedictory Dinner

On Wednesday night we look forward to celebrating our Year 12 Valedictory Dinner at the Southern Golf Club. With the final exam completed on Wednesday, this night will be an opportunity for parents, teachers, and students to get together in a formal setting to reflect on the past year and recognise the achievements of our Year 12 students. Thanks to Year 12 Coordinator, Mr James Nicklen for his organisation of the event with our Promotions and Fundraising Captains Aston Hewit, Alessia Gantzos and Isabella Siddall. The night will consist of some formal speeches, reflections on the year captured on video and in photos and the presentation of some awards. There will be the opportunity for all to join in on the dance floor during the last hour of the night. 

Please note our more formal academic, leadership and community service awards will be awarded to students at our Annual Awards Night on 7 December.

Awards Night

We look forward to returning to the Moorabbin Town Hall for our live awards night, one of the key events on the College Calendar, with family members in the audience. Mordialloc College is holding its Awards Night at the City of Kingston Town Hall, Nepean Highway, Moorabbin on Wednesday 7 December.  

It is important that 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.   Not only are awards given on this evening, but high-quality entertainment is provided by students in the areas of Music and Dance.

It will also be a significant event for our Year 12 Cohort as we celebrate the achievements of the graduating class for 2022 by presenting all students on stage in academic gowns. Students will be presented with a graduation certificate on stage in front of the rest of the college community. Subject awards for Year 12 and several special awards will also be presented. 

We understand that this is a busy time for parents, but we also know that you understand the importance of coming together as a group to acknowledge all the wonderful achievements that your children have made throughout the year.   Memories of school include both everyday activities and friendships, as well as grand events such as Award Nights. I look forward to a high attendance from our community in support of this very special event. Award recipients will be receiving their invitation to attend over the next few weeks.

2023 Headstart program

All families should be aware of our 2023 Headstart program commencing on Monday 21 November starting for all students. On Monday I emailed via compass a letter to all families, regarding our expectations for Headstart. Please see letter attached:

All current Years 7-11 students will be rolled over into 2023 classes, thus Years 8-12 classes for 2023. We will be following our new timetable for 2023 and students will have the opportunity to work with their new teachers in their new year level, over Headstart program.

For Years 10, 11 and 12 (2023) students the Headstart Program will run from 21st of November to 6th of December. For Years 8 and 9 (2023) students it will run from 21st of November to 12th of December. An alternative program will be in place for our 2023 Years 8 and 9 students during the last week of school from Tuesday 13th of December to Tuesday 20th of December. 

On Thursday this week students in the Middle School will have the opportunity to participate in the Fun Fields excursion to celebrate the end of the 2022 academic year before beginning the 2023 academic year. Thanks to our Director of Middle School, Brendan McFarland for organising this and to all of the teachers attending to supervise students. 

Our Year Level Co-ordinators for 2023 starting in Headstart are: In Senior School: Year 12 Mr Randell, Year 11 Mrs Brown, Year 10 Ms Davey, with Ms Barker as Assistant Year 10 Coordinator. In the Middle School: Year 9 Mr Haber, with Mr Murray as Assistant Year 9 Coordinator, Year 8 Mr Potter, with Ms Bruce as Assistant Year 8 Coordinator, and our Year 7 Coordinators will be Ms Hannan and Mr Mayadas.

We expect all students to be taking the Headstart program seriously and their attendance, work in class, assigned homework and completion of set tasks will count towards their report for semester one next year. We expect that our four core values of Personal Best, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility continue to be evident in how we all work together as a community, with all students demonstrating our core values on a consistent basis. All classes will be involved in developing Codes of Cooperation with their respective teachers during their first lesson.

Remembrance Day

Thanks to School Captain Emma Schultz and two of our Middle School Captains, Kylie Wolfe, and Kyle McDonald for representing the school at the Longbeach RSL Remembrance Day service on the morning of Friday 11 November. 

At school, all classes observed one minute silence at 11 am to remember those who died or suffered for Australia's cause in all wars and armed conflicts. It is a moment not only to pause and remember all those who have served and sacrificed in wars and conflicts across the world, but also to reflect on the historical events that led to this day of significance.

Originally announced to mark the anniversary of the Armistice that ended fighting with Germany in World War I, Remembrance Day provides the opportunity to acknowledge the service personnel who died while serving in wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations.  Classroom teachers spoke to students before 11 am to remind students of the significance of why we stop for one minute silence on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. 

Facility Development 

We have held our start up meeting this week with the Victorian Schools Building Authority and the appointed architects from Wilson and Young for our capital works project to replace the balcony and walkway on the second floor of our 95-year-old heritage listed two-storey building. This also includes replacing the entire external wall at ground level. We have received $716,627 in funding for these works which must be completed by June 2024. By the time we work through the various planning stages of the project it will most likely be put out to tender before mid-year 2023. Given this will project will involve some disruption to the College in a highly populated building, the project will mainly need to be completed when we are offsite. 

Outside Court resurfacing - Neo Construct is back onsite with works re-commencing on our outside court’s development during late October. The weather (with all this rain) is now our biggest hurdle to overcome in terms of meeting our timeline of handover of the courts in early February next year.

Staffing Update

We are farewelling some members of staff and welcoming some new members of staff in readiness for Headstart. 

• Jesse Sibly, Technology teacher has secured a position closer to home and his last day with us was on Friday 12 November. We have employed Ann Gauld an experienced teacher from Narre Warren South P-12 who has been able to start with us this week.
• Ayako Lyons, who joined us this year teaching Japanese is moving to Japan with her family and her last day with us will be Friday 18 November. One of our literacy tutors this year, Cynthia Leung was successful in securing this Japanese teaching role with us and Cynthia is starting next week in her new role.
• Senior English teacher, James Nicklen, is taking 12 months leave to take up a publishing and communications role outside of education. We have appointed Melanie Wong to replace James and she will be starting next year. Some of our current English staff will cover this teaching load in Headstart with James last day with us being on Friday 18 November. 
• Karen Barker (Education Support Staff member) our Daily Organiser and Timetabler, was successful in getting a promotion position at Dandenong HS and left at the end of week two of this term. Mick Haber has stepped in to fulfill the Daily Organiser role until we find a replacement. Karen worked through the holidays to ensure we had a 2023 timetable ready for our Headstart program, and one of my Assistant Principals, Tracey Bastin has been making any adjustments due to new staffing appointments. This role has been advertised and we are working through the selection process for a new person to start next year. 
• Rachael Stone – is our new Assistant Principal and will be overseeing Curriculum/ Teaching & Learning /Professional Learning. Rachael comes with a wealth of experience having been an AP in the UK for eight years. She is currently the Acting Principal at Glen Iris PS and was keen to get back into a secondary setting. There have been some revisions to the other AP roles. From Headstart, Marina Walsh will be overseeing Middle School, Wellbeing, Facilities and OHS; and Tracey Bastin will be overseeing Senior School, International Students and School Operations.
• Susan Cochrane – was appointed back in Term 2 as our new Director of Senior School and begins in Headstart. Susan teaches Health and PE. Susan will also be leading the new Vocational Major program. 
• Maria Antoniou - was appointed back in Term 2 as our new Director of Numeracy Improvement and Maths Learning Area Leader and begins in Headstart next week.

Future Term Dates

Please see the following attachment for the Official School Term Dates for 2023-2026.

Whole School Professional Learning Day

A reminder that this Friday 18 November we are having our whole school professional learning day for teachers and ES staff. This day was postponed in Term 2 and has been moved to this term, just prior to our 2023 Headstart program starting. It will be a pupil free day.

Michelle Roberts

Principal