Principal Team Report

Principal Team Report 

Dear MC Community,

Welcome to our second edition of Links for 2023. It has certainly been a very busy first five weeks of the school year, with assemblies, the Year 7 Family Welcome BBQ and Music Evening, Year 7 and 12 camps, a swimming carnival, inter-school sports, excursions … and learning in classes.

We hope you enjoyed last week's introduction to our new teaching staff.

Some new initiatives at the school

I wrote last year about our successful school review process and the new 2023-2026 School Strategic Plan (available on the college website under Our College / College Documents). We have subsequently drafted and had approved our Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) for 2023, and will soon upload this to the website, along with an abridged ‘nutshell’ version.

To lead the improvement work of the AIP, we have formed two School Improvement Teams (SITs), broadly focussed around the two core pillars of our work in school, student learning and student wellbeing.

One strategy is the development of PLCs – Professional Learning Communities. The focus area is Literacy, with the college’s work in this regard being led by Leading teachers Jacqui Brush (Learning & teaching) and Monique Chisholm (Whole-School Literacy). They provided the following introduction – more details in the end-of-term Links.

PLCs

Teaching staff at Mullauna College have come together as a professional learning community to embark on important work in response to improving student outcomes in literacy. Teams of teachers working in a professional learning community (PLC) will engage with an inquiry focus that informs teacher practice, using current research and evidence. The work over the semester will involve close analysis of sample writing from students and prompt detailed discussion and collaboration to assist students in improved learning outcomes. Professional Learning over the course of the term, has focused predominantly on ‘disciplinary literacy’ and ‘writing to learn strategies’ in preparation for this work.

New VCE support processes

A further change in practice has been the introduction of two new initiatives aimed at increasing the accountability of students in submitting work and undertaking formal assessment tasks. These changes have been made easier to implement through our new daily structure, which left Period 5 on a Wednesday unscheduled for VCE classes.

1. VCE accountability sessions (run each Wednesday Period 5 and Thursday lunchtime) for students that are not submitting the required classwork and are therefore at risk of not meeting outcomes without some intervention.

2. VCE multiple classes SAC sessions - which also runs on Wednesdays in Period 5 and aims to support teachers overcome authentication issues when multiple classes undertake an identical SAC.

Please contact Assistant Principal Michael Bray with any questions or feedback.

It’s the middle of Term 1

At this time of the term, it’s important that parents / carers ensure that both they and their children are back in the important home routines that support the learning at school:

• Help to set the home study routines – these are critical for junior students to establish good habits early in their secondary education, and for seniors to ensure they are completing the critical review and reflection to internalise the material they cover in class;
• regularly check Compass for Chronicle notes regarding positives to acknowledge or concerns to address, and for Learning Task feedback being posted by teachers – these issues can then be followed up promptly with an email or phone call, or at the Student learning Conferences in Week 10.

In coming weeks, the Learning & Teaching team will begin to seek community input on our revised Homework policy, and also on our draft ‘Student Expectations – ready to learn’ policy. The first criterion covered by this policy is attendance and engagement. Assistant Principal Jeff McMillin has prepared an overview that was posted on the Compass Newsfeed recently, and which we share again with you below:

Attendance Matters!

More than ever, daily school attendance is important for young people to succeed in education and to ensure that they don’t fall behind, both socially and developmentally. The effects of COVID over the last 3 years has seen a significant impact on student’s mental health, social engagement and development.  

The evidence behind positive attendance shows that young people who regularly attend school and complete Year 12, or an equivalent qualification, have better health outcomes, better employment outcomes, and higher incomes across their lives. 

School participation is important as it maximises life opportunities for young people, by providing them with education and support networks. School helps people to develop important skills, knowledge and values which set them up for further learning and participation in their community. 

Mullauna College places great importance on all students being at school on time, every day the school is open for instruction. We set our attendance rates in line with the VCE requirements of a minimum of 90%. However, this equates to a student having a day off every 2 weeks across the year and to put this into context, if a child has an attendance percentage of 90% from Year 7 to Year 11 then this is equivalent to missing over 6 months of school! This means that developmentally they are behind their peers and ultimately this can have a long-term impact on future career pathways. 

The main reasons for absence are:Sickness – There are always times when students need to miss school, such as when they’re ill. It’s vital that they’re only away on the days they are genuinely sick, and setting good sleep patterns, eating well and exercising regularly can make a big difference. 

Family Holidays - Family holidays should be planned to take place during school holidays where possible, not during the term. If  it is unavoidable to go on holiday during term time, make sure that you talk to school in advance, and work with us to develop an absence learning plan. 

“Day off” – Think twice before letting your teenager have a “day off” as they could fall behind their classmates – every day counts. 

Truancy – This is when students choose not to go to school without their parent’s permission or skip out of school during the day. There can be many reasons for truancy; the best way to address this is for schools and parents to work together. While all absences can effect academic performance, Department of Education statistics show that unexcused absences are a much stronger indicator of lower reading and maths achievement. 

School Refusal - School refusing students experience significant emotional distress not only when going to school but also at the thought of going to school; they may be absent from school for weeks or even months at a time. School refusal differs from Truancy as children generally stay home with the knowledge of their parents and despite the best efforts to encourage their child to go to school. 

Please speak with your child’s Year Level Coordinator (YLC) or a member of the wellbeing team if you require further information.

Sport and Mullauna champions

Mullauna has enjoyed success in both Senior and Intermediate sports this term, and our swim team headed off to the Division swimming competition today. Please refer to the college Facebook page for more sports photos and reports.

It is always a pleasure to hear about the successes our students are experiencing outside school. Today we share with you the exciting news that Henry Walton of Year 8 will be representing Mullauna at the Australian MTB Inter-schools from Sunday the 5th to Wednesday 8th March at Thredbo. He is competing in all four events on offer in his division which is Year 7 & 8 Students. To learn more see: https://www.thredbo.com.au/mtbinterschools/

We wish Henry well and look forward to hearing how he went! 

Warm regards,

Harry Ruff

Principal

For the MC Principal Team