Principal's Update
Dear Families, Students and Community Members,
Remote Learning
A lot can change in a week or in a day in our current climate. It is unfortunate that we have had to go back to remote learning for all of our students in Years 7-12, and that this will now be for the rest of the term. However, we do understand the reasoning behind it and feel it is the best decision for the health and safety of all within our community. Understandably this may have caused considerable stress and anxiety, especially for our students in their final year of school. However, we were very successful in our remote program for the students in Term 2 and, to date, this term for our Year 7 – 10 students. We go into this next period with great confidence that we can meet the needs of our students in this remote learning space for the rest of this term. We will continue to do our best to support all of our families to navigate through this uncertainty together. Please don’t hesitate to call or email a member of the College leadership team, IT or wellbeing team if you need our assistance in any way. We are also keen to work with our student leadership team to consider how we can acknowledge and celebrate the graduating class of 2020 in a meaningful way with the rest of the College community, depending on what restrictions are in place during Term 4.
Given this period of remote learning will end up being longer than Term 2, it is really important that students stay connected with their teachers and classmates through active participation when a Google Meet is running for their class. We understand that some students may feel uncomfortable having cameras on or prefer them off for a number of reasons but all teachers and students are being encouraged to have cameras on, at least during the explicit teaching part of the lesson to support students' connection to the class and engagement with their learning. It also provides a valuable opportunity to check in on student wellbeing.
We are conducting mid-term surveys with parents and students to gather feedback on remote learning 2.0 and plan to use the results to inform our planning for the rest of the term. Students will have the opportunity in My Mentor/Home Group classes this week to respond to a short survey and the parent survey will also be open on Wednesday for one week for parents to complete – please click on this link.
Onsite Supervision
The latest advice from the Department includes the following categories based on revised criteria for student eligibility for on-site attendance:
- children whose parents are permitted workers and for whom no other arrangements can be made
- vulnerable children including out of home care, children deemed by ChildProtection and /or Family Services to be at risk of harm and children the school identifies as vulnerable
- children with a disability where the family is experiencing severe stress.
If you believe you are in an exceptional situation in which remote learning is not possible, then please email the College using the email address below, and outline the situation so that the most appropriate arrangements can be put in place at school to supervise your child completing their remote learning lessons onsite at school.
mordialloc.co@education.vic.gov.au
Please note exceptional circumstances may vary between the Primary and Secondary school sector given the age of the child.
Year 12 and Special Consideration
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) has now confirmed the details of new measures to address the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on VCE students that was first reported in the media last Friday.
The VCAA will introduce a new ‘Consideration of Educational Disadvantage’ process to calculate VCE scores, taking into account disruptions to learning this year.
To calculate scores, the VCAA will consider a range of data provided by schools, together with each student’s exam results.
The data will include:
- the ranked order of students prior to and following the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19)
- a student’s indicative grades prior to and following the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19)
- school assessments completed prior to remote and flexible learning
- the General Achievement Test (GAT)
- a range of statistical analyses used to calculate final results.
The Consideration of Educational Disadvantage process when calculating VCE scores will require schools to provide the VCAA with information on students and school circumstances to help calculate their study scores.
This will include information about the circumstances and impact of the disruption on students, as well as additional data such as estimated assessment scores.
To ensure the fairness of final results, the VCAA will consider all available information, including the General Achievement Test (GAT) and appropriate comparisons of performance across all assessments and schools.
Based on this analysis, where disadvantage has been identified, this will be factored into students’ final scores, which will then contribute to the study score calculation. This approach will ensure that Victorian students are not disadvantaged in comparison to interstate students in the calculation of their individual ATAR.
Examples of significant severe impacts relating to coronavirus include:
- direct impact on the health and wellbeing of the student and/or their immediate family
- ongoing issues while learning remotely, e.g. internet connectivity issues, unavailability of a suitable device or workplace
- students dealing with substantial extra family responsibilities, e.g. increased caring responsibilities for other siblings
- ongoing mental health challenges
- financial stress
- family violence
- family member losing their job (student needing to extend their hours of employment or gain employment).
I have a great team of Senior Coordinators and Wellbeing staff who are already working closely with our Year 12 cohort. However, if any of the situations listed above apply to your child and we aren’t already aware, please let Ms Greenhalgh or Mr Randell know to ensure your child is given fair and accurate consideration, in addition to any support we can provide to assist over the remainder of the year. Please note: further details about the specific process is still to be communicated to schools.
Our Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, Mr James Merlino, wrote to all Year 12 students and this letter was emailed to our Year 12 students via Compass on Tuesday. For a copy of this letter – please click on the link below.
Whole School PD Day 14 August
As previously notified, we will be having a whole school professional learning day for staff this Friday. Staff will have the opportunity to select from the following online modules run by members of my leadership team:
- Student Connectedness and Wellbeing (strategies to engage students in an online context; ways to develop and maintain student connectedness)
- Student Connectedness and Wellbeing (strategies to support student wellbeing)
- ICT (how to give quick feedback for assessment back to students)
- ICT (how to use Google docs even more productively; quick easy ways to collect data on student understanding)
- Differentiation (Tomlinson's methods of differentiation: content, process, product, learning environment)
- Differentiation (Quick easy ways to modify worksheets for students; assigning group work in Google Classroom)
- Differentiation (Low floor/ high ceiling activities; extension activities)
We would like students to utilise this day to catch up on any class work and to focus on some wellbeing activities.
Student Numbers 2021
Endorsing our reputation as a leading education provider in the area is the continued growth in our student enrolments. We have 130 Year 12 students leaving at the end of the year and 200 Year 7 students coming in at the start of next year! For next year we are only accepting around 200 Year 7s as we have reached our capacity. Our total student population next year will be approximately 1135 students (including our International Students).
Reporting to Parents and Parent Teacher Interviews
This Friday, in the lead up to Parent Teacher interviews on the 19 August, our next round of progress reports will be released on Compass for student and parent access. Please make sure you check to stay informed about your child’s progress.
A reminder that our Parent Teacher Student interviews for Years 7-12 will be held on Wednesday 19 August from 9.30am-5.30pm. Classes will not run on this day as students are expected to attend the online interviews with their parent/s. Bookings opened last Wednesday night through Compass. Please contact the General Office if you have any issues or need assistance with making the bookings. Assistant Principal, Andrew Moffat, will send out instructions to parents and students regarding how the online interviews will work on the day utilising your child/ren’s Google account for a Google Meet interview.
Whole School Review
Our whole school review dates have now been rescheduled for the fourth time, due to the current restrictions. Originally scheduled for Term 2 we now have dates in Term 4 - Tuesday 13 and 27 October which will hopefully allow us to proceed this time, all going well, with students and staff returning to onsite learning in Term 4. Our self-evaluation process, completed in Term 1, seems like such a long time ago now.
Ms. Michelle Roberts
Principal