Principal Team Report

Dear MC Community,

It’s hard to believe that our first week of the 2023 school year is already drawing to a close.

Vale Andrew Holt

Our whole college community is mourning the loss of our Year 11 student Andrew Holt. Our thoughts and condolences are with his family and friends at this difficult time.

Students, staff and families are reminded that support is available at the college – please reach out.

Year 7

Our thanks to Year 7 Level Coordinator Laura Chiappa and her team of Year 7 teachers who inducted our new Year 7 students so successfully on Tuesday morning. By recess they were ready to head off to their first formal classes. We now look forward to their camp at Toolangi in Week 2 and the Year 7 Family BBQ & Music Night on Thursday 16 February.

Leadership Assembly

Today we held our Leadership Assembly, where we welcomed our Year 7s, acknowledged our Year 12s with their special badges, and presented our student leaders with their badges of office. Photos of the event will be published in the next edition of Links.

School Council Elections

We will publish details of the School Council Election process via Compass Newsfeed next week. Community members with questions should contact the principal, Harry Ruff, at the college on 9874 3422.

The 2023 Mullauna College Leadership Team and the Student Management & Wellbeing Team

In the tables below, we have summarised for your information these two critical college teams. I look forward to working with them, and all other staff, both Education Support and Teachers, in order to deliver the best possible experience for our students at Mullauna College in 2023. At the core of our work will be Learning & Teaching, aimed at maximising the wellbeing, engagement and learning achievement outcomes of our students, through the broad range of classroom and co-curricular programs we offer. We will achieve this best when families support us in our work, and keep us informed of issues that are having an impact on their children.

The Mullauna Leadership Team in 2023:

Harry RUFF	Principal
Jeff McMILLIN	Assistant Principal	Resources, Transition and Community Partnerships; Student Services.
Michael BRAY	Assistant Principal	Learning & Teaching and college operations.
Naomi JALLAIS	Learning Specialist	Classroom practice, English as an Additional Language (EAL) and pre-service teachers
Nathan HUGHES	Learning Specialist	Staff induction, VIT (teacher registration), classroom practice and professional learning
Jacquie BRUSH	Leading Teacher – Learning & Teaching	Learning & Teaching, Assessment & Reporting, and Professional Learning.
Monique CHISHOLM	Leading Teacher – Student Learning Performance	Student Learning Performance (data analysis) and whole-school Literacy
Daniella TAGLIERI	Leading Teacher - Student Development	Student Management and Wellbeing; college timetable

The Student Management and Wellbeing Team in 2023

POSITION	NAME
Assistant Principal – Student Services	Jeff McMILLIN
Leading Teacher – Director of Student Development	Daniella TAGLIERI
Head of Senior School and Year 12 Coordinator	Penny NEVILL
Year 11 Coordinator	Rebecca KIMM
Year 10 Coordinator	Amanda LEAHY
Head of Junior School	Lisa LARMOUR
Year 9 Coordinator	Anthony LAM
Year 8 Coordinator	Kathy HALPIN
Year 7 Coordinator	Laura CHIAPPA
Transition Coordinator	Jeff McMILLIN
Careers and Pathways Coordinator	Nik SMITH
Student Wellbeing Coordinator	Erin BRIEDIS
Mental Health Practitioner – Social Worker	Bernie O’HALLORAN
Adolescent Health Nurse Educator	Natalie KEARNEY

VCE Accountability sessions – Wednesdays in Period 5

One critical task parents can undertake to support their child’s learning is to ensure that all homework and any required tasks are completed and submitted in a timely manner. Last Wednesday, we conducted our first accountability session for VCE students who had not completed required work by the due date; in this case, it was work set during last year’s Headstart program in preparation for classes this year. Staff will continue to refer students to these weekly sessions to ensure progression in their learning.

College Tours

One college program is already planning for 2024, with our regular Friday morning tours commencing this week. Please refer to the website for more details and help to spread the word to prospective families.

Some key college policies

Please refer to the section titled ‘Policies’ for some key college policies regarding:

Privacy; Student Accident Insurance; Personal Property brought to School; Mobile Phones; Cricket Balls

Annual privacy reminder for 2023

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy. Please take the time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages: Amharic, Arabic, Dari, Gujarati, Mandarin, Somali, Sudanese, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese.

Student travel to school

A reminder that:

students should be using pedestrian lights and guarded crossings where these are available – senior students are expected to role model appropriate conduct for their junior peers;
students using public transport are to behave in a manner befitting the school values and to use their Myki correctly.

Some ‘Reminders’ repeated from the previous Newsfeed (Friday 27 January):

Carparks & school driveways

A reminder to our school community of the restricted access for vehicular traffic to the school grounds, especially now that the building program is underway.

Parents are requested not to enter the college driveway / car parks between 8am and 4pm unless transporting an ill student.

Please use Tirana Street or neighbouring side streets for drop off and pick up.

Please avoid blocking neighbours’ driveways and be aware of restrictions.

Changes to uniform policy for 2023 school year

As communicated late last year, we have made changes to the Mullauna College uniform for 2023. We have attached the PSW price list for the PSW store in Croydon. The new uniform brochure is also attached for your reading. In summary, the key changes are listed below:

If students in Year 7 to 10 have a PE or Sport Education class, full Sport uniform may be worn for the whole day. Based on this change, we advise students to possibly purchase 2 sets of Sport uniform, considering that the Sport uniform will now likely be worn across 2 days per week.
VCE students that undertake the VCE PE subject, may wear full Sport uniform when instructed by their teacher on Compass for a Practical class.
Students will have an option next year to wear black leather shoes or completely black runners, with their normal daily uniform. It is vital that if families are looking to purchase black runners, they ensure the runners are completely black with no white or coloured logos or stripes. Students are advised to consult their Year Level Coordinator if unsure about a particular brand or style of black runners.
The PSW store will now stock a Mullauna beanie, for the use of students in the winter months. Like caps, these must be removed when entering a classroom.
Students can wear either black or white socks with any uniform.
The college is still investigating the introduction of a college puffer vest. We will inform the community once we have confirmed the style and colour choices available.

Please ensure your child has the correct uniform, and do contact the college if you have any queries or concerns, or need assistance with the purchase of uniform items.

Parents and Carers

Please continue to monitor our information updates through the Compass Newsfeeds.

If you have any new information or concerns about your child, please do not hesitate to contact the appropriate staff member at the college. This is particularly the case for concerns parents have for their child’s learning or wellbeing.

In most cases, the relevant Year Level Coordinator is the best first-point-of-contact. They are:

Year 7 – Laura Chiappa
Year 8 – Kathy Halpin
Year 9 – Anthony Lam
Head of Junior School – Lisa Larmour
Year 10 – Amanda Leahy
Year 11 – Rebecca Kimm
Year 12 and Head of Senior School – Penny Nevill

School costs – parent payments

Compass is now open for contributions (voluntary) to be made, and we sincerely thank those families who have already made this payment or started a payment plan.

We are well aware of the financial challenges many families are currently experiencing and have been following the discussion in the media with keen interest. We encourage all families to:

Contribute if and when able to;
Seek additional financial supports, like the CSEF (Camps, Sports & Excursions Fund) if eligible;
Contact the college if you require assistance with a payment or wish to make a payment plan – we can then also explore further options and alternative support options e.g. State Schools Relief or other welfare options through our college Wellbeing team.

As a school, we will ensure that the differences between:

‘contributions’ (voluntary),
‘donations’ (voluntary) and
‘charges’ (required payments for a student to participate in a particular program outside the compulsory education e.g. camps)

are always clearly spelled out.

We will continue to work closely with our parent representatives on school council to ensure we continue to provide an excellent state education within our funding model and along DET guidelines.

To further support the school and our community, we plan to establish a Mullauna Community Association this year; this parent/carer group will assist with school activities, fund raising opportunities, and act as a parent voice and advocacy group. This will be actioned at our first school council for the year.

Thank you for your continued support.

Warm regards,

Harry Ruff

Principal

For the MC Principal Team

Coming key dates:

Friday 3 February – Leadership & Welcome assembly

Tuesday 7 February – Alumni assembly & afternoon tea

Thursday 9 & Friday 10 February - Year 7 Camp

Monday 13 & Tuesday 14 February - Year 12 study camp

Thursday 16 February – Year 7 Family bbq and Music night

Thursday 23 February – College Swimming Carnival

Monday 13 March – Labour Day public holiday

15 – 17 March – NAPLAN testing

Tuesday 28 March – Staff Professional Practice Day – student free

Wednesday 5 April – Student Learning Conferences – no scheduled classes

Thursday 6 April – end of Term 1

Biology

February 2023

Year 10 Biology