Principal's Update
Dear Families, Students and Community Members,
Progressive Reporting and Parent Teacher Interviews
This week the results and comments for the next lot of benchmark tasks completed to date across Years 7-12 will be released on Compass for student and parent access. Please make sure you check to stay informed about your child’s progress. Our progressive reporting process was introduced in 2017 to provide parents and students with more timely feedback. If you have any issues accessing the information, please contact our general office for assistance.
Thanks for your feedback on the Term 1 parent teacher student interviews from the survey sent out for parents to complete over the last few weeks. As a growing school we need to continue to consider how to best accommodate the needs of parents, students and staff so that the interviews are a valuable use of everyone’s time and can be completed as efficiently as possible. Having the longer time period over the day and night certainly helped this year. Areas identified for improvement from your feedback will be acted upon in the future and we will continue to gather feedback to refine our processes. If you didn’t get to speak to one or more of your child’s teachers, please contact them via email or phone.
NAPLAN: National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy
Last week all students in Years 7 and 9 sat the national tests in Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation and Numeracy. I would like to congratulate them for their exemplary behaviour and positive attitude during the three days of testing and for treating these tests seriously in striving to achieve their Personal Best.
The results once available will be used to:
* help teachers identify students who require greater challenges or additional support
* help the College identify strengths and, if any, gaps in teaching programs and to set goals in Literacy and Numeracy
* provide additional feedback to students and parents about individual achievements and progress
All parents of students in Years 7 and 9 will receive a NAPLAN report on their child’s progress later this year. The report is only one aspect of the school’s assessment and reporting process, and does not replace the more extensive and informed judgements made about your child by teachers. Thanks to Marina Walsh and Janine Danckert for organising and running the three mornings of tests with our larger cohorts of students in Years 7 and 9.
Work Experience
This week our entire Year 10 cohort of students is out on work experience, as part of the compulsory VCE Unit One all Year 10 students undertake at Mordialloc College, called Industry and Enterprise. Completing this unit not only gives all of our Year 10 students credit towards attaining their VCE, it also is a more meaningful way to deliver the careers curriculum. Students have organised placements in a huge variety of workplaces and locations across Melbourne - in Real Estate, Hospitality, Vet Clinics, Accountant and Business firms, Graphic Design, Education, Information Technology, Automotive, Law, Health and Fitness, Building and Construction. A big thank you must go to our Pathways Coordinator, Emma White, Year 10 Coordinator Aaron Davis and Education Support staff assistant Kim Cowain-Menzies for all of their hard work in supporting our students to find suitable work placements for this week; and to all of the businesses, not only in our community but extending well beyond, in being prepared to accept a student for the week into their place of work. Thanks also to the many teachers who have been out to visit the students this week.
DET Literacy Case Study
In addition to our excellent VCE results, the Department of Education has been impressed with our NAPLAN results, and last term I was contacted by the Department's Performance Division asking if we would participate in a case study to be published to showcase our school and support other schools' professional learning. Only eight schools in Victoria have been approached to do this and so it is an honour to be one of them. After an initial phone interview with me they sent a team out two weeks ago to interview key leaders and teachers and talk to students. A video will also be made later this term. The focus of the visit and questions were around our literacy intervention program and teacher practice focused peer coaching which is supporting literacy improvement at the College.
Thanks to Andrew McConchie, Julie Pretty, James Sadler, Liz Evans (came in from leave), Alice Leppin, Bryony Lowe and Amy Webber, who all were part of the interviews on this day, along with myself and four of our Year 9 students.
Literacy
Literacy underpins all learning and as such we can’t emphasise enough the importance of reading each night. This should be part of all students' homework plan if they aren’t already reading for pleasure. Twenty minutes a day can make a huge difference for a student in developing their use and understanding of vocabulary. Please see information below about how reading helps your child.
Students are able to make requests at the Hub help desk for future purchases if there is a book they would like to read in hard copy that is not in our current collection and we also have our e-book borrowing system with a wide variety of novels.
Celebration Weeks
During Term 2 and 3 all of our Learning Areas will stage a celebration week to include a range of activities for all to get involved in at lunchtime, and a daily quiz. Thanks to Health/Physical Education Learning Area leader, Kym Lenc, and the PE team for a host of activities this week to celebrate Health and Physical Education week.
Cross Country
On Tuesday May 14 the College Cross country was held on a beautiful sunny autumn afternoon. Congratulations go to Iwala (red house) on their great win, closely followed by Bunurong (yellow house); and to each age group champion (reported in last week’s newsletter). It was a terrific contest between the four houses with a high participation rate across the whole school, and shows how important it is to participate to the best of your ability whether running or walking the course. Congratulations to Sport Coordinator Cory Watters for his organisation of this event and to all students and staff for their positive involvement during the afternoon.
Over 100 students represented the College at the Kingston District Cross Country this week. See the report later in this newsletter for more details and results.
Ms. Michelle Roberts
Principal