Welcome Back
Welcome back and welcome to our new students and families. Mornington Secondary College is a great school with students, families and staff making up our community. We value the achievement of all students and respect for each other is paramount. I look forward to working with you to support our students throughout 2021 and beyond.
We have some members of staff returning to Mornington Secondary College and I would like to welcome them back. They are Stephan Tillett, Elise Ong and Elizabeth Balint. I would also like to introduce you to some new members of staff, Amber Taylor, Jordan McManamny and Rachael Sullivan. Amber is teaching Japanese and Accounting and Jordan and Rachael are our AFL trainees.
The last few days have seen students actively engaged in learning and activities to build social cohesion. The Year 7 students have participated in orientation tasks to ensure they quickly become familiar with their surroundings, whilst meeting new friends.
All the students have participated in Year level assemblies and a whole school assembly. During these assemblies students were recognised for their achievements in 2020.
Many students received Principal Commendation certificates, gold stars and the DUX of each year level was recognised and each received a certificate and trophy.
The assemblies also highlighted the College values, Achievement, Respect and Community
Last year was certainly an interesting year for everyone and I was extremely proud of our community, particularly during lockdown. Staff and students rose to the challenges they faced and overcame many of them. Students and staff worked together on a daily basis, sorting out issues and learning together about new technology to enable all students to access to their subjects online. Some students thoroughly enjoyed working remotely, whilst others couldn’t wait to come back to school to see friends and teachers face to face. To assist students who were adversely impacted by COVID-19, in particular lockdown, Mornington Secondary College will be employing approximately 7 teaching professionals to work as tutors in 2021. Their role will be to support students to catch up on learning they may have missed due to the pandemic.
Interviews for these positions will occur shortly and we are in the process of identifying students to work with the tutors. More information will be sent to families in the near future.
To support the learning of all Yr 12 students in 2020 the College made significant changes. The R wing building was renamed the Year 12 Study Centre and furniture was purchased to represent an adult learning environment. All VCE/ VCAL classes were supervised by another teacher, if their teacher was absent, to ensure no student left the school until the end of the day. Tutorial classes were introduced and all Year 12 students had access to Edrolo; a computer based subject learning platform, to further support the work they were doing in class. Assessment blocks were introduced to avoid disruptions to classroom learning and teachers were encouraged to become VCE assessors in their subject areas.
Last year was an outstanding year for many of our Year 12 students. We had 7 students receive a 90+ ATAR, with Katrina Holt becoming our DUX with a score of 99.15. This means she is in the top 15% of all students across the State of Victoria. We had 23 students receive an ATAR score above 80 and 20 students with an ATAR over 70 and Saskia Thomas received a perfect score in Business Management. Twenty three students received study scores above 40 and 178 students’ received a study score above 30. These are outstanding results and I am extremely proud of all of our students and staff.
Those deserving will also receive merit awards and excellence awards. The good news postcards will occur at all levels and will be sent home to families.
In 2021 the STRIVE Learning Culture Club will be re-introduced. This will be based on student progress checks throughout the year. Learning Culture awards are ALL about the Attitude and Effort NOT Academic Performance. Points will be awarded for each criterion on the progress checks and when a student receives their first 8 points in the year, they will receive a badge and they will be able to add to this badge every year.
As with every year, the Student Management teams change, so I would like to introduce you to the student managers for each year level. If you need to speak with someone from your son/daughters year level please contact the relevant Year Level Coordinator or Team Leader via Compass or ringing the General Office (59700200).
Assistant Principal
Years 7 - 9
Year 7
Teamleader
Coordinators
Year 8
Team Leader
Coordinators
Year 9
Team Leader
Coordinators
Assistant Principal
Years 10 - 12
Year 10
Team Leader
Coordinators
Year 11
Team Leader
Coordinators
Year 12
Team Leader
Assistant Principal
Student Wellbeing
Michael Parker
Student Wellbeing counsellors
Doctor’s In Schools – Dr. Steph
Mental Health Practitioner - TBA
The school year has begun extremely positively and I am keen for our school, our community to work together to have many more of our students achieve amazing results throughout the year.
Linda Stanton
Principal