Principal's Message

As a school community, I think it would be helpful to explore one of our stated traits – able to respect and celebrate difference and diversity - in a little more depth. How is this trait being ‘lived out’ in our school?

Our School Council has started work on a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). This involves us mapping what we are doing now and then working with our Indigenous Students and the Wathaurong people to strategically embed and further develop our understanding and celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

One of our teachers, Caroline Hall, is providing support and guidance for the development of the staff’s inter-cultural understanding. As part of this task, she will also work with students, staff and parents to develop a more strategic approach to our understanding of people from different cultures, so that we can truly celebrate our diversity as a school. Our exchange programs to Reunion Island and Indonesia and our MFG Challenge assist in this important work, but it is in the day to day interactions with people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds who are already in our community that we learn the most.

Our school’s Stand Out Group is working to support our staff and our students to better appreciate the challenges for young people in the LGBTIQ community. We know that some of our community members may find this difficult because they have strong beliefs about LGBTIQ issues. What we want our young people to understand is that we do not always have to agree to live in harmony.

As a school community, we are committed to a genuine respect and understanding of other people’s perspectives, cultures and heritage. As we work hard together to regard one another in this humble, courteous and considerate way, I think we will come to see that we are richer as a community for all our diversity and our differences of opinion.

This is one of the biggest challenges for us as a school and also as a society. It is why our trait of being “able to respect and celebrate difference and diversity” is so important for us.

Academic Focus

Chunking

Chunking is a strategy for memorising information. When you memorise a person's phone number or the combination to a lock you use chunking.

It's far easier to remember a long number when you "chunk" it into small groups of three or four numbers. Why? Because most people can only remember about three or four bits of information at once.

So how can you use chunking to improve your memory?

When you chunk, you simply group information into small groups of three to five at a time. For example, chunk history by events or periods of time when events occurred. Chunk foreign language vocabulary into functional groups like items in a house, car parts, or body parts.

MFG STUDENTS TO LIVE AND LEARN IN INDONESIA

MFG is one of 13 schools across Victoria selected to travel to Indonesia for an immersion experience that will prepare its students to live and work as future leaders on a global scale, thanks to the Victorian Government.

Minister for Education James Merlino said the inaugural Victorian Young Leaders to Indonesia Program would give 40 Year 9 students and their teachers the opportunity to travel to Indonesia for six weeks in 2019.

The program provides a unique opportunity for Year 9 students to gain a deeper understanding of Indonesia, our closest Asian neighbour and one of our most important strategic partners.

Students taking part in the program will experience Indonesian culture by attending a local school, visiting historical attractions and building their Indonesian language skills. The program will also develop students’ intercultural understanding and leadership skills and provide opportunities to form life-long friendships with their Indonesian peers.

The program will take place in September-October 2019, beginning September 8. Congratulations to Mena Alabdullah, Isabel Smith, Chloe Visser and Zirva Zahra for being selected from some stiff competition to represent MFG. They will be accompanied by Mr Ben Lehman (first half) and Mr Michael Keast (second half).

ICT

E-Safety has some excellent supports to assist parents to support their child/ren to be safe using technology and on-line.

The following is a section relating to how you can help you child manage their time on-line.

Reference:  https://esafety.gov.au/parents/big-issues/time-online

Ms Michelle Crofts 

Principal of Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College