Principal's Report

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Welcome back to everyone for the 2021 school year and a special welcome to all of our Year 7 students and new students across the school, who have either joined us during Headstart towards the end of last year or started with us this year for the first time. We have had a very positive start for the first 5 weeks even with the adjustment to a snap lockdown. 

107 Year 7s began the year with us and are currently enjoying their first camp at secondary school. They headed off to Camp Rumbug, which is located near Foster in South Gippsland on Monday. They all seemed very excited and full of energy before jumping on the buses. I look forward to joining them tomorrow for a day.

Term 1 always has a busy start with immunisations, photos, swimming sports and a range of different excursions across different subjects, as well as the first round of Progress Reports. We were fortunate the snap lockdown only lasted the 3 school days which allowed us to reschedule the swimming sports to Monday last week and the weather was perfect, with those students attending, enjoying the range of competitive and fun races on the day. The students who attended including the House Captains and Vice Captains all dressed up and created a great atmosphere for the students in their houses on the day.

Tips for new parents transitioning to secondary school

We really value the home-school partnership and parents staying connected and engaged with their child’s learning in secondary school. There can be a tendency for parents to step back from their child’s schooling when they come to secondary school but the best outcomes can be achieved when schools and parents work together to create the optimal supportive learning environments at school and at home for learning and are aligned to shared values and aspirations. I encourage all parents to stay informed by staying in contact with their child’s main teachers, reading the College Newsletter each month and maximising their use of one of our main means of communication, the Compass parent portal. Through the portal you can do the following:

• Monitor your child’s attendance, and enter explanations for late arrivals or absences
• Communicate with your child’s teachers and update family details
• Monitor homework, assessment tasks and view outstanding learning tasks.
• Download and view your child’s progress on individual assessment tasks during the term and end of semester reports
• View ‘My News’, a news feed of school announcements, alerts and updates
• View your child’s timetable and the school calendar
• Book parent-teacher interviews

You can access Compass at https://maffrasc-vic.compass.education  If you have any trouble accessing Compass, please contact the general office so your password details can be checked. Please don’t share your password details with your child. All students have their own password.

Regularly talk about school and any new and unfamiliar experiences with your child. Assist them to develop organisational skills to plan and prioritise; and encourage your child to take advantage of the many extra-curricular opportunities to broaden their interests and talents. Above all else, encourage them to have a positive attitude and be prepared to give things a go!

Staffing update

This year we welcome new staff members to our College and those returning from leave.

Returning staff:

• Mrs. Emily Boyle – Emily is returning from maternity leave and is our Wellbeing Leader. She will be here on a Monday and Tuesday this year.
• Ms McMillan also returns from maternity leave and she will be teaching predominantly in the Year 8 Humanities team and will also be our Koori Coordinator
• Mrs. Noble used to work here as a VCE English teacher and also an Assistant Principal. She is returning to us and will be supporting our Year 12 English students as a tutor

New staff:

• Ms Jodie Dore is an English teacher at Year 8 and 10 and will also be working with Ms Baxter as part of the Middle Years Literacy Support program. We are excited to have her as a member of our school leadership team and her role is to lead a whole school approach to literacy improvement
• Ms Joanne Barnden is also an English teacher and the English Domain Leader. She will teach English at VCE and Year 9
• Mr. Leigh Winter is in English and Humanities classes across Year 7, 9 and 10
• Mr. Liam Charles is our new Science teacher and will be teaching science across year 7, 9 and 10.
• Mr. Gerry Ciavarella is a very experienced musician and has joined us to teach classroom music at Year 8 and also take instrumental music lessons. We are very excited to see our music program grow over the next few months and we held our first instrumental music info night 3 weeks ago which had a good turn up, backing on to the Year 7 ‘meet and greet’.
• Mr. Scott Van Dyk will be teaching Maths and Health/PE across Year 8 and 10
• Ms Christine Ruijs is teaching English and Humanities at Year 7 and joining CJ in woodwork, taking Year 8 classes. She is currently employed for the term as she was a late recruit due to our Year 9 Leading Teacher pulling out of the position on Christmas Eve.
• Ms Donna Stemberger is a very experienced Strings and Vocal teacher and will be working on a Monday in our Instrumental Music Program with the Strings students.
• Finally, many of you will know Lindsay Coridas from last year. Lindsay completed Year 12 and has come back to join us as an AFL Trainee. She will be working with Ms Clancy and the Health/PE staff throughout the year.

Our Leadership team for 2021 comprises:

• Ms Lashay Tricker – Year 7
• Ms Heidi Bassler – Year 8
• Ms Sue Clancy – Year 9
• Mr. Brett Hudson – Year 10
• Mrs. Marie Clark – Senior School
• Mrs. Belinda Marshall – Teaching and Learning - Learning Specialist
• Ms Jodie Dore – Whole School Literacy Improvement – Learning Specialist
• Mrs. Emily Boyle–Wellbeing Leader
• Ms Aileen Onley – Business Manager
• Mr. Nathan Wallace (Year 7, 9 &11) – Assistant Principal
• Mrs. Cheryl Evans (Year 8, 10 & 12) – Assistant Principal
• Ms Jennifer Roep – Principal

Introducing the Assistant Year Level Leaders

• Year 7 – Ms. Mariah Stone
• Year 8 – Ms. Fiona Rathnow
• Year 9 – Mrs. Chantelle Cormack
• Year 10 – Mrs. Kimberley Gardiner
• Senior School – Ms. Carol Caffrey and Ms. Fiona Ray

Introducing the Domain Leaders

• Maths – Mrs. Chantelle Cormack
• English – Ms. Joanne Barnden
• Humanities – Ms. Heidi Bassler
• Science – Mrs. Kristen Raine
• Health/PE – Mrs. Belinda Marshall
• The Arts – Ms. Sally Tatterson
• Technology – Mr. Carl Johnson
• LOTE – Mrs. Ainsley Butcher
• VCAL assistant – Mrs. Katie Johnston

Student Leadership

This year we will be reviewing our House system and Student Leadership program. This will be a great opportunity for the College to enhance and build on what is already in place and help to improve school connectedness for more of our students. This review will involve a range of staff and students to provide feedback and ideas. We look forward to this being in place for the 2022 school year.

The successful candidates who will form the student leadership team for 2021 are:

College Captains: Jasmin Underwood and Lucas Simon

House Captains:

Avon (blue) – Mikeely Hone and Tim Elliott

Freestone (green) – Eliza Foley and Taj Threadgold

Macalister (red) – Tanika Pratt and Jamie Rohrlach

Thomson (yellow) – Shayla Heard and Angus Neaves

House Vice Captains: 

Avon – Darren Marks and Shayla Meli

Freestone – Lacey Radford and Riley Pleydell

Macalister – Miranda Rowe and Tayla Fixter

Thomson – Jade Leighton and Rowan Watts

Congratulations to all students who were nominated and went through the selection process for these important positions. In addition to these positions, students still have the opportunity to nominate Year Level SRC positions, Art Captains and Environmental captains.

Tutoring Program

At the end of last year, we were given funding from DET to employ further staff for 6 months to support students who did not make the progress we would have normally expected due to the impact of COVID-19 and remote learning. As a Principal team, we have been working with staff to identify these students and are currently in the process of finalising the list of students who would benefit from this support. Once identified, families will be contacted and informed of the opportunity for their child to participate in the program. Students will also be approached to gauge their willingness, due to the number of students identified. We are in the process for advertising these positions to focus on literacy and/or numeracy support, along with some targeted organisational provision for those students that would benefit from it. Any students that have been identified as needing additional social/emotional support will be linked in with our Wellbeing team, if they are not already.

School Council elections

Once again it is time to hold elections for the College School Council. The Council is responsible for setting the policies the school will follow, monitoring expenditure of money and maintaining the facilities. Our Council meets at 5:30pm on a Tuesday twice a term.

Composition

There are three separate electorates:

1. The electorate of parent members
2. The electorate of Department of Education and Training (DET) employee members
3. The electorate of student members

Notice of Election and Call for Nominations

An election is to be conducted for members of School Council at Maffra Secondary College.

Timeline

Wednesday 3rd March 2021: Notice of election and call for nominations

Wednesday 10th March:   Nominations close 4:00pm (Nomination forms can be obtained from the General Office)

Tuesday 23rd March:   First meeting of new Council

Following the closing of the nominations, a list of the nominations received will be posted at the College. If there are more nominations than positions, a ballot will be prepared and distributed.

The terms of office, membership categories and number of positions in each member category open for election are as follows:

Membership Category  - Student Member

Term of office - From the day after the date of the declaration of the poll in 2021 to and inclusive of the date of the declaration of the poll in 2023

Number of positions:                                         1

* The student member is selected from the Year 10 student leaders and will hold the position on School Council for 2 years.

If the number of nominations is less than the number of vacancies, a notice to that effect and calling for further nominations will be posted in a prominent position at the school.

Please do not hesitate to contact the College if you have any questions regarding School Council.

Jennifer Roep 

MSC Principal