Mooroolbark College Newsletter – August 2024

22nd August 2024

Our latest Mooroolbark College Newsletter is here!

The Mooroolbark College newsletters are an important form of communication for our school community.

Each newsletter contains a great deal of information about what is happening in the College including upcoming events and celebration of student success.

Enjoy reading about all the amazing things happening around our College.

Upcoming Events

Christmas Day

Dec 25 all-day

Boxing Day

Dec 26 all-day

New Years Day

Jan 1 all-day

Australia Day

Jan 26 all-day

ANZAC Day

Apr 25 all-day

PRINCIPAL REPORT

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With the busy end to Term 2 and commencement of Term 3, the College has seen many successes to celebrate along the way. This saw our Year 10 students gain valuable experience through Work Experience placements in a diverse range of industries and organisations. From hospitality and universities to warehouses and kindergartens, our Year 10 students secured fantastic opportunities. The most popular placements were in educational settings, construction, childcare, and retail. Feedback from both students and employers has been overwhelmingly positive, and we extend our gratitude to the employers who made these experiences possible.

In addition to work placements, students participated in a variety of extra-curricular activities, including the Year 9 ‘City9’ experience, ManCave and ImpowHERment sessions, Central Australia trip, Outdoor Ed, Arts Week, Winter Concert, Performing Arts camp, and our outstanding production of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ These activities help develop students’ social skills, independence, peer relationships, and overall well-being.

The College has also focused on enhancing student learning outcomes. We held a whole-school professional learning day to improve teaching and learning outcomes, in line with our Strategic Plan. Our teams have been refining the curriculum and strengthening both staff and student practices. Throughout the term, Professional Learning Teams have used current data to address the learning needs of our students and prepare for the 2025 academic year. We are committed to providing a high-quality education tailored to our student’s needs.

We are proud to announce that our Numeracy Improvement and Transition Team presented our significant growth at the statewide Principal Conference. The College has also been recognized by the Department of Education for our achievements in reading, ranking among the top 10 state schools in Victoria. Our Teaching and Learning teams are now focused on analysing NAPLAN data to inform strategies for 2025.

We celebrated a milestone for our Year 7 students with 100 days at the College, featuring activities in Literacy, Numeracy, STEAM and extra circular activities. Looking ahead, we are excited to showcase our students’ academic excellence at the Night of Excellence on October 17th. Students in Years 7 to 10 will present their work to their families. Additionally, the Arts faculty will hold the annual Art Exhibition, and we look forward to celebrating the incredible talent of our students.

We are committed to engaging with our wider community to further support and ensure the success of our students. The College has an established Parents Association MCPA, which is unique for a secondary school, and we value the contribution they can make to the College. Through fundraising activities, the MCPA continues to add value and contribute to our school to directly benefit our students. I would like to thank them for a hugely successful Bunnings BBQ day where students, parents and teachers worked tirelessly to again raise much needed funds.

The College Council plays a crucial role in working with students, staff and leadership in supporting governance and strategic direction while striving to achieve our educational goals. The College Council meet twice a term, and we look forward to our next meeting in September, where we invite the community to our AGM to share our continued successes.

Thank you for your continued support.

ANN STRATFORD

PRINCIPAL

MATHEMATICS

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This term our Mathematics and Numeracy team were acknowledged on the big stage, with our team invited to present at the Principal’s Conference on Monday 29th July. Mooroolbark College was selected to present to show the impact our working relationship with Rolling Hills Primary School has had on supporting our students’ transition from Grade 6 to Year 7, with respect to Numeracy.

Throughout the presentation we highlighted our:

Numeracy Program

Our Numeracy Program at Year 7 and 8 incorporates work on open-ended activities designed to develop their critical and creative thinking skills. Students also complete a reflection on their progress and the skills used to complete the task. This metacognition, or “thinking about their thinking”, is an important aspect of the program.

Focus on Student Learning Growth

For our Year 7 to 9 students, we are working hard on increasing student confidence in Maths. To help with this we are completing pre and post-tests to highlight the growth shown by students throughout the topic. Our motto of “All students can achieve growth” highlights that all students who work hard and apply themselves are capable of improving their understanding.

Learning Goals Program

It is important for all students to have some voice and agency over their learning. Our Learning Goals program encourages students to identify an area of their understanding that needs improvement, set a SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) goal and access resources to help them work towards achieving their goal. When a student achieves a goal, they get to add their completed goal to Learning Goals tree.

Strong VCE results!

Did you know we have some of the highest results in the region for General Maths Our VCE Maths teachers have worked hard to improve the consistency, delivery and rigour of our Maths subjects, helping students to achieve higher than expected based on their GAT expected score.

Numeracy Interventions at Mooroolbark College

We are now well into Term 3 and I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you about the many numeracy interventions we have at Mooroolbark College to support all of our students.

Club ¾

Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon form 3pm – 4pm students can attend our Club ¾ in the Wellbeing Centre. Learning Mentors and Teachers are present and will be available to assist students with revising concepts covered in class, unfinished classwork or homework and any upcoming CATs. This is a great opportunity for students to complete any schoolwork with the support of teachers.

Numeracy Mentor

We have a dedicated Numeracy Mentor who works in classrooms to support our students to understand concepts in class and complete any class tasks. Our Numeracy Mentor fosters students’ understanding and engagement within the classroom.

Tutoring Program

This program is external to a scheduled class. Students will be working in small groups with a Mathematics teacher to reduce the learning gap and clear up any misunderstanding’s students may have in Mathematics. Our Tutoring Program is intended to boost student confidence in Maths and increase their level of knowledge and understanding.

Pathways and Electives

Mathematics at Mooroolbark College is uniquely designed to support students at any stage of their academic journey. We have electives from Year 9 through to VCE tailored to suit the learning endeavours of our students. At Year 9 students can select Building Maths confidence or Investigate Maths, leading to electives from Numearcy to Advanced Mathematics at Year 10. In VCE and VCE – VM students can undertake, Numeracy, Foundation, General, Methods or Specialist Mathematics. Additional information about all of these subjects can be found in the relevant student handbooks.

If you have any questions about our Numeracy Interventions, Pathways or Mathematics at Mooroolbark, please contact me at kara.salmon@mooroolbarkcollege.vic.edu.au.

KARA SALMON

MATHEMATICS KEY LEARNING HEAD

SCIENCE

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There have been lunchtime activities available for staff and students for National Science Week and we hosted the inaugural Science Family Fun Night. We thank the families joined us in the activities for this year’s theme of ‘Species Survival’. The activities included building a nest, making sprout heads, designing biomimicry on butterflies, testing whale snot and building a water strider. A great time was had by all.

Year 7 students have learnt about ecosystems and human impacts and beginning to explore forces and their effects.

It has been busy in science with Year 8 students designing and conducting experiments as part of their student-led investigations. The students have also been refining their skills in science communication to present their research in the form of scientific posters. Energy transfer and transformation is their next topic, and they will learn how different forms of energy allow work to take place.

Year 9 core science students have been learning about body control, exploring the brain, nervous system and hormones. In forensics the students have been learning about the different types of evidence and various careers in the field of forensic sciences, whilst in sustainability students have been learning of the changes in the Earth over time and the impact of that on present day species and ecosystems distribution.

Year 10 psychology students have had their introduction to psychology, Year 10 biology students have been learning about cells, organelles and the processes that allow life, whilst the Year 10 physics students have been exploring Newton’s Laws.

Students in VCE science subjects have been busily completing investigations, coursework and assessments in their respective subjects.

MELINDA LORI PUI

SCIENCE KEY LEARNING HEAD

THE ARTS

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Term 3 has been a busy start in The Arts. The first week of term saw the return of the hugely successful Arts Week. The week of celebration in The Arts saw students attend Art Club, Music Club, a screening of Media short films and participate in Chalk Art to finish off the week. It was fantastic to see how passionate our students are about The Arts.

Our Performing Arts Camp was held recently for students studying a musical instrument or for students in this year’s production, The Wizard of Oz. The students and staff alike had the most amazing, creative week. The rehearsals were a huge success.

Speaking of production, this year’s College production of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ was a huge success! The performances were amazing. All of the students and staff involved should be very proud of their work. A special thanks goes out to Michael Jones, Bradley Blair, Caroline Jones, Sarah Rosendale, Clare Thomas and Lucas Unland for all of the tireless hours they put in to make the show a success.

Earlier this month our Year 11 and 12 Art Making and Exhibiting students visited the National Gallery of Victoria Australia (Ian Potter Centre) to study an explore the exhibition design of Grace Crowley and Ralph Balson. The Year 11 students focused on the organisation and presentation of artworks, while Year 12 students also examined conservation techniques. It was a great and insightful day filled with wonderful works of art.

Inside the classroom, students in The Arts have made the switch over to their second semester classes and are eager to discover what their new subjects entail. Our senior students are at the stage of the year when their attention turns towards their SATs. We can’t wait to see their final artworks/ productions.

Recently in Year 7 Art, students have begun working on developing their arts language and arts skills by delving into the world of still life studies. Students were given a demonstration of several skills and techniques that artists use to depict a still life such as working from an elevated surface, using a pencil as a tool to determine scale and proportion, observational drawing and blocking in to name a few. No erasers in sight! Well done to all students – we can’t wait to see which skills you learn next!

Media Film Festival – Entries Are Now Open!

Entries for Mooroolbark College’s 12th Annual Film Festival are now open and close on 1st September. Entries must tell a narrative, be appropriate for all audiences and contain no copyrighted material (including visuals or music/sounds). They can be completed by an individual or a team/group. Entries are open to Media and non-Media students. The film festival will be held on 11th September.

For more details, please see Mr Neil-Holland.

MATT NEIL-HOLLAND

THE ARTS KEY LEARNING HEAD

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION

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Starting off Term 3 very strong (insert PE joke). Mooroolbark College students and staff pushing through the depths of June and July Winter with the push up challenge. Led by Mr. Fox, students of all houses signed up for the challenge to earn house points and hopefully learn a few things about mental health along the way.

The goal was to complete 3,142 pushups or exercises in 24 days in June and July. That random number of required exercises was the same number of lives lost in 2022 to suicide.

Congratulations to Ngawan house who won it combining with 41, 644 exercises. Shout out to Darrang house who averaged the most pushups per entrant and raised the most money for Headspace.

As a school, we combined for over 120,000 exercises and raised almost $1000 for Headspace who are an organization who assist young people with mental health.

Below is some wonderful student feedback we received after being involved in the challenge.

“During my experience in the push up challenge, I have learnt many things, mainly about myself. I have learnt that I am stronger than I thought I was, both mentally and physically.”

“My depression and anxiety make it difficult to complete daily tasks such as brushing my teeth, showering and many more, so I took it upon myself to enter this challenge to get into a routine of doing something daily for myself in hopes that it could encourage and motivate me to accomplish basic daily tasks. In saying that I am proud to say that I have been doing those daily tasks much more often than I used to.”

“I was starting to be way more accepting of my body and understanding myself better than I used to. I felt that the push up challenge brought me closer to myself leading me to understand more about who I am as a person and I felt so proud every single day as I reached the goal.”

“I really enjoyed the push up challenge because it was a great way to respect families affected by suicide.”

We can not wait to be a part of this wonderful initiative again in 2025.

At Mooroolbark we pride ourselves on being a family and helping support our local community. This was evident in Miss Hubben’s Duke of Edinburgh class! When the local primary schools needed help umpiring their interschool sport day, the Duke of Ed class was more than happy to help out. My favourite observation of this day was the positivity of students to try something new even if they were part of a sport they have never played before. All students demonstrated exceptional leadership and took on this request with an open mind. A special mention to all of the students who volunteer to help out in a sport that they don’t usually play and Giselle for committing to the Push Up Challenge throughout the day.

Further along the Health and PE line we come to the Year 11 VM-Personal Development Skills class who have been studying different types of communities and health promotion programs. Some students suggested collecting food and donating to a charity. The wonderful volunteer Laurie came and visited our school from CIRE to collect our donations, encourage the students to volunteer and tell us more about his organization and the great support they provide to families in the Yarra Valley. It was a pleasure and a privilege to contribute to their community pantry where families in need can go and collect food from either of their 2 community hubs at Chirnside Park or Yarra Junction.

The Year 12 Health and Human Development students have also been busy preparing themselves to finish Unit 4 Area of Study 1 content. Class time is always a great opportunity to create new opportunities to connect with students they otherwise wouldn’t work with, so we attempted a short speed dating activity. Students were quizzed on their knowledge of the dimensions of sustainability and the differences between the types of sustainability using mini whiteboards. Students had 2 minutes to write their response before showing their partner. If they had the same answer, they received a point for themselves. If they had different answers, neither student scored. Students then rotated partners and shared their responses before starting again.

STEPHANIE TODD

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION KEY LEARNING HEAD

LANGUAGES

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as we find ourselves at the mid-way point of Term 3… already! Term 3 is we find that students are most comfortable in their routine: They know what is expected, how to do it and how to seek help if needed before in Term 4 things begin to wind down. In German and Chinese students are happily engaged in their classroom activities where we strive to provide a friendly atmosphere for students to not only read, speak, listen and write in another language, but also get absorbed in the culture of their studies. And it rarely gets as hands on with culture as it does with the Languages Excursion…

Excursion Report:

Year 8 Language & Culture Excursion to the City

The end of Term 2 excursion to the city as part of the Year 8 investigations into German and Chinese food and culture was a great success for all involved. Students really enjoyed the opportunity to see the cultures of the language they study!

While the PTV may have seemed to have conspired against us by temporarily closing the Lilydale Railway line, they were in fact super-helpful in organising replacement buses to make our excursion possible. Meeting at Mooroolbark station was something new, but students enjoyed their own company and eagerly awaited the rest of the day.

In the city we visited the Immigration Museum and the Hofbräuhaus with the German group and the Chinese students visited the Chinese Museum as well as the Shanghai Village Restaurant in Chinatown. As a picture speaks a thousand words, we’ll let you look over the attached pictures to get your own impression of the day.

On reflection, we had over 100 students and six staff travelling happily and safely enjoying a fantastic day out on the town and we all made it back more or less on time for the end of term dismissal. What a great day out!

Special thanks must go to Ms Guan and Mr Van Keulen for leading the Chinese and German groups respectively. Furthermore, we would like to show our gratitude to Mr Lorkin and Mr Bell for volunteering to come along for the day. Finally, to the parents: Thank you for the ongoing support of languages by permitting our students to attend for the day. We could not do it without any and all of you!

Assessment, Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews:

Staff are currently in the middle of ongoing assessments to prepare for Interim Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews held later this Term. For example, German students are currently completing Half-Way CATs for Coursework in class. These are audio recordings of a selection of questions to be found on the CAT 1 interviews. If you want to see your child’s progress in German or Chinese, just go to Compass and check if Coursework 1 and 2 have been marked off as satisfactory. We will be offering help and catch-up sessions to students to make sure no one falls behind and those that excel are extended. Please continue to monitor your CAT and Coursework status and feel free to contact us if you have questions and/or concerns.

JONAS BAHLO

LANGUAGES KEY LEARNING HEAD

HOUSE REPORT

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BAAN, BIIK, NGAWAN, DARRANG HOUSE REPORT

Baan, Biik, Ngawan, and Darrang Houses have been organising and presenting our academic awards assemblies. These events are an exciting time with students getting rewarded for their hard work in Semester 1. Many of our students will also be receiving Values Awards in the House assemblies over the coming weeks with prestigious ‘Principal Awards’ being handed out at our whole school General Assembly.

The Darrang House Captains facilitated the whole school “Compassion and Kindness General Assembly,” where their leadership emphasized the importance of our College Values, particularly compassion and respect within our school community. They also inspired students to engage in creating a supportive and inclusive environment. The assembly provided a valuable moment for everyone to reflect on how even small acts of kindness can have a significant impact.

All houses have been running various activities and tournaments in Home Group – for example Thunder hockey and Quick draw competitions while our College Values of Respect and Compassion have been explicitly taught during Home Group. House and Cluster Leaders have been working closely with learning mentors and the pathways team, to ensure successful course selections and transitions into the 2025 academic year.