MWSC College News – Issue 10

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Term 3 at Mount Waverley Secondary College. I hope everyone enjoyed some special time with family and friends over the holiday break.

Premier’s VCE Awards – Mount Waverley Secondary College Wins Top Honours

I had the privilege of attending the Premier’s VCE Awards with Ms Cara Hill-Health and Human Development teacher and Ms Lauren Kelly-Senior Campus Principal on Wednesday 17^th July which was held at the Melbourne Convention Centre. Congratulations to Sruthy S and Greta G (Year 11) and Krisha R (Year 11) who have been recognised with a Premier’s VCE Award for their outstanding academic results in 2023.

Sruthy scored a perfect study score of 50 in Health and Human Development. She is now studying Biomedical Science at Monash University.

Greta who is currently in Year 12 was recognised with a Study Award for Italian which she studied at the Victorian School of Languages and Krisha who is currently in Year 12 was recognised with a Study Award for Tamil which she studied at the Victorian Tamil Association.

The annual Premier’s VCE Awards recognise the top-performing students in the state. This year, 310 students across 90 subjects were recognised with awards for their outstanding results. For the first time this year six students were presented with an Outstanding VCE Vocational Major Student Award which recognises students who demonstrate excellence, employability skills growth and community impact.

The entire Mount Waverley Secondary College learning community is proud of our students and would like to congratulate them on being the recipients of such a prestigious award.

We wish them every success in the future.  To view the full Honour Roll and to read more about the Premier’s VCE Awards, visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/premiers-vce-awards

State Cross Country

On Thursday 18 July, 12 students headed to the Yarra Glen racetrack to participate in this year’s State Cross Country.  Held at the Yarra Glen Racecourse, our students braved the cold, wet and muddy conditions and produced some fantastic results.

Our students performed extremely well with the 14yo boys – Sebastian S, Paul R and Zachary C placing 3rd in the team event and in the 16yo girls – Francis S placed 6th and Aisha H placed 8th.

We could not be prouder of our runners! Thanks to Mr Danny Gwynne and Mr Jay Newport Sports Leaders for supporting our Cross Country team.

VCE Conferences

On Thursday July 18^th VCE parent /teacher/ student conferences were held. The conferences focused on providing further feedback as to what the student needs to do to complete their VCE/Vocational Major subjects to the best of their ability. Thank you to all the staff, students and parents who attended.

Year 10 Work Experience

It is wonderful to see our Year 10 students completing work experience during the last week of term 2. Can I sincerely thank Mrs Victoria Tortopidis, Careers Education and Alumni Coordinator for overseeing this program and organising all the documentation required to send our students into the workplace and Mr Phil Newnham our Careers Education Manager for all his support. Special thanks to all the staff who called or visited our students whilst on their placements.

College Raffle  

Special thanks to Ms Kari Simmons, Mrs Narda McLennan and Mr Aro Ezackial who have been working hard on sourcing some great prizes for our College Raffle this year.  $5500 worth of prizes have been sought including a Sonic 55inch TV, a Mastercolour paint offer, winery tour and many other fantastic prizes. Please support the college by buying some tickets. Tickets will go on sale via Compasstix on Wednesday 7 August and will close on Monday 26 August. The raffle will be drawn on Friday 30 August. Last year we raised over $4400 which went towards the student led initiative of purchasing tv display units across the college.

Mount Waverley Secondary College proudly presents “Mamma Mia! – The Musical  

There are still some tickets available for our college production of Mamma Mia. “Mamma Mia tells the story of Sophie, a young woman on a quest to discover the identity of her father. The mystery brings three men from her mother’s past back to a Greek island paradise that they last visited twenty years ago.  Sophie learns that sometimes you must take a chance and risk everything in order to achieve your dreams.”

Please come and support our staff and students who have been working hard behind the scenes. You won’t be disappointed when you see the quality of their performances.

Shows will be held in the MWSC Unicorn Theatre on the following dates and times:

• Wednesday 24 July at 7pm
• Thursday 25 July at 7pm
• Friday 26 July at 7pm
• Saturday 27 July at 1.30pm (Matinee)
• Saturday 27 July at 7pm

Ticket sales are open now via Trybooking.

Mrs Karen Wade
College Principal

Welcome back one and all to term three. We certainly hope that all students had a restful break over the holidays, but took some time to read over their semester one report in preparation for the second half of the school year.

Early in the semester we will be doing some work on goal-setting with the Year 7s and 8s. Students making evidence-based goals for themselves for the short, medium and long-term is proven to have a positive impact on learning outcomes, and we encourage all students to engage in that spirit.

On the final day of term two we came together in the Junior Campus Hall for our ‘Celebrating Excellence’ assembly. It was a wonderful way to recognise the extraordinary efforts of our students in the classroom, out in the yard, in various clubs, on the sporting field, and even beyond school.

Mr Gwynne gave us an update on all of the sporting successes from the first half of the year, with our school again breaking records in team and individual events across terms 1 & 2. He also encouraged students to participate in a range of events coming up in semester two, including our House Athletics Carnival, and our second annual Run for Rossy event, in September.

Mrs Sekula recognised a small selection of the more than 1000 College Values Compass posts that have been made so far this year. It is so wonderful to hear the stories behind why our students are being nominated for demonstrating Integrity, Learning, Excellence, Accountability, Respect and Nurturing (ILEARN).

Mrs Mott (ably supported by William and Dhineli) provided an update on what the Junior Campus leadership team have been working on, and also spotlighted our numerous students who are part of the college production, “Mamma Mia”, this term.

Our year level coordinators highlighted the top academic students from every home group for the semester, recognising the excellent and consistent achievements of many of our students.

Finally, we were lucky enough to be joined by Nicky Young from Monash Health, who received a donation of over $600 from our Interact Club following their recent bake sale.

Overall, it was an excellent way to finish the term, with a recognition of the fine work that everyone put into semester one. We look forward to celebrating even more students later in the year!

Student Success

Welcome back to Term 3

Welcome back to all students and families for Term 3.  This term always proves to be a busy term with sport, excursions and production to name a few of the things that will be happening across this term in the middle school.  Students in both Year 9 and 10 will starting to look towards next year with the subject selection process also happening early this term.  As always it will be a busy term both inside and outside the classroom for students.

Work Experience

The last week of Term 2 our Year 10 students were on Work Experience providing an opportunity for students to understand the world of work.  The feedback from students has been very positive about their week at work.  This program is a great opportunity for our students to explore future career options and better understand how business and organisations operate.  Thank you to Careers Team for the organisation of this valuable program.

NAPLAN Results

Our Year 9 students will receive there NAPLAN Results in the coming week in homegroup classes.  The overall results are very good and reflect the ongoing hard work of our students and teachers across the college.

Holiday Works

Across the holiday period the ICT and Facilities Teams were busy improving the college.  Thanks to the ICT and Facilities Teams for their work across the break.

Projects

Senior Campus Wellbeing Centre

We are converting three classrooms into a purpose-built Wellbeing Space on the Senior Campus.  This space will be the new home of our wellbeing team and provide easy access for students to our wellbeing staff.  Work has started and will continue across this term.

Outdoor Classroom 

We have started work on an outdoor classroom space on the Senior Campus, this will provide another teaching area for students and staff alike.  Work will continue across this term on this project.

Mr Ian MacLeod
Campus Principal – Middle School

Welcome back! At the end of term 2 we celebrated the achievements of our Year 11 and 12 students at a Senior School celebration assembly. We recognised those students that had upheld our iLearn values of integrity, learning, excellence, accountability, respect and nurturing, as well as those students with 100% attendance.

As Term 3 begins we are reminding our Year 12s that whilst they are fast approaching the end of their secondary schooling journey, there is still a lot to get through before we get there. On Monday July 22nd the Year 12s will attend an assembly with a theme of “one step at a time”. We will be reminding our students that we need them to attend, complete all their coursework, work hard in class, ask questions and keep doing their best. We are here to support them and encourage any student to come and chat with the coordinators if needed.

Graduation/Valedictory Dinner

In 2024 Year 12 students will celebrate the culmination of 13 years of schooling by attending a formal dinner at the Caulfield Racecourse. It has been some years since we held a formal dinner to recognise this significant achievement and we look forward to a fantastic night acknowledging this with both the parents and students of our class of 2024. Please make sure that you keep an eye on Compass to respond to any required actions for this event.

VCE Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences

On Thursday 18 July, VCE parents were given the opportunity to meet with their student’s teachers. This opportunity is provided early in Term 3 to our VCE parents to allow the discussions of students’ Semester One reports, and areas for improvement moving into Semester Two with enough time to ensure that change is possible. We hope the interviews also provided an opportunity for parents, students and teachers of Year 11 students to discuss subjects for 2025.

VCE Premier’s Awards

On Wednesday afternoon myself, Mrs Karen Wade and Ms Cara Hill had the pleasure of attending a ceremony for the Premier’s VCE Awards. The awards recognise top performing students for their academic achievements for their VCE or VCE subjects in 2023. For the first time top performing students in the VCE Vocational Major were also recognised. We had 3 students receive awards for their academic performance in a VCE Study. VCAA uses Individual Graded Assessment scores to determine the order of merit and identify the best students, students must also receive a study score of 46 or above. Sruthy S was awarded a Premier’s Award for Health and Human Development after receiving a Study Score of 50. This is an amazing achievement as the number of award recipients are also determined by the size of the subject. We would like to recognise Cara Hill for all her work in supporting Sruthy with this achievement. Two current Year 11 students also received Premier’s awards for their achievements in a language that they study externally so we also had the pleasure of congratulating Greta G (Italian) and Krisha R (Tamil) on this fantastic achievement.

Absences

Attendance in VCE is important to support our VCE students experience success in their chosen studies. The school has attendance policies in place to support our students in meeting the required number of hours of class time to meet the requirements set out by the VCAA. The Year Level Coordinators will be monitoring attendance and communicating with parents should concerns around attendance arise. If you are contacted regarding concerns about your student’s attendance we ask for support to ensure that you are supporting their attendance at school. Please also ensure medical certificates are acquired if a student is absent on the day of an assessment task or SAC/SAT.

Ms Lauren Kelly
Campus Principal – Senior School

Welcome back to Semester 2!

We trust that you have had a wonderful break and enjoyed some much-deserved time to rest, relax and catch up with family and friends.

We look forward to welcoming you back for an exciting Semester 2.  There are many events that will be taking place this term in the Middle School, so be prepared as it is going to be a busy Semester.

A few reminders from us to ensure this term is positive and runs smoothly:

Middle School Upcoming Events:

Year 9 Events

Thursday 25^th July – Pathways Assembly in Home Group and Period 1
Friday 26^th July – House Athletics Day
Thursday 1^st August – Year 9 into Year 10 Virtual Information Evening starting at 7pm
Friday 2^nd August – EDVAL Web Codes emailed to students to complete their 2025 subject selections
Monday 12^th August – EDVAL Online subject Selections Due; VCE Accelerated Subject hard copy application forms due
Thursday 12^th September – Parent Teacher Conferences, No Classes
Friday 13^th September – Curriculum Day/ Student Free Day
Friday 20^th September – Last Day of Term 3 and Year 9 Wellbeing Day

Year 10 Events

Friday 26^th July – House Athletics Day
Tuesday 30^th July – Future Options and Tertiary Expo Day and Year 10 into 11 Virtual Information Evening
Friday 9^th August – Year 10 Course Counselling and Subject Selection Day
Friday 16^th August – Year 10 Wellbeing Day
Friday 30^th August – Year 10 Gala
Thursday 12^th September – Parent Teacher Conferences, No Classes
Friday 13^th September – Curriculum Day/ Student Free Day
Friday 20^th September – Last Day of Term 3

Uniform

Terms 2 and 3 are Winter Uniform terms.  Please ensure you are in the correct winter uniform.  Combinations of summer and winter uniforms are not permitted.  If you are out of uniform, you must have a uniform pass before you go to your first lesson of the day, including homegroup. From day 1 of Term 3, you will not be allowed into your class if you’re out of uniform without a uniform pass. If you get sent to get a uniform pass and are therefore late to class, you will be marked late on the roll.

Mobile Phones/Ear Pods

As per DET policies, mobile phones are not to be visible on school grounds.  Once you come into the MWSC gates please ensure you keep your phones in your bag which are then to be placed in your locker, this also applies to your ear pods.  The mobile phone policy will be followed through with in the event of visible phones or ear pods on school grounds.

Attendance

Please ensure that absences are recorded on Compass on the day and for extended absences please inform the Middle School office so that appropriate support can be provided.

Ms Asha Vazirani
Head of Middle School

Open Parachute

Throughout Term 3, Open Parachute are running 5 sessions for parents on important topics that affect parents and their children. The sessions are free and complement the learning that your young person is receiving as they complete various social & emotional learning units from Open Parachute throughout 2024.

For further details please click here : Support Your Child with Anxiety – Webinar

Child Safety and Wellbeing at MWSC: Information for families and the school community

RSL Concert

At the end of Term 2, 130 music students presented their Mid Year Concert to an audience of 180 and each other in the Function Room of the Ringwood RSL Club. The concert featured MWSC’s four largest music ensembles – the Concert Band directed by Ms Melissa Knowles, the Symphonic Band by Mr Joseph Yu, and the Presto Strings and Chamber Strings by Mr Tim O’Connor.

This was their big opportunity this semester to perform the programs they have been practising. It was also valuable preparation for their performances next term at the Victorian Schools’ Music Festival. Thanks to Melissa and Tim for organising the concert, with the assistance of other music staff. The music leaders and others did a great job in their roles and demonstrated their excellent leadership skills.  It was a wonderful concert and experience for our college community.

MWSC Symphonic Band

Junior Campus Lunchtime Concert

In the last week of Term 2, the Junior Campus enjoyed a lunchtime concert under the sails. The concert featured the Junior Choir, Junior String Orchestra and the Junior Guitar Ensemble. Concerts such as this are an excellent chance for these beginner ensembles to showcase their hard work, and gain practice performance for concerts later in the year. A big thank-you to Tom Frost and the Junior Music Leaders for overseeing the organisation of this event.

Upcoming Music Dates

• Monday 29 July – VSMF Stage Band
• Friday 2 August – VSMF Jazz Band
• Wednesday 7 August – VSMF Junior Choir
• Thursday 22 August – VSMF Chamber Strings
• Friday 23 August – VSMF Presto Strings
• Wednesday 28 August – VSMF Concert Band & Symphonic Band
• Wednesday 4 September – 60th Anniversary Celebrations (Music Performances)
• Monday 9th September – Southstreet Chamber Strings
• Thursday 12th September – Southstreet Stage Band
• Thursday 19th September – Unit 3 Recital

Mrs Tijtje Keatley
Music Director

Class of 2014
Friday, 16 August 2024

(We are pleased to extend a warm invite to include past students from classes of 2010, 2011 and 2012)

https://www.trybooking.com/COTJN

Are you part of a multi-generation family at Mount Waverley Secondary College?

We would love to hear from you!

Whether you’re an alumni or have multiple generations of your family who have attended the school, we want to acknowledge and thank you for being a part of our school’s rich history!

Please email me your details at alumni@mwsc.vic.edu.au

Ms Victoria Tortopidis
Alumni Coordinator