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Newsletter Edition 1 – Friday 24 February 2023

24th February 2023

In this Issue:

College Principal’s Report
Senior Years Campus – Principal’s Message
Middle Years Campus – Principal’s Message
Humanities
STEM
Physical Education/Health
Language
Wellbeing
Visual and Performing Arts
Careers
Community Noticeboard

Upcoming Events

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Tue

Melbourne Cup Public Holiday

Tickets

Nov 5 all-day

College Principal’s Report

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A big welcome back to all members of our school community. Our school year has been busy so far, but from our perspective, the start has also been a smooth one.

I would especially like to welcome our new students, families and staff. Our new Middle Years Campus Principal Ms Vittoria Saliba has commenced the year with a large cohort of excited Year 7s. As a school we could not be more pleased with how our new students and staff have settled in. I look forward to watching them grow in confidence and become more and more active within our fantastic school community as the year progresses.

We started the school year with two student free days and a staggered start for our Middle Years students. This additional time has meant that as a staff we have been able to ensure that the start for all students has been calm, consistent and has ‘set the tone’ in the right way. I would like to congratulate all our students on the way that they have risen to the challenge – being on time, ready to learn and in full school uniform. It has been great to see the way that students have managed themselves in this regard and the support from families is much appreciated. A key goal in our School Strategic Plan is to ensure a positive learning environment and the routines that have been a focus for all staff have certainly made a noticeable difference around the college.

Another key factor in the return to school has been the introduction of the Compass platform. It has certainly been a learning curve and there have been teething issues as we fine-tune our use of the core modules such as Events and Attendance which allow us to work in partnership with parents. We have shifted to using Compass Pay to allow families to pay and consent online earlier than anticipated as this was the most efficient way to go, however, the school will continue to use Qkr to allow families to pay school contributions for the remainder of 2023.

Compass has a host of other features to build partnership with families, including ways to make teaching and learning more visible, and to ensure that students are provided with the information and feedback they need. We will progressively adopt these features across the school. Building a stronger Home / School partnership is a core pillar of our strategy for improvement going forwards: Thanks for your patience with Compass and we look forward to your feedback going forwards.

After a long wait I am pleased to say that ‘at last’, work has commenced on our new 400-seat Performing Arts Centre based at the Middle Years campus. While it is mostly preliminary construction at this point, it will begin in earnest in March / April and the completion date is February 2024. When you next visit the school, I encourage you to drop into the General Office and view images of what the PAC will look like when completed. It will be an asset to our community and a fantastic resource for our many talented and creative students!

Finally, I would like to encourage all parents and carers to consider how they might get involved in our school community this year. Whether you consider nominating to join School Council, attend a Working Bee (our first one will be during Term 2), attend a concert or school forum, or engage with our Student Agency Conferences, we encourage you to get involved. A key goal for us in 2023 is to develop the strongest possible home / school partnerships and I hope you will join us in this enterprise.

Senior Years Campus – Principal’s Message

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After only four weeks, which seems more like eight; students at the Senior Campus have settled into a work routine as subject changes have finally finished. It’s now down to work! Year 11 and 12 students are beginning to sit SAC’s and Year 10 students have settled into the core of their work. We have incorporated some of the Berry Street strategies that we revisited last year at a PD into our Mill Park routines. These include entrance routines such as circle time, fun routines such as brain breaks and exit routines (What Went Well) and leaving no footprint. We hope that these added routines will give our students the ability to continue to focus on their work and build stamina and resilience.

New staff to the Senior Campus

We welcomed a number of new staff to the Senior Campus this year. This means that every class has their correct teacher in front of them. This is a great start for the students and makes for less disruption to their learning.

Ms Dean – Science

Mr Ghobrial – Maths

Ms Bucknell – English

Ms Rippon – English

Ms Yang – Maths

Ms Dell’Anna – Italian

Mr Davatzis – Legal Studies/Business Management

Ms Garchitorena – Science

Mr Augustine – Maths

Mr Trpeski – AFL Trainee

Sports

The year of sports started quickly with the Senior Boys Cricket team going out in the second week of school. They were successful in their first-round match and then progressed to the second round which was played this week. They won this as well so now play the Regional Finals.

There have also been a number of other sports play recently such as Volleyball and Tennis. The Senior Boys Volleyball team also had a win and will progress to the next round while the Senior Girls lost in the semi’s.

Fundraising BBQ

On Thursday 19 February, a BBQ fundraiser was organised to raise money for the Earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. This event brought in over $1000. Once costs are taken out, and the money raised at the staff morning tea added, this should result in $600 – $700.

It was great to see so many students helping out, not only the SRC but many others as well. This had the bonus effect of building cultural inclusivity with students with an Arabic background who even started playing music and dancing their traditional dances.

Late to class process

The engagement team on both campuses have developed a process, with the help of Compass, where students who are late to school or class must get a late pass from the office. The aim of this is to maximise learning time in class and enable the teacher to start teaching as soon as the class bell goes. We know that students can be late on the odd occasion due to an issue with their locker or other factors but if a student is late for 3 or more times over a 5 day period, a consequence is given allowing time for a discussion with a teacher about how this can be avoided next time.

This process has only been going for less than three weeks but we have already seen the number of students going to class late more than halve. Teachers are also noticing a marked difference and have been able to start their lesson much earlier than in the past, without the disruption of students coming late. Thank you to the parents who have also supported us in this change of practice.

Middle Years Campus – Principal’s Message

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It is with great pride that I have joined the Mill Park Secondary College team. Having lived in this community for most of my life, I am excited to be supporting state education within my local area.

Our focus this term has been re-establishing our positive climate for learning at the Middle Years Campus, ensuring we are preparing our students to be ready to learn, to demonstrate our College values and to connect with their peers and teachers.

Our students have responded in a positive way. They recognise the importance of wearing their uniform with pride, being on time to class and prepared and ready to learn and ensuring the learning environment is left clean and ready for the next class. Our students have been engaging in circle time within their classes, where they are able to build rapport and connection with their teachers and fellow classmates.

Last week we welcomed our Year 7 students and families at the annual Welcome Picnic. It was wonderful to see so many of our families in attendance and hear how well our newest members of the College have settled into our community.

The Wellbeing Ambassador Leadership Camp is underway at Mt Eliza with many of the Middle Year’s student leaders in attendance. We are looking forward to hearing all about their experience when they return. Next week our Year 7 students venture out on their first secondary school camp, we know they will have a wonderful experience.

I am excited to be part of the curriculum review that will take place this year, allowing us to ensure that our structures and processes around teaching and learning are meeting all our student’s needs. As well as this we are working collaboratively in cross curricular teaching teams to ensure that our Teaching and Learning model is being implemented with consistency in every class, every day.

It is exciting times at Mill Park Secondary College, and I look forward to continuing to develop and build a school environment that allows all students to flourish.

Year 7 Welcome Picnic

On Tuesday 13 February, Mill Park Secondary Collegge hosted a welcome picnic for our new Year 7 students and their families. The event was a huge success, with around 100 attendees. The weather proved perfect for a picnic out in our Middle Years B Block quadrangle and lawns. Families participated in some activities like: Finska, dominoes, Jenga, footy, hacky sack toss and more. It was wonderful to see our community interacting with one another, while also taking up the opportunity to speak with the Year 7 Homegroup teachers and leaders.

Following the picnic, families moved into our Middle Years Library for a Principal’s address, and lectures from specialists, Ms Fahie and Ms Alexander, on developing literacy and numeracy skills at home. The sessions were invaluable, and we hope that the families left with some ideas on how to implement simple strategies to aid their child’s learning at home.

Thank you to all who attended the event and brought their positive vibes on the night.

Humanities

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Middle Years Humanities

This year on the Middle Years Campus, Humanities classes are starting with the discipline of Geography. In Year 7, students explore the liveability of different places around the world and how water is used as a resource. They learn geospatial skills such as mapping and using graphs. In Year 8, students explore the impact of changes in different landscapes in Australia and the growth of megacities around the world. They practice interpreting a wide array of data and learn to describe distribution on maps. In Year 9 students investigate biomes and food security around the world as well as Australia’s global connections and whether fair trade is possible.

Senior Years Humanities

On the Senior Campus, Year 10 students are looking at the modern world starting with the inter-war years between WWI and WWII. They investigate the reason why the world will be plunged back into conflict a mere twenty years after “the war to end all wars” concluded. They will research key events of WWII and pay particular attention to Australia’s involvement in the conflict. For the wide array of VCE subjects – from accounting to philosophy, business management to ancient history – students are coming to terms with the
increased rigour of senior subjects and the high expectations for assessments.
It’s been a positive and productive start to the year!

STEM

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This year at Mill Park Secondary College in STEM we are partnering up with the Whittlesea Tech School (WTS) through a range of subjects and electives at Middle Years Campus. The Year 9 Project STEM elective is working closely with WTS focusing on the process of Design Thinking. The classes ventured on an all day workshop at the WTS and began to explore the fundamentals of Design thinking.

Students were posed with an ethical challenge regarding recycling rubbish and the confusion many people experience in mixing recycled materials and landfill. Students collaborated with their peers and developed various ideas to try problem solve this real world issue. Students were then expected to design and prototype a solution, either an app or a physical product.

Students Quotes from the day: ‘The trip I thought was fun. I enjoyed it a lot because there was a lot of hands on work for me to do and we got to share creative ideas as well as craft it with our friends. It was mostly teamwork, cooperation, communication and collaboration. This led to a lot of talking which I personally love to do and I thought it was a great experience especially when it was time to design and bring our ideas to life.’

The students are excited for our ongoing partnership and workshop days with WTS and applying their learning of design thinking into the classroom and real life.

Numeracy:

In 2023 we are following the 4:1 Model, to build our students’ Numeracy Skills. This Model will explicitly teach 1 Lesson of Numeracy Skills each week and 4 lessons of Math content, while using the Math Pathways or Math Space platform.

Numeracy skills lessons include:

Fluency and understanding content lessons
Problem solving and Reasoning lessons : Enrichment tasks and Rich Learning Tasks
Real life numeracy problems which include: How math is used in the real world (ie budgeting tasks).

This has been rolled out across all Year 7-9 classes and has a positive impact on students’ relationship with Numeracy in the classroom.

Numeracy At Home:

In the early weeks of term, the Numeracy Team provided some tips for families at the Year 7 Welcome Night. These are strategies for families to connect everyday life and numeracy skills and can be used across Year 7-12 students.

Including your child in activities such as cooking a meal, to help students establish a deeper understanding of measurements. Ask your child to:

To use the scale
Measure using different measuring tools
Change the amount of people you need to serve in a recipe and help students make those calculations with you

Creating conversations around the costs of items at a supermarket, and why an item may be a better deal. This helps build students understanding of ratios, rates, proportions, discounts and the importance of financial numeracy/literacy.

Taking your child to the supermarket to look at prices of different products. (Eg. The cost of the Coles brand paper towel vs. a name brand).
Looking at various sizes of items at the supermarket (Eg. a 1 kg bag of sugar vs a 100g bag) to determine the better value.

As students progress throughout their high school career, you may also consider discussing topics such as budgeting, or credit to help prepare them for the world after high school.

Encourage them to sit in family budgeting conversations

In conclusion, we are looking forward to our growing partnership with families, school communities and organizations who are driven to provide our students with amazing opportunities and skills in STEM and Numeracy.

Physical Education/Health

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Welcome Back!

All Physical Education/Health staff and students have settled back seamlessly into the 2023 school year and are working productively in all theory and practical classes.

2023 Mill Park Secondary College Physical Education / Health Staff Team

Mr. Maltby

Mr. Wilson

Mr. Rogers

Mr. Patterson

Ms. Boyle

Ms. Ashby

Mr. Guebala

Mr. Lewis

Mr. Cahill

Mr. Trpeski (2023 AFL Trainee)

Year 12 Health and Human Development

As part of Unit 3, Outcome 1 students are required to build their understanding of the key indicators used to measure the health status of Australians by analysing the extent to which health status data reflects concepts of health and wellbeing. The class has been fortunate to have an extra set of hands in the classroom with 4^th year RMIT Pre-service teacher Georgia assisting in the classroom. To build students’ understanding, students participated in a game of memory match by matching up health status indicators with definitions of terms as another way of retaining the key knowledge required throughout the chapter. The task was created and facilitated by Georgia and from feedback received from students not only was the activity very enjoyable in also helped to build their understanding.

INTERSCHOOL SPORT

Senior Boys Cricket

Whittlesea Region Finals

On Monday 6 February the Senior Boys Cricket team headed to Epping Reserve to play Hazel Glen in the Whittlesea region final. After winning the toss, Mill Park decided to bat first posting a commanding innings total of 4/119 from 20 overs. Our two opening batsmen Aryan (43 not out) and Aadit (22) got the team off to a good start followed by Madiv (14) Sean (7) and Nihar (7 not out). Mill Park then took the field and put the pressure on Hazel Glen early with Kyle and Madiv frustrating the Hazel Glen batsmen with their bowling pace and consistent line and length each taking 2 wickets each. Ethan was brought into the bowling attack with his leg spin bowling bamboozling the Hazel Glen batsman ending up with 4 wickets for the session. Mill Park bowled out the Hazel Glen team for 65 runs claiming the Whittlesea Region title and moved on to the Northern Zone Semi-finals. The team would like to make special mention to Mr Lewis (parent) for giving up his valuable time to assist the team by undertaking the role of umpire for the day along with sharing his valuable knowledge with the team to improve their cricket skills. Ms Reid (parent) and Ms Booth-Avagliano (parent) also attended the day to support the team.

Northern Zone Semi Finals

On Tuesday 21 February, a somewhat depleted Mill Park Secondary College side (10 players only due to study/school commitments) headed to Donath Reserve, Reservoir to play 3 matches against Gladstone Park SC, Coburg HS and St Helena SC in 12 overs matches.

In the first game against Gladstone Park, after losing the coin toss and fielding first Mill Park were able to bowl out the opposition for 65 runs after a comprehensive bowling and fielding effort. Logan was the pick of the bowlers claiming 4 wickets from his two overs by cleaning up the tailenders. With 66 runs to chase, opening batsmen Aryan and Aadit were able to successfully chase down the runs easily in 8 overs to secure the win for Mill Park Secondary College.

In the second game against a very confident and verbal Coburg HS, Mill Park bowled first restricting Coburg to 5/86 with all bowlers making an even contribution with wickets taken being evenly spread across the team. With 87 to chase, our captains Aryan (46) and Madiv (47) played a beautiful array of cricket shots to chase down the total in 9 overs leading to another win on the board.

With 2 wins on the board, a third win would cement Mill Park Secondary College place in the Northern Zone Final on Thursday 9 March at Donath Reserve, Reservoir. Our final match against St Helena SC would prove to be our biggest challenge. After winning the toss, Mill Park decided to field first as chasing down scores had proven to be one of the strengths throughout the day. After a consistent bowling and fielding display, Mill Park was able to limit St Helena SC to 4/75 off 10 overs therefore requiring 7.6 runs per over to secure a place in the final. Once again our two opening batsmen got off to a good start with Aryan and Aadit. After losing both Aadit and Mandiv with 2 overs remaining and requiring 6 runs to win the match, Kyle came in to bat and hit a six with just over an over remaining to win the game and cement a place in the Northern Zone Final. Winning through to the Northern Zone final is a tremendous effort, considering the team was required to play with one less player when both fielding and batting throughout all three games. Hopefully with the return of more players available for the Northern Zone Final, Mill Park Secondary College can go on to claim the Northern Zone title and move onto the State Finals. As their coach I have been extremely impressed with the positive attitude, perseverance and display of sportsmanship and gamesmanship displayed by all members of the team and watching and experiencing their genuine love for the game of cricket.

Senior Boys and Girls Volleyball

On Monday 20 February our Senior Boys and Girls team participated in games of Volleyball against many schools from our district. Both the boys and girls teams put up a magnificent effort making the finals! The girls displayed amazing teamwork on short notice and began to create some strategy to make it all the way to the semi-finals where unfortunately they feel short in a toughly fought battle. The boys found themselves behind in many of the games but manage to find a way through to win every game they played, with their great leadership and communication skills on display. The boys will advance to the next stage and are currently training in their own time on Wednesday afternoons to give themselves the best opportunity of progressing. Well done to all involved!

Language

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The month of February has been very intense for all the Italian students here at Mill Park Secondary College. The Year 7 students have been actively learning how to introduce themselves in Italian; they can also talk about themselves using simple Italian constructions. It is such a pleasure to hear them speaking Italian and gaining fluency day by day!

Our Year 8 students are focusing on school in Italy, and they are learning the major differences between the Australian and the Italian school system. They love the Italian system because they know that in Italy all students get to go home at lunchtime!

The Year 9 students are becoming more and more aware of cultural differences between Italy and Australia by studying Italian houses and comparing them with houses in their country of origins. There is quite a lot to discover there.

Further, the Year 10 students are familiarising themselves with more articulate linguistic constructions, conjugating verbs and writing longer sentences. It is fantastic to hear them speaking Italian to their teacher and holding conversations with a native speaker.

The VCE students have been extremely active this month. Not only are they learning how to argue their point in Italian, but they are also participating in a language competition, writing 700 words in Italian on the influence that Italian migrants have had on Australia. It is awesome to witness their level of involvement when writing their essay in Italian. We wish them all the luck they deserve for accepting to compete against so many students from other Australian schools. Should they win, they will bring home some money, thanks to the scholarships offered by the GRUPPO DELL’AMICIZIA IN MEMORIA DI ERICA INGLESE, the organisation from NSW in charge of the competition. In bocca al lupo, ragazzi!

Wellbeing

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Welcome back Helen and congratulations Lukas!!!

At the start of this term, we saw the return of one of our wellbeing officers, Helen Nicola. She has returned on a part-time basis, travelling across both campuses on Monday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Congratulations to our wellbeing coordinator, Lukas, who has seen the arrival of a healthy baby boy, Gianni, at the start of the month. He has returned full time as of week 4.

Student Wellbeing Ambassador and Leadership Camp – Feb 22 -24

It’s wonderful to see our student leaders and wellbeing ambassadors participating in the Leadership Camp (Camp Manyung) in Mount Eliza. Students have had a lot of fun over the 3 days, full of adventure and activities including low ropes, tree top challenges, a cultural immersion tour, flying fox, giant swings, campfire and night walk. They were all amazing and had a great time, learning various skills (e.g., leadership, communication) to foster their active roles throughout the course of the year.

Senior Wellbeing Centre

The wellbeing centre at senior campus have moved and the wellbeing team are excited to have this space to provide more relevant programs and support for students.

Welling team and contacts are:

Lukas Farfalla, Student Wellbeing Team Leader: Farfalla@education.vic.gov.au
Helen Nicola, Student Wellbeing Officer: Nicola2@education.vic.gov.au
Peta Bleazby, MYC Student Wellbeing Officer: petableazby@millparksc.vic.edu.au
Sarah Hull-Brown, MYC Mental Health Practitioner: Hull-Brown@education.vic.gov.au
Stephanie Chee-Noguera, Senior campus Mental Health Practitioner: Chee-Noguera@education.vic.gov.au

What’s on in the Community

Visual and Performing Arts

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Top Class: Dance

We are delighted to have Leila Pirova represented in the Top Class Dance 2023, which is a part of the VCE season of excellence. Congratulations to Leila and to her teacher Ms Arsana. Top Class is managed by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and the season showcases work produced by outstanding VCE students who completed their studies in 2022. Top Class Dance concerts will take place on Tuesday 7 march at the Melbourne Recital Centre. This year’s dance classes will be able to attend the Top Class Concert and develop an understanding of high achieving performances in VET and VCE dance. Tickets are available via the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Congratulations to Leila who will perform her VET Broadway Jazz solo at this year’s Top Class dance. Leila undertook VET Dance studies at Mill Park Secondary College and made the honour roll for the subject. Her Broadway Jazz piece was an outstanding example of technical jazz principles, showcasing strong, sharp, athletic ability combined with soft, fluid movements to create a mature and stylistic performance. congratulations Leila!

Year 11 VET Applied Fashion and Design

This class, with many of the students travelling to attend from other schools, has settled in very well and we can see new friendships emerging already.

Although the beginning of any course can be tedious, getting access to networks and new digital platforms, we are progressing well with the course. Today the students were working in pairs to learn or revisit the sewing machine and creating sewing samples to demonstrate their knowledge and skills they bring to the course. This will be continued over the next couple of weeks culminating in a practical assessment. They will then be ready to progress onto making their first product.

College Production ‘ROCK of AGES’

Auditions for this year’s College Production ‘Rock of Ages’ have been eventful and inspirational. There has been a lot of interest and students from across the college participated in the auditions held at the Senior and Middle Years Campus.

Students have been involved in auditions and call backs for the varied character, principle roles and ensemble during the past two weeks. Students have learnt dance routines and songs and performed a range of upbeat, character songs to powerful ballads. They enjoyed performing dance moves and classic rock songs from the 1980s.

The cast and band are ready to go and are excited about commencing rehearsals. The show will be performed early in Term 3. Ticketing details will be made available in Term 2.

Instrumental Music classes have commenced and students have been learning techniques in a range of instruments including guitar, keyboard, vocals, drums/percussion across both campuses.

Year 10 Painting & Drawing

Students are learning about ‘Portraiture’ with a focus on the theme of ‘Heroes and Celebrities’. They are engaging in drawing and painting using art elements and principles such as tone, colour, and form. They are delighted to be learning drawing and painting techniques and the process used in watercolour painting.

VCE Art/Design – Public Art & Art Consultation Incursion

VCE Art & Design students enjoyed an Art/Design Public Art presentation by Sandy Caldow – Cultural Collection Coordinator Active and Creative Participation and Jansu Gaz – Youth Worker City of Whittlesea. Students gained knowledge about public art and its role in the community and about celebrating historic stories within the community and how some of the sculptures acknowledge the indigenous cultural heritage of the local community. This involved the discussion of sculpture, mosaics and paste ups.

The renowned street artist ‘Baby Guerilla’ discussed her artwork created for public art. Baby Guerilla has been commissioned to create a series of large paste ups for the exterior of Epping Community Centre.

Students gained an insight into the project, process, and potential materials. They gave their ideas and thoughts about potential styles themes and sites at Epping Community Centre to help inform the design of the artworks.

“It was interesting to understand the process involved in making street art. I now can make a connection to the artwork which I have seen from the Richmond Ikea carpark and the street artist Baby Guerilla. “ Mackenzie.

VCE Visual Communication Design

Students have engaged in learning about identity and communication and environmental design. They are learning about conventions used in environmental design and floor plans and elevations.

“I am learning about the technical drawing applications and how to convert floor plans into elevation drawings.“ – Angelina.

“This is giving me a good understanding of what it would involve to be an architect in the future.” – Shubhey.

“This will help me with my portfolio for an architectural course at University next year.” – Leisha.