Passion scores A-plus for Melton Secondary College's Marnie
by Sumeyya Ilanbey - Star Weekly 02/02/2015
The 18-year-old Melton West teen received an ATAR of 88.65 and is now on her way to study journalism at RMIT University.
“My teachers recommended us to find a career that you love,” Marnie said. “And, I guess, after I’d taken literature in year 11, I realised I really enjoyed writing.”
Marnie, who graduated from Melton Secondary College, attributed her success to maintaining a good work-life balance.
“If I went out one day, I made sure I studied the next day. As long as you have that balance throughout the year, it’ll be ok.”
The teen hopes to travel the world and raise awareness of the plight of people in third-world or war-zone countries.
Principal David Reynolds said standards at the school improved markedly last year. The median study score, marked out of 50, rose from 23 in 2013 to 27.
He said many of his students received an ATAR in the 70s and 80s, “testimony to the great work achieved by students and staff”.
“Ninety-eight per cent – 50 out of 52 students – received a first round offer. That’s a terrific outcome.”
Mr Reynolds said the school spent a lot of time focussing on study skills, effective time management and effective learning.
“Be clear about what you want to achieve and organise your time around those goals so you can allocate the right amount of time,” he said.
Students are encouraged to study a minimum of 20 hours per week.
VCE and ATAR results day Victoria 2014
December 15, 2014 The Age
Welcome to our live coverage of VCE and ATAR results day for 2014
Liam Richards, school captain at Melton Secondary College, overcame more difficulties than most to secure his ATAR of 82.20, reports Konrad Marshall.
The young community leader and school council member had to do without many of the resources afforded to other students, after his father was retrenched last year and his mother was also unable to find work.
In addition, his family provided close support to an uncle hospitalised with diabetes, and an aunt with Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
At the start of this year, Liam also gave up part-time job in order to focus on his studies and assume an active role as school captain.
“Objectively speaking, it’s been a bad year, but I try to be positive,” he said. “There are people that are much worse off, but I’m certainly not the luckiest person in the world. We’ve been trying, but you get you’re given.”
Liam received his text message a little after 7am, and was elated with the result – particularly strong study scores in systems engineering and English.
He intends to study a Bachelor of Communication at Victoria University and pursue a career in professional writing – whether screenplays or journalism or politics. Even teaching. The score is his ticket.
“I was pretty relieved. Ecstatic actually. I saw the score and was like, ‘Hey yeah, I’m happy with that – that’s very useable.’”
PRINCIPAL REPORT
Welcome to the 2015 school year. I hope that the Christmas and New Year period was enjoyable and you were able to find some quality time for yourself, your family and friends.
Over the past week or so families will have been busy making sure that students are completely ready for the start of school. Attending on the first day of school with the Student Kit and proudly wearing the full College Uniform is incredibly important for students and staff appreciate the efforts that parents go to make sure that students are ready to learn from the very first day of school.
As you would expect, staff have also been busy these past two weeks making sure that the school program is ready to support and settle students back into the start of the school year. We are looking forward to greeting students and parents and a successful start to the school year.
The expectations we share for students at our school are clear and provide a solid ground for success. Encapsulated in the College motto, Academic Excellence, we encourage students to make this aspiration a reality by bringing their best effort every day of the school year and working hard to achieve the highest standard possible in all areas of their study.
Aiming high brings results. Three examples are worth highlighting at the start of the year as evidence of this.
Firstly, following the concerted focus which the College has continued to place on the importance of school attendance, the 2014 data shows that student absenteeism dropped significantly. Students are clearly happier to attend school and there is increasing cooperation and understanding between school and home to ensure that students attend school every day.
At the College Awards Night held in the final week of the 2014 school year, I was immensely proud to award to Year 12 student, Marnie McColl, the Dux of the College. Marnie achieved excellent results and an ATAR of 86.85. These results will allow Marnie to enrol at university and to pursue her ambition to become a journalist.
It is wonderful to see that the 2014 VCE cohort achieved strong results across the board and that at 27, the 2014 College mean Allstudy Score (combined average score for each VCE subject) was several points above previous years. This reflects the hard work that our Year 12 students put into their studies and their commitment to achieving their ambitions.
This year we will be welcoming 180 Year 7 students into the College. This is the highest intake of Year 7 students for many years and is yet another indication of the high level of confidence which parents and students have in our College. It is also an indication of the growth that will be occurring over the coming years as our school expands to accommodate families settling in the Melton area. As a result of this growth the College will also be welcoming a large number of new staff who will join our highly qualified and wonderful team of professionals, all of whom are dedicated to supporting student success at our College.
This year will also see a number of significant improvements to the educational program that will enhance student engagement and learning.
Our students are capable of achieving great things when we work together learning as a community. I am looking forward with great excitement at celebrating the results of our work over the course of the year.
David Reynolds
Principal
NATIONAL EMERGENCY ALERT PROGRAM
The national telephone warning system regarding Emergency Alert is a system that will be used to warn people of an emergency occurring in the near vicinity. The warnings are sent as text messages to mobiles located near the emergency and a recorded message to landline telephones in the area. Below is the Emergency Alert flyer which has been developed in conjunction with CFA, Life Saving Victoria and the Department of Justice and Melton Secondary College will distribute these flyers to students at the start of the 2015 school year.
Year 7 Orientation Day
The Year 7 Orientation Day held on Tuesday 8th December was a great success with 187 new Year 7s attending to start their secondary education.
In 2015 there will be some changes in the Junior School Office with Ms Bewley moving to take on the position of the Sub-School Leader of the Middle School and Mr Kerr taking over as Sub-School Leader of the Junior School. We will also be welcoming Ms Jacobs into the Junior School in the role of Team Leader.
Thank you to parents, staff and students for your support throughout the year. We look forward to working with you again in 2015
Year 8 Outdoor Ed. Excursion
Students worked in teams to identify minerals by looking at their physical properties such as hardness, colour, lustre and streak colour. The first team to identify all minerals was given a hand lens to take home.
Our students learned which minerals go into making toothpaste and other products. In addition, our students learned what a geode is, and using the appropriate equipment they were allowed to break them open and take them home.
Students created their own rock core samples and a few were fortunate enough to find some 'gold'. Lastly, our students discovered how metal detectors work and used them out in the forest to try their luck. A number of students found pennies and other metallic objects. It was a great day for our budding geologists!
Melton Sudanese Secondary Student Scholarship Program Trial Success
During this year Melton Secondary College had the privilege to take part in the Melton Sudanese Secondary Student Scholarship Trial Program, as part of the Sudanese Student Engagement and Support Project. VICSEG New Futures had scoped and developed this project in collaboration with the South Sudanese Community in Melton, local schools and community services organisations, with the support and encouragement of the City of Melton. Mentors from Victoria University, Melissa Davey (ex MSC student) and Tim, have worked with 6 of our Sudanese students, Emmanuel Makor, Matot Ciengou, Yieg Wurok, Nyanjok Malaul, Atong Deng and Anya Kuany every week for the year, together with Abraham our South Sudan Cultural worker. The VICSEG scholarship trial program has been a success and it has now been decided to continue into 2015 and beyond. Students who have been involved are now privileged to continue the program and continue for three years starting at Year 9 and graduating from the program at the end of Year 11. We will be introducing 2 Year 9 students to be part of the program in 2015 and continue the program until they are in Year 11, as Atong and Anya in Year 11, have now graduated from the program.
On Monday the 17th of November, our students participated in the VICSEG project graduation at the Melton Library. They presented a PowerPoint about their fundraising BBQ which took place in Term 3. Each student also had a speech to share with all those who were present. Well done to our students. They showed a lot of courage and confidence to present in front of a large group.
Many thanks go to VICSEG, our mentors and all the organisers. Our initiative goal is to continue on improving the educational and future employment outcomes for young people of South Sudanese background in Melton.
We are very pleased to continue the program and help support our students in many ways to build on skills and follow particular pathways in further study and work placements.
Minnie Shefket – EAL Teacher
Djerriwarrh Parade
On Saturday the 8th of November students from Melton Secondary College participated in the Djerriwarrh Parade.
The students had spent a lot of time working on a float using the Djerriwarrh theme of ‘Spring Time, Fun Time!’ The students decided to create a float around the Spring Racing Carnival including jockeys, spectators and a bookie to celebrate everything associated with the carnival.
We also included in the float two birds that had been created by Year 7 students as part of the Healthy Living Festival. The birds represented Bunjil the eagle who is the creator and spiritual leader of the Kulin nation. It was a great site to see these birds moving down the high street of Melton. The birds were later installed near the festival site and received many positive comments.
It was great to see so many students from the college supporting the event and getting involved in the community. The weather did make life quite difficult with high temperature and strong winds and at certain stages it did seem as if the birds were going to take flight.
We would like to thank all the students for all of their hard work in preparing the items for the parade and look forward to participating again next year.
Festival Of Healthy Living
This semester the Year 7s at Melton Secondary College participated in a program called The Festival for Healthy Living. Some classes got creative and made bamboo eagles – bunjil and other classes showed that they could write songs and poetry and play instruments. After our ten weeks of rehearsing we showcased our work to four other schools who also participated in the program
The school involved were Melton South Primary School, Coburn Primary School, CALM and Staughton College. We learnt that when we work as a team we can achieve many things and that we should respect everyone for their differences no matter what where they have come from!
Written by 7E students
Stress Management Presentation
Please click on the link below to view a stress managment presenation presented by our Student Wellbeing Coordinator Ms Di Pasquale
In March this year Melton Secondary College students joined students from Kurunjang and Staughton Colleges in Melbourne's Federation Square to launch the Victorian Government's Bully Stoppers program.
Chosen from over 100 schools across the state, our students' goal is to decrease bullying by increasing positive behaviours and encouraging students to speak up and reach out if someone is feeling badly treated by another. The result is a truly inspiring video message for people everywhere.
Every year in May students in Years 3, 5, 7, & 9 throughout Australia undertake a series of tests known as NAPLAN. There are actually five tests - Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar & punctuation), Numeracy (without calculator), Numeracy (with calendar).
This year the test will be conducted on the 13h, 14th and 15th May.
The purpose of the tests is to give parents and the school information about student learning. It gives parents and the school information about student learning. It gives us additional information to that which we gather from our own assessments about how individual students and groups of students are progressing. We use this information to provide extra challenge or support to students who may need it. Parents can use the information to help them guide their children with homework and encourage them to do extra reading or Maths if it seems necessary.
It must be remembered that NAPLAN only measures some of the skills and knowledge taught by schools and that are important for success in life. The are many important skills - the ability to think creatively, the ability to work productively with other people, the ability to persevere when an answer is not immediately obvious, etc that NAPLAN cannot measure.
Some families welcome the extra information provided by NAPLAN. However, there are other families who believe the pressure the tests place on young or the self esteem issues that may arise from below expected results are not beneficial to their child. If you would like to withdraw your child from one or more of the tests, please contact me, your child's Team Leader or Homegroup teacher as soon as possible.
From the Principal
Welcome to the 2014 school year at Melton Secondary College.
The year has started well with students returning form summer holidays looking refreshed from their break and enthusiastic to learn. The College continues to experience an increase in enrolments and as well as a larger cohort of Year 7 students, classes at most other year levels have filled to capacity.
Starting a new school year is an exciting time for students. It opens up a myriad of possibilities for learning about the world, about each other and ourselves. Taking advantage of these opportunities requires an open mind and a disciplined manner, a commitment to support others and a willingness to strive to achieve your best each day.
At Melton Secondary College we see our motto of Academic Excellence as a goal for every student to strive towards and we work to instill the qualities that will lead to success.
Our students achieve excellent results across all curriculum areas and programs. Our three Curriculum Specialism areas: Science, the Arts and Sport are developing great enthusiasm amongst students as is our High Achievers ACE program. A strong Student Leadership and Voice program is ensuring that students have a say in their learning and develop leadership skills for life. Further information about these programs is available on this wesbite.
We also know that young people cannot succeed at school without parents and carers working in partnership with their child's school. Students need to know that their parents are not only informed about what is happening in their classes, but they are also working together with the school to set high expectations and to acknowledge success when these expectations are met.
This year the College will enhance its partnership with parents by sharing information about each students' progress more effectively through more regular reporting of student progress, SMS messaging of student absences and a new Parent Portal which will provide access to College events and information.
If you are interested in learning more about Melton Secondary College, please feel free to contact the General Office to make an appointment to take a tour.
David Reynolds
Principal
Year 7 2015 Information Evening
The year 7 2015 Information Evening will be held on Tuesday, 18th March 5.30pm - 7.30pm
Newsletter
