Principal Report
It has been a great start to Semester 2. On Monday 17th July, 100 staff members participated in literacy and numeracy professional learning to improve outcomes for all Mooroolbark College students.
Improving the literacy outcomes of Mooroolbark College students has been a priority at the College for the past two years. This ensures that students have great lifelong options. Research clearly shows that highly literate people are healthier, suffer from less anxiety and depression, have greater employment options and have increased economic success. Students who develop their literacy skills do far better in all subjects across the curriculum. Every teacher at Mooroolbark College is a teacher of literacy. They are committed to working with students to develop their abilities to make meaning from texts and express themselves fluently in a variety of contexts.
Staff also undertook numeracy professional learning. The numeracy team within the College focuses on improving problem solving skills, thinking mathematically and transferring mathematical skills between disciplines. Students need to be able to transfer mathematical skills between subjects. Take for example measurement. The skill to measure accurately and convert measurements is required in mathematics, visual communication, geography, food technology, physical education, science, wood and metal work, yet we often think about ‘measurement’ as being purely a mathematics skill. In order to reinforce the topic of percentages across the curriculum students will be supported to calculate their own percentage grades on assessments. In Year 7 and Year 8 Mathematics classes, students will continue to undertake ‘OETs’ (Open Ended Tasks) once a fortnight. These are 20 minute tasks that are designed to help students think mathematically, problem solve and work collaboratively with other students to obtain solutions to mathematical problems.
Course Selection has begun for current Year 8 students going into Year 9 in 2018. It was pleasing to see so many families brave the elements to attend and take such an active role in planning their child’s Year 9 education. It was a wonderful opportunity for students and parents/guardians to speak to teachers about the many Year 9 options, which are available at Mooroolbark College. These options include a range of English and Mathematics electives to compliment the core curriculum as well as electives in the Arts, Technology, Health and PE, Health, Language and Humanities and the ever-popular Duke of Edinburgh and the Sports Leadership Programs.
The Year 10 and the Year 11/12 Information Night will be held on Thursday 27th July.
During the holidays, the production team has been hard at work preparing for the 2017 production of ‘Bats’. At the General Assembly in the last week of Term 2, we were fortunate to experience some of the hard work that had already gone into the production with a short skit. Take the opportunity to ‘like’, comment and ‘share’ the ‘Bats’ post on the Mooroolbark College Official Facebook page to go into the draw for a double pass to ‘Bats’. If you are not lucky enough to be the winner of these tickets, go to http://www.trybooking.com/291994 and purchase tickets for Wednesday 2nd, Thursday 3rd or Friday 4th August.