Welcome to the new school year!  A school is not a school without students, so all are important!

Our return as Mater Christi College community has been as delightful an experience as these milder weather days!  I trust that all students enjoyed the summer break and opportunities to relax with family and friends.

No one will quickly forget the start of our Cocurricular Program this past week, as downpours and rail strikes threatened to spoil the careful plans and high hopes of students and staff alike for a positive conclusion to the 2017 school year.  However and as expected, resilience outscored disappointment and all year level activities proceeded happily and with gusto.

Today, James Merlino, Deputy Premier, Minister for Education and local Member for Monbulk announced that Mater Christi College had been successful in its application for a State Government Capital Grant of $1million, enabling us to upgrade our facilities with the provision of a specialist multi-media Presentation Centre.

As we end the term, it’s a good opportunity to check that summer uniform items fit well, are in good condition and meet College expectations. (more…)

From the start of Term 3, we will introduce two new systems to simplify administration for families and the College.

MaterShop (provided by CDFPay) will replace My Student Account (MSA) for café purchases and miscellaneous College payments. Student ID cards will not need to change and all account balances will be automatically transferred to the new system.

Discussions are continuing to clarify significant justice issues which remain around the recent Coalition government’s ‘Gonski 2.0’ funding model.  Education Minister, Senator Simon Birmingham in his most recent letter to schools states “we believe that every student deserves fair funding support…” and so “the Australian Government’s Quality Schools funding reforms will give every student in every school Commonwealth funding on a genuine needs-basis” (1 June, 2017).

In view of his stated commitment to fair funding, we are disturbed by the apparent disparity in allocations across schools, including significant variation within our own region, which leads us to question the way in which the SES defines any community’s capacity to contribute.

Further reforms in Child Protection (Safe) legislation are now in place through the implementation of the new Reportable Conduct Scheme, a new Duty of Care to Prevent Child Abuse and more clarification around Working With Children Check requirements.

As a consequence, we report all allegations of misconduct to the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People, require a Working With Children Check for all people engaged by the College  and ensure always that ‘reasonable precautions’ are taken to prevent physical or sexual abuse of a student by any individual associated with the College.

Now that we are well and truly into Winter, we ask that you ensure that your daughter is wearing her uniform according to College expectations.

Wearing the uniform well signals a commitment to belonging to our community and we appreciate your support in this way.

Many parents – and teachers - are now aware of the significant interest of our young people in the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why.  If your daughter has not viewed this series (and those younger than 15 ought not be considering it), my guess is that at the very least, she and her friends are talking about it… and so therefore, must we! (more…)

Year 7 and Year 9 students across Australia will sit the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) on 9-11 May. (more…)