Principal’s Update | December, 2022
Earlier this week, we celebrated the amazing progress and achievements of our entire community in 2022 at the annual Presentation Night. There was so much to celebrate.
We must acknowledge that while the pandemic has been easier to cope with in some ways, there have still been many challenges to address, and that has required us all to show continued resilience in the face of ongoing difficulties. Things have not always been smooth sailing – and yet the Mac.Rob community has demonstrated our values by remaining cohesive, collaborative and determined to do our best.
There have been many significant achievements in 2022.
VCE Academic Results
Congratulations to you all, and to our hard working and dedicated students. 2022 has been another tough year, but our VCE achievements show that in spite of all of the hardships we faced over the past 3 years, together we gave our students every opportunity to achieve their personal best.
Pictured above: Two of our dux students, Crystal and Rumaisa, in front of the mural. Not pictured: Our third dux, Arushi.
Our students have been: persistent, resilient, creative, tenacious, and caring, and they have not allowed extraordinary challenges to distract them from their aims.You too have done the same! I thank each of you for all of the parts you have played to make these achievements possible for our students.
I always feel ambivalent about today. There is so much to celebrate - the culmination of hard work and collaboration and the emergence of new beginnings for our Year 12s. We also know, however, that these numbers do not reflect the full story or the progress of each child. They are an important part of the story, but only individual students, their parents and staff who have taught them throughout the years, including this one, know the important details that give each result meaning. These challenges have been greater than ever over the past three years, and even more so for this particular group with the flood in 2019.
On a day where we celebrate the numbers, please take time to remember what is most important - we are celebrating the lifetime of learning and progress our students have made and the possibilities we have created for future learning and growth.
Please find the snapshot of the results below.
I particularly want to thank the students for their efforts. The VCE is an endeavour that rewards hard work, consistency and seeking and responding to feedback. Without a willingness and motivation to persist and be resilient our students would not reap these rewards on our behalf. Our students have been nothing short of inspirational this year and over the last two years, through the most trying of circumstances.
Thank you one and all the many contributions you have each made towards the successful outcomes of our students. It is not only the teachers of Year 12s, although you do take a deal of credit, it is all teachers and all staff throughout each child’s schooling who have contributed to this. The relationships you form, your capacity to know each child, and find the right degree of challenge and support, is what makes the difference. That is complex work. It is intense, but it is oh so rewarding. This year has been even more challenging than we could have imagined, and I hope each of you is proud of your hard work to ensure the success of our students. We certainly are.
The Senior Team played a large part in encouraging, organising, supporting and guiding the students and staff so that students can achieve their best. This year led by Daniel Crowe, Adlin Ramdzan, Steph Ruth and Kimberlee Olsen. They have done a stellar job of supporting them along the way, with the support of Marissa Economo, Shreya Rowe and Kerrie Russo. They have been an amazing team who have gone above and beyond with all that was asked of them.
Our sincere thanks go to Tarsha Mautone for her expert guidance, and support and her dogged determination to help students on a pathway of choice. Her communication and proactivity and her knowledge of each student is outstanding, and her ongoing support now and throughout the holidays to help them make the next step is vitally important and will continue to be exemplary.
International Baccalaureate
Our first year of the International Baccalaureate has been highly successful, with 21 pioneering students, their families, and their teachers collaborating to create a vibrant community of inquiry. Next year the program will more than double, with these students continuing into Year 2, and 25 more students commencing in Year 1. We look forward to celebrating our first IB graduates in 2023.
You can read more about the first year of the IB program here.
International Women’s Day Breakfast 2023
Friends, families, and students of Mac.Rob are warmly invited to join us for our annual International Women's Day Breakfast on Friday, February 24th, 2023, as we reflect on progress, call for change, and celebrate the courage and determination of those who have changed the face of gender equality.
UN Women Australia’s International Women’s Day theme for 2023 is ‘Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender equal future’. Based on the priority theme for the United Nations 67th Commission on the Status of Women – Cracking the Code highlights the role that bold, transformative ideas, inclusive technologies, and accessible education can play in combatting discrimination and the marginalisation of women globally.
Please join us for our annual International Women’s Day Breakfast, held at the stunning Greenfields Albert Park, as we bring together leaders and changemakers who are redefining innovation – creating new social, economic and cultural codes for a gender equal future, and help us raise much needed funds to accelerate gender equality.
Curriculum for 2023
Throughout the year, we have reshaped our Year 9 and 10 curriculum, and our timetable for 2023 to ensure the strongest foundations of skills and knowledge across the breadth of all curriculum areas, while still allowing for voice and agency in the choices students make in their courses. Additionally, the reinvigoration and renaming of the Interdisciplinary Program for Year 9s to the Potens Sui Program in honour of our school motto and ambition (to demonstrate mastery of self), has been a huge success. Students have demonstrated outstanding design thinking skills in Potens Sui: Mental Health in Semester 1, and Potens Sui: Reconciliation in Semester 2. Congratulations to the Potens Sui Program Coordinator, Mr. Miguel Regalo, for producing an outstanding program across both semesters.
Vision & Values
Throughout 2022, we have embedded the values of community, growth, responsibility, and compassion as the standard we hold ourselves to and the touchstone of our decision-making. Building on the outstanding work on the values from 2021, we have, in 2022, collectively defined our mission and vision.
Our newly articulated mission is: As an inclusive and globally-minded school, we provide an enriching environment for highly able students - one where there is belonging, collaboration, and continuous growth.
The vision we aspire to is: Honouring diversity. Inspiring curiosity and creativity. Transforming lives.
We have been very purposeful with every element within the vision. We are striving to further enhance our inclusive and culturally responsive practice. We must privilege and actively nurture curiosity and creativity, because both curiosity and creativity are the foundations of critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, innovation and cohesion, and these skills are the ones required to meet current and future global challenges. We want our students and graduates to be skilled to address them with confidence, and to do so with a sense of meaning and fulfillment. We also know that attending Mac.Rob is transformative; when you find yourself with like-minded peers, being celebrated for who you are, where confidence and independence flourish.
Co-Curricular Programs
The way our students have returned to school and re-built and reinvigorated the vibrant co-curricular life at Mac.Rob has been exceptional. Be that in House competitions, the music and performing arts programs and events, the sporting program, our themed weeks of celebration, leadership portfolios, interest-based groups, local, regional, state and national competitions. All of this has been truly inspirational.
In large part our Year 12s deserve credit for rebuilding the vibrant life and opportunities at our school. In a school such as ours, with only four Year levels, there was a chance that we would lose some of the vibrancy that makes Mac.Rob so special. But our Year 12s, well supported by exemplary staff engagement, ensured that we have returned stronger than ever after the pandemic lockdowns.
Wellbeing & Connect Program
This level of connection, balance and engagement in our community enhances wellbeing, but so too does our intentional focus on building and maintaining a strong sense of wellbeing. This has been strengthened in 2022 with the introduction of the Connect Program in Connect Class groups (and plans to expand it in 2023), the Learning Mentor Program, improved provision of counselling services, and through partnering with parents at information sessions and forums.
You can read more about our wellbeing programs from Term 4 here.
Lakeside Building Project
The Building Project in Lakeside has progressed at pace and is almost at completion. We have much to look forward to: Returning to school next year and commencing in the expanded, outstanding, modern, light-filled, purpose-built teaching and learning spaces, including a new library, classrooms, break out spaces, theatre, and Year 12 common room. We will need to be a little more patient with the landscaping works, which will continue into 2023 for a month or two. The landscaping includes outdoor learning and recreation spaces, and will be stunning. I can assure you it’ll be well worth the wait!
These renovations must only be the first step in modernising our facilities, raising the standard to a level that meets our vision, and the learning & teaching demonstrated by our students and teachers. In 2023, I will call on our community to advocate to the government for further funding to continue the modernisation of our school facilities. Friends and family of Mac.Rob can also choose to support our school through the Building and Library Funds at any time.
Congratulations & Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to, and admiration for, all of our amazing students. They have shown incredible tenacity, drive, commitment and connection throughout the year. They inspire us on a daily basis.
Secondly, I pay tribute to the dedicated and committed school staff who have led you throughout the year. They too have been creative, enthusiastic, understanding and adaptable in their efforts to ensure our students were cared for and connected, and that we maximised their personal and academic growth.
I thank and congratulate all student leaders – formal and informal, for your enormous contribution to the success of 2022. I have had the pleasure of working most closely with dedicated, energetic and insightful captains and SRC Co-presidents, Ananya and Aditi, and Jess and Gaatri, and also with many other student leaders, seeking and providing feedback on a range of school matters. The strong tradition of student voice and agency, which is a treasured aspect of the Mac.Rob culture, has been on display all throughout the year.
I would also like to thank our parents and carers for the significant role they have played in school life. The partnership we have had in the service of their children’s learning is something we appreciate wholeheartedly.
We are blessed to have a hardworking and dedicated School Council to lead our school community, and I thank each of them for their commitment, support and determination. (You can read an update from School Council here.) Likewise, the Palladians and Parents Association have provided significant support in a multitude of ways – we appreciate their ongoing commitment and contribution to the school.
I would also like to recognise the great work of the Mac.Rob Foundation. The Mac.Rob Foundation is a philanthropic foundation, focused on delivering the best possible education outcomes for young women in Victoria. The generous donations received by the Foundation support the full participation and enrichment of students’ lives through Bursaries and Scholarships. As a board member, I am proud to say that the bursaries and scholarships have changed the lives of 11 individual students in 2022.
The equation is very simple – the more money the Foundation receives through donations and bequests, the more Mac.Robbians can be supported both at school and when they leave. If you feel that you’re in a position to improve the lives of young people in our community, please make your way to the Foundation website and find out how to donate. You, too, may help to transform lives.
2022 has been a year of reconnection, of care and compassion, and incredible growth. I invite all members of our school community to reflect on and celebrate the contribution you have made to our school, and to be proud of our collective efforts and outcomes. Once again, our students demonstrate our school motto – ‘mastery of self’ in every way, and the school, and our extended community, are transforming lives.
I am proud and privileged to lead such an incredible school community.
Thank you, Mac.Rob!
Ms. Sue Harrap, Principal