Principal’s Introduction
Having joined the College in January 2023, it gives me great pleasure to present this 2023 MLC Community Report, outlining the College’s achievements and operations for the 2023 school year, my first as Principal at MLC.
The report is a summary of the way that the College continues to operate as a community focused on providing excellence in girls’ education and ensuring we continue to inspire our students to be citizens the world needs. The breadth of the learning and wellbeing experiences and environments in an MLC education truly ensures that our student’s individual interests and talents are supported and nurtured, and ultimately, they achieve their best.
If 2022 was about returning to school and school routines post-COVID, a priority for the 2023 school year was to ensure every student had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the full ‘MLC experience’. We did this by focusing on opportunities for students to reconnect with their teachers, year level, house, teams, ensembles, and other co-curricular activities. We also returned to some of the Australian locations for our Global Learning Program trips and re-started our student exchange program, welcoming exchange students from our sister schools in the UK and France in the second half of the school year.
Behind each student is a community that includes parents and family, staff, a vast network of alumnae, past families, friends
of the College, volunteers, our Board of Directors, and Stakeholder Members who continue to champion girls’ education and the positive impact that a school as innovative and well-resourced as MLC has on its students’ lives well beyond their graduation. The College’s success is largely thanks to the continued support of our College community, and I extend my thanks to you all.
Over the past five years, we have been working towards our 2018-2023 Strategic Plan, and a key theme that has driven our work has been integrating Wellbeing and Learning so that this is focused on and fostered jointly at every student touch point.
The delays caused by response to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 meant we have needed to extend our current Strategic Plan to the end of 2024. This ensured we could complete key activities such as embedding the evolved Curriculum for Learning and Wellbeing for Years 7-12 and reviewing our Junior School’s curriculum. In 2023, as MLC celebrated 141 years of educational excellence, our curriculum leaders continued laying the groundwork for introducing the evolved Curriculum for Learning and Wellbeing in 2024 for Years 7-12.
We were also able to move forward with the redevelopment of some of our facilities that had been delayed. This included the renovation of the Nevile Building, which saw the creation of the Year 10 Learning Hub, the opening of the Medical Centre, now located adjacent to Tiddeman Boarding House, and the refurbishment of classrooms and the Library in the Years 3-6 Junior School building, which was completed over the summer break.
The successes of the 2023 school year reflect the commitment, enthusiasm, and resilience of our entire community. It has been a privilege to assume the role of Principal in a College focused on such an inspiring vision and to work with a community so committed to enacting the mission through the breadth of learning and wellbeing experiences that support the growth and development of all our students.
Julia Shea Principal
Our Vision, Mission and Values
Vision
An MLC education inspires our students to be citizens the world needs.
Mission
MLC, as a leading girls’ school, develops and nurtures a community of independent, resilient, ambitious learners, by providing an unmatched breadth of integrated learning and wellbeing experiences and environments.
Values
The MLC values articulate what we stand for and aspire to, guiding the culture we foster and the behaviours we expect of everyone in our community:
Engage with Respect Aspire with Responsibility
Act with Compassion
Explore with Courage
Principal Julia Shea engages with students at the 2023 Founders Day celebration.
Strategic Plan 2018 — 2024
We continue to deliver to MLC’s Strategic Plan - our roadmap to developing and adapting the College in an evolving world.
The Plan features six Strategic Pillars, fundamental to MLC’s commitment to successfully educating and preparing students to navigate their journeys independently and confidently beyond Year 12 and supporting them to make a valuable contribution to their local and global communities.
Our Strategic Plan positions MLC at the forefront of ongoing innovation and achievement in education.
Student Learning and Achievement
MLC provides a broad and challenging academic curriculum that fosters a passion for learning and focuses on excellence, whilst developing independent, creative and adaptable thinkers.
Student Wellbeing
The College offers age-appropriate, sequential and integrated programs within a responsive student wellbeing framework to develop resilient young women who are confident to make positive choices in life.
Excellence in Staff
MLC is committed to recruiting highcalibre staff and to providing valuable and relevant Staff Learning programs. We recognise that quality educational outcomes are driven by excellence in teaching and learning provided by the highest quality, motivated teaching and educational support staff.
Innovation and Resources
MLC will continue to lead and innovate in developing resources, sites, programs and facilities that support our students in a vibrant learning environment.
MLC Community
The diverse and extensive MLC community provides a rich source of opportunity, personal growth and a sense of belonging for all members.
Secure Future
MLC is committed to a secure and sustainable future that supports investment in facilities and resources which deliver a world-class education for MLC students.
Our Community
MLC is an open-entry, nonselective school that welcomes students of all cultural, religious and economic backgrounds.
Our community includes current students, parents and staff, our network of alumnae and past families, friends of the College, volunteers, our Board Directors and Stakeholder Members.
The Board of Directors is comprised of members of our community who volunteer their time and expertise to support MLC. They have an ethical and financial obligation to act in the best interests of the College and its students.
Our Stakeholder Members are comprised of a combination of parents, alumnae, and additional member positions in accordance with the College constitution. They maintain an interest in the operations and governance of the College
2,201
Total students
112
2,089
75
1,813 951
32,827
and casual
Our Students
Attendance
There are times when students may be absent due to a variety of reasons, such as illness, injury, religious observance, and family commitments, including liaison with parents. The College follows up on and records reasons for student absences and manages these electronically on a continual basis via each school section office. The schools support absent students and their families through regular contact from the Home Group or Class Teacher and/or Tutors as relevant for different year levels.
Table 1: Average 2023 Attendance by Year Level
Wellbeing
The Resilience Survey has been taken anonymously by MLC students in Years 5-12 over the past eight years. In 2023, it was predominantly administered onsite at Kew campus in Term 2, allowing a snapshot in time and cross-sectional analysis, together with longitudinal and time-lag analysis. MLC uses the Australian norm data to benchmark MLC data against students from over 800 schools across Australia.
In 2023, the data continued to show the longer term cumulative impact of the restrictions experienced by students during the years of the pandemic, which has led to an Australia-wide increase in mental health concerns among children and young people. However, as in 2022, the 2023 data indicated some areas of improvements as we continued to focus on inclusion, connection and belonging.
Learning engagement was strong across the board, with students caring about school. Students reported enjoying learning new things, that they had fun, and were prepared to try hard at school. They also reported that their teachers cared about them. MLC results reflected students’ feelings of safety at school and that bullying rates at school and online were consistently lower than the Australian norm.
Students consistently reported that ‘I am doing pretty well’, and that they felt they had positive relationships at home, with teachers and with their peers.
Encouragingly, results across the board saw MLC students report positive relationships that supported their feelings of connection between themselves and with others in their community. Students reported that their teachers cared about and encouraged them. Importantly, students also reported that they felt they had at least one good friend at school and that they had social skills that enabled them to keep friends, get along with people who were different from them, and they could disagree about things and still be friends.
MLC also continued to support student wellbeing through resourcing and time allocation for the College’s Wellbeing and Student Counselling teams, providing access to individualised wellbeing support.
Action plans in response to these themes and school-specific data were developed to ensure that our Wellbeing Programs addressed the identified issues. Implementation commenced in Term 4, 2023 and continued into 2024. Areas for
ongoing focus in 2024 will include continuing to support students in developing feelings of personal wellbeing and resilience, building their feelings of connectedness with their peers and the College, and creating opportunities for students to further develop a sense of agency and efficacy.
2024 targeted wellbeing initiatives are being planned in the areas of:
– Developing structure to support the development of Mentor Group relationships
– Drug, alcohol and other risk-taking behaviour education
– Diversity: inclusivity and gender and sexuality equity
– Respectful relationships and consent
– Mental health literacy by promoting both self-support techniques and help-seeking behaviours
– Implementation of the Health Curriculum as a stand-alone subject across Years 7-10
In 2024, the College is prepared to launch the evolved Curriculum for Learning and Wellbeing, which includes the development of a dedicated Health curriculum in Years 7-10 and the introduction of fortnightly individual learning and wellbeing check-ins for each student with a dedicated mentor in secondary years (Years 7-12).
Jessica (Year 7) and Jessica (Year 11) participate in the Big Sister program.
Student Outcomes
Literacy and Numeracy Average Student Results
MLC students continue to perform well against national averages. Table 2 below shows the year-level averages for MLC students and National scores based on 2023 NAPLAN results.
Year 12 Results
Our Year 12 results in 2023 once again saw MLC students achieve some of the highest ATAR scores in the state.
Our combined VCE, VCE VET, and IB Diploma results continue the College’s longstanding tradition of academic excellence.
VCE and VCE VET Highlights
Across our VCE students, 11 perfect study scores were achieved in eight subjects, including Biology (1), Chemistry (2), English (2), French (1), General Mathematics (2), Product Design and Technology (1), Psychology 91) and Visual Communication Design (1).
Five members of the Class of 2023 were awarded Premier’s VCE Study Awards in Chemistry, French, General Mathematics, Hospitality Kitchen Operations (VCE VET), and Visual Communication Design.
IB Diploma Highlights
Five-Year Trend in Year 9 Average Standardised Assessment Results
The average standardised assessment results for Year 9 are based on NAPLAN results for 2023 and include international students for whom English is an additional language. The results indicate that the median average achievement of MLC students is above state-wide median achievements in all areas assessed by NAPLAN. Derived from the five-year trend data report, Table 3 below indicates improvement in all areas assessed.
Note: data derived from Five Year Trend data report 2018-2023 (NAPLAN was not conducted in 2020)
Among our IB Diploma candidates, 2 students achieved a perfect score of 45, and another 2 students achieved 44. A full 50% of MLC’s IB Diploma cohort achieved a diploma score of 40 or above. The median ATAR for the IB Diploma cohort was an excellent 97.30, with 15% scoring an ATAR of 99 or above.
Five-Year Rolling Average in Year 12 Results
Table 4: MLC Results Compared with National Average * includes IB Diploma student results
University Offers
In a reflection of the breadth of opportunity offered by MLC and an all-girls education, the Class of 2023 received offers to take up further study in a wide range of institutions in Australia and overseas. The diversity of study areas in the courses offered to our graduates reflect the breadth of pathways available at the College, and included areas such as the arts, business, commerce, engineering, health, medicine, and sciences. 79% of our Year 12 cohort received an offer for their first or second preference for university courses.
As in previous years, a number of students were offered places in universities in the UK (Cardiff University, King’s College London, University College London, The University of Bath, University of Edinburgh, University of Kent, University of Glasgow, and University of Sheffield) and the US (Oregon State University and the University of Arizona).
Table 5: 2023 % Cohort Round 1 and 2 Tertiary Course Offers by Study Area
Table 6: 2023 % Cohort University Offers by Institution
Parent and Staff Satisfaction
Throughout this year, MLC surveyed staff, students, and parents to understand our College community better and identify strengths and areas of opportunity. This understanding is crucial for our College’s continued growth and development and enables us to make data-informed decisions and implement meaningful improvements.
Parents
In 2023, MLC continued to use the LEAD Parents’ Survey from Independent Schools Victoria (ISV). However, a lower response rate in 2023 meant that the confidence level was lower, and hence, the data requires a more pronounced percentage difference to the mean to understand where MLC is either excelling or requiring focus when compared to the ISV Mean.
Overall, MLC parent satisfaction is on par or above the mean of the participating schools across most domains. With the introduction of the evolved Curriculum for Learning and Wellbeing in secondary years in 2024, we hope this will address some of the areas identified, such as teachers betterknowing students and how we inform parents about their daughter’s academic progress and the learning programs being undertaken.
Staff
In 2023, staff participated again in the Independent Schools Victoria (ISV) Staff Satisfaction Survey, enabling the College to benchmark against other independent schools.
Our staff continue to share a real sense of pride in the College and are happy to recommend the school to others as an employer. Staff are dedicated to improving student learning outcomes and believe the school provides an excellent environment in which to learn. MLC excelled in all school domains, exceeding Victorian Independent School mean ratings for teaching staff in all but one domain. In terms of workplace domains, staff results sit well above the ISV mean for Professional Development and Peer Support. We will continue to address feedback and appraisal mechanisms and examine ways to improve communication between stakeholder groups.
Table 7: 2023 ISV Parent Satisfaction Survey Key Results
Table 8: 2023 ISV Staff Satisfaction Survey Key Results
Our Staff
Excellence in staff is a core priority for MLC. We recognise that quality educational outcomes are driven by excellence in teaching, learning, and wellbeing, which is provided by the highest-quality, motivated teaching and educational support staff.
In 2023, MLC continued to work hard to support staff. Our teaching staff continued to adapt their approaches and innovate throughout the year. Curriculum leaders continued to prepare for the 2024 launch of the evolved Curriculum for Learning and Wellbeing, which will ensure that MLC continues to provide students with a deep sense of connection and belonging to MLC.
Number of Staff –Full-Time Equivalent
Table 9: 2023 Staffing
Table 10: 2023 Staff Gender
Art and Design teacher Mr Lugg and a student solving a technical challenge during a Year 8 woodworking class.
College Operations
This report covers the period of the 2023 College operational year, from 1 January to 31 December 2023.
The ongoing impact of continued inflation on key operational expenses, the necessary wage growth for staff, and the collection of a number of State Government levies factored into increases in operating expenses. As a result, the College applied an average rise of 8% in Tuition Fees in the 2024 school year.
MLC updated key Policy and Terms and Conditions documents during this school year, including the Fee Schedule and the MLC Terms and Conditions of Enrolment. Key changes included the addition of the collection of partial Tuition Fees in Advance for new students enrolling in the College one year in advance and a reduction in the number of times an application for enrolment can be deferred.
Revenue
College Expenditure Allocation
Every $100 in expenditure is allocated by the College to the