Student Wellbeing

Mr Sean Albion | Assistant Principal: Wellbeing Senior

I am so proud of the resilience shown and accomplishments made by the staff and students during 2020. This year is not one that I hope to endure ever again, but there was still so much to celebrate and to be thankful for.

This year there was a new challenge put in front of us on a weekly basis and in some instances even daily, while navigating the online learning throughout Term 2. The way staff and students embraced these challenges and overcame them, while still maintaining connections was inspiring. It was great to witness the daily Teams meetings and the innovative PC, house and class activities that were implemented to maintain connections and belonging within the College.

Some of the many developments and growth areas that have had an impact on student wellbeing within the senior school were the implementation of Mary Mac awards for students who consistently display positive learning behaviours, senior staff increasing their understanding of vulnerable learners to ensure they can best support them within their classroom, further development on the collection of wellbeing data for every student in the College, the writing of a whole College pastoral plan that brings a P-12 focus on developing character strengths and qualities through a PERMA lens, further growth of our wellbeing week, planning and preparation for Friday sport in 2021 and staff action groups to develop improved student engagement opportunities and pastoral care mentoring. These priorities along with others have ensured we have kept the students at the centre of our focus throughout the year. College middle leadership positions that will take effect at the beginning of next year. This change means that the current middle leader wellbeing positions will no longer continue. I would like to thank Stephen Coren and Kate Carroll for the contribution they have made to the wellbeing area over the past two years and Stephen in particular for his contribution to the development of the College as a middle leader for many years before that. Another part of this restructure means that there will now be two positions focussed on student engagement, which I look forward to working closely with these staff members to provide new opportunities for our students to contribute to the College community and be the best version of themselves.

In closing, I would like to offer my thanks to the amazing students and families that we have here at MMCC, you are the reason I love my job and look forward to the different interactions I will be a part of everyday. I also want to express my gratitude to Dr Jasmin Slack-Smith and Khara Saunders our College counsellors, who I work very closely with on a daily basis to provide many levels of support to our students.

2020 was in so many ways, a year we would like to forget, however, the skills and resilience we have developed this year, will support us all to be even better members of our community in 2021 and beyond.

See you all in 2021 to do it all over again!