Student Wellbeing

Goals & Intended Outcomes

"The Catholic School is committed to the development of the whole person since in Christ, the Perfect human, all human values find their fulfillment and unity". (The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education)

This implies the following objectives:

That Mazenod seeks to develop the individual character and personality of each student, his sense of dignity and self-worth by promoting in each student:

• Self-reliance and self-discipline • Personal initiative and capacity for leadership • Reliability, honesty and integrity

That Mazenod seeks to promote in each of its students:

• Tolerance and respect for others and others' opinions, beliefs and cultures and especially those of their fellow students who come from diverse cultural backgrounds. • Sensitivity to other peoples' needs and respect for their rights and property. • Responsiveness to the call from every part of the world for a more just society. • An appreciation in students of their total environment, physical, cultural and spiritual with its accompanying responsibility to safeguard and promote it

Mazenod will cultivate the development of our young students into confident young adults with a sense of compassion, initiative and well-being. The college will also continue to promote and strengthen student leadership from Year 7-12. The college will maintain its progress to resource and develop programs that help identify and extend our gifted students, as well as developing the Special Needs Program and ESL.

Achievements

In 2020 Mazenod introduced visible wellbeing as a whole school approach. This commenced with a partnership with Professor Lea Waters starting with staff training and the introduction of the SEARCH Framework.The visible wellbeing approach complements our existing student wellbeing programs which are delivered at Mazenod in a variety of formats including extended homerooms, seminars, personal and social learning timetabled classes, retreats, camps and dedicated personal development days. All wellbeing programs are designed to address age and stage wellbeing issues.

Visible wellbeing will be our approach to creating resilient, happy and successful young men. The goal of a Visible Wellbeing approach is to make wellbeing visible so that we can proactively intervene and make changes in our students' lives and our own. We do this through acknowledging the negative, but specifically working to amplify the positives and increase overall wellbeing with students and staff consciously thinking about what they SEE, HEAR and FEEL in all situations.

Visible wellbeing is how we will support every student at Mazenod to strive to reach their potential by being intentionally aware of his own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.

A major achievement of note in 2020 was our purposeful and structured approach to remote learning that saw all teachers meet their students via Google Meet in all lessons and homerooms. We maintained as much as possible a consistent routine and a positive connection with our students to support their wellbeing during lockdown periods.

Each Year Level is under the care of a Coordinator and each class has a Homeroom Teacher whose role is primarily pastoral. In addition to our Priests and a supportive group of teachers, the College has the benefit of two full-time Counsellors and a Careers/Pathways Coordinator.

Mazenod has established a Peer Support and Pastoral Care Program which promotes a caring, supportive and friendly environment across the year levels. The program allows senior students to further develop their leadership skills and was also introduced to extend the pastoral care network within the College Community.

VALUE ADDED

Value Added: Student Wellbeing - What we did

• A very well developed instrumental music program, with hundreds of students receiving weekly individual music lessons on orchestral instruments and participating in a full range of orchestras, bands and ensembles. Lessons continued in remote learning. • Every student in the school participates in 100 minutes of organised sport each week • Participation in every ACC Inter-School Sport that was conducted -many others were cancelled for 2020.

• The vast majority of students represented the college in at least one ACC event (Association of Catholic Colleges) • Many students participated in our comprehensive Volleyball program, training and playing weekly, dominating the ACC competitions • 60 students participated in the Chess club, receiving weekly tuition and recording record breaking wins in the ACC. Our Open Chess Team won Gold in the State Championships and Silver in the Nationals. Our Middle Years team won Bronze in both the State and the

National Championships • Outstanding Debating success at ACC level, and at the Debating Association of Victoria's (DAV) state finals. • The Performing Arts Department held an online Performing Arts Festival in the evening featuring music, dance and film items from all levels • The Music Department held its annual Music Gala evening online, with many students participating • Years 10, 11 and 12 also participate in Mazenod's Social Justice program which includes;

Rosies street mission and RE days, retreats and Community Service. • Student driven initiatives to highlight inclusivity and mental health such as RUOK? Day and

World's Greatest Shave

• Peer support Year 11 with Year 7

Value Added: Student Wellbeing - What we usually do

• Our highly successful annual Musical production, held at the Besen Theatre, was cancelled for 2020.

• Our highly successful Volleyball program participation at State and National level was cancelled.

• Our Senior Badminton Team is usually very successful in the ACC Badminton

Championship. This Sport is one of the fastest in the world and the team can be very proud of their achievement

• A group of music students usually travel to Mt Gambier for the Generations in Jazz Music

Festival with students from across the region • The Stage Band, the Founders' Ensemble and other groups usually represent the college at the Victorian Schools Music Festival, receiving awards • Our musicians usually compete in the annual Boroondara Eisteddfod • Groups of students usually travel biennially to Japan, Italy and China for two-week cultural exchanges • A group of 19 Year 10 and 11 students usually participate biennially in a two-week cultural tour to central Australia.

• A group of Yr 10-12 students usually participate biennially in a two-week program involving personal development, STEM and group simulations to NASA • Many usual social justice activities were cancelled, including Red Cross door knock, St

Vincent de Paul Winter Sleepout and the Special Olympics. • Our Public Speakers usually competed with success at the VCAA's Plain English Speaking competition and the annual Lions Club Youth of the Year competition.

ACC Results 2020

Mazenod excelled in 2020 in the areas of Volleyball, Golf, Chess, Debating and Public Speaking. Many sports we usually participate in were cancelled for the year.

Swimming (Div 1): overall placing was 4th, Senior 2nd, Intermediate 2nd and Junior 5th Chess: Senior 1st, Intermediate 1st and Junior 1st Debating: Intermediate 1st and Junior 2nd Public Speaking: Intermediate 1st and Junior 2nd Golf (Div 1): overall placing was 1st

STUDENT SATISFACTION

Students have a positive experience of college life at Mazenod, and this is reflected in a number of ways:

• A very high attendance rate of some 96.2% across all levels • The participation of students in Sport, Music and Community Service, along with our sound academic results, is a testament to the diverse and flourishing culture of our college. • Very high student attendance at major college events such as the Inaugural Mass and in normal years the annual Speech Night at Robert Blackwood hall. Speech Night was cancelled in 2020.

• Very high attendance and participation at House Athletics and House Swimming Carnivals • The high number of students that volunteer to help the college, for example, Mazenod

College holds an open day and several tours each year and many parents within the community are guided around the school by our current students, who are obviously extremely proud to show off their College

In 2020 the College commissioned MMG Education to survey students and seek feedback on our home-based learning. MMG in collaboration with AHISA surveyed schools across the country. 406 students responded. Scores provided reflect the perceptions of our students. Top performing schools achieve 80% and higher and this is rated as a 'very high' result.

Overall, Mazenod students rated at 80%.

• In specific areas they rated as follows: • Resources 86%

• Communication 81%

• Home-Based Learning 80% • Teaching and Learning 76% • Student Wellbeing 75%

As an example, in response to the statement: I have adjusted well to home-based learning" 82% responded in the affirmative.

STUDENT ATTENDANCE

Student's attendance is recorded every morning during Homeroom, and during every period of the day. We record students in Homeroom or whenever they arrive to school after this. Parents are required to ring the school if their child is absent. All school related and long term absences are noted. We then send a system generated SMS message to all parents whose students have been marked absent with no reason given. In 2015 we upgraded our attendance recording methods to capture data for every period electronically, not just Homeroom or the last period. During COVID remote learning we maintained our normal timetable and continued to record attendance at daily homeroom and in all timetabled classes.

YEARS 9 – 12 STUDENT RETENTION RATE

Years 9 to 12 Student Retention Rate

AVERAGE STUDENT ATTENDANCE RATE BY YEAR LEVEL

Y07

Y08

Y09

Y10

Overall average attendance

SENIOR SECONDARY OUTCOMES

VCE Median Score

VCE Completion Rate

VCAL Completion Rate 89.5%

96.9%

96.0%

95.7%

96.2%

96.2%

32.0

100.0%

88.0%

POST-SCHOOL DESTINATIONS AS AT 2020

Tertiary Study

TAFE / VET

Apprenticeship / Traineeship

Deferred

Employment

Other – The category of Other includes both students Looking for Work and those classed as Other 75.0%

8.0%

5.0%

2.0%

5.0%

0.0%