2022 MLC Community Report

MLC Community Report

2022

Principal’s Introduction

MLC continues to lead and develop the next generation of empowered and resilient global citizens.

I am pleased to present the 2022 MLC Community Report, which outlines the achievements and operations of the College in the 2022 school year.

In 2022, the College celebrated 140 years of educational excellence. Reflecting MLC’s extraordinary heritage in empowering women through education, this milestone was marked by the entire community in a series of events at the start of the year. In her Founders Day address my predecessor, Principal Diana Vernon, encouraged all students and staff to imagine what the next 140 years might bring, and to consider what role they might play in the MLC story, both individually and collectively. This report is one such chapter of collective achievement.

Having joined the College in January 2023, it has given me immense pleasure to read this report. It is a testament to the way that the College took the best of the lessons learnt during the covid lockdowns and restrictions into successfully delivering a full year’s program of learning and activity, adjusted to operating in the ‘new normal’ environment.

The College’s ability to respond flexibly and with resilience reflects our vision to inspire our students to be citizens the world needs, whatever the circumstances they find themselves in.

When I visited the College in Term 4, I was struck by the air of purposeful confidence that was evident across Kew campus. In the time I spent with members of staff, as well as with students and parents from across the College, I could see evidence of our values in action.

Education is about people. More specifically, education is about relationships, and it is clear that the strengthening of relationships to guide student learning and wellbeing outcomes guided MLC’s areas of focus in 2022. While our students continued to perform at levels well above the national standard, in returning to face-to-face learning, getting students involved in the full College experience, and reconnected with their teachers, classes, year group, house, teams, and ensembles was a key priority. The launch of targeted wellbeing initiatives, including mental health literacy and health and fitness programs during the year were two examples.

The successes of the 2022 school year reflect the commitment, enthusiasm, and resilience of our entire community. 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’ only education and the positive impact that MLC has on its students’ lives well beyond their graduation.

It is a privilege to now be leading a College focused on such an inspiring vision, and a community so committed to enacting the mission through a dynamic and forwardthinking learning program which continues to evolve to meet the needs of our students to ensure their success in the future.

Julia Shea, Principal

Our Vision, Mission and Values

An MLC education inspires our students to be citizens the world needs.

MLC students are empowered to be confident and engaged global citizens who possess the skills, knowledge and attitude to thrive in an ever-changing, globalised world.

Our unmatched breadth of learning, wellbeing experiences and environments aim to inspire students to find and nurture their individual interests and talents, forge their own path, and achieve their best.

Our commitment to providing excellence and innovation in education, combined with our size, scale and resources, offers enriched learning and wellbeing opportunities.

Engage

with

MLC’s new Principal Julia Shea met with incoming Year 7 students at the end of 2022 to share in the excitement of new beginnings.

Strategic Plan 2018 — 2023

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.

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.

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.

MLC Community

The diverse and extensive MLC community provides a rich source of opportunity, personal growth and a sense of belonging for all members.

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.

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.

2,130

Total number of MLC students

Our community includes current parents, students and staff, our network of alumnae and past families, friends of the College, volunteers, Board of 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 and maintain an interest in the operations and governance of the College.

118

MLC Kindle students

2,012

Prep -Year 12 students

59

1,804 858

Boarders

32,500+

Alumnae

Families Staff including full-time, part-time 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 office. The schools provide support to absent students and their family through regular contact from Home Group Teachers and/or Tutors as relevant for different year groups.

As we returned to our campuses in 2022 and implemented COVID-19 safe management practices, we saw the reported attendance levels across the year-levels adjust and realign with pre-pandemic levels. There are a number of reasons for this, including the implementation of COVID-19 health and community safety measures across the College, which saw mandated absence periods implemented for community members and close contacts of community members who tested positive.

Table: Average 2022 attendance by year level

Wellbeing

The Resilience Survey has been undertaken anonymously by MLC students in Years 5-12 over the past seven years. In 2022 it was predominantly administered onsite in early to mid-May, allowing for ‘snapshot in time’ and cross-sectional analysis, together with longitudinal and time-lag analysis. MLC also uses the Australian norm data to benchmark MLC data against students from over 800 schools across Australia.

What is clear is that the cumulative impact of repeated lockdowns and restrictions during the years of the pandemic has led to an Australia-wide increase in mental health concerns among children and young people. However, promisingly, 2022 data indicated some improvements as we moved back into onsite learning and were able to focus on establishing and deepening connection and belonging.

Learning engagement was strong across the board with students caring about school. Students appreciated being back onsite, learning face-to-face. MLC results also reflected students’ feelings of positive connection with their support networks, reporting feeling safe at school and at home. Analysis showed that reporting on bullying rates was consistently lower than the Australian norm.

Students consistently reported that ‘I am doing pretty well’, and the College continued to work on providing students with structures that support their wellbeing, through both re-establishing school routines and introducing activities designed to help them to re-establish a healthy routine in the post-pandemic return to school. An example is the successful launch of the Health and Fitness Program, providing secondary years students access to a range of regular options such as Pilates and yoga in addition to fitness classes.

MLC also continued to support student wellbeing through resourcing and time allocation for the College’s Wellbeing and Student Counselling teams, in response to student requests for individualised wellbeing support following the impact of COVID.

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 2022 and continued into 2023. Areas for ongoing focus in 2023 will include continuing to support students to develop feelings of personal wellbeing and resilience, building their feelings of connectedness with the College and their peers and providing increased transition support from year-to-year including future career options.

2023 targeted wellbeing initiatives are being planned in the areas of:

– Body image

– Drug education and risk taking

– Diversity: inclusivity and gender and sexuality equity

– Respectful relationships and consent

– Mental health literacy and promoting help seeking

– Expansion of the Health and Fitness program

In addition, all learnings will be incorporated into the development of the evolved Curriculum for Learning and Wellbeing for Years 7-12, which will be introduced in 2024. For example, a review of the content of the Wellbeing Program to take place alongside the development of the Health curriculum in Years 7-10 and trialling individual student learning and wellbeing check-ins.

Catherine, Georgie and Alannah spend their break time together in the newly developed Star Gardens.

Student Outcomes

Literacy and Numeracy Average Student Results

MLC students continue to perform well against national averages. The table below shows the year level averages for MLC student and National scores, based on 2022 NAPLAN results.

Year 12 Results

Our Year 12 results in 2022 were once again outstanding, including some of the highest ATAR scores in the state.

Across our VCE students, 16 perfect study scores were achieved in 10 subjects – including Biology, Business Management (3), English (3), Food Studies, French, Legal Studies (2), Further Mathematics (2), Mathematical Methods, Specialist Mathematics, Psychology.

Among our IB Diploma candidates, three students (10% of the IB cohort) achieved perfect scores of 45, and a further three students achieved 44, equivalent to an ATAR of 99.75. The median ATAR for the IB Diploma cohort was an outstanding 96.45.

Year 9 Average Standardised Assessment Results

The average standardised assessment results for Year 9 are based on NAPLAN results from 2022 and include international students for whom English is a second language. The results indicate that the median achievement of MLC students is above state-wide median achievements in all areas assessed by the NAPLAN. Derived from the five-year trend data report, the table indicates an improvement in all areas assessed.

ATAR

47%

ATAR 90+ 16 VCE perfect study scores across 10 subjects 69% of IB subjects scores achieved either 6 or 7 (7 being the highest mark possible)

Note: data derived from five year trend data 2017-2022 (NAPLAN was not conducted in 2020)

University Offers

Reinforcing the strength of our students academic achievements and the diversity of their interests and talents, 95.1% of the 2022 cohort received their first or second preferences for university across a wide range of studies such as arts, business, commerce, health, medicine, science and creative arts. This included offers at overseas universities such as the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College, King’s College, UCL, Cambridge, Durham University, MIT and Saint Aslem. Six students were offered a place in the University of Melbourne Chancellor’s Scholars Program.

Table: 2022 Year 12 Results compared with National averages

*Includes IB Diploma student results

Table: Round 1 and 2 Tertiary Course Offers 2022

Parent and Staff Satisfaction

Throughout this year, MLC surveyed staff and parents to better understand our College community and identify strengths and areas of opportunity. This understanding is crucial for the continued growth and development of MLC, providing insights to guide the College in making data-informed decisions and implementing meaningful improvements.

Parents

In 2022, MLC continued to use the LEAD Parents’ Survey from Independent Schools Victoria (ISV). MLC continues to do well in all domains, across parents throughout P-12. Most pleasingly, statistically, satisfaction had been maintained across the majority of domains, and our Junior School satisfaction has increased significantly over the last three years sitting well above the ISV Junior School mean.

From 2023, a key area of opportunity the College has identified is to work to inform and support parents, and to create opportunities for parents to feel connected to the College and to visit the campus.

Staff

For the third year, staff participated 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 in all but one domain. As noted in the Parent Survey report, the College has identified parent engagement as a key opportunity for 2023 and beyond.

In terms of workplace domains, staff results sit well above the ISV mean. Priorities for 2023 and future years will include addressing internal feedback and appraisal mechanisms, and examining ways to improve communication between stakeholder groups.

2022 ISV Parent Satisfaction Survey Key Results

2022 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 provided by the highest quality, motivated teaching and educational support staff.

As in 2021, we have worked hard to support our staff across 2022. Our teaching staff continued to adapt their approaches and innovate as we have returned to face-to-face and mixed-mode learning. MLC’s methodology has enabled our staff to build a deep sense of connection with our students through their timetabled classes and our students responded positively to their return to the classroom, equipped with greater agency in their learning, and independence, which will continue to prove useful now and in the future.

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English Teacher and Year 8 Student Co-ordinator, Ms Toniolo connects with students during a wellbeing session.

College Operations

2022 saw the implementation of ‘covid normal’ operations. MLC was able to embed the systems and tools used through the preceding two years of uncertainty and operationalise learnings gained from pivoting between in-person to online teaching and learning.

After providing a fee rebate and freezing fees in the previous years, it was deemed necessary to moderately increase tuition fees in 2022.

MLC also updated key policy and Terms and Conditions documents, including ensuring the Enrolment Agreement was publicly available and covered the following key sections: codes of conduct for students and parents; fees; educational services provided; and the grounds on which the Agreement may be terminated.

Revenue

Expenditure Allocation

Every $100 in expenditure is allocated by the College to the following areas:

Expenditure