Principal’s Report

I feel particularly grateful and glad that despite the significant operational changes at MAC, from closing the Debney Meadows Senior Campus and moving into the new building, the year has finally felt “more normal” after three pandemic-interrupted years. We have seen the return of many school events and activities including the Spring Arts Festival which was last held in 2019.

I would like to congratulate the student leaders who have once again led a plethora of school wide and house events, culminating in Culture Week, a celebration of the wonderful cultural diversity of our MAC family. It was a timely reminder; that we must always strive to understand and accept the rich diversity in our school. At MAC, our diversity is the thing that unites us and makes us indeed a special school community. The sense of camaraderie and embraced diversity, and the shared sense of humanity – of being kind to each other here at our school – continues to inspire me every day.

As we approach the pointy end of the year, it sometimes feels like schools couldn’t be any busier. It is also such a special time in schools with many wonderful experiences that happen as the year draws to a close. I would like to congratulate all the award recipients at last week’s Awards Night, the students whose talents were showcased either through musical performances, media presentations and the Trash Ball Runway presentation, to the student leaders who hosted the night.

At MAC, we have again excelled this year in fostering a positive and inclusive learning environment. The various extracurricular activities, from sport, the arts, music, camps, excursions and so much more, have provided opportunities for our students to explore their interests, develop leadership skills, and forge lasting friendships.

Our school is thriving. Our students are flourishing, our community is engaged, and our unique culture of learning, relationships, and wellbeing is strong and bright. We are well placed for an even bigger and brighter 2024. As we draw to the close of another remarkable academic year, I am filled with immense pride and gratitude for the collective achievements of our incredible students, our extraordinary teachers and support staff, and the partnership of families and the community.

I would like to thank and farewell the following staff who leave us at the end of this year, Alex O’Brien and Justine Johnston who are moving on to other schools, and Ally Paleologoudias who is pursuing a career in environmental sustainability. We also farewell Jessica Fridman, Chau Pham, Preeti Maharaj, and Miriam Felder Berkovitch who have been on leave this year and have now resigned from the Department to pursue careers in other fields, and/or teaching opportunities interstate and overseas. We sincerely thank them for their hard work and contributions to MAC and wish them the very best.

As always, I am privileged and humbled to serve as college principal. I firmly believe that a great school environment is the result of the collective and positive efforts.   I look forward to continuing to work with you all and of course the new students and families that join MAC in 2024.

Dani Angelico, Principal

Mobile Phones 2024

Dear parent/carers,

A reminder that the Department of Education has in place a mobile phone ban that requires students who bring mobiles phones to school to have them switched off and securely put away during school hours.

The department is requiring all schools to ensure this ban is in place and enforced from the start of the 2024 school year.

The ban applies equally to all government schools right across the state.

This helps ensure that school is a learning environment free from unnecessary distractions and disruptions.

By ensuring mobile phones are kept away at recess and lunch times, students can interact with each other face-to-face, without the distractions and social pressures that mobile phones can cause.

I ask for the support of all our families, staff and students in continuing to support the implementation of this policy in our school.

Further information

Exceptions: For a small number of students with particular health needs, an exception to the policy may be granted. Please contact Kate Stevanovic if you would like to discuss this.

Emergencies: In the event of an emergency or if you need to immediately contact your child, I ask that families contact the school office who will pass on a message as required.

School mobile phone policy: A copy of our school’s local mobile phone policy, which implements the government’s mobile policy in line with our local context, is available  on the school website. Parent support: The Mobile phones in schools webpage provides links to resources for families to help them balance their children’s time using mobile phones.

Dani Angelico, Principal

2023 Awards Night at the Clocktower Centre

Congratulations to POSEIDON for winning the 2023 House Cup!

POSEIDON House Values Awards

Community and Engagement – Georgia Treacy

Respect and Integrity – Riley Anderson

House Spirit – Lachlan Janetzki

APOLLO House Values Awards

Community and Engagement – Olivia del Rio

Respect and Integrity – Samuel Lundgren May

House Spirit – Evie Roberts

ARTEMIS House Values Awards

Community and Engagement – Jemima Wagner

Respect and Integrity – Arianna Walsh

House Spirit – Flynn Martin

ATHENA House Values Awards

Community and Engagement – Kalifala Konneh

Respect and Integrity – Ivy Farmer-Bowers

House Spirit – Emma Derriman

ACADEMIC AWARDS

English Academic Excellence – Freya Dwyer, Anna Liddament-Ross, Hannah Klugman-Kerr

EAL Academic Excellence – Rahima Ali, Maja Liv Sildorf, Shenglin Chen

Humanities Academic Excellence – Emily Sim, Evelyn Jojoga, Brynn Valentine

Languages Academic Excellence – Emma Nguyen, Micah Knov

Arts Academic Excellence – Emma Derriman, Olivia Radebe, Rashid Costa

Technology Academic Excellence – Freya Dwyer, Obi Thomas, Abraham Kamil

Mathematics Academic Excellence – David Lubansky, Benison Au, Riley Walsh

Science Academic Excellence – Jessica Peucker, Georgia Treacy, Hannah Klugman-Kerr

Health and P.E. Academic Excellence – Millie Walker, Alexandros Marangidis, Sen ‘tJolle

ACADEMIC DUXES

Junior School Duxes

Entry: Sofie Hanafiah

Above Entry 8: Kari Tonissen

Above Entry 9: Carla Francis

Senior School Duxes

Above Entry 10: Bonita Rathgen

Graduate 2024: Hannah Klugman-Kerr

VCE College DUX – Riley Walsh

VCE Vocational Major Dux – Jesse Furletti

Academic Endeavour DUX – Alice Park

College Captain Speeches

To my fellow Year 12s, I seriously wish you all the best for your futures, and for whatever paths you choose to take. I hope we all stay in touch after we graduate, and I want to see what you all get up to and celebrate your every success with you. I know there’s going to be an amazing group of engineers, film directors, doctors, and even millionaires. I’m sure you all will conquer anything that life throws at you. 

Rea Tinoy, College Captain 2023, Graduate of 2023

Something I’ve really appreciated about this year is that somehow, us graduates, for the most part, managed to come together. Whether it was the spicy noodle challenge during recess, the voting campaigns we had prior to formal, or my favourite: the many random coffee and tea breaks during our free periods. There was just been something really wholesome about, in our final year, getting to know people that you would have sworn two to three years ago weren’t your kind of crowd. And I thank all of you for that.

I’m sure for us graduates, we’ll carry our sense of kindness and community far beyond the gates of this school. So I wish you all the best, and thank you so much for giving me not only the opportunity to be your college captain but just simply part of this community.

Luke Vella, College Captain 2023, Graduate of 2023

Cultural Week – Multicultural Day

Please enjoy videos of our cultural parade and performances!

Music Soiree

International Student Program

Orientation for New International Students 

The new international students from the language centre were invited to join the International Student Program’s orientation day. We have five new students from the language centre next year: Yuki, Lucy, George, Hodaka and Bao Anh. They come from Mongolia, Vietnam, and Japan. The current international students joined them for lunch and took them out on the school tour. Hodaka and George also participated in the orientation week with other students. Everyone is every excited to start their new journey next year. 

We will organise another orientation day for new international students coming directly from their countries at the beginning of next term. If you want to be a buddy for new international students, please express your interest to the International Student Coordinator – Angie via email: angie.ho@education.vic.gov.au. We are looking for a few local students who can show the new students around and help them get settled in their first week at school ?

Angie Ho, International Student Coordinator

Languages and Humanities

Unit 1 & 2 Legal Studies

WHERE’S THE APOLOGY?

Lyrics by Flynn Alphey & Rashid Costa

Like them, my rhymes stay innocent

But it’s hard to stay in the sense

When we are faced with assault

And false imprisonment

For Ms Ciavarella’s Legal Studies class, students were tasked with researching a recent civil case to present on Remedies (Unit 2, AOS 2). Flynn, Claire, Reeds and Lachlan worked together on a music video summarising the facts of the infamous Flemington Towers case which captivated the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The class action led by plaintiffs Hawa Warsame and Idris Hassan took the State of Victoria to the Supreme Court for false imprisonment and assault. As compensation for the loss of life and suffering endured, five million dollars in general damages were awarded. 

Lachlan Janetzki, Graduate of 2024

Guilty or Not Guilty – Guest Speaker

Climate Change – student work

Arts and Technology

Food Studies

Please enjoy some student reflections about their Semester 2 MAT’s.

Students were asked to be critically reflective of their practice, celebrate success and suggest an improvement if they were to make it again.

Overall, making it was a success. However, the preparation of the sushi could be better in terms of measuring the water. There was too little water to begin with and after adding water, there was too much. Adding onto that, putting the ingredients on the nori sheet should need a little more improvement. Knowing how much filling is too little or too much should be improved due to at times there not being enough filling near the ends of the roll, in the end the roll was overall good and stayed intact. If I were to make it again, I would improve how much filling went in and rolling the nori straighter when on a bamboo mat.

Sushi – Ren Nguyen, Above Entry 9

‘In this task I chose curry puffs because they seemed to be the best food that fit the requirements of being spicy, incorporating meat and being ready in 75 minutes. This task did not end up being too difficult but it did take the full 75 minutes to prepare because it required some extra cooking than expected. Next time I could improve by making the oven a bit hotter and adding more chili powder because it did not end up having sufficient spice’ 

Curry Puffs – Thomas Hormann, Above Entry 10

I made pumpkin soup because it was easy to make, my strengths was chopping up the vegetables and blending the veggies, the challenges was that I lost my recipe for the second time we were making it so I just had to remember what I had to first, I was going to make bread to dip in my soup but they already have it made so that could been a possibly.

Pumpkin Soup – Levi Russell, Entry

Thank you to the MAC community for being part of our kitchen success. Please enjoy some recipes to try over the break!

Cinnamon Scrolls

Shish Tawook Chicken & Fattoush Salad

Lezanne Webb-Johnson, Food Studies Teacher

Victorian Coding Challenge

VCC was a fun and interesting experience where we got to pull data from APIs and code bots to play Greedy Pig. The experience let everyone push their programming skills to their limits in a fun competitive environment!

Samuel Lundgren May, Above Entry 8

The VCC (Victorian coding challenge) was really fun and challenging, with Samuel, Edward and I competing against some of the best coders from other schools. It was really fun and I had a great time supporting my teammates and eating Oreos.

David Lubansky, Entry

Winning the Victorian Coding Competition was a whirlwind of a day for us, a team of Year 10 students from MAC. The competition was intense, but we thrived on the adrenaline, piecing together solutions under time pressure. Our teamwork was our biggest strength, helping us overcome moments where the code just wouldn’t behave or when we hit a mental block. Despite these hiccups, we stayed focused and our hard work paid off. It wasn’t just a win for us, but a proud moment for MAC, especially with our Year 7 and 8 teams also shining brightly, snagging second place in their bracket. This experience was a real test of our coding skills, teamwork, and ability to stay cool under pressure, and we’re thrilled we made it through with flying colors!

Mark Lubansky, Above Entry 9, Will Barrelle-Scott and Alexander Rolfe, Above Entry 10

Student Wellbeing

SchoolTV

SchoolTV is an online resource designed to empower parents with credible and sound information with realistic, practical ongoing support strategies. You can access SchoolTV by either clicking the SchoolTV icon on the home page or this link.

Resource Centre

Staff and students can use the Library Catalogue (login using the Single Sign On with your school email address and password) from school and from home. It’s a great way

to see what books are on offer in the library and to reserve a book that you’ve been looking forward to reading.

A friendly reminder to anyone who has overdue books to please return them to the Resource Centre. Bringing books back by their due date ensures that everyone is able to enjoy our collection.

Do you know we have ebooks and audiobooks?

The Eplatform has over 2500 ebooks and audiobooks that you can read or listen to with new books being added every day. You can access it by downloading the app on your device and signing in with your school details in the Single Sign On (SSO). Find out more here: mountalexandercollege.wheelers.co

Carla Iannarella, Resource Centre, Communications and Marketing Manager

Parents and Friends Association

MAC Parents and Friends is a vibrant and friendly forum for parents, carers and interested members of the community to discuss matters relating to the College.

It provides an opportunity to become involved in the life of the College, ensuring the College continues to provide the best education and is the local community’s school of choice.

MAC Parents and Friends meets at 6:00pm on the first Monday of the month during school terms. Meetings are publicised in the school newsletter, and on the events calendar.

All members and new members are warmly invited to attend.

To receive notifications of forthcoming meetings, email the PFA: mac.parents.friends@gmail.com

Congratulations to the PFA who on Saturday raised $2400 at the Bunnings BBQ at West Footscray. A huge thank you to the MAC parents and students who assisted on the day. Your efforts are sincerely appreciated and the College is very fortunate to have families and students who are prepared to give their time for such events.

All funds raised by the PFA and parent voluntary contributions are incredibly important in ensuring we can continue to maintain and improve our grounds and facilities and continue to build on the successes of the curriculum and extracurricular programs. 

Thank you to members of the MAC Community who went along on Saturday to support the fundraiser.

Dani Angelico, Principal

Community News and Advertising

We advertise and support local organisations that reside in our catchment area. These suburbs include Flemington, Kensington, Ascot Vale, Moonee Ponds, Maribyrnong, West Brunswick, North Melbourne, and Parkville.