Thank you for accessing the Principal’s Welcome for Monterey Secondary College. It’s with great pride that I share the ongoing story of Monterey Secondary College and how our school and staff serve our students and our community.
My time with Monterey Secondary College began in August 2019, which coincided with the beginning of our journey with the Berry Street Education Model. Our work with the Berry Street Education Model laid the foundations for our work in Trauma-Informed, Positive Education (TIPE). TIPE has been integral in shaping how our staff work with all of our students.
At its core, Trauma-Informed classrooms, and therefore, Monterey classrooms are calm spaces where student learning thrives. Our staff pay attention to and notice how our students are feeling from the time they enter the classroom until the time that they leave the classroom. If our staff notice that a student needs a check-in, our staff will provide that check-in because we know that our students need to be-well so that they can learn-well.
Similarly, Positive Education within our calm classrooms means that our teachers are explicit when teaching positive behaviours; behaviours that are required so that our students can hold gainful employment and be in respectful, caring and nurturing relationships after leaving school. Our staff spot strengths in our students and highlight those strengths to help each student build a sense of self worth, similarly when we praise a student we focus the praise on their effort or behaviour to reinforce the attributes that will help them to be the best people that they can be throughout their lives.
Throughout the 2020 school year, significant building works took place at Monterey Secondary College, delivering a brand new state-of-the-art gymnasium as well as the Centre of Excellence, a building dedicated to developing employment skills through a range of practical based subjects, including Cookery, Hospitality, Coding and Game Design, Science, Furniture making, and Building and Construction. Further, we have dedicated spaces for Drama, Music Performance and Sound Production, Art and Visual Communication and Design, Health Services and Early Childhood Education and Care.
We offer Vocational Education and Training (VET) certificates in all of the subject areas listed above, as we recognise that for many of our students, employment readiness is a major focus.
The building works occurred as a part of the award winning Frankston North Education Plan. The Frankston North Education Plan was awarded the Lindsay Thompson Award for Excellence in Education in 2022, this award is the highest level of acknowledgement that the Victorian Department of Education bestows upon any individual or organisation.
The award is a representation of the outstanding work that our staff, and the staff at Aldercourt Primary School and Mahogany Rise Primary School do together to ensure a continuity of learning from our local Primary Schools to our Secondary School.
Peter Langham