Middle Moments

Celebrating learning experiences

By Ben Dray Email this article

New student leadership and rewards

Middle School Leaders for 2023
It is my pleasure to announce the 2023 Middle School Leaders (pictured above): Annabelle Phillips, Ava Barton, Sam Doan, and Thomas Stirling. Congratulations on your successful election by your peers and teaching staff to these important roles; we look forward to having your assistance leading the Middle School next year.

On behalf of the panel, I also acknowledge the other students who took part in the selection process, which involved an application, interview, and speech to the Middle School community. It takes a lot of effort and courage and requires students to step out of their comfort zone. All participants can be very proud of the way they represented themselves, their families, and their school.

Orientation Day
Next year, we welcome 200 new students to Mercedes College, many to our Middle School, and it was great to meet many of them at our recent Orientation Day. This fun experience enables new and continuing students the opportunity to step up a grade, meet one another, experience some of the curriculum, and get to know Middle School staff. We look forward to seeing our new students again at the beginning of next year and hope that Orientation Day has made them feel very welcome here.

End of Year Activity Days
The end of the academic year is a fun time for us to celebrate with students and acknowledge the hard work and commitment they've put into their studies. The variety of experiences were coordinated beautifully by our Year Level Leaders, whose creative ideas brought smiles to many faces.

Living our Mercy Keys
To round out the final week of Term we celebrated student achievement in academics and endeavour, and presented our 2022 Mercy Key Awards. These special awards are given to students whose actions actively reflect the values of our College. Congratulations to:

Mercy Key	Year 6	Year 7
Compassion	Ruby Barter and Isaac Wood	Alex Pink-Cook and Toby Everett
Integrity	Mabel Hill and Mitchell Chan	Evangaline Brennan and Alex Wiltshire
Justice	Isobel Fitzgerald and Ian Carpenter	Jessica Mathers and Harvey Chapman
Loyalty	Maggie Robinson and Albie Park	Lucy McConnochie and James Hage
Mutual Respect	Amelia Ciplys and Christopher Cowain	Elizabeth Woods and Jared Cenko
Responsibility	Marion Dietrich and Gilbert Pronk	Ruby Beesley and Lucas Grigg

Mercy Key	Year 8	Year 9
Compassion	Claudia Paterson and Sam Doan	Emma Jones and Max Frankham
Integrity	Eleanor Wood and Thomas Stirling	Chloe Chadwick and Amitej Singh
Justice	Cara Dalzotto and Harry Mills	Naomi Carpenter and Harry Densley
Loyalty	Zoe Bassiliadis and Lewis Ward	Sienna McCusker and Callum Willis
Mutual Respect	Pallas Hannan and Eamon Ford	Vidhi Parikh and Hengyue Lin
Responsibility	Yeon Sue Choi and Carl Khouri-Revell	Yoli Ruciak and James Kroeger

Enjoy your summer break
Thank you to our parents for their support across the year, and to our students for their enthusiasm and success in their academic, spiritual, sporting, and artistic pursuits. I also thank our committed and passionate staff and Year Level Leaders for their tireless efforts to nurture our students and enable them to flourish as individuals.

On behalf of the Middle School, I wish you all a safe, happy, and meaningful Christmas, and we look forward to seeing you all back in 2023.

Ben Dray
Head of Middle School