Maffra Secondary College
Encyclopedia
Maffra Secondary College is a Year 7 to Year 12 government secondary college situated in the Gippsland
town of Maffra
, Victoria
. It has around 700 students enrolled from Year 7 to 12, and takes in students from Maffra and surrounding towns, including Boisdale
, Newry
, Stratford
, Heyfield
, Valencia Creek
, Briagolong
and Cowwarr
.
The school logo is a painting of the local banksia species Banksia caneii with the words "Maffra Secondary College" encircled around it. The Banksia caneii was named after a long-time school councillor Bill Cane, who was a local botanist.
The school offers VCE subjects from a range of areas such as the sciences, arts and humanities, technology and physical and outdoor education. Indonesian and French are offered as languages at MSC, with other major languages such as German and Italian studied via Distance Education.
Each year in summer the inter-house swimming competition is held at the 50m Maffra Pool, while in winter, the athletics day and cross country are held.
Hiking and camping are also a part of the school program due to its close proximity to national parks and bushland.
In summer, girls can wear a school dress which is blue and white checked. Boys can wear grey shorts with the white shirt. Year 12 students are able to wear a special VCE rugby top over their school uniform in the second half of the school year.
Past Dux recipients:
Gippsland
Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
town of Maffra
Maffra, Victoria
Maffra is a town in Victoria, Australia, 220 km east of Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Wellington local government area. It relies mainly on dairy farming and other agriculture, and is the site of one of Murray-Goulburn Cooperative's eight processing plants in Victoria...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. It has around 700 students enrolled from Year 7 to 12, and takes in students from Maffra and surrounding towns, including Boisdale
Boisdale, Victoria
Boisdale is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on Briagolong Road, north of Maffra, in the Shire of Wellington. At the 2006 census, Boisdale and the surrounding area had a population of 603.It is a small town in the heart of Gippsland's dairying distinct...
, Newry
Newry, Victoria
Newry is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on Newry - Boisdale Road, north west of Maffra, in the Shire of Wellington.-History:The first survey of the area was conducted in 1860 by W. Dawson. A fresh survey was conducted in 1861 by C. P. Rafferty in 1861, and further surveying was performed by...
, Stratford
Stratford, Victoria
Stratford is a town on the Avon River in Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne on the Princes Highway in Shire of Wellington. At the 2006 census, Stratford had a population of 1950. The town services the local regional community and travellers on the Princes Highway. Stratford's principal...
, Heyfield
Heyfield, Victoria
Heyfield is a town in Victoria, Australia, with a population of 2099. It is located east of Melbourne, in the Shire of Wellington local government area. Located on the Thomson River, Heyfield is a gateway to the Victorian High Country.-History:...
, Valencia Creek
Valencia Creek, Victoria
Valencia Creek is a rural town situated in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Boisedale - Valencia Creek Road, north of Maffra in the Shire of Wellington. The junction of Valencia Creek and the Avon River are a short distance upstream...
, Briagolong
Briagolong, Victoria
Briagolong is a town in the Australian state of Victoria, located 20 kilometres north of Maffra and some 270 kilometres east of Melbourne, in the Shire of Wellington region of Gippsland...
and Cowwarr
Cowwarr, Victoria
Cowwarr is a town in Victoria, Australia, located 27 kilometres north-east of Traralgon, 174 kilometres east of Melbourne, in the Shire of Wellington. At the 2006 census, Cowwarr and the surrounding area had a population of 563....
.
The school logo is a painting of the local banksia species Banksia caneii with the words "Maffra Secondary College" encircled around it. The Banksia caneii was named after a long-time school councillor Bill Cane, who was a local botanist.
Facilities
In 2002, a new science and technology wing was opened at the college, providing new, modern science labs, teaching classrooms, woodwork rooms, IT facilities and staff rooms for the growing school. The health, textiles and food technology wing was also upgraded, with new kitchens and a new canteen built. There have been new plans drawn up for more refurbishments and buildings for the school.Academic programs
Maffra Secondary College has a large number of programs for students, including the new eXel program for Year 9 students. It has a strong VCE program, offering a large variety of Year 11 and 12 subjects. It also offers the VCAL program as an alternative program to the VCE.The school offers VCE subjects from a range of areas such as the sciences, arts and humanities, technology and physical and outdoor education. Indonesian and French are offered as languages at MSC, with other major languages such as German and Italian studied via Distance Education.
VCE
Maffra SC offers a wide variety of subjects for students the study in VCE. These include:- ScienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
- BiologyBiologyBiology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, ChemistryChemistryChemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, PhysicsPhysicsPhysics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, PsychologyPsychologyPsychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society... - ArtArtArt is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
- Art, Studio Art, Theatre Studies, MusicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
(Group performance), Visual Communication and Design - HumanitiesHumanitiesThe humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
- English, History (Revolutions), Literature - MathematicsMathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
- General Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Mathematical Methods CAS, Specialist Mathematics - LanguageLanguageLanguage may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
- Indonesian, French. German, Italian, Latin and Spanish can be taken by VSL. - Physical EducationPhysical educationPhysical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
- Physical Education, Outdoor and Environmental Education, Health and Human Development - Information TechnologyInformation technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
- Information Technology Development.
Sporting
Maffra Secondary College has numerous sporting teams including football, netball, basketball, clay target shooting and soccor. These teams competer against other schools in the district in inter-school competitions.Each year in summer the inter-house swimming competition is held at the 50m Maffra Pool, while in winter, the athletics day and cross country are held.
Hiking and camping are also a part of the school program due to its close proximity to national parks and bushland.
Uniform
Maffra Secondary College uniform consists of a white polo shirt with the school logo on the top left corner on the chest. The winter uniform for girls is a tartan type skirt which is mostly navy, with the white polo shirt and a navy windcheater with the school logo on it. For boys, grey trousers with the school shirt and jumper is worn.In summer, girls can wear a school dress which is blue and white checked. Boys can wear grey shorts with the white shirt. Year 12 students are able to wear a special VCE rugby top over their school uniform in the second half of the school year.
Dux of the College
Dux of the College is awarded to the Year 12 student with the highest ENTER score for that year in the VCE.Past Dux recipients:
- 2009 - Madeleine Goodman
- 2008 - Wendy Allen
- 2007 - Chris Gargen Shingles
- 2006 - Glen Swinburne
- 2005 - Jason Malcolm
- 2004 - Peter McNamara
- 2003 - Jade Goodge, Karla Cameron
- 2002 - Ruth McNamara