Welcome to Term Two!

Welcome to Term Two! I hope that you enjoyed a break over the Easter weekend and holidays, if you were fortunate enough to get some time off that is. In the current season at Mueller College it seems that every time the students come back from holidays there are changes which have occurred to the Mueller campus. This holiday has been no different! There is a new ‘play-cube’ in the A-Block Quad, there is some modern art adorning some of the fridges in the tuckshop and a bunch of shiny new equipment was delivered to outfit the Mueller Gym in the Lacey Sports Centre this week.

However, the main addition for this term is, of course, the opening of the Senior Building – H-Block. It has been three years in the planning and many months in the construction, but it will, on Tuesday the 17th of April house its first classes. It is an exciting time for the students to be able to have access to a high-quality facility for their learning. The distinguishing feature of the senior building is the glass walls which provide transparency and natural light, as well as visibility to the lake, trees and oval outside.

Whilst all this creates a very stylish building the real excitement is for how this facilitates continued community and connection amongst the Mueller Community. New buildings are exciting but what really enriches the education of students are well-planned and appropriately challenging learning experiences and positive relationships. I recently attended a conference facilitated by a Neuroscience researcher Nathan Wallis, on Brain Development. He spoke of the importance of students having a sense of belonging and having positive relationships with teachers as being critical to development of the frontal cortex – the thinking and problem-solving part of the brain. In fact, he said that having predictability in the learning environment and just one positive relationship with teacher are the number one research-based improvers of learning.

The Senior Building is a fantastic facility that looks great! The real difference to student learning we hope to see will come not primarily from glass walls but from fantastic teachers and students who work together in community to learn. I hope that you have an enjoyable start to Term Two and be sure to check out the new additions to the Mueller College Campus.