General News

Assessment at Nossal High School

At Nossal High School we believe assessment is used for learning. 

There are two main forms of assessment we use; each has a purpose, and one is no more valuable than the other; both are important and valuable.

Formative assessment: This is assessment that happens on an ongoing basis.  It provides feedback to the teacher and to students about how students are coping with concepts and/or skills and allows the teacher to adjust their teaching to meet the needs of individual students.  This type of assessment is vitally important.  It is more like ‘responsive teaching’ than the traditional notion of assessment.  Some examples of formative assessment teachers will use, include:

• Class and small group discussions
• Questions at the beginning of class
• Pre-tests: a test before you start a unit/topic
• Practise or draft work that you submit to the teacher for comment eg. Essays or reports
• Using a traffic light at the back of the diary to indicate the level of understanding (red: not going so well, yellow: OK but a little unsure, green: I understand/I can do it).
• Providing only written comments on assessment tasks rather than a grade
• Peer-assessment
• Self-assessment
• Mind or concept maps
• Many other techniques

This sort of assessment shows the teacher how and what you are learning, and is more about the progress you make than your achievement or performance.

Summative Assessment: This is something like an end of unit/topic test, a written report, or a poster report.  It measures how much a student has learnt throughout a unit or topic.  It measures achievement.  Often these assessments will have marks on them, but teachers may also just provide comments only. 

The Level of Difficulty: Students expect high achievement in their studies throughout their time at Nossal High School. When they join us in Year 9 they are often accustomed to being the, or one of, the top performers in class.  All of the students at Nossal were top performers, so now that they are at Nossal it is impossible for everyone to be the top performer.  The assessment tasks at Nossal will generally be set with a greater level of difficulty than those at student’s previous schools.  We do this because it is important that we do not create an artificial ceiling on student performance.  We expect teachers at Nossal High School to set challenging tasks that aim to stretch students as far as possible. To stretch the performance of Nossal students, teachers will obviously need to set tasks at a higher standard than those in a mainstream school. 

Given this assessment regime, it is therefore difficult for all students to achieve full or very high marks.  Whilst we encourage students to strive to their highest limit and we are not discouraging them from setting challenging goals, they most certainly should not be upset when they do not achieve full marks. Their focus should be on their individual best and how far they have progressed.  Our grading system also makes it more difficult to achieve an A (84%) and an A+ (92%). This does not disadvantage our students in any way; it ensures they remain challenged and engaged.

Sue Harrap

Assistant Principal

Congratulations to Nossal's Fresh Words Winners!

Congratulations to Jennifer Nguyen who won both categories she entered in the Casey Fresh Words : Young Writers Competition 2016.

We are proud to say that Nossal was heavily represented in the list of finalists with Aedan Kertesi, Jenny Li, Chizirimuzo Ugo and Nithiya Pathmasiri all mentioned and having their work published in the awards booklet.

Well done to the above students and to all the Nossalonians that entered the competition.

School Photos

Please make a note that our annual school photos will be taken on Friday 24 February and all students are to wear full academic uniform on this day. Students with PE can bring their PE uniform and change before and after their class if necessary.

There will be a second 'catch-up' photo day on Tuesday 7 March for any students that are absent from school on 24 February.

Olivia Nelson on the Young Endeavour January 2017

On January 25, Class of 2017 student, Olivia Nelson completed an 11 day youth voyage on the Young Endeavour sailing ship at Cunningham Pier, Geelong. The voyage left Stanley, Tasmania on January 15 and comprised of 24 young Australian's aged 16-23.

The Young Endeavour voyages aim to increase self-awareness, develop teamwork and leadership skills and create a strong sense of community responsibility amongst members of the youth crew.

Upon completion of the voyage, Olivia was awarded the Young Endeavour Medallion from the Order of Australia Association (NSW branch), in recognition of her pursuit of excellence. She received the award from Richard Marles (MP for Corio and Shadow Minister for Defence).

Congratulations and well done Olivia!

Check out the Captain’s Log from the voyage: https://www.youngendeavour.gov.au/captains-log/day-one-setting-sail