From the Principal 

Our fortnightly newsletter continues to herald the great events that have occurred and what our students have been involved in throughout the Semester. 

Thanks to those that attended the Course Expo last Wednesday afternoon, it was great that so many staff made themselves available to showcase work from our Northcote Model subjects. We will continue to work with students over the next few weeks to assist in any pathways’ decision-making and to create programs that suit each of our students. 

You may have noticed your child working on or studying for a CAT or SAC recently as our students are about to complete assessments for many of their Semester 1 subjects. This week our Year 11s have been completing their Unit 1 Exams for their VCE studies along with some of our Year 10s undertaking advancement subjects. It is a great opportunity for them to experience an exam setting set up as closely as possible to the end of Year 12 exams. 

We have a pupil free day coming up 18 June before the end of Semester. It is scheduled to coincide with the VCE General Achievement Test (GAT) which means it will not be pupil free for all students, as those participating in the GAT will be required to attend. This will allow us to have enough classroom spaces for our students studying Year 12 VCE and VCE VM subjects and it will also minimise noise during the assessments. 

Thanks to those that were able to join us for the Friends of Northcote Movie Night and a big thanks to James Thyer and the team for organising with the Westgarth theatre to use their cinema. It was a great movie for reflecting on how lucky our school is to be so well resourced and the creative teachers that we have in our classroom. Funds raised through ticket sales go to our school’s Thrive fund and are used to support students and families in need. James began the movie speaking about the resources that the Thrive fund has been able to provide since its inception in 2018 – a big thanks to our families and alumni that support the funds. 

The next event that tickets are already selling for is our annual Talkfest. It is a great opportunity to hear from established authors from the local area and to hear them reflect on their craft and for us to be in awe of their talent. If you have a budding author, bring them along as it will be another inspiring session. See the article for more information about purchasing tickets in this newsletter. 

Finally, as the winter months come around, we have started to see some absence caused by illness amongst our staff. Thank you to our families that have been implementing Flu and COVIDSafe measures, and thank you also to our students, for working well with replacement teachers when required. We hope that we all continue to implement the measures wherever possible especially in our classrooms. 

Chris Jones