General News

Student Representatives on School Council – Call For Nominations

The Education Minister recently changed the constituting order of all Secondary School Councils to require them to include two student members to represent all students on the School Council.

School Council is the peak decision making body in the school and is made up of parents, Department of Education and Training (DET) staff, students and community members.  It has core responsibility for overseeing the finance, strategic directions and policies within the school. (not operational and employment matters).

I am pleased that the Education Minister is now requiring everyone to do as Nossal has always done. Our two School Captains have always been co-opted onto School Council as full members as we strongly encourage and support student voice and input into the running of the school. As of June, Nossal will have 4 student members on Council – all with full membership and voting rights.

The two new student representatives will be elected by the student body, and every Nossal student is eligible to nominate themselves or others, and to vote for the candidate of their choice (if there are more than two nominees).

Once elected the students will be required to participate on all Council meetings – of which there are 8 per year – usually the last Tuesday of the month from 6.00pm until 9.00 – 9.30pm in the Jean Russell Centre at Nossal. The usual term of office is two years – but for this year only – there will be a one year and a two year appointment so both students do not finish at the same time.

There are strict regulations and expectations around Council membership and the election process which are outlined in detail in the attached Fact Sheets. I encourage students and parents to read these thoroughly before nominating someone – or yourself (you can nominate yourself – or others can nominate you – if you are willing to accept their nomination).

Nominations will be open for one week and we will then move into a voting process if there are more than 2 nominees. Voting will be by secret ballot and will be organised to mirror the process used to select parent and staff members.

All Nossal students are eligible to nominate (self or others) and vote for their representatives.

Please read the attachments carefully – collect a nomination form from the front office and submit it before the due date as outlined on the notices on display outside the office. If required, voting will occur in the two weeks following the close of nominations.

I look forward to welcoming our 2 new student members to our School Council as this will even further extend our commitment to authentic student voice and agency.

If parents or students have any concerns or questions about this please contact Roger Page (Principal) for clarification. This information will also be posted on NEO for students.

Regards,

Roger Page

Principal

Campus Traffic Safety

Security staff from Federation University have recently contacted us with concerns they have about vehicles travelling to and from Nossal, through the university campus.

Sir Gustav Nossal Boulevard is a road that has a varying speed limit between 10 and 20kph  depending on whether the area is a shared pedestrian zone or not.  The road is sign posted and also has speed humps to slow the traffic, however clearly these are not acting as a deterrent to some drivers.

It is important that all drivers of vehicles moving along the road, observe the speed limits.  The limits have been instigated to ensure the safety of all pedestrians, including our students.  Currently there is concern about some vehicles being driven far too fast which clearly has the potential to cause accidents. 

All drivers are urged to be patient and observe the road rules relevant to this area.  It is a policy requirement of the Department of Education and a major safety concern for Federation University who have advised that should the problem persist, police will be asked to attend during peak times.

Slow down!  It may be your child's friend that is hit and injured by a car travelling too fast.   

Keith Butler

Assistant Principal

Year 9 Leadership Opportunity

Applications are now being invited for the School for Student Leadership program, that will take place in Term 3. We are looking for 3 boys and 3 girls in year 9 to attend the Gnurad Gundidj Campus for the duration of the term. It is an amazing opportunity for our Year 9s to partake in this one of a kind program. Many year 9 students have already expressed interest.

There is no negative impact on their academic studies at Nossal – quite the contrary – students who have been involved in these programs previously have flourished academically and have become significantly successful leaders within the school and beyond.

About the school and the program:

School for Student Leadership is a Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) initiative offering a unique residential education experience for Year 9 students. The 6 students selected will have the opportunity to attend the Leadership school for 9 weeks during Term 3 2018. They will live onsite under the supervision of the school teachers and support staff and will be involved in a long term “life changing” leadership program that will require them to work together with the other students from Nossal as well as another 40 peers from across the state. They will also be involved in a wide variety of leadership, educational, recreational and team building activities and expeditions during their time there.

Please note that the cost to participate is $1050 for the whole program.

To find out more about School for Student Leadership you can visit the program’s website: http://www.gnurad-gundidj.vic.edu.au/; alternatively you can contact teachers Ildiko Varga or Michelle Lloyd. There will also be extra information provided to all the Year 9 students through the messaging software ‘Microsoft Teams’.

Supervisors for VCAA exams 2018 and beyond

Would you like to help out with supervising the externally assessed VCAA exams in 2018? VCAA exam supervisors are paid to complete this task and this is a rewarding way to be involved in the program at Nossal High School.

Supervisors for VCAA exams cannot be any of the following:

• Closely related to, or associated with, any student undertaking a VCE Unit 3 and 4 study in 2018 at Nossal High School
• Teaching any student a VCE Unit 3 and 4 study in 2018
• Tutoring a student in a VCE Unit 3 and 4 study at Nossal High School
• Closely related to or associated with any person engaged in teaching, tutoring or coaching students undertaking a VCE Unit 3 and 4 subject in 2018, or any person engaged in organising or checking GAT or VCE examination materials at Nossal High School.

Note:

Closely related to or associated with students includes: children, via relatives/relationships by marriage or de facto or by other living arrangements, friends, neighbours, business or community associates, tutoring or teaching relationships.

If you would like to more information please contact Katherine Warriner at katherine.warriner@nossalhs.vic.edu.au.

To register your interest please email Christine Weller at christine.weller@nossalhs.vic.edu.au.  Please include a contact number and address.  Training and information sessions will be held later in the year.

Please pass this on to friends or family who may be interested in taking up this opportunity.

Did you know?

Did you know our newsletter can now be translated into a number of different languages?  This is a relatively new feature of the software program we use and can be turned on or off using the language selector in the lower left corner of each page.