From the Principal's Desk

 She's Back!

Hello, fellow Nossalonians! It's a pleasure to be back in the school after such a significant period away. Though I am grateful for having had the opportunity to take some dedicated time for myself, I have certainly missed the daily opportunities to interact with able, thoughtful and passionate individuals which my job provides. It was a pleasure to walk through the school on the first day and absorb once again the positive energy of a community which is happy to be in the same space again!

So much gratitude

Before I reflect on what has been a very successful start to Term 2, I would like to take a moment to thank the many colleagues who made my leave possible. It was a relief to know that I was leaving the school in very good hands when I departed at the end of Term 1.  To quote my speech to the school during our annual NAIDOC Assembly:

In particular, could we please thank Ms de Zylva for stepping in to what I can assure you is a diverse and challenging portfolio – it was a relief to me to know that I was leaving the school in her capable hands. 

I’d also like to acknowledge and thank Mr LaBrooy, who was your very capable acting Assistant Principal during my absence, and Mr Tommasini for his work as Acting Director of Year 9 & 10. Thank you both for helping to maintain the effective work of the school’s Executive team. 

As you can hear, my decision to be away had knock-on effects for people all the way down the school, and though I’m directing your attention to these individuals, I know that my absence will also have meant that a range of other folk found themselves stepping up in ways both expected and unexpected – I may never find out about all of these ways in which that happened, but I know that one of the strengths of the Nossal staff – both its teachers and its educational support folk – is their proven capacity to work as a very impressive team, and to never lose sight of the fact that our core work will always be enabling the learning of our students. I’d like to thank them for their work – normal and extraordinary – last term as well. 

The First Fortnight

As noted above, we have had a busy (and very successful!) first fortnight back to school for Term 3. We began, as usual, with a thoughtful reflection on NAIDOC by our student leaders in a whole school assembly. From some excellent presentations aimed at helping our community to understand our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peers - and their specific history in our region - better, to a wonderful poetry reading by one of our Year 10 English students, the offerings made during this assembly were an appropriate and worthy tribute to this year's 50 year anniversary of the National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration (NAIDOC). 

Term 3 is traditionally a term in which there is a strong focus on academic work. Teachers at every level are helping their students to explore some of the more complex ideas and challenging skills in their subject areas, and our Unit 4 students, in particular, are typically working with their teachers to complete the teaching and learning of all the new material in their courses so that they can spend Term 4 in revision and consolidation before their examinations. That means that our senior students are faced with a large number of assessment tasks, and their ability to manage their health and their stress in the face of these additional pressures becomes critical. 

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all of our students - but particularly our senior students - to pay attention to their wellbeing needs throughout this term. A day or two at home before a cold becomes too serious is often more effective than "soldiering on" and becoming so sick that a week off is required to recover. Maintaining exercise routines and sensible approaches to sleeping, eating and movement are all good ways to support academic success (quite apart from making it easier to continue to feel good about what you're working on!).

Pathways for the Future 

As you will see later in the newsletter, one of the major events of our first fortnight was our annual Careers and Pathways Expo. This event, the work of a dedicated and very talented team led by our Careers Practitioner Clarissa Jacques, was once again a rousing success. It was great to see so many of our students on site and asking questions of representatives from institutions with whom they may have been less familiar. 

This event is also a wonderful opportunity to hear from and rejoice in the success of a large number of our alumni. These impressive young people give of their time to make presentations and to contribute to discussion panels so that their younger peers can make more informed choices both about their subjects next year and about their approach to further study once they depart from Nossal. 

Something to Celebrate

As usual, our newsletter is packed with both useful information and news about what our students are learning and experiencing. It's impossible for me to draw your attention to everything of interest here, but I will just take a moment to laud two different types of success that you will see explored later in this bulletin.

The first is the fact that our long-term Visual Communications and Design Teacher, and the current leader of our Arts and Technology Domain, Ms Leslie Cilia, recently celebrated 35 years of service in the public school system. We thank her for her dedication to the education of our students both here and at her previous schools. 

The second is the awarding of 6 VCE Premier's Awards to various Nossal students and recent graduates in a recent ceremony attended by the Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria, Professor James Angus AO FAA FAHM (Hon) BSc PhD (USyd), and the Deputy Premier of Victoria the Honourable Mr Ben Carroll. It was wonderful to see students from a wide range of subjects represented in this list, as it speaks to the excellent teamwork between our students and their teachers in every domain of learning across the school. 

A special mention needs to go to recent graduate Pawan Cooray, who was awarded  a Top All-Round VCE High Achievers Award. These awards are given to students who have achieved study scores of 46 or higher in at least 5 VCE studies. Congratulations to Pawan, and to all of our winners this year!

Things to be aware of

I will leave you to read the other excellent and engaging articles in this newsletter, and just take this opportunity to draw your attention to one or two key things. 

The first is out upcoming Course Confirmation Day. Year 9 and 10 families should already have made appointments for a consultation with members of staff about their students' subject choices for 2027. These interviews will be held via Teams on Wednesday 29 July.

The other is to remind you that the House Performing Arts Festival is coming! You can buy your tickets here. This is always an excellent event, full of joy and creativity. I am looking forward to it eagerly. 

Good luck for the Term

Finally, I would like to wish our students, families and staff the best of luck. Term 3 is always busy and can sometimes be rather stressful, but it is also very rewarding and a time when you can really feel that you are "getting things done"  in terms of learning and understanding. I look forward to the sense of achievement that our community will feel when at the end of it, and I relish the opportunity to work with you all to earn that feeling!

Tracey Mackin

Principal