Around the College 

Year 8 Surfing

We had our Year 8 Surfing excursions in the week Monday 10 to Friday 14 November.

In beautiful conditions on the four days Year 8 students had a 2-hour surfing lesson at Smith’s Beach on Phillip Island, run by Island Surf surfing School. Another set of first timers got to learn about Beach Safety, especially how the waves and rips work together at a Surf Beach, and that surfing is a lot of fun.

We had many students stand up on a board for the first time and many others catch waves right into the shore. A lot of credit goes to our instructors across the week who were so encouraging and were amazing towards our students, so a big shout out to the team at Island Surf who were awesome. 

In total we took 116 students, which is 61% of the cohort. Ideally this number should be between 90 - 100%, allowing for sickness, injury and other medical exemptions which can’t be avoided. I really want to take a moment to encourage both students and parents to fully embrace both the swimming and surfing programs offered at Nazareth College over the Year levels 7-9. In Australia it is so important that everyone, but especially young people, know the risks and dangers but also where and how to have a good time at the pool or beach. These programs build confidence in the water at both a pool environment and at surf beaches, with the trained supervision of qualified instructors and staff. Learning how to spot a rip at the beach, whilst actually at the beach, and feel the pull of the side current and what to practically do in that situation, are invaluable learnings for our students. According to the Life Saving Victoria Report 2023-2024 there were 54 drownings with 28% within their residential postcode. Also, 24 of the drownings were while swimming, paddling or wading. The age group 15 -24 year olds recorded the highest drowning rate. For these and other reasons education in both indoor (swimming strokes and poolside water safety) and outdoor (surfing and surf beach water safety) aquatic environments are compulsory parts of the Victorian Curriculum. 

Next year in 2026, these Year 8s will be in Year 9 and have another opportunity to build their knowledge of beach and surf safety at the Year 9 Camp in February. This also builds on, or even awakens a passion for Outdoor & Environmental Studies, with many students keen to do the subject at Year 10 with the possibility of continuing in VCE. 

These essential programs can’t run without the hard work of our dedicated staff and I would like to thank all the HPE staff and support staff that attended and supported our students participation in this program. The HPE staff who attended with myself were Mr Lachlan McDonnell, Ms Amy Durham, Ms Eliza Hastings, Mr Jonathan Clark, Ms Antigone Kappas, Ms Olivia Giblin and Mr Adam Cooper. The support staff were Ms Tiffany Blake, Ms Alessandra Pop and Mr Elijah Brasher. I thank them for assisting during a very busy time of marking and reports, especially for teachers. Also a big thank you to our school nurses, Ms Megan Loos and Ms Melanie Seufert, for getting all the first aid packs and medical forms organised. A huge thanks to Ms Jackie Ousalkas and Ms Maria Kotsanis in Student Services for all their work booking the buses and making sure all permissions were done, especially with PAM down. 

And lastly a big thank you to all the Year 8 students who participated and really gave it their best effort. The Surfing excursion days are one of the highlights of the year with everyone who goes absolutely loving it or surprised by how much fun they, had if they were at first unsure or never done it before. Which is what it is all about, learning, building confidence and maybe discovering a future surfing champion like Mick Fanning or Kelly Slater, Layne Beachley or Steph Gilmore.

Mr Andy Moore

Instructional Leader Health & Physical Education

Visual Arts

Year 10 Concept Art and Digital Rendering (CAnDR)

Year 10 Concept Art and Digital Rendering students have developed new skills in Adobe Photoshop this term to render various forms, objects and buildings to build up their folios. Extending on their learnings from their rendering of Concept Art pieces, students applied tones, colours and textures to various rectilinear line drawings. They learnt about compositing images using different layer styles from a collection of digitally rendered images of a CAD model, just like those in the Visualization profession in the Automotive Industry. Students concluded their digital rendering short folio by rendering a building, taking into consideration different textures, the direction of the light source and contextualising the image into a backing image. The visuals they were able to produce have demonstrated fantastic attention to detail and has set the tone for future years! Please take a look at their images below.

Year 9 Visual Communication Design

Year 9 Visual Communication Design students have applied their learnings about Visual Language to complete a folio designing their own Wall Calendars for the year 2026. Students used a range of different media, such as markers and pencils, to explore design ideas for each month of the year. The challenge, however, was that they were only permitted to use two colours, in addition to the tones of black and white. From this exploration, they identified the most appropriate design ideas that answered the design criteria in the Design Brief and realised them in Adobe Illustrator, using gridding and the Design Principles of Hierarchy and Proportion to give their Wall Calendars a professional finish. Please take a look at their great design solutions.

Mr Rosario Ripper

Instructional Leader Visual Arts