From the Principals' Desk 

Dear Parents, 

This is the last newsletter of 2021 – a year that most of us will be happy to consign to history, although we still have much to be thankful for and much to celebrate. 

The past few weeks have been quite a whirlwind as we worked to fit in a range of educational and celebratory events while finishing the final assessments, reports, and preparing for 2022. We have completed our interviews and are now fully staffed for next year, and the timetable has only just been finalised (though we are still needing to make minor adjustments and tweaks). 

A Warm Welcome

It is a pleasure to welcome our new Year 9 students and their families. They will be the graduating class of 2025. After many delays, I am as relieved as you must be to finally have the offers made and the enrolment process completed. I congratulate you all on achieving a place at our wonderful school and look forward to meeting you all on your first day next year which will be a Year 9 only Orientation Day on Monday January 31. 

I also invite parents to attend for the morning if you are able to, and we will spend some time informing you about our programs, expectations, and processes. Morning tea will be provided and the PFA and Principal team would be very pleased to finally meet you face to face. In the meantime, please keep an eye on your Compass newsfeed. Short introductory videos from our students and some key staff members will be published there to help you get a sense of what the school is like.

Nossal Performance  

We are unashamedly an academically selective school where high levels of performance are valued, encouraged, and celebrated, but it is not all about marks, grades, and ATARs. The elements of Nossal that I believe are the most important and the most powerful indicators of our success and effectiveness are the broader aspects of the school experience – what was called in my teacher training days many years ago “the hidden curriculum.” 

At Nossal, this is made up of the co-curricular program, the Sir Gustav Nossal Medallion, the “adult learning environment,” student voice and agency, the wellbeing and support programs, clubs and societies, and our school culture. This is embodied and described within our vision and values and articulates the things that we think are important, and the things that will ensure our students will become highly successful, happy, productive, and caring members of the global community. This is much bigger and much more important than just achieving a high ATAR (although we will facilitate that as well). 

I am pleased to say that Nossal will and does prepare our students for long term success, including a smooth and effective transition to university, and the long-term confidence and resilience to grasp opportunities, overcome setbacks and create diverse pathways and futures. Much of this is difficult to measure easily and we judge our performance and success using an array of measures that gather data and feedback against criteria different to the standard academic measures. I shared some relevant data which we recently received with our staff this week, and would like to present some of it to you now.

DET gather data from all government schools in the state via parent, staff, and student opinion surveys, alongside measures of academic performance, rates of attendance and, for 2021, a number of wellbeing measures. This data gives us an opportunity to reflect on and interrogate our current approach, and it forms the basis for our short and long-term future planning to enable ongoing improvement.  

After a challenging year where we had to address concerns around unacceptable online behaviours and where we were disturbed to hear of misogynistic attitudes and behaviours within our community, I was very pleased to see that we were performing at a comparatively very high and positive level in this space, and that our students were very positive about the school environment. This is not to say that there are not important issues for us to continue to address. There are areas where we could, should, and will do much more, and we have many plans in place to do so. 

Having said that, this recent data (Charts 1 and 2 below) shows that Nossal students believe that our school is very good at managing bullying (the best in the state); that our students are generally very confident learners (third in the state); and that we provide a stimulating learning environment (second in the state) Each purple bar in the charts below is a “similar school” which includes the highest performing schools in the state (for example, MacRob, Melbourne HS and Suzanne Cory are all part of this grouping). 

In addition, a new measure was used this year to determine the impact of the past 12 months on student wellbeing. We have recently received a summary report detailing our performance compared to other like schools and the rest of the state (Table 1 below).

This data was particularly gratifying as it shows that the work we have been doing to create and maintain a safe, supportive, and trusted environment has been highly effective. We are judged to be excelling in all categories and performing at the highest level in the state in some, outcomes which were achieved under very challenging circumstances where our normal programs, processes and activities were severely disrupted due to lockdowns and ongoing restrictions. It has been very affirming to see this comparative data. While we make efforts to maintain our own internal measures in these areas, it can be hard to put them in perspective – these data sets assist us to do so.  

2021 VCE Results 

As I write this entry, the VCE results have been released to students and we again have cause to celebrate our performance and to commend our students, their families, and the staff for what are exceptionally good outcomes. 

In summary – the Class of 2021 (in spite of COVID) achieved the following results in relation to the Australian Tertiary Admission Rankings: 

• 60.2% achieved an ATAR over 90 
• 22 students achieved an ATAR over 99 
• the median ATAR was 93.7 
• the highest ATAR was 99.9 (99.95 is as high as you can go) 

In relation to Study Scores:

• the median Study Score was 36
• 27% of students achieved study scores of 40+
• 16 perfect study scores of 50 were achieved (9 of them by Year 11 students)  

One student achieved two perfect study scores 

These are among the best results in the school’s history, and we should be very proud of this exceptional level of academic performance. 

Congratulations to:

Melbourne University Kwong Lee Dow Scholars

• Abinesh Baskaran (Yr10)
• Elizabeth Chu (Yr10)

ICAS English Medal Winners

• Zeana Cole (Yr9)
• Kuhu Sharma (Yr10)
• Chandrima Mukherjee (Yr11) 

PFA Book and Uniform Sale & Bunnings Sausage Sizzle 

I sincerely thank the many members of our excellent Parents and Friends Association (PFA) who spent much of last Saturday selling books, uniforms, and sausages to raise funds to support and assist the school. They had a very successful and enjoyable day and we are very grateful for their enthusiasm, dedication, and assistance. 

I am really impressed by the camaraderie of the group; many have made lasting friendships as a result of their membership. In fact many of the most reliable and enthusiastic participants no longer have children attending the school and Trudi, who runs the annual sale for us, has been with the school since it opened. Her son graduated in 2015, but we are fortunate that she has stayed connected with us and has been an inspiration for others. 

I would encourage any new (or “old”) parents to consider joining the group. You can give as much or as little time and energy as you wish, and it is a wonderful way to connect with other parents and become more involved in the school community. They meet on the first Wednesday of the month at 7.00 pm in the Jean Russell Centre (above the Nossal front office). 

Staffing Changes 

I would like to acknowledge and thank a number of Nossal staff members who will be leaving the school at the end of this year. When the school opened in 2010 with 200 Year 9 students, we had a teaching staff of 16. After 12 years (in 2021), 12 of those foundation staff remain at the school, 2 have retired and 2 are highly successful principals in other schools. At the end of the year, we will be farewelling three of our foundation staff members and several other significant members of our teaching team.   

Ms Michelle Desaulniers has been with Nossal from day one and has made an exceptional contribution to the school as an outstanding Maths teacher, pastoral teacher, and leader of many elements of the co-curricular program and the Sir Gustav Nossal medallion. After many years in education, she is now retiring to spend some time travelling and improving her golf game. 

Ms Kamla Reddy also joined Nossal in 2010 and created the Nossal IRC (library), building it up from an empty room into the popular and vibrant learning and study space it now fills. Like Michelle, Kamla has been a very active part of the life of the school and her commitment and passion for her work and for the school has been inspirational. After dedicating many years to education, she too is retiring, although both she and Michelle may come back to assist us and to do some emergency teaching. We will welcome their continued attachment and ongoing relationship with the school. 

Ms Shelley Veale started at Nossal in 2010 as a relatively inexperienced, but very enthusiastic and talented, PE teacher who has in recent times been the Domain Leader for the Health and PE faculty and has been very actively involved in leading and supporting the myriad Nossal sporting events and carnivals over the past 12 years. Her contribution and enthusiasm have been greatly appreciated by all, and she has gained a promotion position to lead the Health and PE faculty at an independent school from 2022. 

Mr Mat Delaney has been an exceptional Japanese teacher, and Head of House for Garuda and has gained promotion to a leading teacher position in another school. He has made an outstanding contribution to the school, particularly within wellbeing and student leadership, and it will be much less lively and quieter without him. 

Ms Debbie Engler has been a key member of our Humanities team and an expert teacher of accounting in particular. She has previously filled the Domain leadership role, has been a staff representative on School council, and has been a very active contributor to the  life of the school. Debbie is moving to a local independent school from 2022. 

I also acknowledge and thank Mr Chris Skepper who has filled the role of Brass and Big Band instructor, and Ms Cassie Gibson who has been teaching flute at Nossal. They have made excellent contributions to the school music program and will be greatly missed. Chris is retiring to travel and play more music, and Cassie will be focussing on completing her PhD. 

Ms Reshma Ravi and Ms Michelle Lloyd will each be taking 12 months leave in 2022. 

Welcome new staff!

We welcome the following new staff members to Nossal:

• Ms Fiona Vanstan – Domain Leader Health and PE teacher 
• Ms Sumiyo Kamimura – Japanese teacher 
• Mr Chris Sacco – Humanities teacher 
• Mr Kane Armistead – Humanities teacher
• Ms Vaishali Kentish – French teacher 
• Ms Sarah Tchantcho – English teacher 
• Ms Anna Wen – Humanities teacher 
• Mr Josh Blanchard – Education Support: Facilities and Compliance 

Clyde Road Crossing Removal Works 

The crossing removal is proceeding apace and is on track for completion in February 2022. There is a huge amount of work still to be done and there will be significant disruptions to train services and Clyde Road traffic over the next few months. 

From January 10 to February 20 the crossing and Clyde Road will be totally closed to enable completion of the underpass. At this time buses will be replacing trains, and road traffic will be diverted, and very congested I expect. As this coincides with the start of the school year I strongly advise and encourage you not to drive to Nossal unless absolutely necessary and to utilise public transport (trains/buses) if possible. 

To assist us in reducing congestion, the Rail Crossing Removal Authority will fund a free shuttle bus service for Nossal students from outside the Quest Motel in Narre Warren to and from Nossal each morning and afternoon. This will enable parents to drop and collect their students there rather than battling the traffic around Clyde Road. There will be several runs each way each day (depending on demand) and the service will operate until Clyde Road re-opens to traffic in late February. A detailed description of how this will work, including

• dates of service
• bus routes
• timetables

appears on the General News page later in the newsletter.

2022 Resumption Dates 

Please be aware of the following key dates at the start of 2022:

• School Office Re-opens: Thursday 20 January 
• Teaching Staff Return: Friday 28 January 
• Orientation Day: Monday 31 January 
  • Year 9 only
  • Parents welcome 
• Foundation Assembly: Tuesday 1 February 
  • Year 9 and Year 12 only 
• Year 10 & 11 Resume: Wednesday 2 February  

Happy Holidays!

Finally, I wish all members of the Nossal community a safe, healthy, and happy festive season and encourage our staff and students in particular to rest and refresh yourselves so you are well prepared for the year ahead. We are all hoping for a positive start to the year with the end of lockdowns and the associated restrictions, and the opportunity for us to recapture and again enjoy the full gamut of the Nossal experience. 

The school will be closed from December 20 until January 20. 

Should you require assistance during the holidays please email me on roger.page@nossalhs.vic.edu.au or send me a Teams message but be aware  that I may not respond straight away.  If the matter is urgent, I can be contacted on 0408121847. 

Best wishes and warm regards, 

Roger Page 

Principal