English News
Debating Training
Fortunate debating students were privileged with the invaluable opportunity of having the Nossal Alumni guest speaker Nadia Hadzikadic guide keen and intrigued 2024 Nossal debating students on February 16, 2024 over the course of four insightful periods.
Debating is the sport for individuals who are invested in the notions of public speaking, critical thinking and learning new things, for it allows one to increase the breadth of their knowledge in a diverse range of fields and accumulate new perspectives of world.
Debating encourages one to think beyond one's personal line of sight and to rather explore the viewpoints of a wide range of stakeholders with different ideas and values in mind as to what they might cherish otherwise.
Nossal was extremely fortunate to have former 2021 School Captain Nadia Hadzikadic return for the third consecutive year to lead debating students and prepare them for what awaits us in our debating journeys ahead. After having been part of the famed Nossal debating 'Dream Team', she is now pursuing Biomedicine at Melbourne University and is an executive of the Biomedicine Students' Society Committee.
Nadia was generous enough to enlighten Nossal students on the fundamentals of debating and everyone who attended the session was more than grateful for her presence.
Over the course of the session, students were educated on the rules, requirements and the expectations of ethical debating. This was followed by a competitive quiz on debating to test the knowledge of Nossal debaters, before preparing for upcoming debate topics, which was followed by an example debate performed by exceptionally talented Year 11 students.
All those who attended the session thank Nadia sincerely for her presence as she had laid the table for another year of Nossal's debating success for yet another year. Best of luck debaters!
Anhad Panchhi - Debater
Year 10
Literature Tea Party
On Friday 23 February, Dr Schroor’s Unit 1 and 2 Literature class hosted a regency-style tea party, inspired by Jane Austen’s classic novel; Pride and Prejudice, which they are currently studying.
Dressed in bonnets and bowties, the class shared the various treats they had each brought, while discussing the novel. The main topic of interest was the role and purpose of food in Pride and Prejudice, with a multitude of different quotes and interpretations being analysed and discussed.
Jane Austen is one of the most famous writers in English literature, with her works still being read all over the world, despite having written them over 200 years ago, and have been adapted countless times for TV, film, theatre and radio.
Austen was very careful and thorough in her writing, choosing language and other elements very specifically, in order to convey deeper meaning and express her own personal views and judgements.
As such, by unpacking small, and at first, seemingly insignificant passages in the novel, VCE Literature students are able to unlock a whole new perspective on the text and open a gateway to Jane Austen’s mind and life.
Our tea party is just one step in the journey of our close analysis skills development, which is a crucial requirement for the VCE Literature course.
The VCE Literature students look forward to continuing to study Pride and Prejudice and developing our skills along the way.
Creative Writing Club Visiting Speaker
The most wonderful experience for new minds such as ourselves happened on Monday 26 February, at a workshop run by our esteemed alumna leader, Jashan Suran.
She is an amazing writer who has exhibited to the wider community many pieces of her own via various competitions and inspires us to do the same. She galvanized us to nurture our artistic minds with beauty of words, which hold the power to captivate the one who reads them, transporting them to a new world- the one we create.
The workshop was very insightful and touched on the key points of writing such as structure, determination and practice - pillars which are pivotal to writers such as myself who aspire to create a mark for themselves in this world.
The significance of register and tone was also discussed by Jashan, and the consideration of the audience to whom our writing is directed. It was a very informative experience, and I was able to take away not only how crucial these elements are to writing, but also the roles they play in shaping our thoughts, ideas and feelings.
I have loved this experience and will cherish many more of the opportunities that will come my way and shape my thoughts and ideals.
To end my spiel, I would like to address Jashan and my peers who have made this experience so much more special: thank you all!
Ananya Syal (Y10)