Welcome! (And Welcome Back!)

As I write, we are have finished our first full week of classes, and the House Swimming Carnival is occupying our time and attention. It is a pleasure to reflect on the start of 2025, just as it has been a joy to experience. Our students - new and continuing - have moved smoothly into their routines, and have as usual filled the school with energy and purpose. Our staff have likewise returned to school ready to embrace the challenge of a new year.

Discomfort and Discovery

As regular readers of my missives will know, each year I like to reflect on some aspect of learning which seems to me both relevant and important. In recent years, we have reflected together on the joy which learning brings to our lives, and on the fact that good learning requires our courage, but that the courage required is much decreased by our curiosity. It is no accident, I believe, that the characteristics of good learners are also characteristics which we find impressive in humans throughout history. After all, it is our capacity to learn and change which has made us such an impactful species.

This year, my thinking has been naturally led on from the contrast of "courage and curiosity" to the notions of discomfort and discovery as essential parts of the learning process - and necessary ingredients in any recipe which allows us to create a joyful learning environment. Learning is not comfortable - it requires us to expend effort, when it might be easier to stay still, and it also often challenges our comfortable ideas about ourselves and the world. In order to learn, we must often first commit ourselves to unlearning things which we have either misunderstood or made unfounded assumptions about.

We must also learn about ourselves and, often, demand more of ourselves than we might have done before. I used to have a sign pinned next to my desk that read "Do it properly the first time!" This was not an expectation that I would always know the right answer. Rather, it was a reminder about my process. I had discovered that if I cut corners - as I was sometimes tempted to do - the result was usually that I had to re-do the task three times in order to fix the mess I'd made and then confirm that my new approach was in fact the right one. Far better to

do it slowly and rigorously in the first instance.

We are all aware, I think, that we are working through a time when many of our assumptions and expectations are being challenged. In the field of education, the question of the ultimate impact of generative AI is still an open one, and one which seems likely to have far-reaching implications. As educators of highly able students, we need to think about these sorts of issues rigorously and with an open mind to both the risks and the benefits of these new ways of working.

With that in mind, I challenged our staff during our first Wednesday PL session to spend some time thinking about some very big ideas, like "What are schools for?" and "What might schools be like in the future?" It was, in some ways, an uncomfortable conversation, but it was also one of those moments when I got to see our staff in action at their most impressive - when they are grappling together as learners. The engaged and thoughtful discussion, which included not just teaching staff but also our talented Education Support staff, was a reminder to me of what a pleasure it is to work with people who value learning in all its forms.

Welcome... and welcome back!

It is a pleasure to welcome a number of new staff to the team this year, and to welcome back some familiar faces who are rejoining us in Term 1.

I would first like to welcome Ms Ffion Bowles who joins us as Assistant Principal: Curriculum and Pedagogy. You can learn more about Ms Bowles' extensive expertise and areas of interest later in the newsletter (Meet Our Staff), but for now I'd like to thank her for joining us. I look forward to working with her to continue to grow the school, to the benefit of our students.

Along with a new Assistant Principal, we are also joined by the following new staff:

Matthew Alborough (Mathematics)
John Baxter (Humanities)
Hajin Kim (Humanities)
Brodie O'Hollaroan (Instrumental - Voice)
Kirsten Overton (Accounts Payable)
Georgia Pashias (Mathematics - Term 1)
Joshua Pritchard (Health & PE)
Miriam Saward (French)

Finally I would like to welcome back

Michelle Desaulnier (Mathematics - Term 1)
Ian Pegram (Mathematics - Term 1)
Kaori Teramoto (Language Assistant - Japanese)

It is a pleasure to be working with these familiar - and expert! - folk once again this year.

Start of Year Ceremonies

As usual, we began our year with some important ceremonial moments. At our annual Foundation Assembly our students were lucky to receive advice and encouragement from both our Foundation Principal, Mr Roger Page (OAM, FACEL), and from our School Council President, Professor Subhash Abhayawansa . Both speakers emphasised the importance of enjoying the full breadth of what the school has to offer, and the richness of the experiences and memories which involvement in the life of the school outside the classroom can bring.

From me, the students heard a little bit about the way in which foundations are important, but also about the fact that if we are persistent in our efforts and slowly build on those foundations - and especially if we are working towards a shared goal - we can establish great things.

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights - and the many developments which stemmed from the creation of that document - seemed a worthy focus and exemplar for such a reflection. As an educator, thinking about the success of this collaborative effort to improve the world is an important source of hope and optimism, especially given the recent foundation of a new UN Declaration - the Declaration on Future Generations.

The second day of the year brought with it our first Whole School assembly. This assembly is a delightful tradition in the school during which we welcome our Year 9 students not so much to the school as to their Houses, and our students welcome back our staff.

Our school captains also took the opportunity to share their chosen theme for the year with the group. Unlike recent groups of school leaders, who have foregrounded short phrases and mottos as part of their themes, this year's team are reflecting on a number: 99.94

As the captains themselves observed,

We all share 99.94% of our DNA, meaning that the genetic difference between individual humans today is 0.06% on average. This means that despite our individual differences of 0.06%, we are a lot more alike than we realise. The idea of having a number as our theme is there to remind us that collective potential takes precedence over competition and division at Nossal.

New Roles, New Spaces

In addition to the formal elements of the start of Term 1, our students naturally experience a number of transitional moments as they move through these early weeks. For our Year 9 students these are quite clearly signposted. The iWeek program, coupled with all sorts of diagnostic tasks designed to help their classroom teachers understand a little more about what each student's specific learning needs might be, as all all new experiences for the Class of 2028.

In the same way, the Class of 2025 is also crossing a number of thresholds. They will soon be receiving their Year 12 jackets, for example, and will be attending their final camp with us later in the term. During this week and next week, they are also taking part in a series of focus groups with me in which I ask them for insight and advice into an important aspect of the school's life. These sessions - called the Chrysalis Conversations - are co-developed by myself and the School Captaincy team, and always include some reflection on the data sets which the school's leadership team use in their decision making. So far I have heard the thoughts of two groups of Year 12s, and I am already grateful for their insight and ideas. I look forward to hearing what the rest of the cohort has to say!

A New PFA Gathering

The other very pleasant "first" which I have been involved in this Term was the first Nossal PFA meeting for the year. The meeting was held on the first Wednesday of the term, and as a result took some of our regular members by surprise. Despite this (and with the addition of pizza, cookies and lively conversation!) a happy group spent some delightful time together, getting to know each other and sharing some experiences of the school in general and the PFA in particular. I hope to see a much larger turnout for the next meeting, which is the group's Annual General Meeting:

Nossal PFA AGM

7:00pm Wednesday 5 March 2025

Jean Russell Centre

(Main building, above Reception)

I warmly recommend involvement in the PFA to both new and existing parents. We are not a community school, and our families are spread across a wide area. These opportunities to meet and to cultivate friendships (and networks!) tend not to occur as naturally for our school as for some others, and the PFA is an excellent example of one of the ways we can work together to overcome that barrier!

Some Reminders

As I draw my reflections to a close, I do of course have some reminders for you. These observations are designed to help make life at the school as smooth and stress-free as possible.

Useful Information

The newsletter contains a number of regular pages which you may find useful. These include:

From the Office: includes things like office hours, first aid and absence processes
Road works updates: a regular feature while both Monash University and the Major Roads Project Victoria are working on roads in our area
Careers News: if you have a more senior student interested in attending open days and the like

This edition we also have information for students on how to set up their laptops (should they still be struggling with this) and of course our usual entries from the different domains of study within the school (like our Music folk!).

Compass: Your One Stop Shop for Nearly Everything

A quick reminder to be regularly checking Compass, and to make full use of its capabilities. You can

see notices relevant to your student's life at the school
update absence information
provide consent for activities
pay parent contributions
check the school calendar
see your student's timetable

Uniform on Hot Days

As you are aware, Nossal students wear the summer uniform during Term 1. Some of our students were a bit confused about our expectations in relation to wearing a blazer when the weather is hot. Here I am quoting from a post made to students last week:

The basic rule is that your jumper should not be the outer garment. This means that any of the following combinations for is fine:

dress/shirt on its own
dress/shirt + blazer
dress/shirt + jumper + blazer

The only thing not on the list is (dress/shirt + jumper and no blazer).

On a hot day, you don't have to be wearing your blazer (and in fact we would advise against it because overheating isn't very healthy!). When you are going home, you can leave your blazer behind at school BUT that does mean you have to come to school in the morning in just dress/shirt (because you won't be wearing your jumper as the outer garment). If you think you'll be too cold in the morning, you should carry your blazer home with you instead.

Parent/Visitor Entry to School Buildings

It is important that the school have a good sense of who is currently in the building and/or on the grounds at any given moment, both for the safety of our students and in case we should experience an emergency while someone is visiting. For this reason, we ask that you always enter through the front door near Reception as soon as you arrive at the school and, if you are attending for any length of time, that you sign in. Visitors are then asked to wait in the foyer near reception until they can be accompanied by a staff member to the appropriate location within the school.

COVID and other illnesses

Unfortunately COVID-19 is the gift that keeps on giving, and parents have already received some advice from us about maintaining their vigilance in this space. The presence of some COVID infections in our school within the first two weeks is, however, also an opportunity for us to think about how we deal with illness in the school. Our students are often very reluctant to miss class, and will sometimes insist on coming to school despite being quite unwell. When they do this, they tend to learn badly for a long time (sometimes up to two weeks) rather than missing a small amount of learning (perhaps a day or two) which can easily be recovered when they return to school.

We always recommend that our students stay home when they are sick and rest, so that they can recover and return to us more quickly. This is the best thing for them, and it's also the best thing for their classmates (who are then not exposed to an infection themselves).

Upcoming Events

Finally, it is my pleasure to flag some upcoming events:

Our Year 9 Parent Meet & Greet will be happening on Thursday 13 February
School Photos will be taken on Friday 14 February
The final meeting of the 2024 School Council will be held on Tuesday 18 February.

At that meeting, I will certainly be taking the opportunity to thank our hard-working councilors for their work throughout the year last year. This group has been consistently thoughtful in their contributions and diligent in their oversight of the school's governance. The school will be running an election process for the 2025 Council next week; I invite you to keep alert to information about this process, and to get involved!

Once again, welcome to Nossal for 2025. I look forward to both braving the discomfort and celebrating the discoveries we will make together this year!

Tracey Mackin

Principal