From the Principal's Desk

Welcome to the next quarter of the 21st Century!

It has been a pleasure to return once again to the Nossal community this year. The energy with which our students, new and continuing, engage with each other and with their teachers is a constant source of joy for me as both a member and leader of the school.

When the school was founded, one set of ideas which it sought to integrate into its design was the notion of so-called 21st Century Skills. It is sobering to reflect on the fact that we are a quarter of the way through this century, and to ask ourselves whether the skills we thought would be vital for our students remain relevant and worthy of our attention.

The 21st Century Learning Frameworks (of which there were several!) were an attempt to acknowledge the changing context in which schools were operating in the early 2000s. It tried to encapsulate the broadening of the areas of instruction deemed to be important for schools to provide (e.g. into careers skills and personal and emotional capabilities), as well as to acknowledge the increasing prominence of technology in the workplace and in daily life.

Despite the implication that these frameworks were a very new way of looking at learning, one striking feature of their content was its continuity with important elements of education from the century before. I am thinking here of things like literacy and numeracy, critical thinking, collaboration and communication. The need to have an understanding of information and communication technologies was a notable new inclusion at the time, but the reality is that human thinking and learning, and our need for adults who can continue to think and learn as they navigate complex social spaces, has not changed all that much over the years.

I have been thinking about this as we start the new year. We strive to be innovative and reflective, and to both acknowledge and respond effectively to the context in which our students are living and in which they will ultimately be working. Sometimes, though, what we are really doing is re-labelling or re-centering things that have always been important. The key to good, ethical and productive engagement with AI lies in the development of the same things that we need to be good thinkers without AI - a sound knowledge base, a strong capacity for the framing of objective questions and highly-developed skills in critically assessing the answers to those questions. 

Attention and Action

As the school year gets underway each year, I tend to identify a phrase to act as my personal reflective focus. This year, the phrase is "Attention and Action" - a pairing that neatly summarises some of the most important elements of the learning process. 

In the opening of this article, I have demonstrated one element of this pairing by paying attention to where we are and where we came from. In other words, I've engaged in a reflective process, which is an essential part of the learning model which we use with our students!

I made use of the same phrase to encourage our staff to think about what we most need to pay attention to, and then to ask the question of what actions we might take once we've noticed or understood something. The question of what we attend to is at the heart of our reading of the world, and of our ability to learn, and I expect to be reflecting on it - both with and on behalf of our students - throughout 2026.

A Busy Start Bring Welcome Visitors!

The year began, as usual, with our annual Foundation Assembly. This year we were honoured to be joined by Ms Kate Nossal, daughter of our namesake Sir Gustav Nossal, as well as Foundation Principal Mr Roger Page and our outgoing School Council President, Professor Subhash Abhayawansa and other special guests. It was delightful to be able to welcome the Classes of 2026 and 2029, along with some of their parents, in style.

I was particularly grateful to Mr Page and to Prof. Abhayawansa for sharing their insights into how our students can get the best out of their time at Nossal. It was gratifying to notice how their advice chimed together, and boiled down to a simple premise:

"Do not be passive - our motto is "Embrace the Challenge," and I urge you to do so... Make a contribution, support and encourage others - we are much stronger as a group and more successful as a community than as a group of individuals." (R. Page)

Or, to paraphrase Prof. Abhayawansa, Nossal is at its best when its students' voices are to the fore.

The day after our Yr 9 and Yr 12 students started, we were thrilled to welcome back the Classes of 2027 and 2028 at a whole school assembly which also provided a forum in which we could celebrate the return of continuing staff members and the arrival of some new faces. In this early whole-school gathering, I invited our students to reflect on their "why" - to take advantage of this moment when the year is fresh to think a little about their goals and purpose as students and as people in the world. This fundamental question too often simmers below the surface - starting the year by giving it some attention is a good way to frame and motivate our chosen actions as the year progresses.

Despite the fact that we are only just reaching the end of our second full week of classes, we already have much to celebrate. One very significant element in the start of our year has been a visit by 19 students and 2 staff members from our Sister School in Lannion, Lycée Félix Le Dantec. After some camping in Apollo Bay, our colleagues and friends from Europe arrived at Nossal High School on Sunday 7 February. 

You can expect to read more about that in a subsequent visit, but for now I would like to offer my thanks to the staff of the Languages Domain, particularly Ms Marjorie Hau and Ms Miriam Saward who, along with Ms Ffion Bowles and Ms Audrey Alvarez have been supporting both our visitors and the Nossal families who have so generously offered up their homes and time to act as Home Stay hosts. It's clear that all of the students involved - both those from Australia and those from France - are having a wonderful time, and it is very satisfying to see the joyful sharing which all are experiencing. I am grateful to the many staff members, parents and students who have contributed to making this exchange such a success.

In the way of Nossal High School, we have also embarked on an eventful calendar for the term with a number of significant excursions and incursions for our students. One of these was the trip to MSAC which our Year 9s enjoyed as part of their induction to the school. The other was the first outings for our inter-school sports teams (this time for cricket).

Meanwhile our debaters are gearing up for their annual training day later in Week 3, and our students of English and Literature are already thinking about how the enhance their understanding of the texts with which they will be engaging this year. 

Finally, we are in the planning stages for several exciting events later in the year. Parents who enjoy spending time in the great outdoors may wish to volunteer to participate in this year's Duke of Edinburgh adventure events; more information is available later in this bulletin.

Some Further Formalities

Families at the school will be aware that we are in the process of electing our 2026 School Council. We have places for both student and parent representatives opening this year. If you are interested you can find more information later in the newsletter.

At this time of year, we also like to draw your attention to various elements of our policies, and to certain policies from the Department of Education which may be relevant to our students' experiences with us. For this edition, we are providing some direct links to our local policies, and some information about the Department of Education's policies relating to personal property and accident insurance, but you can expect some more detail about these aspects of school life as the term progresses.

Now is also a good time to look at the Important Dates for the term and make sure that you are aware of upcoming events. I would like to remind our parents that they can also access a comprehensive school calendar via Compass. This will help you keep track of things like our upcoming School Photos Day (Monday 16 February) and our House Swimming Carnival (Wednesday 25 February).

Once more, with feeling!

I would like to take this final opportunity to offer my own warm welcome back to Nossal High School for 2026. I look forward to the work we will do together, and to the enjoyment we will find it that shared effort.

Tracey Mackin

Principal