From the Principal's desk 

Hello Community Members

Well there goes another term!! Time sure does fly when you are having fun and Term 3 has certainly delivered again on that front. 

There has been a great many activities around the college and I can share some here:

GROWTH - CUST Training

There were some inspiring messages and learning from our Professional Learning / Student free day on August 26.  

All staff undertook the Cultural Understanding and Safety Training (CUST) program. It personally, offered so much in terms of our moral purpose and the vital role we have to ensure that our future generations are aware of the rich, powerful and inspiring First Nations culture that we must celebrate and revere. 

We again sincerely thank the entire Barwon Area Koorie workforce for what was an outstanding day of professional learning. 

GROWTH - Our School Review

Every few years the Department of Education and Training ask schools to look at themselves with a view to having a panel spend time looking at some key elements of what we do and providing feedback for our improvement. Our entire school review process including the development of our new Strategic Plan and college targets has now been completed. The feedback from our Review Panel has been so positive around the welcoming nature of all campuses, the strong sense of order across the college, the observation of the clear work that has been completed to ensure that curriculum is well planned and guaranteed across all learning areas and the high capacity and knowledge across all staff that the panel interacted with. 

The panel also commented so positively on our students - their friendliness and positivity for their school and ability to discuss their learning. 

This entire process should be so reassuring to our entire school community as the overall picture of Northern bay College is one of positivity and growth.

GROWTH - NAPLAN News

This week we received our individual and cohort results for the 2022 NAPLAN tests and there really is so much to celebrate. 

One data set that is available is the five-year trend report which represents cohort achievement year on year across each of the five NAPLAN dimensions. 

Across this series of reports  it is so wonderful to note that in every instance across Reading, Writing and Numeracy our cohorts outperformed last year's performance and in the majority of areas provided the highest performance across the last five years. 

There really are some huge wins in this initial look at our data with the other notable factor being the far increased level of achievement of our students at the 90th percentile - an indication of the stretch that is occurring in programs across the college. This is certainly a moment to celebrate and something our students and staff should be most proud of. Congratulations!!

GROWTH - Polly Farmer Foundation - Dare to Dream

Recently we were very fortunate to be identified by the Polly Farmer Foundation as the newest location for a ‘Follow the Dream’ (FTD) site. The Polly Farmer Foundation, now in its 25th year, is a strength based academic enrichment program that supports First Nations students to reach their dreams and aspirations through tutoring, mentoring and alumni programs. 

With over 40 sites already established across the country, Northern Bay will be the first site developed in Victoria. The FTD initiative will provide huge support for our students and their families and comes with a rich history of success. Stay tuned for more news on what this means for our students.

COLLABORATION - Barwon North Kinder Group

Representatives from all our feeder Kinder programs in our local area were invited to the college to engage in some very positive transition conversations. This is the first time this group has been together with our Prep Transition team since the pandemic and allowed for some great sharing of ideas on how to further strengthen the links and reciprocal learning that can happen across our environments. 

It was a most successful occasion with great thanks to all involved for contributing so positively.

KINDNESS - RUOK? Day

The college was a Sea of Yellow yesterday as we celebrated RUOK? day. The day was full of positive messages and the importance of checking in on each other was front and centre throughout the day. It was wonderful to see staff and students sharing with each other their own strategies for keeping themselves grounded but also reinforcing the important role we all have as members of a community to include and check in on each other. 

A highlight of the day was the video put together by Ash Hall and the wellbeing team where members of our wider community (and a special guest!) reiterated the important message of RUOK?  Make sure you check out the Wellbeing page for this video and much more!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to raise awareness for the RUOK? message.

COLLABORATION - The Victorian State School Spectacular

Back at the start of term two, 36 students, from across all 5 campuses, began rehearsals for the Victorian State School Spectacular. After months of practice the big event took place on 10 September. Although they had 12 hour day rehearsals on Thursday and Friday they gave everything as dancers and singers with amazing energy -  they were just terrific during two 3 hour Performances!

I was fortunate to attend the afternoon performance and it cannot be understated just what an amazing show it is. one that all community members really should put on their 'Bucket List.'  It truly was 'Spectacular' and we should be so proud of the students who represented NBC so wonderfully. Mrs Baulch (Dance) and Mrs Bowden (Choir) shared with us that other schools and students were commenting on our wonderful, kind and caring our group is.  Check out the Programs page for more photos! Spectacular!  

GROWTH - Book Week Celebrations

Again this year Book Week served up some stunning examples of the lengths the NBC Staff team will go to in order to engage and make learning fun for our students. Evidence would certainly demonstrate that NBC loves a Dress Up and truly leans in hard to any opportunity to show off some creative flare. But more than just an opportunity to Dress Up like Peter Pan book Week also promotes the important concept of Reading for Pleasure. The myriad of costumes and adventures represented in the costumes do so much to promote the wonderful joys of reading. Well done and thank you to all staff who worked hard to promote our 2022 Book Week. 

KINDNESS - Vale Queen Elizabeth II

On behalf of our college community I would like to acknowledge the passing of her late majesty, Queen Elizabeth and pass on our condolences. Most people in our community have never known another monarch in their lives and she will be missed as our Head of State. 

Her late majesty is known for her unwavering commitment to her role over 70 years and was tireless in meeting people and celebrating their achievements and cultures. She visited Geelong twice, in 1954 and again in 1988. 

One of her passions that you may have heard in the media was a greener environment in our world. She established the ‘Queens Canopy’ to plant native trees. 

This year, the Australian Government invited community groups to apply for a small grant to celebrate the 70 year Queens Platinum Jubilee. We were fortunate to have been accepted for a grant and each campus will have a small area dedicated to this project.   

KINDNESS - Healthy Teeth @ NBC

The State Government, via our local MP John Eren, provided each student a Bamboo Toothbrush as part of an Environment and Oral Health awareness campaign.

From left Shabeer, Martin and Maryam were happy to accept their own toothbrush and were eager to try them out.

COLLABORATION - The Rotary Club of Kardinia

This week a special Rotary Club meeting took place at the Geelong Industry Trade Training Centre (GITTC). The wonderful support the College receives in many ways from this group is recognised each year with a breakfast and the members come willingly to see what new experiences they can gain from Northern Bay and whether we can share mutual benefits for our students.

At this breakfast our college leaders Dishanth, Farah and Shar'k Pru welcomed and thanked the members and gave a few insights into their pathways and our college. 

The catering for Breakfast was done by our own Hospitality students working out of the GITTC from early morning to serve at 7.30am under the guidance of Chef Bal. Ms Prendergast and I were extremely impressed by our leaders and catering staff as always. Mr Massari then took a guided tour of the GITTC and the Rotary members were equally impressed with the facilities at the centre.

Wishing you all a very safe and relaxing break, and see you ready for Term 4 on October 3.

Regards,

Mr Scott Diamond

College Principal