From the Principals' Desk
Dear Parents...
Nossal Pulse
While Ms Mackin wrote of it being an “ordinary” (in the routine sense) time period at Nossal in the previous Newsletter, the pressure and workload has ramped up considerably in the past 2 weeks and many students are undertaking important assessment tasks and preparation prior to the end of Semester one. This can be a stressful time for students (and parents and staff) and I remind you all of the excellent support and counselling services provide by our well being team and Sandy and Renee in particular.
Please try to be self-aware and proactive about your own workload and mental health; use the support services available (sooner rather than later) and keep an eye on your mates and assist them where you can too. Never be afraid, reluctant nor too proud to ask for help or support. This applies to students, parents and staff – the school is here to serve you and to ensure that each individual achieves the best possible outcomes.
Premier’s VCE Awards
I had the pleasure of attending the Melbourne Convention Centre last week for the annual Premier’s Awards ceremony. Each year, the highest performing VCE students from the previous year are acknowledged and presented with a prestigious award by either the Premier or Deputy Premier/Education Minister. Achieving such an award is hugely impressive and around 300 from 50,000 students were recognised this year.
Three Nossal students achieved this accolade at these awards – stellar performances from Zain Ansalde (Class of 2018) for Specialist Maths (teacher Ms Michelle Desaulniers); Tim Fung (Class of 2019) for Further Maths (teacher Mr Andrew Witt) and Alyssa Khoa (Class of 2018) for Health and Human Development (teacher Mr David Haverfield). I thank the teachers, parents and of course the students, for their impressive achievements.
Activities and Events
Year 10 SEN Cup – the four selective schools staged the now annual Year 10 competition in each of the schools last week – with each school hosting two events and teams of staff and students travelling to other schools to compete. This is done in the spirit of friendly competition and to build stronger links between our four unique schools. I joined the Nossal team at Suzanne Cory where we had lots of fun and mixed competitive success; the Melbourne High boys had come to win and were highly competitive and very committed. It was an enjoyable and successful day, even though Nossal were soundly defeated after winning the Cup last year, and Melbourne High were victorious across the board. I thank all who participated and assisted with this event.
PESA (Plain English Speaking Awards)– on the same day as the SEN Cup Nossal hosted the PESA regional finals and Nalini Jacob-Roussety was selected as the overall winner and will proceed to the next round. A fantastic and well-deserved result against a very hot field of contenders.
Community Service – our senior students have been undertaking a community service program at Puffing Billy Railway and they have been doing outstanding work, winning high praise and accolades from the Puffing Billy staff and completing some much valued improvement works along the tourist railway line.
NEST (Nossal Environmental Sustainability Team) under the excellent leadership of Ms Mandeltort has been nominated as a finalist in the annual Resource Smart Schools Sustainability Awards, for their continued excellent work to improve the local environment and to highlight environmental issues and solutions.
The Nossal Wind Orchestra - achieved a Silver Medal in the Victorian Schools Music Festival – a testament to their hard work and dedication and the inspirational leadership of Ms Waddington and the music team.
DAV Debating – my wife and I attended the debates last week and were able to witness a clean sweep of victories by all the Nossal debating teams. The debating has grown significantly in the past 2 years and we are one of the most active (and feared) schools in our division. I commend the staff and students involved for their passion, courage and dedication.
Year 12 Formal – I am writing this newsletter rather than making myself beautiful for tonight’s Formal, so will not be a contender for Best Dressed, but am looking forward to seeing our students and staff dressed in their finery and cutting loose on the dance floor at the Brighton International for what I am sure will be a memorable and enjoyable evening....and then it is back to study and report writing for us all....
The Great Community Raffle -
please keep selling and buying those tickets – you should all have received at least one $20 book of tickets by now – please ask your children if you have yet to see them. Please support us in selling every ticket this year – as we have big plans for some fantastic outdoor spaces for students and will be committing the (hopefully) $15,000 we raise to helping achieve this. More tickets are available if you are able to sell more than the single booklet.
GAT & Digital Delivery Day – June 12 will be a Digital Delivery Day for Years 9 and 10 students, and students undertaking any Year 12 studies will undertake the GAT (General Achievement Test) at school that morning. This will involve over 400 Nossal students and is an important part of the final VCE assessment process.
Entry Testing for Year 9 2020 – will take place on Saturday June 16 at the Royal Exhibition Buildings where a record number of applicants (close to 3700) will be examined. Nossal numbers were slightly up again this year with over 2200 preferencing Nossal.
Vacancy Testing for Years 10 and 11 – will occur after the GAT on June 12 – and there are over 140 applicants for an as yet unknown number of vacancies. Past experience would indicate that there may be 3 or 4 vacancies at Year 10 and 1 or 2 at Year 11, so this too is highly competitive.
Chess Club – I am pleased to announce that both the junior and Senior Nossal Chess teams have recently qualified for the State Championship.
Recent Media Reports
You may be aware from media reports that a former employee at Nossal High School was recently convicted of a criminal offence. I understand that this news may be concerning for members of our school community.
The Government has introduced significant reforms as a result of the Betrayal of Trust report, including new child safety standards. In 2016 we implemented those standards at Nossal High School to promote the safety of the children.
Nossal High School requires all adult staff to undergo suitability checks and annual updates, including registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching for our teaching staff and Working with Children Checks for volunteers and Education Support staff.
I want to assure you that arrangements have been put in place at the school to support staff and students who are affected by this news, including face-to-face counselling through Student Support Services.
I encourage you to contact myself or a member of our leadership team if you have any concerns about this matter or would like additional supports to be arranged for your child – my door is always open.
Our priority continues to be the health and wellbeing of our students.
2019 School Production – The Little Mermaid
I encourage everyone to purchase tickets to attend at least one of the three performances of this event (either June 20, 21 or 22). It will be a wonderful evening where you will witness a broad range of talents and abilities working together to produce what will be a most enjoyable, surprising and entertaining show.
It is always an eye-opening experience to see the depth of talent and abilities of our students, particularly in the performing arts areas, and there are always some surprising appearances and exceptional performers. Ticket sales have been quite disappointing to date – please help us fill the auditorium for each performance and to support and reward the hard work of our performers and their support crew who have put in many additional hours to make this an enjoyable and successful event. https://www.trybooking.com/BCQNY
Happy Birthday to Sir Gus
Sir Gustav Nossal joined us last Thursday to help create some promotional photos and videos for our website and online media, and as it was only a couple of days past his 88th birthday we were happy to be able to share cake and sing him Happy Birthday. As always Gus was highly engaged and had very positive and inspirational things to say to our students and was his usual generous self in assisting us and supporting us. I am pleased to see that he may be as proud to have us named after him, as we are to be named after him. We are indeed fortunate to have access to our own National Living Treasure, and to benefit from his wit, wisdom and sage advice. Happy Birthday Gus – we hope to celebrate many more with you.
10th Anniversary Celebrations
If anyone would be interested in assisting with the planning for our 10th anniversary celebrations, please contact me directly. I hope to convene a small planning group of students, staff, parents and alumni to start to plan some events and activities for late Term 3 and would greatly appreciate your input and advice.
Roger Page
Principal