From the Principals' Desk 

Together once more

As the school's program begins to wind down, we find ourselves in a season of relative quiet on campus but celebratory gatherings off campus. After a year spent often in limited company, it has been a pleasure in the last fortnight to find ourselves sharing large spaces with groups of Nossalonians from all parts of our community. 

As  you will read later, thanks to the eased restrictions which our high vaccination rates have enabled, we were able to send out our students to one of the first excursions (Team Sports) which has run in some time. We will also have a group of Year 9 Dance students out for an evening excursion to watch Frozen: The Musicalbefore the year ends, which I'm sure they will  thoroughly enjoy.

Year 12 Assembly

On Tuesday 23 November the school had its first in person whole school assembly in many months as the Class of 2021 gathered with their younger peers to present their traditional Final Assembly. It was a joy to be able to mark the end of this, perhaps the most locked-down senior year in history, with a communal celebration. Right up until the day before, the Year 12 students were preparing themselves for a much smaller event which would be broadcast to their younger year levels, but they were both ready and able to embrace the challenge of transforming the event into a live presentation overnight. 

As usual, we were treated to both song and dance from our graduating class, and they were able to enjoy the traditional honour guard flanked by their admiring teachers as they left the school gymnasium. The school was also able to join in the celebrations of Pegasus House, whose current ownership of the Page Cup was announced during the assembly. We look forward to welcoming them back to campus for a final time on Friday 3 December, when the annual Year 12 Celebration Day will be held.

Valedictory Celebration

Following on from their at-school farewell was the Class of 2021 Valedictory Dinner. Held once more at the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, the night was a true gala. Family members and students came together with representative members of both the staff and the alumni to congratulate and pay tribute to the achievements of our Year 12 students. As usual, it was a treat to see our students transformed into young adults as they donned their finery and mounted the stage to receive their graduation certificates (and the crowd's appreciation!). 

This year we were once again delighted to be joined by the school's namesake, Sir Gustav Nossal, who opened the event in his own inimitable style. In a year whose celebrations depend so entirely on the work of the world's immunologists, it was a special honour to share the space with such an outstanding contributor to the field. Dr John Inns, on behalf of the School Council and of everyone present, paid tribute to Sir Gus and his colleagues for their work on humanity's behalf. 

End of Year Assemblies

After a busy week during which they were introduced to their 2022 subjects, informed of their holiday homework commitments and provided with feedback about their final assessments, we were also able to celebrate the end of the on campus learning program for our Year 10 and 11 students. As usual, both assemblies were student-run (with the support of Year Level Coordinators Ms Anna Gonzales and Ms Reshma Ravi) and full of laughter. Our Year 11s are now on holidays, while our Year 10 students move into a week of Work Experience activities to round out their year. 

COVID Update

These celebrations were possible thanks to the ongoing refinement of advice from the DET in relation to COVID cases and safety procedures. We have recently received an updated version of the School Operations Guide which confirms and clarifies our current approach. In line with this, we will continue to encourage our students and staff to remain masked at school since it is very difficult to maintain physical distancing in our environment. This also allows us to hold both year level and whole school assemblies with some confidence.

Visitors are once again allowed on site, but will not be permitted to spend any appreciable time on campus without showing evidence of vaccination when entering the building. Very limited exceptions, including attending briefly to drop off and pick up students or items, exist to this rule but these will be limited to situations where there is no sustained contact with staff or students. It is clear that the guidelines assume that our community will maintain its high level of vaccination into the future as a matter of course.

The other change since our last newsletter is that the distribution and management of Rapid Antigen Testing has been removed from schools and relocated with Department of Health employees. This option does remain in place to help unvaccinated students who are primary close contacts to minimise their absence from school.

PFA Events: Save the Date

As you are perhaps already aware from previous newsletters, the PFA will be running not one but two events on Saturday 11 December. 

The first will be a fundraising barbecue at Bunnings Fountain Gate. PFA members have been very generous with both their time and their donations towards this excellent fundraising opportunity in support of the school, and I encourage you to drop in throughout the day to both say hello and buy a sausage in bread. 

On the same day,  a different but equally committed band of PFA members will be running the annual Second Hand Book Sale. 

• NB: Attendees at this event, whether buying or selling books, will need to check in at the door and show evidence of vaccination.

The sale will open at 9am when students with books to sell can arrive, hire a table in the school gym for $10, and lay out their wares. Buyers will be allowed to enter the gym from 10am and are advised to bring cash as the individual sellers will not have eftpos facilities.

A link to both the 2022 booklist and a list indicating which books can be bought second hand without risk of a negative impact on the student's learning are available via the parent's portal on the school website:

Parent Portal - Nossal High School (nossalhs.vic.edu.au)

Some other items will also be available for sale on the day, including second hand uniforms (via the PFA Uniform Shop) and a range of furniture and hardware supplies which the school currently has under storage and are surplus to requirements.

An end in sight...

Our Year 9 students are now enjoying a break from the classroom as they work together to earn the first points in the 2022 Page Cup Competition. In a challenge which asks them to think both deeply and broadly, they are collaborating within their house groups to respond to this year's big idea:

"There is no such thing as a simple truth: That dogmatic thinking is the greatest obstacle to our progress."

Already, students have heard from two Monash experts about topics as diverse as computational logic and research aimed at the mitigation of climate change.  I look forward with considerable enthusiasm to their final products, which will include a written report, a group oral presentation and a set of five creative responses.  

A final word of thanks

We will have further opportunities to thank the different members of the Nossal community who have helped to make 2021 as successful as possible, but for now I would like to spend a moment reflecting on the specific contribution made by those members of staff who encourage our students in their creative pursuits. The rigours of lockdown were experienced by us all, but there can be no doubt that opportunities for creative production - whether inside or outside the classroom - were important to our students as they processed the year and put in their own work to maintain their connections with their peers and with the school. 

Later in the newsletter, you will see an excellent example of creativity inside the classroom in the form of the Nossalingo publication celebrating the diverse linguistic backgrounds of our students and the cultural products within which these are expressed. You will also be able to share my admiration for the work of our Visual Communication Design students, some of whom have been short-listed for Top Designs. 

We were also recently treated to the internal publication of Words in a Time of COVID, a co-production of our Creative Writing and Art Clubs.

I have already mentioned the enthusiasm with which our Year 12 students embraced the opportunity to perform for their younger peers in both dance and song during their final assembly, and when we release this year's Speech Night video, you will be treated to further examples of our musical students' work.

All of this energy and passion are released as part of the collaborations between our students and the staff, and our students with each other. I would like to commend all of the staff members who encouraged our students to embrace their creative passions this year, in whatever form, and our students for having the courage to do so. I look forward with significant enthusiasm to a full year in which we get to see and celebrate this sort of work in person.

Tracey Mackin

Assistant Principal