It is hard for me to believe that I have been Principal of this wonderful community now for half a year. The saying that ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ must be true. The year has passed quickly amongst a sea of events, joyful celebrations, outstanding achievements, and at times a few trials.

The speed at which time moves within a vibrant community such as ours reminds us that there is not a moment to waste, no time to coast. Our Year 12s only have 12 weeks remaining until Graduation, and 16.5 weeks remaining until their exams, or in the case of VCAL, hopefully employment.

Community (students, staff, families, and broader community) engagement and commitment, and our steadfast commitment to our values: Humanity, Fairness, Achievement and Curiosity has enriched and rewarded us in multiple ways within class and beyond. Each newsletter is a catalogue of our progress. This one is no different. I have the pleasure of outlining just a few of the notable achievements over the past fortnight.

Victorian Global Learning Awards (DET)

We were honoured to receive the inaugural school award for Excellence in Global Learning. I feel very privileged to ‘inherit’ a school that values global citizenship and intercultural understanding so highly.

I am sure the community will join with me to acknowledge the tireless work of Kate Morris, our International Student’s Program leaders Lixia Wang and Jocelyn Hill, and our VCE Offshore leader, Nick Murphy, along with our entire staff and school community in making Northcote High School a leader in this sphere of education.

Our students were also very successful:

Ai Ai (Eos) Ku won the Year 12 Visual Arts Award
Kiarash Nikoo won a Year 11 Commendation Award for Academic Excellence
Nguyen Kieu Khanh (Candy) Bui won a Commendation Award for Year 11 Student Leadership, and Candy returned from the USA where she is now studying, for the awards ceremony

Monash Scholars Program for outstanding Year 10s

We are delighted for three of our Year 10 students who have been offered a place in the Monash Scholars Class of 2018-2020. Congratulations to:

Brandon Jones
Thejas Thekkekara Vinod
Lily Deady

This program provides the students with mentorship including: networking opportunities, university familiarisation, career advice and development workshops, study skill workshops and other benefits.

Media Students Excel

Congratulations to Dean Ashton and his two Year 11 Media students, Lucinda Breen and Eliza Sparvell who represented the entire North West Region as the only people to conduct voxpops to record reflections from Principals about their learning at the NWR Principal’s Conference. Their work will be featured on DET promotional material and in this newsletter. I received a thank you note from the organising committee, indicating they were truly impressed by our staff and students’ capacities.

The State Schools’ Spectacular

Rehearsals have commenced for this year’s production, which will showcase more than 3000 Victorian government school students in a performance of music, song, dance, skating, puppetry and magic. The Spectacular will be performed twice on Saturday 15 September at Hisense Arena, followed by a 90-minute broadcast on Channel 7 made available on the PLUS7 catch-up website.

Congratulations to the following NHS students who have been accepted as part of the elite performance and production crews for 2018: Rizzie Rotunno (Choir), Layla Maitri, (Viola), Georgiella Walden (Cello), Will Leslie (Bassoon), Hamish Larkin (Lighting Assistant).

Buildings and Grounds updates

Netball Courts:

The Project Manager from Darebin Council predicts that the power, fence, shelter and line plating will be completed by the end of the school holidays and we will be able to use the courts in the first week of Term 3. The final adhesive coating on the surface of the court is reliant on consistently warmer temperatures, so that won’t happen until Term 4.

Performing Arts:

The steel has arrived and has been erected at a very fast pace. It is great to see it rising up out of the ground. It won’t be long before the brick work begins. The predicted completion date is April 2019.

Other:

Various works will be completed during the holiday period to enhance the school environment including: asphalting, carpet replacement in M5 and M6 (computer labs) and unfortunately, fence repairs.

General Achievement Test (GAT)

Well over 400 of our students completed the GAT on Wednesday 13 June, and Nick Murphy supported the 22 Hengshui students to sit the GAT in Hengshui, China – a momentous occasion for both schools.

VCE Offshore Conference

A big thank you to Nick Murphy also, for his work on the preparation for the VCE Offshore Conference in Xian. Ten Northcote High School staff will be attending and presenting at the conference. We depart on Monday July 2.

Mid-Year Music Concerts

I had the pleasure of attending my first formal Northcote Music Concert on Monday 18 June. I am sure Council will join me in thanking the music team for their outstanding work with students, both individually and in ensembles. I was impressed by the full spectrum of performances and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am sorry that I did not get to the second night, due to a prior work commitment. I was also very impressed by the student leaders’ introductions and the smooth transitions between acts. The students’ achievements are a credit to music department under Jackie Brogan’s leadership and the school more generally.

City School Presentations

One of the features of our Year 9 Northcote Model is the prominence of the City School Experience as a compulsory English subject. On Thursday evening we had the pleasure of hearing from small groups of students in the Semester 1 City School classes. This evening was an outstanding showcase of the skills and knowledge our students acquired across the Semester, and the authentic audience of families, friends and staff enabled our students the experience of presenting, responding and justifying their findings.

The quality of presentations was extremely high. I am sure the 6 groups that I heard from were representative of them all. Their presentations demonstrated the development of high level skills in the following areas: research, including developing questions, making hypotheses, data collection, data analysis, data presentation, error analysis, synthesis, prediction, critical thinking, ethical thinking, collaboration, problem solving, networking, presentation, justification, communication, historical examination of secondary sources, essay writing, and I am sure, much, much more.

City School is a show piece in its ability to develop the types of skills we aim to foster more broadly, using student choice and then their own agency in the learning process. Congratulations to all of the teachers who have led the students to achieve great success in this course. We look forward to bigger and better things in Semester 2.

Reclaim Princes Park – Vigil for Eurydice Dixon

Whilst I was attending the Mid-Year Music concert on Monday, thousands of Melburnians gathered in Princes Park, including many of our school community, to mourn the loss of the 22 year old comedian who was killed as she walked home from a gig.

The vigil was a moment to celebrate the life of, and grieve the loss of, Ms Dixon, but it was called Reclaim Princes Park to emphasise the ‘right of all women in the community to be safe in public spaces and parks anytime and anywhere’ (The Age, 21 June, 2018).

This terrible event prompts us to think about what we as a school and community are doing to ensure that violence against others is eliminated. Families may wonder about our own proactive approaches and interventions, so I thought I would use the opportunity to outline some of them for you.

In 2017 we completed a gender equality audit which highlighted the need for our next steps. Our immediate area of priority was to train staff and to trial a workshop with the year 8 students which is called Respect, It Starts with Me - the focus was to provide greater awareness and knowledge relating to violence against women and how to safely intervene or call out disrespectful behaviour within our community; this has been running throughout Semester 1 this year.

Work to date includes:

Staff and student training with Polykala and DET project leads of Respectful Relationships
Embedding the Respectful Relationships Curriculum in Year 9 Health
Developing a new reporting mechanism for students and staff to report disrespectful behaviour (online and in hard copy)
Established the Fem Co - who have recently worked on a video campaign to raise awareness and a call to action - this will be launched in term 3 2018 and within Connect lessons.
In 2017 all year 10 students also participated in the Respectful Relationships curriculum in Health (this resource is called "Stepping out Against Gender Based Violence")
Hosting a parent session with Maree Crabbe - "Its time we talked" the focus was on pornography, but the overall theme related to Respectful Relationships
Running workshops with an organisation called SALT for young men who show violent tendencies.

In addition, we also hold whole school days to raise awareness such as International Women's Day, The International day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Rainbow Day and Diversity Week. This awareness raising work underpins the school’s values specifically Humanity and Fairness. As a community, we should be calling out and reporting any disrespectful behaviour that does not align with these values.

If students or staff hear violent or gender-based language they are encouraged to speak with their Connect Tutor or report it, either online through Compass (Star/School Favourites) or directly to their Sub-School. Behaviour ignored is behaviour condoned.

Farewell to Paula Bisak – Receptionist

On Friday, Paula Bisak announced she is leaving us to take up a full time First Aid role at Eltham High School (which is only 10 mins drive from her home). Of course, Paula is highly qualified and capable to fulfil such a role and her work-life balance will be greatly enhanced. We are sorry that we do not have a school helicopter and helipad so that we could entice her to stay with us.

Paula has been the face of NHS for 9.5 years. She is positive, polite, helpful and so knowledgeable about families, their circumstances and the help they may need. She is also always responsive for staff and students. I have been heard to say that Reception is Perception in a school, and Paula ensures that the community who interact with us perceive us as supportive, professional, efficient and effective. She will be sadly missed from the team.

We will be searching for a replacement over the holidays. It will be advertised on the DET Recruitment website. If you, or someone you know, has the capacity to be the positive face of NHS, and is interested, please contact Kate Challis or myself to discuss it.

Thank you

I finish off this fortnight and Semester with a heartful thank you to all members of the community, in particular to both staff and students. I thank them for their hard work, their drive, their energy and their commitment. Throughout semester, together we have certainly all followed the better path.

Our House: get your tickets

Northcote High School's Production of the musical Our House