From the Principals' Desk

House Performing Arts Festival

What an outstanding event! Each year I wonder how the students will top the previous year’s performances, and each year I am blown away by the quality and creativity displayed in this student managed event. I think the thing that most impresses me is the sheer scale and audacity of the undertaking. While a concert or production presents significant challenges, and is a chance to showcase the talents of our specialist performers, HPAF requires all 200 House members to be actively involved in the conception, and delivery of a unique original themed performance with some challenging parameters and criteria. That the whole event is managed from start to finish by the student House Leaders with relatively minimal input from staff is a testament to their leadership and to the commitment the students have to their respective Houses. As always, there was a wonderful atmosphere on the night with much friendly rivalry tempered by support and admiration for the performances of others, and wide spread appreciation for the courage, creativity and effort that went into each and every performance.

This year we were witness to brilliant musicianship and original compositions; dramatic plot lines and diverse interpretations of the themes; stunning dance routines and choreography; massed, solo and small group singing; surprising multi-media and visual effects; all linked together by the very entertaining and unflappable Masters of Ceremony Broden Krause, Kimiko Rathbone, Tammi Teo, and Jack Braddick. The 200 voice Year 9 Choral group showed great discipline and stage presence and were a very impressive opening to the event.

The competition was fierce with each House producing some outstanding elements and surprisingly diverse interpretations of the rainbow theme, and when the various point allocations were totalled, Phoenix was the victor by a single point over Griffin.

My thanks to all involved (which is basically the whole school – plus some) – but especially to the House, Music and Drama leaders, Mr Woon, Ms Waddington (who celebrated her birthday racing around backstage wrangling the musicians all day and night) Ms Slywka and Mr Butler, for their organisation, and all the staff and students who contributed to the success of the event.

Write a Book in a Day

I commend Ms Reddy and Ms Lee-Ack and their team of dedicated staff and students who spent 12 hours from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm recently completing the Write a Book in a Day challenge. This is a fundraising event for the “Kids Cancer” Charity and the completed books are donated to hospitals for the enjoyment of the patients. Prizes are also awarded by the organisers for the event and Nossal students performed very well last year so we look forward to seeing how this year’s books are judged. This is a very challenging and rewarding group activity requiring significant skills of co-operation, teamwork and problem solving (aside from the creativity and language control) required to produce a substantial original group novel.

NAPLAN

The NAPLAN results were finally released last week and I am a little cautious about us reading too much into the Nossal results for a number of reasons. The tests take place in May in Year 9 so they tell us little about the impact we have had on the student outcomes at that early stage of their time at Nossal, although they are generally a confirmation that we have selected the students well. The other (larger) issue is that the traditional paper NAPLAN test does not adequately measure the top performing students and many Nossal student’s results are higher than what the test measures so for those students there is little likelihood that any growth is able to be accurately documented anyway and the collated results are a poor measure of their actual level of performance.

We undertook the online trial this year where the test is adaptive and this should in the longer term, allow for more accurate data and more valid measures of high performing students. On the data we have across all NAPLAN areas the lowest performing Nossal students are well above the 50th percentile of the state results and our top performing students do not fit onto the graphs provided by the data service. Our Numeracy results are so far off the scale that nearly half of our students are above the highest point on the state graph and can’t be shown on the published graphs and our lowest levels of performance for Nossal students in numeracy sit at about the 80th percentile for the state results.

Year 11 "Value Add" Testing

I share the following data with the students and staff each year as a way of affirming the high levels of performance we see at Nossal. One of my concerns is that over time staff and students tend to normalise our student’s performance levels, and even the culture and behaviours and we can tend to forget that we are operating in a very special and different educational environment.

The value add testing is a useful exercise for us as it enables us to objectively compare the relative performance of Nossal Year 11 students with a large number of Year 11 students from across Australia, and it gives us some very specific improvement data as the test is an upgraded version of the same set of tests they sat for entry when they were in Year 8. We can then track the expected performance trajectory against the actual for the entire cohort and individual students and I’m pleased to say that we now have 5 years of consistent data showing significant value adding for many of our students – that is – they are performing at even higher than expected levels. For the 2018 Year 11 cohort 47% of students showed significant improvement (higher than expected) in one or more of the areas tested. The attached graphs show Year 11 Nossal performance on these tests when compared to the normal distribution. Nossal is the single line and the solid green or yellow bell curves are the normal distribution – the lowest performing Nossal students sit at the “average” level in the normal distribution and the Nossal “bell curve” is strongly skewed to the right as you would expect. I find the data pleasing and affirming as it shows that there are benefits gained from attending a selective school, and it reminds us all of the relative performance levels of the Nossal cohort.

Student Opinion Surveys

We have been working through the analysis of our annual student opinion survey data and I have been conducting focus groups with staff and students to closely examine the data we collected this year and to identify areas of concern. This is an exceptionally useful set of data, although is sometimes rather difficult to fathom, so the focus groups enable much closer interrogation of the results and clarification of the implications and reasons for the responses.

One of the areas we have been looking at quite closely is student learning confidence and engagement, and the gender differences that are quite marked at Year 11 in particular. I have been in the fortunate position to have seen the same data sets for several other local secondary schools and the 4 selective schools have shared their full student survey results and I am greatly reassured as the Nossal data across nearly all areas is exceptionally strong, and in comparison to our fellow selective schools, is higher across most measures. As these are our benchmarks, and have some of the best data in the state, I am very pleased that our students are generally highly positive about their experiences at Nossal and very well connected to the school. However, there are areas of concern for us, and some anomalies that we need to explore further and determine what if any action is required, and this will form a key part of our self-evaluation this year and inform some of the key improvement strategies in the new Strategic Plan.

Some Concerns

Litter – I have been less than impressed with the state of the school on occasion lately and have been reminding students and staff about the privileged environment we enjoy at Nossal where the students have open and unfettered access to most areas of the school most of the time. I don’t want us to ever be like many other schools where the students cannot be trusted to look after the facilities and are restricted in their access. However, I do expect everyone to do their part and to not litter, or to call out or pick up litter as they see it. I am distressed that people will allow others to make a mess, or will ignore it – therefore condoning the behaviour and the mess. I ask that we all make a very conscious effort to address this proactively, rather than having to impose punitive or restrictive conditions.

Uniform – We have had some challenging issues around the enforcement and interpretation of our uniform guidelines and I have been working with senior student leaders and staff to address their concerns about the process of enforcement and to clarify any confusion around what is expected and what is acceptable. I think the guidelines are quite clear, but we have refined some of the detail to eliminate any misinterpretation. The diary contains a section outlining the expected dress codes and I do expect all students to follow them, and all staff to respond appropriately to any breaches.

Attendance – There are a number of students who have a large number of “unexplained” absences recorded and I ask that parents make sure that they provide notes or a phone call to clarify the absence. We have an expectation that students will attend 100% of their classes, although some absences (illness etc) are obviously unforeseen and exceptions to this. Any classes missed can have a negative impact on performance and under VCE guidelines final results may be impacted if attendance levels do not meet the minimum requirements. I ask that parents contact us should they have any concerns about attendance, and that parents do not give permission for their children to miss organised school events and activities, even if the students are suggesting they are “optional” or that they are not interested in participating. There are very few “optional” school events and we expect and require full attendance and participation from all students. Please check with us if you are unsure.

Punctuality – I remind all students that they need to be in attendance (in their tutorial) by 8.48 am each morning. I see quite a number who are regularly late, or who make little obvious effort to get to their tutorial (or classes in some cases) on time. This is disrespectful, disruptive and inappropriate and has a negative impact on the work of their teachers and the information flow.

Staffing news

I am about to conduct a series of interviews for new staff for 2019 and will be calling for student nominees for the selection panels as we have a number of vacancies to fill.

Mr James Mustafa has resigned and will not be returning to Nossal. Ms Nancy Waddington will continue in the role of Music Director and I thank her for stepping in and taking on this key responsibility.

Ms Neela Haryani has had to resign due to ill health and we have managed to secure the services of two very experienced replacement teachers (Mr Dennis Cunningham and Ms Kat Webster) to cover her classes until the end of the year.

Congratulations to...

The Nossal Wind Symphony under the leadership of Ms Nancy Waddington who recently achieved a Gold Medal at the state music competition.

Nicholas Ilic of Year 9 who is the State Junior Chess Champion and will be heading to Greece to compete in an international chess championship next month.

Ryan Venpin of Year 11 who continues to perform at very high levels in badminton and will be representing the state in the Under 19 squad at the national championships in Perth.

Roger Page

Principal