From the Principal

Celebrations, community-making and building NHS

As you will read in this newsletter, there has been much to celebrate since the last newsletter, including:

Jazz concert

The Jazz Concert was truly magnificent. It was of such high quality, if you closed your eyes you would never know that it was a school concert. Thank you to the entire Music Team including the Friends of Performing Arts who provided food and drink to the audience. I also thank Tessa Bodenham and the Senior Stage Band for making me sound so good when I sang, Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps. It was also great for students to see the staff such as Ros Jones and Radha Claridge performing as outstanding musicians in their own right, and for them to see the Melba Women’s Big Band perform such outstanding music.

Congratulations to Anthony Cavalieri who received the annual Brian Brown Jazz musician award, presented again this year by Brian's wife, Ros.

Sister School Visit

We bade farewell to our guests from Huaibei on Thursday 23 August, in the morning. It was a highly successful visit, further cementing and celebrating our 19 year relationship. A big congratulations to Jocelyn Hill and Lixia Wang and the entire International Students’ Program team as well as our Chinese teachers, Yongzhong Zhu, Chile Chiang and Jennifer Wang. The concert on Wednesday provided a great opportunity for our Chinese students to perform for an authentic audience, and it was lovely to see a mix of students, staff and homestay families present.

International Students Public Speaking

Congratulations are in order for Martin Ramsay for his organisation and stewardship over the State-wide International Students’ Public Speaking Competition hosted by Northcote High. It was a finely tuned, warm and quality evening, with 15 schools and approximately 30 speakers. Rebekah Keenan-Mount and I had a wonderful time as judges. The confidence and proficiency of the speakers, who were speaking in their second (or in some cases, third) language was truly remarkable and joy to listen to.

Three Northcote students competed on the night, and Ngoc Diep (Jane) Nguyen won in her section of the competition. Phuong Dung and Isabella Zhang also spoke exceptionally well. Thank you again to the International Students’ Program staff – Lixia, Jennifer, Jessica and Jocelyn for their support.

State Finals - Sport

Congratulations to the Sport Team (Jack O’Shea and Pauline Drinan) and the staff who are coaching our various sporting teams. I am pleased to report we are excelling in multiple sports.

• Senior Boys AFL State Final – coached by Josh McDonald to become State Champions for the second year in a row
• Intermediate Girls Soccer State Final
• Intermediate Boys Netball State Final
• Year 8 Girls Soccer – State Final
• Senior Boys Table Tennis was runner’s up in State Final

Violet Tolhust – Nominated for Darebin Young Citizen of the Year Award

Congratulations to Violet for her nomination. The ceremony was held on Friday 24 August.  

Strings, Wine and Cheese

There was yet another outstanding evening from the music team at the annual Strings Wine and Cheese evening on Tuesday. Again, the Friends of Performing Arts provided the sustenance and their committed support throughout the evening. Joachim Hapgood won the inaugural Strings Award and was presented with it on the evening.

I am sure you will join with me in congratulating all music staff, but in particular Jackie Brogan and Kirsten Kelly-Cleeve for their dedication, hard work and quality leadership and organisation. 

Debating Association of Victoria Finals – NHS Hosting

Martin Ramsay is a busy person! He also facilitated the Debating Association of Victoria play-offs here at NHS on Wednesday 29 August. Schools from all over Victoria gathered here to fight it out, amongst them 3 teams from Northcote. Two of our teams were successful and will compete in the Octo-Finals on 5 September. Good luck!

Japanese Professor and Consul-General Visit – Thursday 30 August

On the back of winning the Global Learning Leaders Award earlier this year, we hosted a visit from Mr Keizo Yamawaki, Professor of School of Global Japanese Studies, Meiji University, and Mr Kazuyoshi Matsunaga, Consul-General of Japan. On Thursday 30 August, afternoon we were joined by over 20 guests, including DET representatives, Assistant Directors of The Japan Local Government Centre, Sydney. Thank you to Jocelyn Hill for coordinating, and to Nick Murphy who presented during their visit. It is a significant feather in our cap that they specifically requested to visit us.

Parent-Student-Teacher Conversations on Thursday 30 August

Staff enjoyed meeting with parents and students to provide feedback last Thursday, and are again looking forward to more conversations this coming Wednesday. PST Conversations, really have the capacity to impact on student learning – the specific and targeted feedback about how to progress learning teachers provide, in the presence of parents, has one of the greatest impacts on learning.

Join us - upcoming community events

Writer’s Festival

I hope many of you will participate and enjoy the Writers Festival held here at NHS on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 September. Rebekah Keenan Mount has worked very hard to provide an engaging and exciting program for the budding young (and not so young) writers amongst out community.

Comedy Night

Our Events and Fundraising group are once again delighted to bring the Northcote Comedy Night to us on Thursday 13 September. We have a fabulous line up of comedians. I hope you have secured your tickets because they are selling fast and you don’t want to miss out.

All funds raised on the night will contribute towards our Library Redevelopment Project, as outlined in the letter I sent a few weeks back, and included in the last newsletter.

Buildings and Grounds

Performing Arts Hub

The Performing Arts Hub is about 48% complete – the roof is almost complete, the air conditioning ducts almost entirely fitted, fire proofing almost done, stairs installed. This coming week is the week we are scheduled to have the pathway narrowed so that brickwork can begin. They will be aiming to get to 2.8 metres with the brickwork and then they will need to install the scaffolding over the footpath with a walkway underneath (gantry), so that the brickwork at higher levels can commence. I will remind the community via Compass Newsfeed about the gantry erection as soon as I know the date; it will involve closing one lane of St Georges Road for a few days as indicated in previous announcements.

New Double Storey Mod 10 Portable

We have received confirmation that we will be receiving a new double storey, four room, Mod 10 portable for next year, to accommodate our predicted increasing enrolments. One of the old, single story relocatables will need to be removed to make way for it.

Netball Courts

Darebin Council intend to seal the court over the school holiday period, which will mean the courts will be out of action for approximately 1 week.

Sue Harrap