English News 

OzCLO

Though a new chapter of students’ lives begin as they graduate from Nossal, their connection to the school hardly wavers. Finding new ways to be involved, the Old Nossalonians, remain integral to the Nossal community.

Each year, a fresh-faced group of English prodigies undertake debating with a comprehensive and vigorous training day, run by Old Nossalonian, Cree Oliveria-Blackett. Using her experience in both the debating program at Nossal and time spent adjudicating, Cree brings with her a wealth of knowledge on how to ensure the success of a speech, teaching the tips and tricks to win over audiences. In addition, the annual OzCLO [The Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad] competition takes place, headed up by Mr Mahalingam, which challenges students to apply their knowledge of linguistics and critical-thinking to solve a range of problems. To prepare students for this task, the school calls on Old Nossalonians who have participated in OzCLO. 

Past competitors like Khanh Nguyen (2018) and Hudson Smith (2019) have returned to coach Nossal teams, providing them with insight and guidance on how to best tackle the challenges thrown their way. Proving to be significantly beneficial, Nossal has had three teams receive a Gold certificate this year, placing them in the top 25% of competitors in the state!

The involvement of the alumni doesn’t stop there. Each year, many graduating students who have achieved excellent study scores take it upon themselves to provide tutoring services to the current Year 12 cohort. Having just graduated, these students are accustomed to the current study designs and know exactly what helps Year 12 students tackle their most difficult schooling year. This year 2019 graduate Jason Huang contributed to an English Language online revision lecture, assisting current students with his insight, from the perspective of a former student, on how to approach the past exams.

Thus, graduating from Nossal High School is in no way the end of a journey, rather the beginning of a new one - with not even a global pandemic being able to stop Old Nossalonians from proving that the Nossal community spirit burns as bright as ever.

Shalaaka Brahmavar

Year 12

DAV Debating Finals

This year, one of Nossal’s B-grade debating teams made it through to the semi-finals for Interschool Debating in Victoria. The speakers were myself (Nalini Jacob-roussety), Joel Siaw, and Nadia Hadzikadic. It was certainly different than usual – the final debates were judged by a panel of adjudicators rather than one, and online debating comes with its own set of challenges. Our debates were all ‘secret topics’, meaning that the topic was revealed at 3:00pm each Sunday, and we had an hour to prepare in a group call before presenting our cases at 4:00pm. Through our debating battles, we hear that new nicknames were born for each of us: the ‘Good Cop,’ the ‘Philosopher’ and the ‘Beast’. We had no objections there! Our team certainly wouldn’t have gotten so far if it weren’t for the opportunities and support given to us by our other debating team members and Nossal staff. Our winning streak ultimately lead us to a semi-final against Melbourne High. We were struck by a topic that has gained significant media attention in recent months: "That social media companies should be held accountable for the content posted by users". Unlucky enough to have the negative side of the topic, we ultimately lost the battle. However, the experience of making it to the semi-finals allowed us to meet new debaters, bond with our team, and cultivate stronger preparation and research skills. I’m certainly very proud of everyone in our team; even in an online environment, debating continues to thrive at Nossal. Now, we have our hopes set high for 2021!

Nalini Jacob-roussety

Garuda Year11

English Language Revision Lecture

This year, the Year 12 English Language cohort had the privilege of receiving our own in depth video presentation by one of Nossal's most high achieving alumni of 2019 - Jason Huang. Jason generously gave us an extensive amount of his time, energy and knowledge to break down two English Language exams and offer us a multitude of tips and tricks to execute each section of the exam to our fullest potential. As an English Language student myself, I felt that being able to hear all this from a person, like Jason, who has been in the same shoes 12 months prior, really helped to enhance my own self confidence and assurance in the lead up to a very stressful exam period. Through this, it truly reveals the great extent of Jason's generosity and altruism, particularly for the Nossal community. Hence, it is fair to say that our entire English Language cohort, myself included, are all very grateful and appreciative of Jason's efforts, which will only further help us perform at our best in the coming weeks.

Holly Vuong

Year 12