From the Principal team

City School

City School is Northcote’s flagship course for development of Enterprise Skills and Victorian Curriculum Capabilities for our students at Year 9 level.  All Year 9 students participate in the course in either Semester 1 or Semester 2. These skills and capabilities are supported by elements of the English, Humanities and Maths curriculum. There is also scope to include the Victorian Curriculum Priorities of Sustainability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories, and Australian – Asian Engagement, depending on the choices students make for their learning. 

This week, our second cohort of Year 9 students are participating in the City-based segment of the program. Students work for a semester in teams to prepare for their city visit by developing a hypothesis about a topic of their choice related to the CBD of Melbourne. Students design a survey, make arrangements to interview an expert on their topic, and design a third data collection method of their choice. While in the City, as well as collecting the information about their topic, students also visit The Big Issue to hear about how this magazine assists the homeless, and SYN FM, where they learn about making community radio.

Students report enjoying the independence they experience while at City School, but are also aware that their confidence and interpersonal skills develop as well.

On their return to school, students prepare to present their results to a real audience. This will happen on the evening of December 4 at our Festival of Thinking. All family members and friends of our Year 9 students are invited to hear the results of the research projects, so please put it in your diary.

Senior Student Executive 2019

There are many opportunities for student leadership at Northcote, some formal and others informal.  We strongly believe they assist young people to develop confidence and competence in areas of communication and team work.  At this time of the year we are creating our formal year level and school level student leadership teams for next year. Our current Year 11 students have just completed their 2019 Student Executive application and selection process. After submitting their written applications, they were interviewed by a panel of Principal Team members, Senior Years Team members and current student leaders. They then made presentations to their student cohort and voting by staff and students occurred.

Thank you to all students who participated in the election process. You all gave amazing speeches on Tuesday and all are worthy student leaders.  

The students that have been elected to the Senior School Executive, and the two School Captains for 2019 are: Marco Bellemo, Noah Sutherland ( School Captains), Jane Nguyen and Eliza Sparvell. Congratulations to our students!

We are now conducting a selection process for Year 11, 2019 students to join the Student Executive Team.

Young Leaders to China Program

This is a DET initiative to support students to further develop Asian literacy, understanding and capabilities. It is the 5th year we have participated in the program and the development that families and the school see occurring in the participants upon their return, is extremely pleasing. Currently 9 of our Year 9 students are enjoying their immersion opportunity in China. They left 3 weeks ago and after spending 2 weeks of orientation in Beijing, have now headed to Nanjing for the last 4 weeks. Jaymie Metcalfe has done an amazing job of leading and supporting our students through their journey. She has kept families up to date on a daily basis through her photographs on Wei chat. Nick Murphy who is in China for the VCE Offshore program, visited them in Beijing (and took a suitcase full of warm clothes for students who didn’t anticipate the chill that Beijing experiences as winter and accompanying snow approaches!).

Students have been taking in all the wonderful tourist sights and participating in many classes of calligraphy, paper cutting, bamboo dancing and sport. Our students have represented NHS admirably and we are very proud of them as they work their way through the  rigorous program.

Year 12 VCAA Exams

After a series of celebratory events to mark the end of their secondary schooling (music performances, farewell assembly, dressing up as their teachers and a final BBQ!), our students commenced their exam period on Wednesday with the English and EAL exam. After 3 hours of writing furiously there were many signs of relief on their faces as it was ‘pens down’ and students exited the examination centre.

We wish them well as they work through the 3 week exam period and encourage them to continue to seek support from their teachers in the lead up to each exam.

We look forward to celebrating with them at their formal on November 22. They will then be eagerly awaiting the release of results on December 14 and tertiary offers soon after.

Busy times leading towards the end of the school year

Staff and students are facing a very busy period as they work towards a successful end of the 2018 school year and at the same time preparing for 2019. We encourage families to familiarise themselves with key dates communicated through the newsletter and individual letters informing of events such as exams, course confirmation, exam feedback, graduations and orientation programs for 2019. Our junior students will be finishing assessments and then looking forward to a final celebration with an activities program during the last week of term.

Jocelyn Hill

Assistant Principal