From the Principals Desk

KINDNESS - Annual ANZAC ceremony

We started this term with our now Annual ANZAC ceremony at the Norlane RSL. This year we were so fortunate to have Thomas, one of our own students, perform the Last Post for us on his trumpet. 

Leaders from all campuses were in attendance and the College Captains played major roles.

Jevic gave a student perspective of what ANZAC day means to him as a student born overseas, Fiona read the poem 'We Remember Those on Anzac Day' written by Trish Reeves, while Ashton read the Ode.

Special guests this year were Ella George MP Member for Lara, Keith Fagg a member of our Challenge committee, Antony Vriesen school council President and RSL President Gordon Burns.

The emerging partnership with the Norlane RSL is something we are proud of, and we look forward to further developing this in the years to come.

Please make sure you click on the Special Events page to red more and see important photos of our students on this significant day.

PERSISTENCE – 2022 Annual Report

The Annual Report provides a summary of our key data and work through last year and will make for some positive reading for our community and is tabled at this month’s meeting. One of the major highlights is the 2022 learning data that shows the school has improved in basically every outcome with a particularly positive result coming in the Senior School outcomes. Overall, this report really is a moment to reflect with positivity for the work done and is a wonderful way to officially complete our most recent Strategic Plan period.

The Annual Report will now be loaded to our College Website amongst our accountability documents.

GROWTH - Wellbeing Camp

Through the holidays the latest of our College Wellbeing Camps took place with great success. This time round Year 5 and 6 students enjoyed the last three days of their holidays up at SVOEC with members of the Wellbeing Team and were able to participate in personal development workshops, some abseiling and rock climbing and a visit from some furry and scaly beasts!

This is such a positive program for so many of our students and we are so grateful to the staff members who go above and beyond to bring these opportunities to our students.

COLLABORATION - Community Event

The Goldsworthy Open Night was a really successful opportunity for our staff and students to share the wonderful programs and opportunities on offer through the Secondary years of our school. 

Full credit goes to all staff who put so much effort into the interactive activities on offer at the Campus. What shone through was the obviously positive nature of relationships that exist between staff and students along with the effort that goes into developing pedagogy that is gaging and vibrant. We had a very positive turn out of students from across our college and many families through the afternoon. A huge thank you too goes to all Campus staff who came across to support the evening. 

We have so much to be proud of at Northern Bay College and events like his really do underline all that we have to be grateful for

COLLABORATION - Education Week @ NBC

This year's theme for Education Week was ‘Active Learners: Move, Make, Motivate’, which celebrates physical activity, hands-on learning and student voice in education. These are all aspects of student learning that our school values and as such, this has lead to some wonderful activities across the college. We have engaged in staff student games of basketball and netball; seen students pitch ideas for their small business ventures in HASS; we have welcomed parents into the school for tours; Investigations Expos; Staff v Student Debates; a Teddy Bears Picnic and a ‘Feel Great Disco.’  

NBC Staff and students have truly caught the bug of all things active and the connection between students, staff and families this week really has been fantastic. A huge thanks to everyone who got into the spirit of Education Week. 

GROWTH –Year 5 / 6 Reconciliation Event

Early this term a group of our Year 5 and 6 students travelled to the Geelong Library to participate in the Wangala Balit Ngarrwa (Making Knowledge Strong) Reconciliation Event. 

The activities through the day were aimed at raising awareness and building student knowledge as it relates to First Nation reconciliation. Students participated in interactive workshops that included :

• Wadawurrung language with Traditional Owners
• Understanding Unconscious bias
• Learning of the Connection of Art, Story, Country and People.

It was very powerful event for all who attended, and we are grateful to the City of Greater Geelong, Wadawurrung, Geelong Regional Libraries and Geelong One Fire Reconciliation Group for producing and supporting this event. 

GROWTH - Student participation

Throughout this May newsletter there is feedback and reflections by our students and I encourage you to  check out the community pages and program pages.  There is no doubt that Northern Bay College provide more opportunities for learning experiences than the large majority of other schools. 

The Year 10-12 Community showcase a wide variety of activities and the 3-6 Community have student feedback about many aspects if their learning. 

Early on in the term our class walked down to Corio Village to have a look at how shops advertise their products and businesses. We were also on the lookout for brand names, slogans, pricing, billboards, commercials and music used to persuade consumers.

It gave us all a different perspective when visiting our local shopping village and helped us to focus on some ideas for our new mini Market business ventures. By Marshal 

In the Programs page our IMPACT students give a wonderful critique of 'live' Theatre 

& Juliet, the amazing love story, remixed the entire musical. It was made up of amazing actors and musicians and awesome lighting and special effects people but the most important people in the musical were the players. They danced and did all these amazing performances for the show and brought all the wonderful dances to life. They made the audience feel like getting up and dancing (in fact at the we DID!!. 

The dancers played a huge part in the musical and brought the storyline and music to an amazing level.  Shelby

And according to one of our P-2 students in their little video - even 'SNACKTIME' at Northern Bay is terrific.

KINDNESS - NBC Students Acknowledged

We know how wonderful our students are every day we get to work alongside them. As such it is very re-affirming when we receive positive feedback from the wider public highlights these outstanding personal attributes of our students. At one of his term's Inter-School Volleyball competitions this comment was shared with the school:

‘Today I was at the Year 11-12 Girls Western Metro Region Volleyball Finals, and I saw some fantastic sportsmanship from the coaches and students from your school. I wanted to share a big thanks to them for being kind and inclusive to the students from my school throughout the day. Including them in a friendly practice after the competition was a fantastic show of sportsmanship and, if possible, I would love to send my thanks along to them.‘

Full credit to our students for showing this outstanding leadership but also to every member of the NBC staff team who work hard to teach, celebrate and reinforce these attributes every day. 

GROWTH - Vocational Major & Victorian Pathways Certificate

There is one other special page in this newsletter - The New Pathways. 

This year marks the first year of statewide implementation of the VPC and VM programs. At NBC these programs replace what previously operated as VCAL. Positively for our school the integrated nature of VCAL at NBC has made the step into the new programs much simpler - that being said considerable work in re-writing and adapting curriculum and programs was still completed by our VPC and VM staff. Students were involved in the official launch of these programs as the ‘iconic’ VCAL sign was re-imagined to better represent  these new programs. 

The students and staff team are to be commended for the wonderful ceremony that was held but also for their positivity in sharing the important role these programs play in the curriculum offerings at NBC.

GROWTH - Congratulations

We congratulate - in a bitter sweet fashion - James Bayard Year 9 Learning Community Leader on his appointment to Assistant Principal at Truganina P-9 College, beginning on June 5. James has been a wonderful leader at NBC for ten years now and his impact will benefit our school for many years to come. We are so thankful to James for his contributions across so many facets of our work here at NBC and we know that he will be successful in his work ahead. Congratulations James and equally thank you for your work.

PERSISTENCE  - The Goldsworthy Build

Work has begun on the teaching and learning spaces which will occupy the western end of our land on Goldsworthy Road.  The cement base is being laid in four stages and minimal disruption to traffic is expected because each stage of the pour is spread over a number of weeks.

At the eastern end of the site girders and beams seem to double their numbers each week  and we have been provided with an overhead photo of the site which may interest you. 

Our timeline hope is that our incoming Year 9 2024 will have access to the new learning spaces as part of their transition to the campus in December.

COMMUNICATION

The College Newsletter is a monthly issue which attempts to provide our community of students, families, staff and community members with a comprehensive record of events and activities, student insights and opinions and College highlights. It has a wonderful feature to select different languages that may be very useful for CaLD families.

The College Facebook Page

We have daily insights, updates and announcements on our facebook page which is a terrific way to follow what our students are learning and achieving every day at Northern Bay.

In addition to other tools such as SEESAW and Global Classrooms and Groups we have COMPASS which is our online communication to families about your child's learning. Please make sure you use your COMPASS account and check for approval messages about Camps, Excursions and Absences.

We also phone and message families for important needs to make contact so please make sure we have your latest phone numbers and email addresses.

Regards,

Mr Scott Diamond

College Principal