General News
Communication channels: Teachers and Parents
As we leave behind the whole school activities of the start of the year and settle into the core routine of learning and teaching, the teachers and parents of Nossal may find themselves looking for ways to make contact. Except in the case of an emergency, this often happens first via email. The medium is useful because
- it permits greater clarity
- it does not interrupt the work day of either recipient (e.g. teachers can still receive it even if they are teaching a class, unlike a phone call)
- it ensures that both the parent and the teacher have a copy of the correspondence, so that they can return to check the details of any advice or information conveyed later
- it is easy to carbon-copy the student into the correspondence should that be appropriate or necessary.
Parents can easily email the teachers that teach their students via their Compass homepage. This is another reason why it is important to be familiar with the Compass portal. Parents will find the link amongst the core student information on the left of the homepage, just opposite the space where they are alerted to any consents that need to be provided for excursions etc:
By default, this will generate a recipients' list that includes all of the teachers of that student, but this list can be edited to suit the particular needs of the moment by either removing the teachers of subjects that are not relevant, or adding recipients (including, for example, the student themselves):
Teachers can contact parents using a similar system, but of course this will only be effective if parent contact details (especially email addresses) are kept up to date. Teachers would typically contact students using either the announcement channels or chat streams in MSTeams rather than email, but if they do use email it may be for a more formal communication, in which case they might sometimes carbon-copy parents into that interaction.
Parents are of course always welcome to contact the school via the front office on 8762 4600. The staff there will do their best to ensure that contact with the most appropriate person is achieved.
Tracey Mackin
Assistant Principal
Nossal High School Council Nominations 2019
Parents are advised that nominations for four (4) parent member representatives for the Nossal High School Council are now open. Nomination forms are available from the School Office or readers can download the relevant category form below.
Please consider nominating for a position on the Council. An overview of the Council's membership and responsibilities appears below. Nominations close on Thursday, 28 February at 4.00pm. (Please note that late nominations cannot be accepted.)
School Council Overview
The School Council is a group of parents, students, staff and community representatives who undertake an overall management function for the school. School operations are managed by the appointed School Principal, who in turn has a team of Executive Staff, Teaching Staff and an Office Management Team to undertake the day-to-day administration.
The School Council participates in the review of the school finances and expenditure control, education overview, considering current and long term planning, and facilities management for buildings and grounds. It also undertakes to implement and approve policies, programs, structures and activities to support the school academic program.
There are SIX elected parent representatives, FOUR elected staff representatives and TWO elected student representatives on Council, each serving a two year term. Each year approximately half of the positions become vacant for re-election at which time interested parents, students and staff are invited to nominate.
Council will meet on the 4th Tuesday of the month between 7.00 and 9.30pm with subcommittee meetings occurring before 7.00pm.
The school council monthly meetings are open to all parents and interested persons are invited and encouraged to participate in the smaller sub-committees who look after and advise specific management areas within the school. If you have any questions regarding this process please contact the Principal, Mr. Roger Page at nossal.hs@edumail.vic.gov.au
Camps, Sports, Excursions Fund 2019 (CSEF)
If your student is new to Nossal High School in 2019 and you applied for CSEF in a previous school, a new form must be completed and sent/handed to the NHS General Office for the attention of Ms Deepti Arora.
Please remember to attach a copy of your current Health Care card with your application.
If your student applied via NHS for the CSEF in 2018 and your eligibility continues then you DO NOT need to fill in another form.
For previous applicants, if any details on your current HCC have changed (for example the expiry date), then a copy of your new HCC must be sent/handed to the office.
Please have your completed form to the office by 28 February 2019.
Keep up to date with Nossal
Are you following our social media channels?
While we post notifications on Compass, send home emails and/or text messages when important events and information need to be shared with our families and community, and keep you informed about what has happened with our fortnightly newsletter, Nossal also has a number of social media pages which we use for reminders and also to share exciting news.
If you don't already follow us though one of these, please consider joining or liking our pages and get all the reminders and news we share on social media!
Follow us at:
Slow down for our students' safety
In the short space of time since the start of the school year, I have been alarmed to have received a number of calls about risks to our students' safety in our community.
The first has come from both parents and staff who have observed a number of cars being driven too fast along Sir Gustav Nossal Boulevard (the main driveway to the school), in car parks and on the gravel rounds within the university campus.
The 20kph speed limit is clearly displayed along the driveway to Nossal and should be observed at all times. In some sections of the roadway, motorists are advised that a 10kph speed limit applies where pedestrians and cars cross shared spaces. The Education Department requires every school to have a Traffic Management Plan and at Nossal this includes motorists observing all speed restrictions and road markings. The speed limits and speed humps are there to protect pedestrians and they should be observed by all road users. Where there is no speed limit indicated, cars should be driven at walking pace only.
In addition, the school's Traffic Management Plan also includes traffic flow through car parks. Again, these plans are in place to ensure the safety of our students, staff and visitors. All road users are asked to look at the map below (click the image to enlarge) and observe the traffic flow indicated.
Please slow down when entering the university campus at Clyde Road or from the side gate off Intrepid Street/Enterprise Avenue. The safety of all pedestrians on our site depends on it.
Student Accident Insurance
We wish to remind you that the Department of Education does not provide accident insurance for students. Parents and guardians are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including transport costs. These costs may be recoverable where an injury is caused by the negligence of the Department, a school council or their employees or volunteers.
Student accident policies are available from some commercial insurers. These cover a range of medical expenses not covered by Medicare or private health insurers. Reasonably low insurance policies are available from commercial insurers.
The Department of Education cannot advise parents/guardians on whether to purchase a student accident policy or which policy to purchase. It is recommended that you seek assistance in this matter from your insurance broker or find a suitable personal accident insurer in the Yellow Pages or on the internet, should you think such a policy is necessary.
We do however, strongly recommend that all students have Ambulance Cover to protect families financially in the event of an accident.
Meet Your Education Support Staff
We would like to introduce our community to our ES staff, without whom we could not run Nossal. Some of the faces you see will be familiar, others work behind the scenes.
Wellbeing Team
Renee Tuck
My name is Renee and I am one of Nossal's Wellbeing Counsellors. I love my job here at Nossal as I get to work closely with wonderful students and fantastic staff members. I have been working with young people for over 10 years now and no two days are ever the same. If you find yourself at school, please come down and say hello!
Audrey Alvarez
I began working at Nossal as a casual in September 2012 assisting with reception duties and became a permanent staff member in 2014 where my role became the Attendance Officer. My title has since changed to Wellbeing Support Officer.
My role involves:
- managing Student Attendance
- maintaining Student and Parent records
- managing the Student Immunisation Program
- assisting with Student Enrolments
- supporting the Wellbeing Team
Sandy Ayton-Delaney
My name is Sandy and I am a Student Wellbeing Counsellor. I began with a Secondary Visual Art/Technology Teaching background and as art making facilitates deeper thoughts, feelings and conversations, I realised I was comfortable and competent in a pastoral care role. The natural progression for me was to return to study and I completed two Post Graduate Diplomas in Creative Arts Therapy and Psychotherapy and Counselling. I enjoy the progressive environment of a school; no two days/years/cohort or students are the same. I love working with adolescents as it is an important developmental stage in all aspects of one's life. Many of the experiences we have at that age(social, emotional, mental and academic) define us and determine our future wellbeing. I believe in the strength of healthy and positive relationships as our best resource to support us through difficult situations. I urge our students to employ their help seeking skills in times of worry, stress,anxiety and sadnes,s and to talk with someone they trust. I invite students to drop in to my office to say hello regardless if they have an issue or not, so that if and when they have a worrying situation they are comfortable to talk about it with me.
Did you know?
Did you know our newsletter can now be translated into a number of different languages? This is a relatively new feature of the software program we use and can be turned on or off using the language selector in the lower left corner of each page.