From the Principals' Desk 

Wellbeing Week

Last week we celebrated Wellbeing Week.  The Wellbeing teachers and student team set up a great range of events and celebrations to remind us to prioritise our health and wellbeing. The ‘random acts of kindness’, music over the PA, morning announcements, yoga, mindfulness, and many other activities added to our everyday sense of care and community.  Interestingly, last year in wellbeing week we had the lowest number of visits to sick bay on record.  I will be curious to see if the same occurs this year.

Book Week

The week before we had a wonderful celebration of Book Week with multiple events throughout, including: visiting authors, speakers, workshops, competitions and our book character and multicultural dress up day. Our thanks go to the IRC staff and student leaders for organising a fabulous celebration.

Request for Exam Supervision Volunteers

Each year we have a group of wonderful volunteers who support staff in the supervision of Nossal Exams. On the General Nossal News page of this newsletter we have an article regarding our request for Volunteers, with details about how to provide it. Volunteers work with staff to supervise exams, and whilst they do so, other staff spend time together refining and planning curriculum for subsequent years and marking exams, so that they can be returned with feedback to students before they depart for the summer holidays.  Without your assistance we would not be in a position to do this. Your work with us is greatly appreciated. Please consider the possibility of donating your time.

Upcoming Changes to Compass

At the beginning of Term 4 we will be further developing our use of Compass to include regular letters home to parents. Many of these letters are generated automatically. We believe this will enhance our three-way partnership to best support our students. However, it does present an implementation challenge for us – we don’t have the capacity to trial it before the emails are sent to you. We are asking for your patience in the first instance, but we also want your feedback. If you receive an email that does not make sense, please send it back to one of the principal team or to our communications email address (communication@nossalhs.vic.edu.au) so we can refine the correspondence and streamline our processes. We hope you will appreciate the enhanced communication. 

Working Bee

Our Semester 2 Working Bee was held last Saturday 3 September.  A generous group of parents and students, (including some who have been offered a place in 2017) alongside our wonderful PFA, worked to complete some much needed tasks under the direction of Keith Butler, Jason Bell and Roger Page.  They moved mulch, repaired and top dressed the sports field and started works on a bike shelter. We sincerely thank everyone who contributed to the day.

Leaving Nossal at the end of 2016?

If any students are planning to leave Nossal in 2017, we request that you write to Roger Page, Principal to formally inform him of your intention to leave. 

Interviewing New Staff and New Students

Whilst there are relatively few vacancies to fill, we are busy interviewing staff for 2017 at the moment. We thank the students and staff who have been on the selection panels. Mr Page and I had the pleasure of interviewing Year 8s last week for the 2017 Principal’s Discretion Offers. It is always an enjoyable experience, and a tough decision to choose only 10 students from those we interview. As each child leaves the interview we look at each other and say, “it would be good to have them with us”. We congratulate and thank the students we met throughout this process. 

 ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ Film – Community Event

I was delighted by the school and broader educational community support for our screening of ‘Most Likely to Succeed’; we had over 220 attendees. The audience were most appreciative of the film and its messages about how education needs to change to prepare students for their successful futures. I would like to formally thank our panel members, who discussed their perspectives immediately following the film: Mr Roger Page, Ms Tracey Mackin, Mr Kyle Hoppitt (School Council President), Mr Lucas Walsh (Associate Professor, Monash University) and Ms Nalini Naidu (Kambrya College). 

The film outlines that: 65% of today’s primary-school children will end up in jobs that haven’t been invented yet. The current length of a job for a millennial is an average of 2.6 years, and millennials will have 15-20 jobs over the course of their working lives. By 2020, 40% to 50% of all income-producing work will be short-term contracts, freelance work and so-called SuperTemps. Given this picture, schools need to focus on the development of collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, entrepreneurial skills, resilience and flexibility, among other things.

On the curriculum day following the screening our staff examined our current practice and began to explore ways we could further enhance our curriculum to ensure we are cultivating these skills in our students.

Travelling to and from School - Safety Focus

There have been a couple of unpleasant events for students travelling to and from school over the past month. We encourage students to travel in groups so that they can support each other. One way to ensure other Nossalonians are around, and therefore minimise risks, is to ensure students are travelling to and from school at reasonable times. The school is unsupervised prior to 7.30 am so we request that parents drop their children off after this time. Students should ensure they are travelling home in the afternoons during daylight hours – times will need to vary according to the seasons. 

We encourage all students who experience any unpleasant interactions travelling to and from school to report it to the school immediately so that we can assist. 

Term 3 Reports Released and Parent-Student-Teacher Conference Bookings open on Thursday 8 September 4.00 pm. 

We request that parents login to Compass to read their child(ren)’s latest reports. Please check your email for instructions on how to access both reports and Parent- Teacher-Student (PTS) Conferences. Some students in some subjects will have a Parent-Teacher-Student (PTS) Conference requests showing on their report. If your child has a YES to PTS Conference indicated on their report, we request that you make an appointment as a matter of priority. In these instances the teacher is of the belief that a three way conversation would be of benefit to progress the student’s learning. Of course, all other parents are welcome to make PTS Conference appointments. 

This time we are only releasing reports to parents on the 8 September. We are doing this because each term there are about 170 or so parents who do not login to check reports, they appear to allow their child to do it for them. We want parents to check Compass regularly, to approve absences, provide consent to excursions and look for announcements etc. We are hoping this strategy increases the rate of parent access. Students will have access to their reports before the end of term.  

Great results at the Casey District Athletics

There will be a detailed, glowing report about our results at the District Aths in the next issue of Nossal News, but I wanted to take the time to congratulate our students for their spirited participation. Mr Page was invited to present medals during the day; when he arrived he was greeted by enthusiastic Nossalonians who were showing outstanding sportsmanship (complimented by other school staff), giving assistance, and showing a ‘can do’ attitude. Other schools noted these behaviours. You should be very proud of yourselves. Thanks also to the staff who made the day so successful and supported the students in the lead up to and on the day.

Restful Break

It is imperative that students be allowed to have a break over the holidays. Whilst Year 12 students will be keen to get a start on revision for their VCAA Exams, they must balance this with rest to ensure that they are in peak condition for the exams at the end of October/beginning of November. It has been a busy term and it is not likely that students will be able to work continuously between now and their exams, AND maintain their health and wellbeing. I always encourage Year 12s at this time of year to have the equivalent of 5 full days rest – that is completely away from study. Ride a bike, read a trashy novel, talk to friends, go shopping, go to the movies, even play some video games. Enjoy the spring sunshine. You are guaranteed to perform better and stay healthier if you do so. I will be giving the same advice to staff. 

Thank you to staff, students and parents for a wonderful, busy and invigorating Term 3, and we look forward to more of the same in Term 4.

Sue Harrap

Assistant Principal