From the Principal

Welcome back, everyone, and welcome to our new staff

I hope everyone had a wonderful, restful break and that students and staff are invigorated for a great term of learning ahead.

This week marks the opening of the fabulous 2020 Production of Annie, signifying the culmination of an incredible amount of hard work and collaboration. We say “chookas” to the entire team for a successful production season over the next two weeks.

Welcome to new staff:

We had a number of new staff join us in second semester, including:

Welcome back to:

It is also great to see a couple of staff return from leave:

• Helen Anderton – English
• Damien Hoban - Maths

We are delighted to welcome a number of new students, including international students. We hope that everyone settles in, forms positive relationships with peers, and quickly become a part of the big NHS family.

Community Opening of the Performing Arts Centre – 25 June 2019

In the last week of Term 2 we held our Community Opening of the Performing Arts Centre on a brisk, sunny winter’s day. It commenced with a Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country, conducted by Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy, and then moved into the theatre. We heard about the significance of this building from a range of perspectives, including from Kat Theophanous, MP, State Labor MP for the seat of Northcote, from the Secretary of the DET, and former NHS parent, Jenny Atta, and most importantly, from our Music Captains: Grace Houston, Emily Lane and Isabel Fuller.

Grace, Isabel and Emily spoke about how it gave them a place to form a collaborative community, both in the performing arts, and in senior study. They spoke about it as being one of the only places where we have inter-year level collaboration and role modelling, and they praised the light and feel of the spaces.

The theatre was shown off to best effect, with three rousing performances from, firstly the Chamber Orchestra directed by Jackie Brogan, next a Drama Performance: ‘Northcote - Our Place’ – performed by Year 11 VCE drama and Year 7G students, and directed by Shirley Barbara, and a beautiful piece by the Junior Choir directed by Cindy Frost.

Whenever you enter into a school building project, your hopes and desires are that you can design and execute a building, so that it achieves a welcoming, modern and effective learning space that enhances our capacity to deliver on our vision for learning. I could not be happier with the outcome described by the students, and I commend Kate Morris, the School Council and the architects, Kerstin Thompson, for their work on this project before I became principal. Evidently robust thinking and design took place before the build and this has contributed to such a positive outcome.

Reflecting on Semester One

Over the holidays, I had the opportunity to reflect on the significant achievements of the first semester 2019, and thought it worthwhile to highlight some of the broader achievements we are proud of:

• We welcomed 22 new staff, including 4 new leading teachers at the beginning of the year, affording them warm and unconditional membership to our Northcote Family and gleaning from them new knowledge, skills and enthusiasm. We have also appointed a new Learning Specialist to help us with developing students’ writing skills.
• Another 300+ Year 7s and a number of new students at other year levels, have now by and large settled in and feel happy and connected to each other, new peer groups and the school and staff.
• The Year 7s this year have had a renewed focus on reinvigorating the House system.
• We have finished and moved into the Performing Arts Centre and held two bigger than Ben Hur openings.
• We have had our four-year Review and are putting the final tweaks on our new Strategic Plan.
• We have developed a whole-school Inquiry model that we are now at the point of trialling and incorporating into rich curricular experiences across Years 7 -10.
• We have begun the work on refining the role of the tutor and reviewing the Connect curriculum so that we can ensure it achieves the outcomes we aspire to.
• The Production team have worked tirelessly and are about to embark on a record eight sold out performances in the new Performing Arts Theatre, beginning with opening night on Thursday 25 July 2019.
• In amongst all that we have had celebrations and demonstrations of excellence in learning, performing, from clubs, from staff, from classes, there have been camps and excursions and international tours, awards, public speaking, outstanding sporting success…… and the list goes on.

Schools are incredibly busy and productive places, and Northcote is no exception.

State School’s Spectacular

Congratulations to the following students:

• Otto Grodach – Trombone
• Daniel Riches – Violin
• Ruby Riches – Viola
• Will Leslie – Bassoon

These students are commendable ambassadors of our school, as part of the bands in the State School’s Spectacular. The Spectacular will be performed twice on Saturday 14 September at Melbourne Arena, followed by a 90-minute broadcast on Channel 7 and will be made available on the 7PLUS catch-up website. Rehearsals have commenced for this year’s production, which will showcase more than 3000 Victorian government school students in a performance of music, song, dance, other speciality performances and behind the scenes roles.

Planning for 2020

Alongside students and families, we have begun the enormous amount of planning required each year, to prepare for the next one. Planning for 2020 kicked off on Wednesday 17 July. It was fabulous to see so many students and their parents at the Senior Years 2020 Information Night and Subject Expo. I spoke with many people who were impressed with the work of staff to assist in the provision of the right information at the right time.

This week we have the 2020 Year 9 and 10 Information Nights on Tuesday, and then in Week 3 the 9 & 10 Subject Expos.

The Connect Program, led by Tutors, our Sub-School Teams and Karen Burgess (our new Careers Practitioner), is a key prong in the process, designed to help step students through to making decisions for next year.

Boho South Campus Consultation

Further to my previous information regarding the Boho South Campus of NHS, this provides you with more detail, about how you can contribute your views.

1. At many events throughout the term, Tanya Burdett will join us just prior to the events and be stationed at a “Listening Post”, where the community can drop by, find out more information, provide their perspective, and find out about the multiple ways we can canvas your views.

If you would like to discuss the consultation and your ideas and views about the value of the campus, Tanya will be present at the following:

• Year 9 & 10 Information Night: 23 July 2019 5:00 – 6:00 pm
• School Production: 25 – 27 July 2019 6:15 – 7:00 pm
• Year 9 & 10 Subject Expo: 1 August 2019 5:00 – 6:00 pm
• Jazz Night Thursday 22 August 2019 6:00 – 7:00 pm
• Parent Student Teacher Conversations: 19 and 20 September 1:30 – 2.30 pm

2. There is an online survey open to students, families, staff and Alumni – please click on this link:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NHSBohoSouthCampus

3. You can also email your thoughts to: bohocampusconsultation@nhs.vic.edu.au

We will also run workshops and focus group discussions with students and staff throughout the term

Comments will be sought up to 20 September 2019.

The two attachments here include an information flyer about the consultation process, along with some Frequently Asked Questions.