Northcote High School Newsletter

Middle Years Inews

Welcome to Yr 9

Your Sub-School Team for 2016

  • Middle School Principal – Sean Butler
  • Head of Middle School – Airlie Tudhope (formerly Swallow)
  • Year 9 Program Leaders – Jamie Lethborg and Sarah Green
  • Student Wellbeing Coordinator – Felicity Marlowe
  • Your Tutor: Your child’s tutor provides a key connection for students and families for any questions or assistance.

The Year 9 program has an array of rich curricula and co-curricula activities. We focus on academic care and disciplined approaches to learning. The Year 9 students have their own space in the Global Citizenship Centre (GCC). Next year (2017) many current Year 9 students will commence VCE subjects, so Year 9 is an important year of consolidation, exploration and preparation.

 

Opportunities for Year 9s that promote inclusion, leadership and connectedness:

For Year 9 only:

  • “City School” - self-directed group project and week in the City.
  • Year 9 Philanthropic Project
  • Global Citizenship Program and Awards
  • School for Student Leadership (Alpine School)
  • Victorian Young Leaders to China
  • Duke of Edinburgh Award program (as an elective)
  • Possible voluntary Yr9 camp late in 2016 – Under consideration by student leaders.

With Year 10

  • Central Australia Immersion & Community Project camp (August 15th – 22nd)

With Year 7-12:

  • Production, Music, Bands, Sport, Green Team, Class Captains, Year Level Captains and all the array of clubs from Reptiles to Latin!

  

Whilst the compulsory Year 9 Camp to Roses Gap is not running this year, the Year Level Captains and Class Leaders have already begun discussing a voluntary student-led camp opportunity for later in the year. The camp will cater to the needs and interests of the students as well as promoting teamwork and communication skills.

 

Community members have queried the decision to not run a compulsory camp in 2016. Ultimately, the decision was informed by the following:

- There were more students not going than going, with declining numbers annually since 2012.

- Staff availability for compulsory camps at Year 9 has been reducing at a similar rate to the point that we risk having more non-NHS staff on the Year 9 camp than NHS staff. 

- Feedback from students was that the year 9 camp experience was too similar to camps from Primary School through to Year 7, and, as you can imagine, campsites that can cater for a whole year level do not offer vastly different experiences. 

 

Families and students in Middle and Senior school have clearly communicated through take-up rates and discussion with us - that at Year 9 they prefer to support opt in camps / student exchanges / family trips etc around areas of interest and passion rather than compulsory camps.

Towards Year 10 & VCE – 2017.

Subject choices and options outside NHS.

 

As students move toward Year 12 it is critical for families and students to understand the importance of Semester 1 results in Year 9.

 

Semester 1 results provide key information about which courses students can be recommended for in Year 10, 2017. During course counselling and confirmation in students will choose subjects and receive recommendations from course counsellors based on a range of factors, one of which is your Semester 1 report.

 

Students and families who are considering moving to VET or VCAL program in other schools need to be aware that places in these courses are highly competitive and that, again, Semester 1 reports are critical. In addition to this these courses will generally ask for a recommendation from Northcote.

Yr 9 City School Pgm

This program continues in 2016 and we will provide more information on the City School Program, and the self-directed student-team projects that they will undertake, in future correspondence.

Yr 9 leadership - Alpine School.

A group of year 9s (Ruby, Ollie, Khelan, Hamish, Pascale and Maddie) are spending term 1 in the outdoors and preparing a community project for when they return home – at the moment this looks like being a community garden. There will be a full report in a Term 2 newsletter  from the team when they get home. Best wishes to the team and their families.

Yr 10 Health & PE -  Lawn Bowls

at Fitzroy Victoria Bowling & Sports Club

Students received a tutorial in lawn bowls from Victorian State Player Dylan Fisher and played multiple rounds throughout the visit. They demonstrated significant improvement as the rounds progressed. There were some outstanding shots and quite a few that missed the jack and went straight into the gutter.

 

Overall, it was a pleasure to see them enjoy themselves and make the most out of the opportunity.  We will be relating this experience to our upcoming unit of work on 'Physical activity across the Lifespan'

 

Compass & Student ID Cards

Compass is a critical interface between parents and the school. It is the means by which the school communicates with you and by which parents contact teachers, make payments, provide approvals for events and monitor/approve absences.

 

For this reason it is critical parents do not share their password with their child. You can reset your password by contacting the General Office on 9488 2300.

 

Students were reminded at the end of 2015 to keep their ID card until the 2016 version arrives. Student ID cards are important for signing in and using the Compass Kiosk as well as accessing a range of school services. New cards can be ordered through Compass or by contacting the General Office. A charge will apply for replacing a lost card. 2016 cards will not be available until into Term 2 so lost cards should be replaced now.

 

Thank you for your support of Northcote High School and the 3-way partnership between School, Family and Student.

 

Please feel free to contact us at any time, particularly if your child’s tutor is unavailable

 

Ms Airlie Tudhope

Head of Middle School

Y10 International Student Welcome Breakfast

On 29th Feb. Monday the International Student office hosted breakfast session to welcome Y10 International Students of 2016.  The new y10 international students and staff attendees enjoyed a sumptuous array of fruits and cakes for breakfast. School leaders Ms Morris, Mr Butler and Head of Middle Years Ms Tudhope spoke to welcome our new year International Students and to wish them well and enjoy all the great opportunities school offers.

International Students were grateful and delighted to the event as they were able to talk to their teachers and share a happy time with their friends over breakfast.