Student News

Word from the Editors

Welcome Back, this is our fifth edition of NHS Student News!

With a uniquely varied student body involved in everything from leadership to the many clubs and societies that add to Nossal's trademark adherence to a love of learning in any field, we felt that for the average student frantically checking emails, scrolling through NEO and reading the newsletter, it can be a bit of a pain to stay on top of the unpredictable Nossal lifestyle.

The student newsletter aims to change that for the better. Keep an eye on this page for all the information on big student events, news from clubs, reminders about important student matters and much more.  We sincerely hope that it aids you in not only surviving your busy student life, but thriving in it too.

There's a lot to see and do here at Nossal. With all of the tests, assignments and homework tasks, it can sometimes be incredibly difficult for the average student to truly be aware of all the opportunities at their fingertips. This newsletter aims to help you cut through to the information that YOU need.

So stay awhile, have a browse for a few minutes and come again soon!

Indira Unnava

Head Editor

Meet the Writers

Meet a different writer here each issue:

Pranathi Katneni

Hi everybody! I’m Pranathi from Year 9. I will be writing a creative column for the Student News. It’s literally just stories created from random thoughts I have when I’m meant to be doing important stuff like homework.

I took this opportunity because I want to entertain people. Writing a regular column in a newsletter is something I’ve now ticked off from my bucket list.

I hope reading my column and the other columns in Student News inspires everyone to do things they’re scared about whether it’s writing something or singing in front of a crowd. While that may be addressed to certain people in particular, I hope everybody takes it to heart.

If you want to share your writing with the world (or at least the school) or even just get some feedback, don’t hesitate to send me your writing. 😊

SRC News

Update on Transparency

"So what do you even do in the SRC?"

Folks, I've been in the SRC every single year I've been at Nossal and yet no matter who asks it, where they ask it and when they ask it, I still don't have a good answer to that question, though not for the reason you might think.

The truth is, I can't answer that question because there is FAR too much going on at any given time for me to even begin to communicate it. It is, however crucial that what we do do is communicated and communicated clearly. Transparency this year has been a point of improvement for the SRC for sure, the success of the first open meeting and the increase in SRC input in assemblies testament to this. But open meetings take a bit of time and effort to put together and we can't always the guarantee a speaking spot in an assembly, so we've decided that the best way to tell you everything is to simply tell you EVERYTHING.

From now on the SRC Communications team will be posting the minutes from every SRC General Assembly meeting on Facebook. If you've got the time, we'd really recommend skimming through the minutes to see the issues we've raised, get updates on our current project and if you're tuning in for the first time, find out what our current projects are.

If you don't have the time to read a massive document pay attention to the bottom of each post. We will highlight "the coolest project" mentioned in the minutes for that meeting and give a brief summary of it. So that way you're kept up to date on the good stuff.

Abhishek Kumar

SRC Communications Executive

Quote of the Week

NEST News

NEST & National Tree Planting Day 2017

We all know trees are important; they play a key role in absorbing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, help improve native ecosystems, prevent soil erosion, and just make the place look better. But often it’s too hard to do anything about the lack of trees at school and in the community; that was until National Tree Day came along. Now students from all across Australia work together with local plant nurseries and Bunnings to plant hundreds of thousands of trees in a matter of hours, and recently, NEST brought this event to Nossal for the fifth year in a row with the impact being clearer than ever. Each year as hundreds more trees and plants are added to Nossal’s grounds, the school becomes a more hospitable place for native wildlife and we are able to offset a small amount of our carbon footprint.  We are able to achieve these fantastic results with the very generous support of Bunnings Fountain Gate.  Not only do they donate the plants to us, but they also make available some of their staff team members to help us ensure we get the job done right.  Thank you to Bunnings for your ongoing support of Nossal High School.

On Friday the 28 July, nearly 900,000 trees were planted across Australia by a quarter of a million students, working together to help care for the environment and work towards a more sustainable future for Australia. Here at Nossal the environmental science classes and NEST worked together to plant 108 native trees and plants in and around the dried creek bed and staff carpark, taking significant steps towards expanding the school’s biodiversity, and transforming Nossal’s once barren gardens into a natural habitat for native wildlife.

None of this would have been possible however without the help of Ms Ball, Jason Bell, Mr Butler, Bunnings Fountain Gate or the dozens of students from NEST and Environment Science that came out to help make a change at Nossal for the better, so a big thank you to all of them. If you’d like to join NEST and help out with more awesome projects like this one keep an eye out for our stall at the upcoming club sign up day!

Hayden Radford

NEST

CBHP News

The inspiring figure behind CBHP India is Dr Moses Kharat. He was raised from humble beginnings as a Dalit, a member of the “untouchable” community in the Indian caste system. Through the support of Christian missionaries, his parents received the opportunity to gain an education and escape the practices of untouchability. Dr Moses spent years practising medicine in various hospitals around India and New Zealand before ultimately deciding to return to Buldhana, his home district, to fulfil his dream of improving the health and lives of those from his community.

CBHP has two arms: CBHP India and CBHP Australia. CBHP Australia is a student-led group based in the University of Melbourne, that work alongside Dr Moses in helping him address the issues in health inequality, business and education in his hometown. Nossal High School is collaborating with the University of Melbourne students to assist with this great cause: to provide education and teach the habits of good health to village children and their families. We acknowledge that we are very privileged to live in a society where education is valued and to attend a selective entry school like Nossal High School where learning is appreciated. Thus, we are keen to support village children to stay in school and help them break the cycle of poverty. By doing so, we will be able to teach these children the most basic aspects that you and I take for granted, such as personal hygiene, counting from 1 to 10 and the alphabet.

Founded in 2013, the CBHP Nossal Team now annually fundraises to support these pre-school children and various CBHP projects. Money raised is used to fund the teachers and supplies of CBHP’s Vidya Niketan English School (Vidya Niketan means house of knowledge) as well as the Village Health Workers, the Mobile Health Team and more. Currently, poor and underprivileged children in rural India are often required to drop out of school to generate money for their family to provide basic needs such as food and shelter - financial support for the children to remain in school is more often than not impossible. Child labour is ubiquitous in India and this links back to the poverty cycle. Through CBHP, the community and health projects that Nossal is engaged in targets these children and their families, empowering them to take ownership of their health to overcome health and social injustice.

The CBHP Nossal Team consists of four sub-teams: Project, Finance, Communication and Design, where interested students are recruited as a member to take up various roles. CBHP Nossal organises several events throughout the year to advocate awareness of global health issues within the Nossal community. Every year, the Nossal CBHP Team comes together to plan and create events which are uniquely different from previous years, enabling our student members to spread the CBHP mission as well as learn valuable life lessons that broaden our worldview.

Chari Tea House is a student-run tea bar held annually on Cross Country day. This year, we made mango ice tea and with the help of the Nossal community, we were able to raise funds to support CBHP’s school bus for the students.

Currently, we are planning to hold the annual Term 3 gameshow events. This is the most exciting aspect of the year, as both students and teachers participate in the events. In 2016, CBHP held the event "Who am I?", which was a fun and highly engaging gameshow that appealed to both students and teachers. This year, we are organising a game, called "What's in the box?". More will be revealed later…

We'd like everyone to consider participating in our events, or even joining our club. It will, without a doubt, be a worthwhile experience for you to organise and participate in our events. It is also satisfying to see that our contributions have indeed, made a difference in the end. We welcome everyone who is interested in being more than just another student and is willing to learn more about social justice and health.

CBHP is working hard towards self-sustainability. Your support in this crucial time is essential to ensure that CBHP can continue as a force for positive change in the community. ​If you are interested in contributing, please support CBHP Nossal’s events and visit our website via https://www.cbhp.org.au/donate.

Kevin M, Karina T, Dhruti P, Nithiya P and Chris G

CBHP Leaders

NSU News

It’s been a busy few weeks for the Nossal Student Union (NSU)! We’re working with clubs on the South East Feast, which will run in September, on revitalising Breakfast Club, projects with A/V, and other events!

Currently, the NSU is working with Mr Butler to organise parts of the South East Feast. The South East Feast is a multicultural community event centred around food which will be held Saturday September 16, from 10am - 4pm. NHS clubs and societies, as well as students are encouraged in participate in this event! For more information, please contact any of the NSU executive members.

In addition, we’re working on revitalising Breakfast Club – but we need your help! We’re looking for committed and responsible students to serve as Breakfast Club leaders for next semester and for the long term in the future. If this is you, please contact Reuben Thomas or Jordan van Rhyn. We’d love to have your help!

We’re also working with A/V on Nossal Newsroom, which is a forthcoming ‘news channel’ for Nossal! It will be published fortnightly. The aim of Nossal Newsroom is to promote clubs, societies, and student voice, as well as a whole range of other things! If you’re interested, please contact Nipun Kapadia.

More exciting news is that there another clubs sign-up day this term, on the Monday of Week 4. Clubs and societies will set up their stall at recess, as assembly is in period 3. At the sign-ups, at lunch, we encourage everyone to get involved if they are not already in a club or society!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any executive member of the NSU - our contact details are on the NSU Noticeboard!

Indira Unnava

Secretary of the NSU

The Explainer - Complex things "Un-boring-ed" with Leo - Flags!

Flags – every country has them, but what exactly do they do and what exactly do they mean?

The history of flags is long and interesting, albeit full of exaggerations and folklore passed down from generation to generation. The first documented use of flag-like banners was in the early AD’s, with increasing numbers of empires and city-states realising that it would be beneficial to distinguish themselves from other such entities, particularly in battle. Some of these, like the banner of the Byzantine Empire (see attached) remain influential in flag design up to this day.

Of course, no analysis of flags can exclude the role that coats of arms played in shaping the way we perceive flags today. Before flags existed, and certainly before they were as common as they are now, influential families in Europe had their own shield designs, marked with various symbols which represented the family’s motto, history, or geographic location. The spread of personal coats of arms can be attributed to feudalism, the dominant economic system during the Middle Ages, where several wealthy households managed land on behalf of the monarch – these families also had knights who served on their behalf, coincidentally using their lords’ coat of arm designs on their physical shields in battle. With coats of arms originating much earlier than modern flags, the latter often adopted similar colours and features from the former; this is especially true with older flags, like the one of Amsterdam (see below).

The rise of the nation-state

Flags really took off in the early and later Modern Periods, marked by the rise of nation-states and the simultaneous rapid advancement of technology. As multiethnic empires such as that of the Ottomans and Austro-Hungarians collapsed, nations become more and more homogenous, viewing it as necessary to represent their national identity and customs through the medium of flags. As nationalism and romanticism became more and more popular, so too did flags, their use spreading among governments, but more crucially, the regular citizenry.

Meanings

Each flag of course has a unique meaning, although interesting things come up when individual flags are compared. For example, many Scandinavian countries share the same Nordic cross design, initially inherited from the red-and-white Danish flag. Flags are, in fact, often copied, with the Dutch first orange-white-blue tricolour inspiring what is the most prevalent formant of flags to this day. A similar colour scheme was adopted by Russia, and another modified version later, the flag of the Pan-Slavic movement was born.

The diagram below shows the linkages between the various flags of Slavic countries. Modern-day country names are in red.

We can therefore see that similarity in flags often equals a similarity in culture and ethnonational identity. This remains particularly true in post-colonial states, where national independence and subsequent adoption of a new flag leads to comradely countries seeking to emulate and promote ideals of new-found freedom; the red-black-white of Arab countries and yellow-green-red of African ones is a perfect example.

Political change also often inspires flag change, with even the subtlest differences carrying much denotation. Following the end of apartheid in South Africa in the 1990’s, the national flag was changed to a more colourful and inclusive one, replacing the orange-white-blue one, which had strong connotations to institutionalised racism and Afrikaner supremacy. Similarly, following the fall of communism, many countries such as Albania, Romania and Hungary slightly changed their flag to accommodate for constitutional change, usually getting rid of communist symbols such as the red star.

Interesting flags

Everything, including flags, also has a silly and somewhat humorous side. The flag of the Idaho city of Pocatello was ranked the worst out of all American cities in 2004, and it’s not hard to see why, it being full of too many colours, typeface and even a trademark logo, all no-go-zones for effective flag design.

The world’s simplest flag used to be that of Libya under Colonel Gadhafi’s rule, which left other countries feeling green with envy. How did it look? Well it was green … literarily, a blank green field with no other colours or designs.

This article only serves as a small introduction to what is a multi-faceted and complex world of flags. Interested in them? Lucky for you, some universities have already started issuing degrees in vexillology – the study of flags!

Creative Writing Column

60 Wishes

I had one week left.

When I was 8, I made a bucket list. It had 30 things that I had to do before I died. Since then I added on other things that came to my mind in the years after. By the time I was 15, I had 59 items and presumably at least that many years to complete them.

My world turned upside down not long after that. Exactly fourteen days after my 15th birthday to be exact, I found out that I was not going to have fifty-nine years to complete my bucket list, in fact I would barely have two. But I, being the stubborn person I am, was determined to finish every last one. Even the wish I made during an awkward phase where I wanted to eat three scorpions.

I allocated each item a certain amount of time I which I would complete them based on the difficulty. For example, Number 7 which was buying a calculator, was allocated one day, while Number 34 which was visiting Singapore, had a week. In the end, I had 2 years, 8 months and 12 days’ worth of wishes to fulfil in 2 years.

It hadn’t been too hard. The first one I checked off was being admitted to hospital. I could do about three easy ones like buying a calculator or prank calling someone in a day but others like skydiving over the Indian Ocean were both impossible and probably illegal.

But when you’re a dying teenager, people are willing to bend the rules a little.

I had one week left and one wish left. If I fulfilled it, I could die happy. I don’t know why I left this one for last, but I did. I wished to visit my grandmother’s house. She had died before I was born and my family had nothing left of her. She had sold the house so I couldn’t exactly waltz in and take a tour. At least not without being arrested.

I had my mother drive me there and told the owners my story. I added some more depressing stuff though. Eventually, they let me and my mum in. She took me around the house and told me where everything used to be, what important family things had happened there but I wasn’t listening. I should’ve felt happy, complete but instead all I felt was pain. Blinding pain.

I woke up in a hospital bed. The pain was still there. I could only manage one coherent thought. I had one more wish. Just one to complete my list. I wished not to die, to live to be seventy, have a full life. My list might have been complete, but my life wasn’t.

My last wish wasn’t granted.

Pranathi Katneni

Creative Writing Club Member & Creative Writing Columnist

MPC News

Here at Nossal High School, we know how expensive an external Maths tutor can be. On the other hand, Maths peer coaching is completely free. No bookings required! It is also readily accessible, so all the students have to do is turn up! It is held every day (except Wednesdays) during the first half of lunch in room 3.2.

Many students use this as an opportunity to catch up on their Maths homework. But we know that most of you guys have tests and SACs coming up and we know how easy it is to get distracted and fall into the trap of procrastination. Maths Peer Coaching provides a space for you to not only get work done but also receive help from our friendly, intelligent and experienced coaches. Alone, we can do a certain amount, but together, we achieve much more! The coaches are able to provide assistance with any Maths subjects: Year 9 Maths, Year 10 Maths, Year 10 Maths Advanced, VCE Further, Methods and Specialist. So make sure you come and get help if you are having any trouble with Maths.

Make sure to bring:

- Books

- Pencils

- CAS calculator

- Lunch

Commit and watch your scores drastically improve! Hope to see you there!

Fiona Anzum and Shirley Tang

MPC Leaders

Sports News

Regional Cross Country

On Monday June 19, Nossal’s Cross Country team competed against many other schools in the South Metropolitan Region for a place in the State team. It was a full 3km course that required strength and determination to be completed which our Nossal students demonstrated perfectly. It was really great to see so many students cheer one another on and congratulate each other despite the place they came in. The Nossal community is extremely proud of each student who chose to represent the school and participate in the race. Well done everybody!!

Congratulations to Nikola Mandic who ran in the Under 14s race and placed 5th. He is now qualified to run in the State Cross Country!

NHS vs SCHS Basketball game

On Friday June 23, Nossal’s Basketball team played a 30 minute match against Suzanne Cory High School. It was a friendly game for the majority of the time and Nossal demonstrated great sportsmanship and had a lot of fun. Many students and teachers showed up to support our school and brought a gold coin that allowed the SRC to raise some funds for their projects. It was an amazing turnout as Nossal triumphed over Suzanne Cory 42-28!

Call for Writers!

Students are welcome and encouraged to email any pieces to Abhishek and Indira that they would like published on the Student News page.

In saying that, we aim to publish some regular columns in the paper, and we need some regular writers for columns like:.

·        Hot Topic – a feature article on a current issue

·        A "How To" Column

·        Recipe Column

·        Events Column

·        Sports Column

·        Person of the week (like an inspiring person)/ Guest Interviews

·        Rundown of important student dates

·        Human Interest Articles

·        General Interest Articles.

So if you want to run a Fashion or games column, please let us know.

Those who are interested in being part of the Editorial Team for the regular sections, please write an expression of interest (no more than 200 words) and also a sample article for your preferred column. 

Please email  studentnews@nossalhs.vic.edu.au with any questions and your expressions of interest.

Meditation Club

Meditation is a really helpful technique with dealing with stress. These are a few ways you could make meditation a part of your daily routine:

Being consistent, day after day even if it is 5 minutes a day

Writing a schedule and putting in breaks throughout your study to do 5-minutes sessions of meditation.

Whenever you are in a really stressful mode, maybe just take a few deep breaths and you will feel the difference.

Meditate with a few friends, so you can encourage each other to meet your goals.

Indira Unnava

Meditation Club Leader

Wishing everyone peace and light

Good luck to everyone for your upcoming tests and SACs. Don’t stress and stay smiling! And everyone, please try to remember:

School is not your life, you are your life, so treat yourself well, because you deserve it. :)