From the Principal's desk 

Hello to all our community members.

May I take the opportunity to introduce our community to the College Student Leadership team. On behalf of all college Principals can I say how fortunate we all feel to be working with such a committed and articulate team of young people. From left to right, Katelyn Tregenza, Jonny Kelly, Luke Graham and Leif Wellington have all started their roles in such a terrific fashion and I know they will continue to represent the college and their peers extremely well. 

We look forward to the work this group will do to further our aims as a college in being student centred in our approach to learning and also towards the various policies that are implemented across the school that directly affect students. I know they will represent our student body on a range of issues and projects including design elements of the Goldsworthy Campus upgrade in a most positive manner.

The start of the year has been very valuable and rewarding. With the return to events such as assemblies, community events, excursions and incursions we all get to see firsthand how enthusiastically our students are when they talk about their learning to adults. I look forward to all families being able to experience this first hand as we undertake the three way interviews early next term.

School Council

This month we formed a new School Council following the election process and I am proud to report that our 2021 School Council is inclusive of a group of parents, staff, community representatives and college students who will support the college to continue to move forward in a well informed and transparent manner. Our hope for the School Council in 2021 is that we are able to engage in conversation and work that will have a lasting impact on the quality of program and outcomes that we deliver for our students on a daily basis. Everyone at Northern Bay is extremely optimistic of what can be achieved at the college in the years to come and that work starts with a strong sense of collaboration and inclusion at School Council level. 

Thank You Shonah

2021 will be the first School Council since 2012 where Shonah Friswell is not sitting as President.  On behalf of all members of the college community I would like to acknowledge Shonah’s outstanding and exemplary leadership of the Northern Bay College School Council. As anyone who has had the privilege to meet Shonah would attest, she is a staunch and wholehearted advocate for our school, our families and especially our five campuses of students. Shonah has had a major impact on this college with her work in lobbying local members of parliament for important facilities upgrades, advocating for the needs of parents and students of the Northern Bay community and providing a welcoming and safe atmosphere for all to feel valued and included as part of Northern Bay College. She has  ensured that work completed at our college is of a high quality and befitting of the educational opportunities our students should enjoy every day.  

Shonah will leave a lasting legacy on our college and has always put the needs of the "whole",  well and truly ahead of the needs of "self". A truly remarkable quality in any leader. The little picture spread below shows just a few of the activities that Shonah attended as our parent representative and she enjoyed all of them, including verifying all school documentation requiring the President signature, as in the final photo in this series.

My final words to her as a Council President were:

Shonah, you should be proud of the work you have done to lead a multi-campus college through a merger period coming out the other end as a school that truly values and understand the importance of being ‘One School - One Team.’ We look forward to continuing to make you proud of Northern Bay College. 

Learning Walks

Another feature of our work that we have missed over the past 12 months has been the opportunity to engage in professional learning walks. Our focus of these walks has been the Prep - Year 2 Developmental Curriculum learning and teaching model. This process allows us to interrogate our documented and agreed learning and teaching models to ensure that we deliver the best possible programs to our students. This has been such a positive and enriching process so far and we look forward to all Stages of Learning (SoLs) benefiting from this improvement focussed process in the terms to come.

Starting Right- CALD Parents Information Night

Recently we had the opportunity to welcome our CALD (Cultural and Linguistically Diverse) families into the school for a tailored ‘Starting Right’ information evening. A reflection on this evening is the huge role we play as educational professionals to ensure that the programs and outcomes in place for students at the college are the best they can possibly be. We have a responsibility to our families to deliver programs that are a representation of our best effort and  will ensure our young people have every opportunity to succeed. 

With our EAL (English as an Additional Language) and MEA (Multicultural Education Assistant) staff using their native languages to ensure our students and their families feel connected, supported and hopeful for what the future holds. Thank you to all staff at Northern Bay who continue to deliver on these almost immeasurable elements every day.

The Goldsworthy Campus Renovation

Biuro Ailtiri –our architects appointed to the Goldsworthy upgrade -  have been busy collecting site plans and developing an understanding of the essential learning space needs as they work to create a series of possible concept plans for the college. This stage of th project does not include a high level of community consultation. This will be a feature of the Design and Development phase which follows. We look forward to this stage of works as this will be the point when we can ensure that the facilities on our Goldsworthy Campus clearly reflect an upgrade on the facilities they replace

Funtastic Family Fun

I want to thank everyone involved in our community welcome events that took place on the P-8 campuses. Typical of Victoria the campuses experienced the full range of Autumn weather but whether your afternoon was sunny, windy or a little damp the impact of it being fun for our students was very clear. 

Being ‘dunked’ was certainly a highlight for a number of NBC staff including myself with students (and some colleagues) loving the opportunity to get one back.

Thank you to all of our staff who attended and - particularly to Gordana Krsul for her outstanding coordination of such an exciting array of activities on each campus

Harmony and Equality

Being a part of the Northern Bay College community brings with it some incredible perks. I seldom fail to be impressed by the students at our school and over the past few days of harmony celebrations on our campuses, it is hard for our overall esteem for our students to not rise to new heights. 

The culmination of the week was a visit by Humanitarian advocate and former Socceroo Mr. Craig Foster. A former soccer Captain of Australia, Craig is now a leader for Multicultural Australia. He addressed 100 students from across our campuses who had gathered at Wexford Campus giving a message, not only of Harmony - but of equality. 

Craig urged everyone in the room to realise that everyone is equal to everyone else. We are all different but we are all equal in our importance, our voice and our standing in society. He encouraged everyone to take a stand against racism and I hope that your children, our children, continue to lead the way in this understanding.

Thanks also to the Geelong Advertiser for featuring this event in the newspaper. It is appreciated.

If you have 7 minutes over the next few weeks, enjoy the sights and sounds of the Wexford Harmony event which was replicated to some extent across all campuses

Peace Poles

As part of a world wide initiative, two Rotary Clubs -  Corio Bay and Kardinia who each give great support tot he College students, purchased Peace Poles to welcome families at the entrance of our P-8 Campuses. They are written in different languages as a great symbol of multiculturalism and connect us to hundreds of schools across the world. On the last day of our Harmony activities Club memories joined our students in a commemorative photo.

Reflections

Activities at the college start very quickly when we return from the Term break with the Years 7 to 12 Athletics Carnival on Wednesday 21 April. Missing this event last year means we are all very much looking forward to seeing our five campuses come together for a day of fun competition.

School Photos are also upon us. We start at Goldsworthy on 20 April, then move to Wexford on 22 April. Week two of the term will see Tallis, Peacock and Hendy being photographed on Monday, Thursday and Friday respectively.

We are also very excited that our Preps across the college will be getting a visit from Healthy Harold! Years 3 and 4 will be visited by Project Rocket. At Goldsworthy the VCAL students embark on their Lunch Cafe project and the Year 9's complete their Healthy Body Healthy Minds program.

On Friday 23 April College be represented at will also attend the Rose Avenue, RSL Centre to pay tribute to the Anzac Spirit and the service men and women from our 3214 community.

There is so much to reflect upon and to look forward to at Northern Bay and I am sure that as you read through the pages of this newsletter you will get a sense of the scope of learning across all year levels. I want to wish everyone a safe and relaxing term break and that you make the most of family time again.

Regards

Scott Diamond

College Principal