Sir Gustav Nossal Boulevard, Monash University, 100 Clyde Road, Berwick, VIC 3806 PO Box 1036, Narre Warren VIC 3805 Phone: 03 8762 4600 Email: [email protected]www.nossalhs.vic.edu.au Nossal News October 30, Issue 16 2015 Good luck and farewell to our Class of 2015 SAVE THE DATES! Monday November 2 Digital Delivery Day 3 Years 9-11 No classes at school _______________ Wednesday November 11 Berry Springs Primary School Visit _______________ Monday November 23 Valedictory Dinner Etihad Stadium _______________ Tuesday December 1 Speech Night Robert Blackwood Hall, Clayton Compulsory for ALL students _______________ Wednesday December 2 Orientation Day for Year 9 in 2016 plus Year 9 Student Helpers _______________ Saturday December 5 PFA Secondhand Book & Uniform Sale For more information regarding Nossal events, see the Coming Events tab on our webpage. Dear Parents Year 12 Exams Congratulations and good luck to the Year 12 Class of 2015 who are now fully immersed in their final exams. We farewelled them at their celebration day last week with the now traditional breakfast, activities, shirt-signing and Holi powder fight, followed by a BBQ lunch. My thanks to the senior school team and Ms Soltys in particular for her organisation, which was impeccable as always. Mr Rule returned from retirement to assist with the games and competitions and the Berwick Rotary Club ran the lunchtime BBQ for us and were magnificent as always……another warm thankyou to them for their excellent support and involvement in our school. Principal News - Mr Roger Page
Transcript
Sir Gustav Nossal Boulevard, Monash University, 100 Clyde Road, Berwick, VIC 3806
Wednesday November 11Berry Springs Primary School Visit
_______________
Monday November 23Valedictory Dinner
Etihad Stadium_______________
Tuesday December 1Speech Night
Robert Blackwood Hall, ClaytonCompulsory for ALL students
_______________
Wednesday December 2Orientation Day for Year 9 in 2016
plus Year 9 Student Helpers_______________
Saturday December 5PFA Secondhand Book & Uniform Sale
For more information regarding Nossal events, see the
Coming Eventstab on our webpage.
Dear Parents
Year 12 Exams
Congratulations and good luck to the Year 12 Class of 2015 who are now fully immersed in their final exams. We farewelled them at their celebration day last week with the now traditional breakfast, activities, shirt-signing and Holi powder fight, followed by a BBQ lunch. My thanks to the senior school team and Ms Soltys in particular for her organisation, which was impeccable as always. Mr Rule returned from retirement to assist with the games and competitions and the Berwick Rotary Club ran the lunchtime BBQ for us and were magnificent as always……another warm thankyou to them for their excellent support and involvement in our school.
Principal News - Mr Roger Page
Nossal News
2
WHAT IS COMING UP AT NOSSAL...2015
November 2 Digital Delivery Day 3: Yr 9-11 (No classes at school)
November 3 Melbourne Cup HolidayNovember 10 Central Aust Tour InfoNovember 11 Berry Springs Primary School visitNovemver 13 2016 Course ConfirmationNovember 13-20 Yr 10 & 11 Exams November 18-20 Year 9 ExamsNovember 23 Valedictory DinnerNovember 27 Final day for Year 10 and 11
December 1 Speech Night - Robert Blackwood Hall Clayton Compulsory for all studentsDecember 2 Orientation Day for 2016 Year 9s Pupil free day for current Year 9s onlyDecember 5 PFA Second Hand Book & Uniform SaleDecember 9 Year 9 Big Day Out
SCHOOL TERM DATES
2015Term 4
OCT 5 - Term 4 commences NOV 27 - Term 4 concludes Year 10 & 11
DEC 9 - Term 4 concludes Year 9
2016JAN 28 - 1st Day Year 9 & 12 - Foundation Assembly
JAN 29 - 1st day for Year 10 & 11
Thanks too, to Michael Watchorn and the staff at Monash University who again provided the Year 12 students with some excellent advice, offers of support and farewell gift. (And encouragement to enrol at Monash for 2016 as many of our previous students have done.)
There will be some room and program changes to accommodate the larger VCE Exams which will take place in the gym and lecture theatre. I thank the students and staff in advance for their forbearance as we endeavour to ensure optimum conditions for our imminent graduates. In particular I thank the PE staff who regularly have their workspaces disrupted to accommodate exams and other large school events, and also the Music staff who have to play more quietly at these times. Lloydco, the company undertaking the building works, will also shut down any noisy operations on the days of the big exams.
Advertisements published in Nossal News in no way constitute an endorsement of a product or service by Nossal High School.
Principal News Continued...
Year 12 students enjoying their Celbration Day breakfast
Buliding works this week
Nossal News Nossal News
3
Building Program
The program continues to be on track; the weight-room is almost at lockup stage, the main building extension is framed and the slab is poured. The library courtyard is almost complete, just requiring the glass fencing to be installed and the plantings to be undertaken. The sourcing and planting of the containers will be undertaken by the school so if any parents have contact with a nursery or tree growers who may be able to offer us a good deal on some mature specimen plants, please let me know. And in spite of libellous suggestions in the Year 12 video that our oval is a fantasy of mine, the ground works are completed and the irrigation is currently being installed. The main works are on track for completion before the end of the year and we hope to be playing on it by Term 2 in 2016. The class of 2015 are warmly invited to come along and use the oval and weightroom whenever they can as are any of the Old Nossalonians.
Best wishes to Ms Harrap
Ms Harrap has recently undergone a major hip operation which will sadly put her out of action for most of this term. She is currently recovering at home and under strict doctors instructions about what she can and can’t do. My thanks to the school leadership team for stepping up and taking on the myriad key tasks that Ms Harrap so capably manages every day. We wish her well for a speedy recovery and are certainly missing her hard work, humour and significant leadership.
School Hours
I remind students and parents that I expect all students to have vacated the school buildings by 6.00 pm at the latest. While I think it is a good thing that students are keen to stay back and study, it does create security issues for us as doors are left open and cleaners are impeded in their routines. After 6.00 pm the school external doors should all be locked and there are no teaching staff on duty so any students who remain later are effectively unsupervised which is not acceptable or desirable. I do have a concern too about lone students walking home late or to the station in the dark, not that we have had any issues, but I am discomforted when I see this, and we will often feel compelled to wait until they are collected.
Nossal Security
Increasingly we have the school facilities hired out to outside users, Church groups on the weekend, and various sporting and community groups during weekday evenings. This generates very useful income for the school and provides a community service. It will, however, require us to become much more security conscious than we have been to date.
One of the things that both pleases and worries me is the fact that we operate in a trusted space where students do not feel the need to lock their lockers and where we can leave rooms open for free access and our facilities and equipment available for students to access and use as they need. We have experienced very little antisocial behaviour and our school community is generally very respectful of the facilities and possessions of others. This is an ethos I am particularly pleased about and want to encourage rather than discourage,;however, with up
Staff look forward to the now traditional Colour Run as much as the students
Staff cooking up a storm for the Year 12s to kick off Celebration Day
Nossal News
4
to 400 (non-Nossal) people potentially using the gym and lecture theatre outside school times we need to be much more conscious of our security, particularly in the gym, lecture theatre and music building. (We don’t yet have outsiders using the main building.) Please ensure that your equipment and personal possessions, particularly musical instruments, are secured in locked cupboards or offices at the end of the day, and that you do not leave doors and rooms unlocked as you leave.
…and a reminder to all members of the Nossal community that Aikido classes are running every Tuesday and Friday evenings in the gym from 7 – 9 pm and these are free for Nossal students and staff.
Education State
The government has been progressively rolling out its
educational reform program entitled The Education State and have been holding principal briefings to update us on the changes and implications of the new accountabilities, resources and targets. I am pleased to say that what I have seen to date looks to be a coherent, well informed and genuine attempt to more adequately resource schools, address areas of disadvantage, and target a broad range of valid improvement targets. It is informed by creditable local research and is not merely imposing unrealistic targets or punitive compliance standards as has been proposed in the past. I am quite positive about what I see and read at this stage as it is quite complementary to the strategic planning work that we undertook last year and many of the targets we identified as key priority areas in our own review are also enshrined in the Education State initiative. While
I do have continuing concerns about the adequacy of the resourcing for schools like ours, I applaud the increased allocation of funds to those most in need and targeting of broader success measures under the heading of “Ambitious, achievable targets about the whole child.” This encompasses “Learning for Life; Happy Healthy and Resilient kids; Breaking the link; Pride and Confidence in our Schools.” These areas are underpinned by specific targets and measures, changes to the curriculum, revamped funding models, revised regional support for schools, expanded leadership training, targeting of disadvantaged students, and more flexibility around improvement models. There is implicit recognition that successful outcomes are not just about final marks and that improvement is better delivered across a wide range of accountabilities and measures, some of which have yet to be developed or detailed.
For more information refer to http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/educationstate
Roger Page
Building A works this week
Year 12 Final Assembly 2015
Thanks to Rotary Club of Berwick for running the lunchtime bbq
Nossal News Nossal News
5
Over the past fortnight, Nossal High School has continued to be a buzz with activity.
Class of 2015 Farewell
From a school’s viewpoint, clearly the focus has been on the end of classes and school for our Year 12 students. Congratulations to the students on the way they celebrated this significant milestone in their lives. It was great to be able to enjoy the final assembly they organised and then to enjoy a relaxed Celebration Day, starting with a barbeque breakfast on Tuesday, followed by a number of activities including a colour run on the soccer ground.
With all of the hard work done over previous years at school, it is now time to apply the knowledge and skills you have achieved to your final examinations. Remember the advice from our guest Alumni students during their recent visit; “it’s not all about the ATAR, it’s about doing your best and then making the best choices in the next chapter of your life.” Best wishes for your exams and your lives ahead. We look
forward to sharing in the news of your continued triumphs!
Building Works
The buzz also at Nossal over the past two weeks involved the ongoing development of our facilities. Last week there was the first of two significant concrete pours which saw the floor laid in the ground level extension of the main building. Work has also now commenced in what will be two new project rooms (formerly the quiet study space), with framing being constructed for the internal walls. Outside, preparation is well underway for the establishment of the concrete floor for the upper level of the same building.
Adjacent to the outdoor courts, work has also continued on the new Weights and Table Tennis Building. Internal walls are being plastered while Year 12 Colour Run
Assistant Principal News - Mr Keith Butler
Nossal News
6
bricklayers have commenced working on the outer walls. This building is well on track for our occupation and use of the facility from early 2016.
The other major development is the construction of the school oval. The continued fine weather has made the project run smoothly and the contractors are now laying irrigation and drainage before preparing the top playing surface. Like the Weights and Table Tennis building, the oval too should be finished, ready for use from early 2016.
Keith ButlerStudents and staff enjoyed breakfast together for Celebration Day
Career NewsStudying OverseasMany students consider the idea of overseas study for their whole degree or as part of an Australian University program during their degree here.
Studying abroad can be a fantastic opportunity both academically and socially.
If you are seriously interested in this option, being organised is the first essential. The second is to be well informed about suitable universities and cost considerations. The third important element is to start early. Most overseas universities have a process that starts 12-18 months before the University year.
• Get organised
• Start early
• Research thoroughly
Most Universities require a transcript of all results in secondary school as well as references from the
school, so it’s important to keep all results in mind every year, not just in Year 12.
Many overseas universities require a test to be completed. For the USA, for example, students must sit the SAT or ACT and these can be hard to book into when they are run in Melbourne
Some good starting points are International Schools Guide which covers a huge range of countries
http://www.internationalschoolguide.com/
For study in the UK, start with
Education UK http://www.educationuk.org/
British Council http://www.britishcouncil.org.au/
For the USA
Education USA
https://educationusa.state.gov/
Also visit individual University websites, both Australian and international, to see the range of opportunities available.
Julie RyanCareers Practitioner
Nossal News Nossal News
7
Wellbeing NewsSome interesting wellbeing programs for young people and for parents are being trialled around Dandenong and Narre Warren. They are cost-free.
LOL: Laughing Yoga
Laughing yoga is a mix of laughter exercises, yogic breathing and relaxation which has been shown to improve mood, relieve stress and increase cognitive function.
No dates are set for LOL as it depends on the level of interest. Call Jac on 1800 367 968 or email [email protected] to express your interest or find out more.
Artspace
Materials supplied for drawing, collage, jewellery making and craft. No booking is required; it’s drop-
in every other Wednesday from 4 till 5:30pm at Narre Warren headspace at 66 Victor Crescent. Contact Jac on 1800 367 968 or email [email protected] to find our more.
Adult Resilience for Life
This is a four-week program for adults about learning positive ways to deal with day-to-day problems, life stressors and life changes. It’s aimed at parents and carers. The program will run 12 and 19 November and 3 and 10 December at headspace Narre Warren at 66 Victor Crescent.
Call Justine on 1800 367 968 or email [email protected] to express your interest or find out more.
Leigh CandyStudent wellbeing counsellor
Important Notice!It is an Education Department requirement that all electrical cords used within a school be tested and tagged as being safe to use according to the prescribed Safety Standards. Earlier this year, students and staff were required to present all cords for computers, laptops, portable devices and phones that are used at Nossal for such testing. The day was successful with the great majority meeting the standards and therefore approved for use.
However, approximately 200 students failed to have their cords tested on the day and so a final Test and Tag Day has been arranged for Friday 13 November. This day has been selected because it is either an exam day or normal class day and so all students will be in attendance. On the day, students are to have their cords labelled with their name and drop it off in the designated area in the morning, ready for collection at the end of the day.
Cords presented will be tested at no cost to students; however, if a cord is not tagged as part of this program, subsequent use of the cord/device at the school will be jeopardised and the cost of having the cord approved will have to be met by the student.
It is therefore important that any student who has not had their electrical cords approved for any device used at Nossal High School do so on 13 November. Cords that are approved and therefore compliant will carry a tag similar to the one shown.
Nossal News
8
Exam and Expectation newsAttendance Expectations at the End of the Year
Year 9 are expected to attend all classes, exams and additional programs until Wednesday 9 December.
Year 10s and 11s are expected to attend all classes, exam feedback and early commencement programs, including their final assembly on Friday 27 November.
All students in Years 9 to 12 are expected to attend Speech Night in full summer, academic uniform in the evening on Tuesday 1 December at Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash Clayton.
Nossal High School End of Year Exams for students in Years 9, 10 and 11
Students in Years 9 to 11 will be sitting their Nossal Examinations between November 13 and November 20. During this time:
• Year 9s can expect an exam in all of their Core Subjects on Wednesday 18 November, Thursday 19 November and Friday 20 November
• Year 9s will attend normal classes between Friday 13 November and Tuesday 17 November
• Year 10s can expect an exam in most subjects
• Year 11s can expect an exam in all subjects, although their Unit 3/4 VCAA exam will generally be held at another time.
There are special provisions for students with VCAA exams throughout the Nossal Exam week. These have been outlined to students and parents via a letter from Ms Katherine Warriner (Director of VCE) and are elaborated on later in this newsletter.
In the week prior to exams each year level will be informed of the requirements of exam conditions and materials. Teachers will also provide revision opportunities and materials for students to develop and refine their study habits. Yr 10s and 11s are only expected here at Nossal when they have exams; they may arrive late and leave early. Year 9s will undertake normal lessons for the first three days of the examination period. They will follow a Week B timetable and will undertake revision with their classroom teachers. Their end of year exams will begin on Wednesday 18 November 2015. Students will be expected to attend
school from half an hour before the beginning of their first exam and may leave at the end of their last exam for the day, in line with the expectations for senior students. A timetable indicating when the exams occur will be distributed to students shortly. All students are expected to be in full academic uniform and should ensure they have all required materials for each exam. Class teachers will provide this information.
Finishing Unit 2 Well
Students in Year 11 are encouraged to work hard to maximise their learning in their Unit 2 studies and finish these units off well. Some students make the mistake of focussing all of their energies on their Unit 3/4 subject(s), neglecting their Unit 2 studies in the last term. Doing so is narrow-sighted and only results in short-term gains. Unit 2 studies are invariably strong preparation for Unit 3 and 4 studies. Neglecting Unit 2 studies now means that the workload and difficulty of your Year 12 studies are exacerbated. The school makes a generous allowance for special attendance arrangements for students doing a VCAA Unit 3 and 4 exam by allowing them to stay at home on the day immediately prior to the exam (but not where exams follow a weekend or public holiday). We neither encourage, nor condone, students taking additional time. The strict attendance rules required to pass Unit 2 are still in place. We do not want students to jeopardise passing their Unit 2 subjects. We ask parents to support the school in making these expectations clear to students.
Exam Feedback and Early Commencement of 2016 subjects
In the week following our Nossal Exams, from the 23–25 November, students will be exposed to a two-hour introductory session to their 2016 studies. During this time each class will cover the course outline and be given a sense of what to expect next year. They will have access to resources and a small amount of holiday homework to be completed before returning to school at the beginning of next year. In the final two days of that week (26 and 28 November), students will receive their exam papers back, along with valuable feedback about how to improve exam technique. The Year 10 and 11 Final assemblies will also be held on Friday 27 November.
Ms Tracey Mackin Director of Curriculum: Classroom Pedagogy
Nossal News Nossal News
9
Central Australia Tour News
We are excited to announce that we will again be offering the Year 10 and 11 students in 2016 (current Year 9 and Year 10 students) the opportunity to partake in a tour of Central Australia Monday 20 June to Wednesday the 29 June 2016 (the last week of Term 2 and the start of the winter holidays). This trip
will involve approximately 40 Nossal students and four Nossal staff travelling to the Northern Territory to explore the best the Red Centre has to offer. This will be an excellent opportunity for students to experience Australia’s natural beauty, history and
culture and foster greater independence and self-confidence. Our inaugural tour this year was a great success, so we hope to replicate and build upon it next year.
We will be hosting a Parent and Student Information evening at Nossal on Tuesday 10 November in the Lecture Theatre for any students who may be interested in attending next year. The full itinerary and cost of the tour will be available to families on the evening, but as an indication we are anticipating that it will be similar to the cost of the 2015 tour ($975) at this stage.
We strongly urge you to consider joining us on the tour next year, as the feedback from the students of this year’s tour indicated that it was very positive and worthwhile experience.
If you have any questions, please see Mrs Graystone in the Science office or email [email protected]
Mrs Amanda GraystoneCentral Australia Tour Coordinator
All photos from the 2015 Central Australia Tour
Nossal News
10
ICAS Bubbles are the Best BubblesIt’s exactly 9:06 and 10 seconds when you find yourself amongst the horde of Year 9s making their way into a hall-like room laden with chairs and desks, carefully arranged in rows. Students, all of them familiar faces, sit in a manner similar to a Mexican wave, heads bobbing down row after row. Finally you reach your seat, the plastic cool against your gluteus maximus, and despite being specifically warned not to, you quietly whisper to your neighbour, contributing to the soft murmur that encompasses the building.
You hear a sniff, (perhaps the result of a runny nose?) which catapults the room into a cacophony of louder, longer sniffs, transforming the exam into the grounds for a sniffing competition. Stifled laughter and half smiles litter the hall, quieting when one of the teachers approaches the front, announcing the beginning of the test.
You shade in your name carefully, checking it once, twice, before progressing to the next section. Are you female or male? You’re not quite sure yourself.
Another call allows you to flip open your question books, and you fumble with the pages before being confronted by garish pictures (which you pray are not clip art) and an intimidating amount of text.
Hesitating, you peek around, hoping your teachers won’t mistake it for an attempt to cheat.
Your peers are hunched upon their desks, racing through their questions with gusto, seemingly knowing what they’re doing with their lives while you waste time staring at them like a creep.
You grudgingly decide to begin.
Stressful as these tests can be sometimes, you are forced to acknowledge that this ICAS thing is a pretty good way to judge how well you’ve understood what you’ve learnt in class. Sometimes, you draw a complete blank on the questions, forcing you to acknowledge what would be your undoings. Maybe you should practice English more… Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.
Of course, being dunked into these tests also serve as good exam practice, mimicking the environment that you’d experience at the end of the year.
You start to think that’s it’s not so bad. You tried your best, put in a good effort and seemed to have done well enough...
The teacher jolts you out of your reverie by announcing that 5 minutes remain, and reminds everyone to double check their answers. You hurriedly skim over them, but your efforts only succeed in finding patterns amongst the shaded bubbles.
It’s time now to hand in the test papers.
As you follow the multitude out of the hall, you exchange answers with friends and join in the collective feelings of relief and regret (should’ve picked D), but there is no room for self-pity when free snacks are an option; the plaintive mood dissipates.
The test is over. You have snacks. All is well.
Chizirimuzo, Kimiko & Charlotte – Year 9 Phoenix
Nossal News Nossal News
11
IRC NewsThis year the IRC (Information Resource Centre) had organised a range of competitions and activities during the Book Week celebrations. A very large number of students participated in these competitions. The winners of each competition were presented with their awards at the school assembly recently.
Given below is the full list of the winners.
Book Week 2015 AwardsChampion Reader Competition1st Bill Shen - Pegasus 2nd William Maddren - Garuda3rd Gabrielle Poh - Pegasus
CBCA Book Guess Aedan Kertesi – GarudaKyla Fareeha - Phoenix Creative Writing CompetitionWinner of Best 50 WorderMichelle Goldenberg - Garuda
Winner of Best 5 WorderSarah Shervell - Griffin
Winner of Best HaikuSarah Shervell - Griffin
Winner of Best PoemChizirimuzo Ugo - Phoenix
Winner of Best Short Story (Junior) Kitty Mcloughlin 0x3 – Phoenix (When Will This Nightmare End)(Senior) Bridget Van Diepen 0n3 - Griffin (Holy Water) Multicultural/Book Character Dress CompetitionStudentsBest Book Character – FemaleSarah Shervell - GriffinLiliana Nguyen - Phoenix
Best Book Character – Male Muzamal Ibrahimini - Garuda
Best Cultural Dress – FemaleSadaf Askaryar - GriffinDiba Rezazadeh - Griffin
Best Cultural Dress – MaleRyan Chen - PhoenixLeon Gambir - Pagasus
StaffBest Staff Book Character – MaleJoe Wilson
Best Staff Book Character – FemaleBriana Chapple
Best Staff Multicultural Dress – FemaleSue Harrap
Best Book Character Group - studentsAustin Luong - Garuda Charlotte Luong - Phoenix
Best Book Character Group - staffSue Lee-Ack & Elizabeth Morgan
Premiers Reading Challenge
Most Books Read – Student WinnerHannah Ho
Kamla ReddyDirector of IRC
Multicultural/Book Character Dress Competition
2015 Valedictory Dinner
Class of 2015 ReminderBook and pay for your tickets at
