• Tuesday 4th August : Curriculum Day - No students
• Tuesday 11th August: VM Elevate Education workshop 
• Friday 14th August: School Visit & Information Session For 2027 Prep Families
• Monday 24th - Friday 28th August: Book Week
• Tuesday 25th - Wednesday August : P-12 Indonesion Incursions
• Friday 28th August: Book Week Dress-Up Day
• Friday 4th September:  School Fete
• Monday 7th - 9th September: Yr 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp
• Thursday 10th September: RUOK? Day
• Monday 14th - Friday 18th September: Yr 10 Work Experience
• Wednesday 16th September: Parent Teacher Interviews -  4:00pm to 7:00pm. 
• Friday 18th September:  Last Day Term 2- 2.30pm finish

We are very pleased to welcome Pauline Arboladura as the newest edition to the Nhill College staff.  Pauline joins us as an Education Support staff member to provide assistance to students in Mrs Taylor's Year 6 class.  Pauline is a fine addition to the fantastic team of Education Support staff who work with students every day in classrooms across the school.  She joins Kristy Alexander, Jonty Brown, Kim Croot, Sharon Croot, Chris Hausleberger, Rhiannon Johnston, Tania McQueen, Suz Menzel and Melanie Ruse who are already well-established in this role.  And of course we also have our two wonderful Multicultural Education Aides in Mu Si Ler and Dah Lay Htoo Shwe helping us to meet the specific needs of our EAL students.  We are extremely fortunate to have so many Education Support staff members working in our school to assist the learning development of our students.  I am sure the whole Nhill College community will join me in making Pauline feel welcome in her new position. 

Is your child starting school in 2027? We invite you to join us for a special School Visit and Information Session at Nhill College on Friday 14 August 2026.

This exciting morning is the perfect opportunity for families to experience our vibrant school community and gain valuable insight into life at Nhill College. Visitors will have the chance to tour our learning spaces, see classrooms in action, and meet our dedicated staff.

During the session, families will learn about our educational programs, student wellbeing initiatives, and the transition-to-school process. There will also be plenty of opportunities to ask questions and discover how we support every child to feel confident, connected, and ready to learn.
Date: Friday 14 August 2026

Time: 9:15am – 11:00am

Location: Nhill College

We warmly welcome all families with children commencing Prep in 2027 and look forward to sharing what makes Nhill College such a wonderful place to learn, grow, and thrive.

Come along and take the first step in your child's exciting school journey!

Recent upgrades to school grounds took another step towards completion with the installation of new covered seating in the primary section this week.  Mr Menzel capably put together the bits and pieces and was ably assisted by some willing volunteers to place the table securely in position.  This comes hot on the heels of some additional grounds works that were completed during the recent holidays to concrete over one of our last remaining blue stone sections in the yard.  School council is focused on making continual improvements to the facilities within our expansive school grounds, and I hope to be able to introduce the next instalment of this continued work very soon. 

Our Year 9-10 Agriculture students have been preparing their sheep for the upcoming Victorian Merino Wether Challenge to be held later this term.  Part of the Challenge involves students walking their sheep for a panel of judges - an activity our students have discovered is not natural for the sheep and one that has to be practised.  The attached picture shows that steady progress is being made in this endeavour, and we wish our Ag students well as they put the finishing touches on their preparations. 

This week's Primary Assembly and Secondary Form Assemblies provided another wonderful opportunity to recognise students who have been consistently demonstrating our SWPBS expectations of Being Respectful, Being a Learner and Being Safe.

Throughout Week 2 of Term 3, students were acknowledged for the positive choices they make every day. Whether it was showing persistence with their learning, supporting classmates, displaying kindness or taking responsibility for their actions, each recipient has contributed positively to our school community.

Congratulations to our Week 2 Term 3 ROARWARD Champions: Cooper C, Dante, Maxon, Olivia, Wah Myint Say, Katie and Nicah.

Each ROARWARD is recognition of the positive behaviours that make Nhill College a safe, welcoming and supportive place for everyone. We are incredibly proud of each student recognised and encourage all students to continue striving to be their very best.

Our Primary students continue to embrace our Weekly Values Program, demonstrating positive attitudes, respectful relationships and a genuine commitment to learning. It has been fantastic to see students applying these values both inside the classroom and out in the playground.

Throughout 2026, our Weekly Values Program continues to strengthen student wellbeing, encourage positive friendships and build a culture where every student feels connected, supported and valued.

Our weekly values encourage students to:

• Develop positive physical and emotional wellbeing
• Build confidence and resilience
• Strengthen their sense of belonging
• Develop respectful relationships and positive social skills

Each weekly value supports our SWPBS expectations of Being Respectful, Being a Learner and Being Safe, helping students become confident, caring and successful learners.

Honesty is all about being truthful and trustworthy. It is telling the truth, regardless of the consequences, even when that may be hard to do. It is not promising things that you know you can’t deliver or exaggerating things to impress others. 

Congratulations to our Week 2 Honesty Award recipients:

Lorraine, Dustin, Moung, George and Luca.

Congratulations also to this week's Milkshake Voucher winner Kiara, who was recognised for consistently demonstrating our school values and setting a wonderful example for others.

A special thank you to our student leaders, Indi and Thee Thee who confidently hosted this week's Primary Assembly and to our Assembly Tech Leader, Asher for ensuring everything ran smoothly. Your leadership and enthusiasm are greatly appreciated.

Well done to every student recognised this week. We are proud of the positive contribution you continue to make to our school community.

Congratulations to Paw Ku Shee, who was announced as our Primary Term 2 Respect Award Winner.

Throughout Term 2, students who consistently demonstrated our SWPBS value of Respect received a random packet of ROARWARD cards in recognition of their positive choices and commitment to our school values. At the end of the term, every student's name who received these special ROARWARD packs was entered into a prize draw.

We are delighted to announce that Paw Ku Shee was the successful recipient of the Primary prize. As her reward, she has won a 50-point voucher to spend at the ROARWARD Shop.

Congratulations, Paw Ku Shee, and thank you for consistently demonstrating respect towards others and helping make Nhill College a positive, caring and inclusive place to learn. We look forward to seeing what you choose from the ROARWARD Shop!
The Secondary Respect Award recipient will be announced at the next Secondary Assembly in the coming weeks. We look forward to celebrating another student who has consistently demonstrated our SWPBS value of Respect.

Our Reading Nights program continues to build momentum, with many Primary students reaching new reading milestones during Week 2 of Term 3.

Developing a regular reading routine at home has enormous benefits, helping students improve their reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary and confidence while fostering a genuine enjoyment of books.

Congratulations to all students who achieved a Reading Nights milestone this week. Your commitment to reading is something to celebrate, and every book you read helps strengthen your learning.

We would also like to sincerely thank our families for their continued encouragement and support. Your involvement plays an important role in helping students develop positive reading habits that will benefit them for years to come.

We look forward to celebrating many more reading achievements throughout the term.

It was wonderful to celebrate another group of students at this week's Primary Assembly who have reached important milestones in our ROARWARD Rank Card Program.

Our Rank Card Program recognises students who consistently demonstrate our SWPBS expectations of Being Respectful, Being a Learner and Being Safe. Every ROARWARD earned reflects positive choices, responsible behaviour and a commitment to learning, with students progressing through milestone levels as they collect their cards.

Congratulations to our students who achieved the following milestones during Week 2 of Term 3:

50 ROARWARDs: Marley, Rosie, Bentley, Chevy and Serena

100 ROARWARDs: Genevieve, Dante, Charlotte, Ayden, Maxon and Olivia

150 ROARWARDs: Paw Ku Shee and Indi

200 ROARWARDs: Charlize

250 ROARWARDs: Brodyn

Reaching each of these milestones is a fantastic achievement and reflects the consistent effort students put into demonstrating our school values every day. Whether it is showing kindness, perseverance, responsibility or leadership, these students are helping to create the positive and supportive culture we are proud of at Nhill College.

Congratulations to all of our Rank Card recipients. Keep making positive choices, striving for success and continuing to ROAR!

Our Junior Primary students are continuing to make wonderful progress in the Magic Coloured Words and Fry Words programs, strengthening their recognition of high-frequency words and building the essential skills needed to become confident, successful readers.

Congratulations to Gay L'Yar Shu, Genevieve, Bentley, Paw Ku Shee, George and Naw Tennurmoo, who achieved new milestones during Week 2 of Term 3. Their commitment, perseverance and enthusiasm for learning should be celebrated.

Every new word mastered is another step towards becoming a stronger, more confident reader. We are incredibly proud of all of our Junior Primary students for the effort they put into developing their reading skills each day. Keep up the fantastic work!

On Tuesday our Nhill College students in Years 9 and 10, and specific Year 11&12 classes, participated in Road Smart Interactive, a free Victorian Government road safety education incursion program. It is available for all Victorian secondary schools and reflects contemporary, best practice approaches to road safety education. This is an extra-curricular program that our school supports and highly values.

Road Smart Interactive uses immersive technology to engage students in thinking about how they can be part of the solution to making everyone safer on our roads.

Road Smart Interactive features elements from the award-winning Road to Zero programs offered at Melbourne Museum.

Why road safety?

An alarming number of children and young people continue to be hurt and killed on our roads. These serious injuries and deaths are preventable. Road Smart Interactive highlights the role we all play in making the roads safer.

Road safety education programs can help reduce the risk of serious injury for children and young people by supporting them to develop skills and knowledge to be safe pedestrians, cyclists, passengers and future drivers. By providing students with a comprehensive framework around what is needed to create a Safe System, Road Smart Interactive supports young people to identify and take action to address road safety risks in their school community.

We enjoyed the interactive experiences where we learned about how improvements to vehicles such as airbags and driver assist technology can reduce the risks of accidents, and also how making improvements to our roads can help. We liked the Virtual Reality experience where it felt like we were driving different cars throughout the last decades. They really have changed a lot since the old days. We are grateful for the experience and know that we can definitely use our voice to help make our roads safer around Nhill, and we are all responsible for being safe road users.

https://howsafeisyourcar.com.au can tell you what features make your car safest and can compare models to see which is safer – you could look up your own cars at home and see which one is safest to practice driving in.

Zero road toll is possible. By promoting awareness to friends and family and the community.

Our students identified some key actions that can be taken to improve road safety for our school community. These actions include:

• Identifying and taking action on a road or transport safety issue relevant to your local community
• Developing school policies or plans to make it safer for students to walk and cycle to school
• Encouraging family and friends to think about vehicle safety features before buying a car
• Advocating for safer speeds and streets around the school.

Road Safety conversations at school, at home and in our wider community are critical in playing our part in the Road to Zero.

There are lots of resources available if anyone is interested in finding out more:

https://www.roadtozero.vic.gov.au/

https://www.tac.vic.gov.au/road-safety

https://transport.vic.gov.au/

We are delighted to inform you that Nhill College will once again be participating in the world-renowned ICAS competition in 2026.

What is ICAS?

ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools) is an online academic competition designed to assess students’ higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills across a range of subjects, including:

- English, Mathematics, Science, Writing, Spelling Bee, Digital Technologies

These assessments provide students with an opportunity to challenge themselves and receive recognition for their efforts. Every student who participates will receive a printed certificate and an online results report outlining their performance.

We encourage you to consider entering your child into ICAS this year to celebrate and support their academic growth.

The subject areas available are –

Learn more about ICAS here: https://www.icasassessments.com/products-icas

If you are interested in having your child participate in the ICAS competitions, please contact the school on 5391 2111 and talk to Kim Magrath, who will forward further information about the competitions.

School preparations for the bushfire season

Each year, we undertake a range of activities to ensure the safety of our school and to prepare for bushfires and grassfires.

An important part of this process is communicating to parents what will happen when certain fire danger ratings are issued to help ensure the safety of students and staff.

Our school has been identified as being at risk of bushfire or grassfire and is a Category 4 school.

Our school will close on a day forecasted as Catastrophic fire danger rating in the Wimmera fire district.

Closure of the school due to a Catastrophic fire danger rating will be enacted when the Bureau of Meteorology forecast and related public safety messaging are confirmed. Due to uncertainties in the forecast, the timing of this confirmation may vary. Information regarding potential or confirmed Catastrophic fire danger days will be communicated to you by Compass. 

It is also important to be aware that:

• No one will be on site on days where the school is closed due to a forecast Catastrophic day.
• Out-of-school-hours care will also be cancelled on these days.
• All bus routes that travel through the Catastrophic area will be cancelled.
• School camps will be cancelled if a Catastrophic fire danger rating day is forecast for the fire weather district in which the camp is located, or if the travel involves passing through areas that have Catastrophic fire danger.

As part of preparing our school for the fire season, we have updated and completed our Emergency Management Plan and cleared our facility’s grounds and gutters.

What can families and the school community do to help us prepare?

• Ensure we have your current contact details, including your mobile phone numbers. 
• Keep in touch with us by reading our Compass posts and newsletters, checking our website [https://www.nhillcollege.vic.edu.au/], by talking to your child’s teacher or any other member of the teaching staff about our emergency management plan.
• Make sure your family’s bushfire survival plan is up-to-date and includes alternative care arrangements if our school is closed due to Catastrophic fire danger. Further information can be found on the CFA’s website.
• Action your family’s bushfire survival plan if your own triggers are met. Our school community may be spread out across many areas and some families may be at higher risk than others. Your family’s safety is critical, so please let us know if you are actioning your bushfire survival plan and if your children will be absent on these days.
• If your child is old enough, talk to them about bushfires and your family’s bushfire survival plan.

Families are encouraged to action their Bushfire Survival Plan on Catastrophic fire danger rating days in their district. The safest option is to leave the night before or early on the morning of the Catastrophic day. On such days, children should never be left at home alone or in the care of older children.

You can find more information on emergencies, warnings and preparedness actions here:

• VicEmergency app – that can be downloaded on your android and iOS mobile devices
• VicEmergency Hotline (1800 226 226) 
• Website https://emergency.vic.gov.au

• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/vicemergency)
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/vicemergency)
• ABC local radio, Sky News and other emergency broadcasters

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the department’s policy?

The Department of Education annually assesses the fire risk of all schools and early childhood services with the support of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). They are allocated a category of risk (categories 0 to 6). Schools and services that are Categories 0-3 are published on the Bushfire At-Risk Register (BARR). Schools at some risk of bushfire and grassfire are published on the Category 4 List.

The department’s Bushfire and Grassfire Preparedness Policy requires all schools and early childhood services on the BARR and the Category 4 List to close when a Catastrophic fire danger rating day is forecast in their fire weather district. All school bus routes which travel in or through a district with Catastrophic fire danger must also be cancelled.

The policy also requires that schools at the highest risk of bushfire (those in Categories 0, 1 and 2 of the Bushfire At-Risk Register) enact pre-emptive action plans based on the fire danger forecast for their Local Government Area (LGA).

Who issues fire danger forecasts?

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) provides public fire danger rating forecasts each day of the fire danger period using fire weather district areas. In Victoria, there are 9 fire weather districts, which are based on Local Government Area boundaries.

The department uses these forecasts when supporting schools to enact their pre-emptive bushfire actions plans. 

We’re sharing information about Early Help, a free program for families with children aged 0–18 that provides practical support with everyday parenting before concerns grow. Early Help can assist with parenting challenges, behaviour concerns, routines, emotional wellbeing and self-care, and connecting with services such as Paediatricians, Speech, OT and Counselling. The program helps families set and work toward goals like building stronger relationships, growing confidence in parenting, and improving children’s wellbeing.

On-site support: Katie Collings, Early Help Practitioner, will be at Nhill College on Mondays. If you’d like an appointment, please reach out to Katie directly (details below).

Please note Early Help is not a crisis service. For urgent support, contact The Orange Door.

Contact Early Help:

• Email: earlyhelp@vt.uniting.org

• Phone: 5362 4000

• Katie Collings (Early Help Practitioner): katie.collings@vt.uniting.org | 0447 216 492

The school bus service transports children from Nhill schools to after school care.

Fruit and light snacks are provided.

To enrol your children in after school care, please complete the online enrolment form found at https://www.wwhs.net.au/oshc and select the after school care days you would like to book.

The daily fee for after school care is $36. Child Care Subsidy is available for eligible families.

If you have any queries, please email: oshc@wwhs.net.au

It is that time of year again when students and staff need to adhere to the school's Sun Protection Policy.  The policy stipulates that from mid-August until 30 April, all students (and staff) must wear a sun protective hat that shades the face, neck and ears for all outdoor activities.  For the purposes of this policy, an appropriate hat is one that protects the face, head, neck and ears when outdoors, for example broad-brimmed, legionnaire or bucket hat.  Baseball or peaked caps and sun visors are not considered a suitable alternative, as they do not protect the ears, cheeks or neck.  It is also worth noting that beanies do not meet the specifications of the Sun Protection Policy.  Students and parents are asked to ensure that an appropriate hat be brought to school to be worn when outdoors.

Nhill College now has a Facebook page to help us promote school events and activities with the wider community.  We will continue to use Compass, our web page and the weekly newsletter to keep families associated with the school up to date with all of the events and activities that occur in and around the school each week.  However, our Facebook page has allowed us to broaden exposure to the school and reach a number of people who may not have otherwise had access to our formal communication channels.  Our Facebook page will continue to be purely for promotion, publicity and to inform everyone of the upcoming events and happenings within the College.  All notes, questions, concerns or communication to staff regarding students still need to be directed to the College via Compass or on (03) 5391 2111.  To find our Facebook page, simply follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/nhillcollege/ or type Nhill College in the search function on Facebook. (Please be aware there is also an unofficial Nhill College facebook page that does not show the Nhill College logo).

Please like/follow the page and then you will be kept up-to-date with all of our posts.