Our School Values:

Respect    Honesty    Teamwork    Confidence    Excellence    Endeavour

Nhill College would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Wimmera Mallee area: the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagalk people, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and future. 

Students enjoyed a wide variety of activities in celebration of Book Week throughout the week.  On Monday we enjoyed making magic bubble wands.  On Tuesday there was a magical reading hunt around the school.  Wednesday involved a screening of The Gruffalo.  A lunchtime story was delivered on Thursday with special guest readers.  And it all culminated today with our annual Book Week Parade in which nearly every primary student (and staff member) dressed up in the spirit of the occasion as one of their favourite story book characters.  It was especially pleasing to see so many parents and grandparents come along to watch the parade and share the occasion with their children.  Thank you to everyone who got into the spirit of day by dressing up, especially to Miss McCartney who put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that Book Week this year was such a success.

This week we updated the Passtab Visitor Sign-in stations at our school.  All visitors who come on-site will now not only have to sign into Passtab using the iPad provided, but they will now also have to print out an adhesive Visitor name tag which they can stick on their shirt for the duration of their visit.  The Passtab stations are located at the Office and at the Queen St entrance of the Wimmera Building.  Parents visiting the Wimmera Building are welcome to use this station to sign in and out, but for most visits we would appreciate it if guests could make their way to the Office situated in the Administration Building.  As always, visitors are expected to sign out again on departure.  Thank you to all parents and visitors for their understanding and co-operation in using this new system and helping us to maintain compliance with the latest Visitor policies.   

On Tuesday our Nhill College students in Years 9, 10, 11, and the VM class, 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.

Road Smart Interactive uses the latest 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 were very lucky to attend a Road Safety session which opened our eyes to all of the different ways we can work both individually and together to reduce the Victorian Road Toll. 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. - Andrew Klee 10X

Chloe Zanker in Year 11 noted these key points from the session:

We were reminded of how injury from car crashes can change the rest of your life and your family’s life.

We used VR headsets to see the change in roads becoming safer overtime from having virtually no road rules to having the safest driving environment in the future where the road toll has been zero for two years.

We saw how vulnerable our bodies are and how our bodies would have to be altered to be able to safely withstand rising impacts from car crashes.

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.

We could make crossings in Nhill for pregnant women, parents with babies or children, elderly, injured, etc. They can take longer to get across and are more vulnerable.

Barriers between sides of road and on sides of road make country roads safer.

An idea could be to promote road safety at school and school council, put something in Compass every now and then as well as newsletter.

Mobile Phones = 4 demerit points for using while driving & 2 seconds eyes off road doubles chances of crash.

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

Mistakes do happen and are preventable, a lot are preventable by government/council’s power to build safer road constructions.

Be visible as a pedestrian.

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/

Regular attendance at school is extremely important for the academic and emotional growth and development of all students.  In an effort to highlight the importance of attendance, we have introduced a new Attendance Award to be presented at each of the primary and secondary Assemblies each Monday.  The names of all students who attended every day of the previous week of school will be entered into a draw from which one lucky student's name will be selected for a $5 canteen voucher.  Vouchers were presented on Monday to the following students for their attendance in the fifth week of Term 3: Chevy and Bronti.

Thanks to all who participated in making our bookfair a success. We had a good selection of books to choose from & some fun activities to join in on.

The ‘Blizzard Board’ with 140 ‘Lucky Snowflakes’ to pick from was a big hit. Congratulations to the winner, Vidhi B. & runner up, Tori D. Our colouring competition winners were, Sher Ner Moo, Ruby A, Matilda C, Indi L, Zahra B. & Amelia A.

Thanks to everybody’s support we were able to reach our sales goal & earn more rewards, resulting in 26 new books to go on our library shelves and be enjoyed by the students.

The annual Nhill College Magazine Covers and Diary Cover competition is on again.  Please see the attached flyer for requirements and the ‘brief’ to follow.  Again, we have a $50 Prize for the winning front and winning back Magazine covers; and a $50 Prize for the winning Diary cover entry.

Please email entries to natalie.sampson@education.vic.gov.au (please put your name in the subject line) or drop hard cover entries in to Mrs Sampson via the front office (name on the back please).

Individual and group or class entries are all welcome – if one of these entries are selected the prize money would be shared equally among the winning group entry entrants and prize money for class entries would be distributed by the teacher as they see fit (eg class party, lunch, activity etc).

Entries close 2nd September.

Get Creating!

Any questions can be directed to Mrs Sampson.

Attached to this Newsletter is a list of dates for upcoming Open Days - these are usually held late July / August.  We recommend you look at attending some Open Days if you are interested in further study after you have completed Year 12.  Open Days are a great way to see campuses for yourself, talk to staff and current students and do some tours of the campus, accommodation, services etc.  It can really help make up your mind as to where you want to attend to complete your further studies.  As well as Year 12s attending, we also recommend any of our Year 11 students who are interested in further study to attend some Open Days this year so you are not trying to fit in too many while in Year 12 the following year.  

Please check this list carefully and look at any facilities online to check registration requirements etc.  We have included as many institutions as we could but if there is a facility you are interested in that is not included here please do your own research.  If you can't make an Open Day we would recommend you contact the facility to see if you can arrange a tour at another time or at least ask some questions over the phone or via their Chat service.  

Please see Mrs Hedt or Mrs Sampson if you have any questions at all.

In case you weren't aware, I wanted to let you know that applications for our tertiary transition scholarships for students completing Year 12 in 2024 are now open:

• Friends of Zainab Tertiary Scholarship - open to current Year 12 refugee students to assist in their transitions to University or TAFE for tertiary studies in 2025.

• National Rural & Remote Tertiary Scholarship – open to students from rural or remote regions across Australia supporting them for up to three years while they undertake post-school education in university or TAFE.
• National Tertiary Scholarship – open to students from metropolitan or regional areas across Australia supporting them for up to three years while they undertake post-school education in university or TAFE.
• Walter and Eliza Hall Trust Opportunity Scholarship - open to current Year 12 students with a permanent physical disability intending on completing their senior secondary education in 2024 and progressing to university in 2025 to study a degree.

Applications close 13 August, 2024.

Our secondary and primary scholarships will open 12 June.

The Department of Education has sent through an updated reminder to families about COVID-19, specifically outlining the changes to the availability of RAT kits.  Nhill College does still have a small supply of RAT kits available at the office should families need to test at home.  Further supplies have been ordered, and we will endeavour to make these available to all families once they arrive.  Parents are reminded of the need to inform the school should their child(ren) return a positive COVID-19 test result.  The amended Department COVID-19 reminder is listed below:   

There is at present an increase in community transmission of COVID-19 in Victoria.  You can help us keep our school as safe as possible by taking 2 important steps:

1. Ensure your COVID-19 vaccinations are up to date. Information on how and where to get vaccinated is available on the Get vaccinated webpage.
2. If your child shows symptoms of COVID-19, please ensure they stay home and get tested. The easiest way to test is to use a rapid antigen test (RAT).

You can buy RATs at supermarkets, pharmacies and other retailers.

If your child has symptoms but tests negative, please ensure they stay home until they no longer have symptoms.

If the RAT test result is positive, please ensure they stay home for at least 5 days and until there are no more symptoms.  It is also important to notify the school of this positive test result so that the correct absence coding can be recorded on the system.

Thank you for your support – these steps will help us all stay well.

A reminder that the Department of Education has in place a mobile phone ban that requires students who bring mobiles phones to school to have them switched off and securely put away during school hours.

The department is requiring all schools to ensure this ban is in place and enforced from the start of the 2024 school year.

The ban applies equally to all government schools right across the state.

This helps ensure that school is a learning environment free from unnecessary distractions and disruptions.

By ensuring mobile phones are kept away at recess and lunch times, students can interact with each other face-to-face, without the distractions and social pressures that mobile phones can cause.

I ask for the support of all our families, staff and students in continuing to support the implementation of this policy in our school.

Further information

Exceptions:  For a small number of students with particular health needs, an exception to the policy may be granted. Please contact Mr Zimmermann if you would like to discuss this.

Emergencies:  In the event of an emergency or if you need to immediately contact your child, I ask that families contact the school office who will pass on a message as required.

School mobile phone policy:  A copy of our school’s local mobile phone policy, which implements the government’s mobile policy in line with our local context, is available from the Nhill College website.

Parent support:  The Mobile Phones in Schools webpage provides links to resources for families to help them balance their children’s time using mobile phones.

If you have further questions, please contact the administration office. 

Victoria’s mosquito season started this month and will extend to late April 2024.

Warm and wet weather can result in greater numbers of mosquitoes and increased risk of illnesses from mosquito bites. While the overall risk is low, some mosquitoes carry diseases that make people sick.

The best protection against mosquito-borne illness is to avoid mosquito bites.

Families can protect against mosquito bites by: 

·         covering up as much as possible with long, loose-fitting, light-coloured clothing  

·         applying insect repellent that contains picaridin or DEET on exposed skin when leaving home 

·         limiting outdoor activity if lots of mosquitoes are active.

To reduce the risk of illness linked to mosquitos, such as Buruli ulcer, promptly wash any new scratches or cuts with soap and clean water and apply a topical antiseptic and dressing.  

Families with any health concerns should see their doctor or phone NURSE-ON-CALL: 1300 606 024 (available 24 hours). Free Japanese encephalitis vaccines

Japanese encephalitis virus is spread to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes and can cause a rare but potentially serious infection of the brain.

Free Japanese encephalitis vaccines are available to protect Victorians at higher risk of the virus. 

The Victorian Department of Health encourages eligible people who live or work in high-risk local government areas to get vaccinated ahead of summer, which brings an increased mosquito presence.

For more information, including what is considered a high risk area and eligibility for a free vaccine, refer to the Department of Health’s Japanese encephalitis webpage.

Find out more

For more information on protecting against mosquito-borne diseases, families can refer to the following Better Health Channel pages:

·         Mosquitoes can carry diseases

·         Protect yourself from mosquito-borne disease, including a handy checklist to help reduce mosquito breeding sites at home and resources translated into other languages

·         Japanese encephalitis

·         Buruli ulcer.

Parents, carers, schools, and community all play an important role in protecting children and young people from, and educating them about, the harmful effects smoking and vaping.

Research from the Royal Children’s Hospital shows many parents and carers are not aware of the harmful effects or how their views about smoking and vaping can impact the likelihood of a young person taking up smoking or vaping.

The Department of Education has developed resources to help you learn more about the health risks of smoking and vaping, and some suggestions about how to talk to children and young people about vaping, and where to get support. To access the resources, go to https://www.vic.gov.au/smoking-and-vaping-advice-parents

You can also view this video on smoking and vaping from experts at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne for health advice and tips for starting a conversation with young people.

With the recent updates to our school website, parents are now able to submit Bus Notes in two ways:

• via Compass under the Star (School Favourites) icon - Bus Notes
• via the Nhill College website (https://www.nhillcollege.vic.edu.au/), under Parent Info - Bus Notes

Both options will direct parents to an online template that will inform the school of any changes to regular bus travel arrangements.  Please ensure that any Bus requests are submitted before 3.00pm.

Ad-hoc travel: A student that is not a regular bus traveller that requires occasional travel may be considered as ad-hoc. Ad-hoc travel can be used for, but not limited to, sports training, part time work, social travel to fellow students' residence and so on.

Computers are being used more frequently in many aspects of our teaching and learning programs, and Nhill College strives to make a 1:1 provision of devices available for student use in the classroom.  However, students using school-owned laptops are not permitted to take them home at night and these devices must be returned to the relevant charging station at the end of each day.  Students wishing to access devices at home to support their learning are encouraged to explore the range of devices available through Edunet as part of our BYOD program.  In addition to gaining access to your own device at discounted prices, purchases through Edunet provide students with school based IT support and manufacturer's warranty, as well as access to the College's network, servers and printers.  Families purchasing a BYOD will also be provided with access to the Department of Education's Microsoft 365 suite, which gives free access to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc on up to 5 family devices.

To assist those families interested in exploring BYOD options, we have new and updated models for our BYOD program through Edunet.  Please open the link below for details about the devices.  Mr Shrive is happy to take questions from parents or students if they are looking at purchasing a BYOD.  Devices specifically chosen for Nhill College students cover a range of specifications and price levels, and include the following options:

• Lenovo 500w Gen 4
• Lenovo 13w Yoga Gen 2 (AMD Ryzen 5)
• Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga Gen 4
• Apple MacBook Air 13.6"
• Apple MacBook Pro 13.3"

All devices are listed at education prices, which can be viewed along with each device's specifications at Edunet's online ordering portal via http://nhillcollege.technologyportal.com.au . 

Please see the attached flyer for further details - including cut off dates for orders to be delivered prior to Christmas.