AddressNossal High School is committed to being an innovative, inclusive, and dynamic educational environment. We challenge ourselves to be creative and critical thinkers with good communication skills and the resilience necessary to succeed in an ever-changing world. We build skills, self-confidence, leadership abilities and community spirit through a rigorous, rich, and varied curricular and co-curricular program. We want our graduates to be ambitious, ethical, and responsible citizens who conduct themselves with humility and compassion.
Nossal High School Values
Nossal is a school that:
¿ Leads and develops leadership
¿ Creates and cultivates creativity
¿ Is respectful and fosters respectful citizenship
¿ Inspires and seeks inspiration
¿ Is ethical and develops ethical behaviours
¿ Pursues excellence and celebrates individual progress
¿ Develops resilience and independence and nurtures wellbeing
¿ Encourages a strong work ethic with an emphasis on personal growth
The Nossal High School logo consists of two books (representing academic study), forming a butterfly (emerging from a chrysalis), taking flight (signifying the future), and showing a link to the past (the school is built on the old Casey Airfield).
The Nossal High School Motto - Embrace the Challenge
This was the original statement presented to the foundation cohort on their introduction to their new school. It is a phrase that instils the hope and high expectations we have for Nossal students to grow in intellectual, social, physical and leadership pursuits. They have been thrown the challenge to succeed in a global world and we want them to embrace it.
¿ To embrace: to hold closely, to accept with eagerness.
¿ To challenge: a call to demonstrate one's strength or ability. (Oxford, 2010)
Nossal High School was established in 2010 as the first co-educational fully academically selective Government school in Victoria. Along with the only other three academically selective schools, Melbourne High School, The Mac. Robertson Girls High School and Suzanne Cory High School, it forms the Victorian Select Entry Network of schools. Located in the urban growth corridor on the grounds of Federation University Berwick campus, the school draws enrolments from right across the Melbourne metropolitan area and into regional areas and offers programs for students in Years 9 - 12 only. Entry is competitive and via a common entry exam administered through VCAA and an independent testing company. Students in Year 8 or equivalent can apply to sit the exam for entry into Year 9 for the following year and can preference up to three of the schools. Enrolments are capped at 208 per year level for a school total of 832. Retention rates are very high with very few students leaving the school prior to year 12 completion and nearly all students exit to university. The 208 students offered places for Year 9 annually come from between 60 and 98 different schools; generally, around 50% from the non-government sector and a roughly 50:50 gender mix. Some students travel long distances to attend (ie. Craigieburn, Deer Park, Mernda, Traralgon etc.) and some families will move to the area once their child has secured a place at Nossal. A 4% cap on enrolments from anyone "feeder" school is applied across the 4 selective schools to limit the impact on individual schools. The cap is raised to 10% in the case of P-9 schools. 10% equity quota is applied, and testing fees are waived to encourage students from low SES families and ATSI to apply. 5% (10 students) annually are selected under the "Principal's Discretionary" category from the applicants who have sat the exam, and they are invited to submit an additional written application and attend an interview prior to selection.
On most comparative performance measures Nossal achieves very good results, and "traditional" improvement measures are more nuanced and incremental, requiring contextual understanding. Challenging and longer-term approaches to achieve cultural rather than transformative change is often required to enable such improvement.
The school leadership team has always sought to challenge the school community and has set broad, big picture goals relating to curriculum and pedagogy; assessment; student voice; ICT; school culture and ethos. The school undertook a self-Evaluation in late 2022 and developed a new Strategic Plan early in 2023 following an "Influencing" review process.
Nossal students (and their parents) are highly motivated, highly aspirational, and very committed to their academic education and VCE results and nearly all aspire to university entry.
