Community

 

School Council

Martin Sykes
President / Community Representative

Enza Calabro
Principal / Executive Officer / DE Employee

Inna Gvozdenko
DE Employee

Mary Tchia
DE Employee

Daniel Mays
DE Employee

Maxine Mann
DE Employee

Margy Pickersgill
Vice President / Nominee Representative

Phil Start
Nominee Representative

Christine Bakopanos
Community Representative

Junior Melo
Community Representative

Ramzi Hussaini
Community Representative

Life Saving Victoria – Multicultural

Life Saving Victoria (Multicultural) has been involved with NPELS for many years. They provide twice-yearly sessions to both our primary and secondary students. Our students would go the beach and undertake water safety sessions with lifeguards. Students can learn about where to swim at the beach, sea creatures to be wary of and what to do to get help. These sessions are very valuable to new arrival students so they understand the importance of staying vigilant around water.

Also, through the Advance Program, which is offered to some secondary classes at NPELS, students learn swimming and life saving skills for no charge. First, students’ swimming skills are assessed. If they have adequate skills, life saving training would begin. Otherwise, students would have once-weekly swimming lessons at the local swimming pool. After completion of this course, many of our students become lifesavers volunteers.

Victoria Police – Multicultural

Through the Advance Program, secondary students with higher proficiency in English undertake leadership programs with the Victoria Police. Students learn about roles of police, rights and responsibility as a citizen of Australia and conflict resolution strategies. After completion of this program, students receive a certificate of completion. They can become involved with educating others about these topics and become leaders of the community.

Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY)

As a partnership between The Centre for Multicultural Youth, AMES and Foundation House, they provide a program called Ucan2 for some of our secondary students. This program provides additional support for migrant and refugee youths (age 16 to 24) to increase their social, education, training and employment opportunities. Once a week for six months, Ucan2 volunteers come to NPELS to work with one secondary class. They share their life experiences in Australia and act as positive role models for these students. Through this program, students gain practical skills such as writing resumes, wisdom from others’ experiences and most importantly, the confidence in tackling challenges they encounter as new arrivals in Australia. CMY also runs program outside of the school, such as programs on resilience, leadership and art. These programs have helped a lot of our students connecting with the local community.

Foundation House

Foundation House provides in-school counselling and advocacy for refugee students who came to Australia with traumatic experiences. Counsellors comes to Noble Park campus four days a week. If our teachers notice students require counselling, students can be referred to the wellbeing team for this service.