Community
School Council
Martin Sykes
President / Community Representative
Enza Calabro
Principal / Executive Officer / DE Employee
Inna Gvozdenko
DE Employee
Mary Tchia
DE Employee
Prachi Patkar
DE Employee
Beverly Berger
DE Employee
Margy Pickersgill
Vice President / Nominee Representative
Phil Start
Nominee Representative
Christine Bakopanos
Community Representative
Junior Melo
Community Representative
Sahar Ehsani
Community Representative
Abuzar Mazoori
Community Representative
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.