Multicultural Committee News – Final for 2025

The Multicultural Committee held its final meeting on Monday, 3 November 2025, to reflect on and celebrate this year’s achievements — particularly the tremendous success of NGSC’s annual Multicultural Festival, a long-standing milestone in our College’s tradition.

We were also delighted to welcome the 2026 College Captains — Julia, Lila, Ezra, and Louis — who introduced themselves and shared their goals and ambitions for the year ahead.

A special acknowledgment goes to the NGSC Multicultural Festival, themed “One World.” Under the outstanding leadership of our College Events Coordinator, Suzanne Henry, the event was a dazzling success — perhaps our best yet — with record numbers of visitors attending. Suzanne’s dedication, creativity, and energy throughout the year, together with the continued support of the Multicultural Committee, ensured that the festival once again shone as a celebration of unity and diversity.

As the festival’s original founder, it fills me with great pride to see how the event has grown stronger over more than four decades. What began as a vision to bring our NGSC community together as “One World” has evolved into one of the largest and most beloved school–community events in Greater Geelong and beyond.

No Multicultural Festival would be complete without our much-loved Cake Stall, now in its fourth decade and affectionately known as “The World’s Best Cake Stall.” Each year it continues to grow in popularity and success, thanks to the incredible generosity of our NGSC community — parents, grandparents, carers, staff, students, and friends — who bake, donate, and purchase with such enthusiasm. This year’s stall went above and beyond expectations — a true reflection of community spirit and teamwork.

A special thank you goes to Dragana Skoric (current parent and former student), who once again went above and beyond. Dragana arrived early to set up the stall, stayed until the very end to pack up, and contributed her signature “peach cakes,” which were a delight to all! This marks her third year of dedicated involvement, and we are deeply grateful for her ongoing commitment and generosity.

Finally, sincere thanks to our Chairperson and School Captain, Dean Smilevski, for leading every meeting with confidence and enthusiasm, and to Keir Osborne, our dedicated Minute Secretary, for accurately recording each meeting’s outcomes.

In closing, I extend my heartfelt appreciation to all Multicultural Committee members for your energy, enthusiasm, and dedication throughout 2025. Together, we have once again demonstrated the strength, harmony, and community spirit that make NGSC truly special.

As we farewell our Year 12 Class of 2025, we wish them every success in their future endeavours.

Wishing everyone a joyful festive season, a safe and happy holiday, and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2026!

International Student Program

Recently our Japanese International Student, Minami Sasagawa, competed in the Victorian Championships for Kendo (a Japanese sport similar to Fencing in Australia) and Minami received 3^rd place. Well done to Minami, such a wonderful achievement which you should be so proud of.

The support from Minami’s Homestay family is above and beyond and we also thank them for being involved with this and allowing Minami to shine through with her best performance at a sport she loves so much and is close to her heart and culture.

Our College has had a great deal of enquiries recently for the coming year regarding our International Student Program. These enquiries are from around the continent ranging from Turkey, China, Vietnam, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Thailand and India. We are feeling so proud that the Program has been highlighted in these areas and beyond but hope these enquiries lead to International Students commencing at our College to experience the wonderful opportunities that are available to them.

With this in mind, this is another call out for new homestay families to join our Homestay Program. This is such an amazing experience to be a part of a new culture in your home.

Would you like to become a Homestay family with the International Student Program?

By becoming a Homestay Family, you are making lifelong connections with international friends, which make the world feel smaller and more connected. Speaking and associating with different languages, is rewarding, it allows you to discover this common ground amongst us all. International Students start to feel like family in only a short period as the Homestay Families welcome and include them in their daily activities.

Hosting an International Student brings new life from other cultures into your home, breaking down borders to create an extended family. A weekly fee of $320.00 is paid to the family.

If you are interested in becoming a Homestay family, please email: Tonia.Tigani@education.vic.gov.au for more information. We would welcome all new families to be a part of this wonderful and exciting Program.

Celebrating Student Voice through Learning Walks

On Monday 13th October, we held our first ever Student Learning Walks—an exciting opportunity for students to explore different classrooms, observe teaching and learning, and reflect on what makes learning most effective. Traditionally, this process involves a group of teachers visiting classrooms to gather insights about what is happening for learners across the school. This year, we thought—what better way to do that than by inviting students into the conversation?

The purpose of these Learning Walks is to develop staff and student understanding of quality learning, strengthen their voice and agency, and provide meaningful feedback to staff. By sharing their observations, students help teachers reflect on their practice and contribute to making our learning environment even stronger.

We want to thank and celebrate the students who took part with curiosity, respect, and thoughtful insight: Prisha Prisha(7D), Nhu-Y Pham (7D), and Tanishka Negi (11C). Your contributions are helping shape a school culture where student perspectives are valued, and learning continues to improve for everyone.

We look forward to continuing this partnership in our next round of Learning Walks with even more student voices in 2026.