Noble Park Secondary College

Noble Park Secondary College is a year 7-12 co-educational school. In 2007, it is expected that 760 students will be attending the college, making it the largest (in terms of population) in the Springvale, Victoria, Australia, educational district.

History

Noble Park High School was opened by the Department of Education in 1962, following the opening of the nearby Noble Park Technical School in 1957. The school buildings were constructed by A.V.Jennings in the Light Timber Construction (LTC) style, and clad with pebble-encrusted cement tiles. The cost of the contract for the first and second sections of the school was £84,389^[1]. The third section was constructed later, providing the school with two LTC classroom wings and an LTC technical block, all of which remain in use today.

In the early 1990's, the school's name was changed to Noble Park Secondary College, and the Noble Park Technical School was closed.

Grounds & facilities

The school is slightly hidden-away compared to other schools, but boasts large ovals and much room for expansion, if needed for the future. The school contains 3 Light Timber Construction wings ('A', 'B' & 'C') as well as an Administration wing, a Library and a Hall.

The 'A' wing contains Year 12 lockers as well as their common room, used for study and rest, the VCE administration offices, 4 Art rooms, a Computer room, timber room, electronics room, music room as well as 3 additional classrooms. The 'B' corridor contains 3 science labs, a German room & a Japanese room, both of which are used ONLY for their respective languages, as well as another 3 additional classrooms, one of which contains a Computer pod, itself containing 4 computers. The corridor also contains the Year 7 lockers, as it is in this corridor where most of their classes are held.

The 'C' corridor is indeed the largest. In the 'Lower' half, it contains the Drama room, Photography room with a 4-computer Pod, as well as 3 additional classrooms and the Year 9 lockers. The corridor then turns right and continues for 40M, where the Year 8 lockers are contained, before turning left into the 'Upper' section. The 'Upper' half contains 4 computer rooms, a food technology room,, 2 science rooms, Year's 10 & 11 lockers and 8 classrooms.

Each computer room contains 26 computers, depending on their size and where they are located. A wireless network covers every part of the College. This enables the teachers to access the network and the Internet from their laptops from anywhere. A fibre optic backbone runs through the College. The backbone supports 8 nodes in 8 strategic locations which greatly facilitates scalability of the network. The whole network is managed by the ICT manager and a network technician. Another technician provided by the TSSP initiative, works only 1.5 days a week. The computer network provides services such as email, video on demand, storage, internet, photocopying, internet usage and printing monitoring and charging. Unauthorised logins are not allowed. Authorised users have access to network public files, "drop boxes", intranet and all other services designated by the ICT manager. There are about 25 laser printers on the network.

The Library is a stand-alone building, connected to the 'C' corridor by a sheltered walkway. Inside there are an additional 25 computers, as well as the Careers councilors office and numerous books, with an attached reading area, itself containing 20 armchairs. The Gym is another stand alone building. Here many PE lessons are held, with subsequent change rooms, and college General Assemblies are also held within the hall via removable seating.

NPSC also features a separate basketball & tennis courts, a hockey field (though it is more commonly used for Soccer) and a football oval, with a cricket pitch featured inside of it during the Cricket season.

The Noble Park Secondary College uniform is white shirts, red jumpers and black pants for Yrs 7-10. For VCE students, it is the same however a black jumper is worn. This is to distinguish them from the junior years.

The Noble Park music network also is the current recipients of the Kool Skools award 'Victorias Koolest Skool'

Student representation

The school's main form of student representation is via the SRC (Student Representative Council). Elections are held in Late-February, with students elected from their subsequent form class. Up to 2 students can be elected from any one form, resulting in around 10 students nominated throughout each year level. After this stage, the entire year level conducts in a secret ballot, and from that 3 students are elected for each year level.

SRC members play an important role amongst the school population, deciding on important matters that have been either been brought up by members or by the School Council, a group of parents, teachers and the principal.

Other schools

The school is closely surrounded by many other secondary colleges, the closest being, Chandler Secondary College.

References

1. ^ State Government of Victoria (5 January 1962). "Victorian Government Gazette". gazette.slv.vic.gov.au. p. Page 10. http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1962/V/general/1.pdf. Retrieved 2011-0607. 

Coordinates: 37°58′19″S 145°11′04″E / 37.97194°S 145.18444°E / -37.97194; 145.18444