Hey! I’m a current year 9 nossal students and I’m willing to answer any questions (whether it’s academically, socially or anything) I remember being really curious and unsure but had no one to answer my questions. So hopefully this will help.
But here are some common questions I see a lot:

How do I get to school? Most people would drive directly to the school (either the carpark or drop off zone) or take private transport (bus or train) just a side-note if you are taking train, it takes around 10-15 mins to walk from the station to school

How are the buildings/facilities? The school is actually quite small (there are literally 2 buildings, 3 if you count the gym) but it also looks really modern and refined. The equipment, toilets and lockers are all pretty clean compared to some other schools I’ve seen

Is it true the tests are really hard at Nossal? No not really. Most of the tests are our at a year level standard with some being slightly more difficult. For example, in year 9 maths tests are divided into two options (standard or advance) and you can choose to do either one. But overall they aren’t as intimidating as they seem.

How do the classes operate ? Well in year 9 they use a system called ‘team learning’ where one class consist of 52 students with 2 teachers. There are also 4 houses in the school (hint: the language you choose basically chooses the house ur in)

    justaperson_
    I have a bunch of questions because I just went to the Information Night.

    1. Would you recommend getting the Nossal laptop? I'll probably end up getting a new laptop anyways because my current one doesn't have a stylus but I'm not sure if I should get the Nossal laptop or another cheaper one with a stylus.
    2. How are classes made? I got kind of confused during the tour. Is there something about classes with different year levels, like the class before Period 1 starts? And are your classes decided by the house your in or something, or do you have the same class for core subjects and then different classes for electives? And the whole each house has a specific section confused me a bit, are actual classes taught in those rooms or is it just for meetings and stuff?
      I'm doing French as my language and I'm sure why but I want to get into Pegasus or Phoenix house for literally no reason, I kind of just like the names.

      Hey yeah all good I’ll answer ur questions.
      So with the nossal laptop. A large majority of students have the nossal laptop but I think you’ll be limited to the same internet access as long as ur on the nossal wifi (I shouldn’t tell you this but if you have ur own data and connect to ur laptop, you can basically play all the games and stuff you want). But I would recommend buying it just bc you won’t have to go through the extra step of downloading all the stuff (and you use ur stylus a decent amount in yr9) but it’s entirely up to you (Ik many friends who brought their own and are doing just fine)

      So I’ll quickly go through the day. You start school at 8:48 (yeah random time ik) and go through a thing called ‘tutorial’ (everyone calls it tute) from 8:48 - 9am. Its like a ‘homeroom’ where you just kinda chill and get ready for the next lesson. But it’s also a way for the school to categorise the students (and all year levels will be in this class) and it’s not rlly a ‘class’ tbh. (I can go more into this if you want) .

      So basically for the whole of year 9 you’ll be with ur ‘house’ (being Pegasus (best house), Phoenix, Garuda and Griffin) but with the exception of elective subjects (where Pegasus students go with Garuda students and Phoenix go with griffin).

      Basically there are 208 students in the year level (give or take) and there are 52 students per house. And each house is taught in this one giant classroom basically. So basically rooms are split up into 1.1, 1.2,1,3etc then 2.1,2.2 etc. so rooms with 1.1 etc is the ‘griffin area’. Rooms with 2.1etc is the ‘Garuda area’. 3 is Pegasus and 4 is Phoenix. But you won’t JUST be taught in those areas, you ofc move around the area to different rooms

      Well depending on if you do beginner French or intermediate french. If ur doing beginner French you will be in either Garuda or Pegasus and if ur doing intermediate French then it’s either Phoenix or griffin

      Hopefully I explained some of that clearly but feel free to ask more questions

        justaperson_
        Tysm for answering those questions. I do just have another question about the laptop thing. Do you have to pay at the start of the year to use like the Nossal internet or something. At my current school, I had to bring in my laptop to IT and they put in the school software and stuff and I had to pay like $200 for it, does this also happen Nossal?

          Yeah Idm answering any questions. But I’m not too sure about ur school but we just have to pay for the laptop (which was approx 1k I think). We don’t have to pay for any other external things.

            justaperson_
            1k is quite cheap. I'm not sure if it's a different laptop next year but it costs 2k for the new students.

              Your laptop comes with the different programs that they provide (e.g., photoshop). It is included in the cost when you first purchase their laptop, hence it being more expensive than buying the laptop itself.
              Then when you graduate, they reset your laptop so it is detached from the school system, and you no longer have these programs.

              justaperson_
              Hi, just another question about Nossal regarding the languages in Year 9. Is there an even spread of students across the 4 language classes? I'm applying for Intermediate French and I put Beginner Japanese as my second option and I just want to know my chances of doing Intermediate French next year. How many students are usually in a language class and if you happen to know, are the students chosen randomly if there are too many applicants or are they chosen by who submits their preferences first?

                Yeah so in one house it’s split up into two language classes (each containing 26 students as each house had 52 students) so language class is the only class where it won’t be with ur own house (other than electives). But exactly 52 students will be able to do intermediate French (as there will be two classes and probs in griffin or phoenix) but there’s a high chance you’ll get ur first pick as idk anyone who didn’t get their first preference.

                Hi there, I'm just wondering if there are any carpool groups in the school that you know? My current house is way too far from the school and I'm just wondering how I would get to the school cuz otherwise my family would have to rent a house there or find me a host family.

                  qwqqwq I’m honestly not sure about carpool groups (tbh havent rlly heard about that so far) but I would suggest either finding a friend to carpool with or just taking public transport (other than that I’m not too sure)

                    Randomhuman24 they expect you to know all hiragana and katakana (they do revise on it tho) and you don’t rlly need to know kanji. They expect you to know like basic vocabulary but not to a crazy extent. The class itself is not too bad if you just complete the work and pay attention. (If you want specifics just PM !)

                        Randomhuman24 yup Idm at all haha. (You can always DM me if you have specific concerns) but yeah you can def accelerate a 1&2 subject. I’ll just run through it briefly
                        Science subjects: Biology and Environmental Science (rip if you wanted to do physics or chem)
                        Math: methods (technically but you have to achieve a certain grade to be eligible. Lmk if you want to get into the specifics of that)
                        Humanities: Economics, Accounting, Philosophy, Legal Studies, Business Management (I think not 100% sure), Global Politics, History
                        Arts: VCD, Dance
                        This is just off the top of my head but ya.
                        There is also a way to do 2 vce subjects in year 10 but you need to have a certain grade in ur term 2 reports.

                            justaperson_ Thank you so much, you have been so helpful! I was thinking to accelerate bio or methods, so I’m glad to hear that is possible. If it’s not too much trouble, could I have an estimate of the required math grades to accelerate methods?

                              Yup no problem. So first things first, when you do a math test here, it is sorted into two sections. Advanced and standard. Now you can choose to do advanced or standard (or a mix of both which is possible). So in order to be accepted for methods, you need to have at least an average percent of 83 on the advanced part (weirdly specific Ik lmao). They choose if you can accelerate methods at the end of term 2 (also to choose ur yr10 subjects). So you just need to worry about term 1 and 2 math tests. Honestly, advanced isn’t tooo difficult but for some reason the first test (measurement) was rlly difficult and the average was like 65 or smth. But other than that the tests aren’t even too bad tbh. Sorry if I blabber a lot haha just wanted to give some extra info.

                                justaperson_ ahh okay thank you so much! As for the tests at Nossal, are they spontaneous or do we know beforehand?

                                  oh yeye dwdw they let you know beforehand for sure. It depends on which subject let’s you know when but we have never been spontaneous/randomly given a test. Unless it was a small quiz or diagnostic. But not a real proper test has been randomly given out.