NUMURKAH

SECONDARY COLLEGE Email: numurkah.sc@edumail.vic.gov.au www.numurkahsc.vic.edu.au

Phone: 58621088 Facebook: Numurkah Secondary College

Not for one—but for all

March, 27 2020

Issue 2020—04

In this issue:

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents and Friends,

Thank you all for your tremendous support over the last weeks, we are very proud of our

staff team and of the amazing amount of work they have done to support our sons and

daughters.

We will continue to update families as messages come to us from our regional DET leaders

through the College Facebook, parent emails and through COMPASS.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need support. I am happy to be contacted on

my mobile 0475 505 051 during the holiday break and / or in the event that we have an

extended break from being on-site and learning continues to happen at home.

Stay safe.

Kind regards,

Claire

Claire Kelly Principal

The following National Geographic article explores the strategies used by NASA Astronauts

prior to visiting the International Space Station.

The mandatory two week period of isolation/quarantine/self-isolation prior to departure is

referred to as 'Health Stabilisation'. The article is an interview with astronaut Chris Cassidy

who is about to embark on his third deployment to the ISS.

Chris’ best advice for people who are concerned about managing, in what feels like an

isolating and maybe claustrophobic environment;

Routine!

Routine!

Routine!

Principal’s Report

SPA—Progress Reports Term 1

NSC Athletics Club

Outdoor Ed—Wilson’s Prom

School Uniform

School Photos

BY MICHAEL GRESHKO NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy gazes out the

cupola of the International Space Station in

August 2013, during his stint aboard the

orbiting laboratory as the Expedition 36 flight

engineer.

Chris Cassidy is about to spend six months

on the ISS. He knows a thing or two about

living in a small space.

P U B L I S H E D M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 2 0

Chris Cassidy is going into quarantine—but for a NASA astronaut preparing to launch to

the International Space Station, that’s just part of the routine. Pandemic or not, NASA

astronauts are always isolated for two weeks before launch to ensure they don't carry any

unwanted bugs to the space station, a process NASA calls "health stabilization." The

space agency also said that it is considering testing Cassidy and his crew members for

COVID-19 before they fly, just to be sure.

On April 9, Cassidy, a U.S. Navy captain and former SEAL, will join cosmonauts Anatoli

Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket to launch to the ISS. The trio will

live and work on board the space station for six months as part of Expedition 63, which

Cassidy will command. The voyage will mark Cassidy’s third trip into space, having logged

a total of 182 days in orbit during a 2009 space shuttle flight and a 2013 stay aboard the

ISS.

In a telephone interview from Star City, Russia, where Cassidy is preparing for launch, the

astronaut discussed his upcoming mission—and how a disruption like the COVID-19

pandemic could affect his time in Earth’s orbiting laboratory. (This interview has been

edited for length and clarity.)

This will be the first time that you've been back to the International Space Station since

2013. What are you most looking forward to about returning?

I'm really looking forward to seeing familiar faces—floating through the hatch and seeing

Drew and Jessica [NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir] and giving them a

big hug. That's a great moment. Those emotions, if you see them on TV—the smiles and

the laughing—are real. We're friends, colleagues, and co-workers, but also we're humans

who are experiencing something super cool together. That first couple hours, I can't wait

to experience that.

Of course, looking out the window is always fantastic, but we'll have limited handover

time [before Morgan and Meir return to Earth], so I just want to soak up their experience

for that week before they disappear on me a few days later.

I have to imagine that now is a fairly unusual time to be preparing for launch, given the

COVID-19 pandemic. What kinds of challenges has that posed to you and your

colleagues?

Interestingly enough, the preparation has been no different, and the quarantine for us as

crewmembers has been very similar to what I'm used to for quarantine. The real weird

P H O T O G R A P H B Y N A S A

part is everybody else also being in quarantine. The social distancing concept is not just

pertaining to the three crewmembers, but it's everybody.

The other part that's not so operational, but more on the support side, is trying to navigate

through all the uncertainties of which people will get to come to launch: friends, family,

NASA support personnel. All that kind of stuff has been quite dynamic, as I'm sure you've

been experiencing in your own life over the last seven days.

Social distancing is requiring many people to work from home for the first time. The ISS is

arguably the most extreme work-from-home environment on or around Earth. Any advice

for people?

Well, setting a routine, I think, is the biggest thing. We have no choice in that matter; the

mission control folks tell us what that routine is going to be. But I have experienced that in

the military on deployment. There were times on my Navy deployments where I had a lull

in operational activity, and we found that it was really healthy for the group to stay in

some sort of normal routine.

If everybody just kind of lounges around and doesn't get up until 11:00, and nobody's

brushing their hair or their teeth, not only do you look crappy and you feel crappy, but

you just get in that funk. So sticking to a Monday-through-Friday routine is probably the

most basic thing that I would recommend to folks.

Given that you're going to be up on the ISS until October, what’s going through your

mind? How are you going to deal with the separation from events on the surface?

In all likelihood, I'll come back to Earth in October, and knock on wood, the pandemic will

be kind of behind us, and people will start trying to get back to normal existence, much

like in the months after 9/11. It took some time, but eventually, life returned to semi-

normal, or a new defined normal.

It’ll be this whole spring and summer that will be really interesting for me. I'll be super busy,

of course. I'll be mostly by myself on the space station and hopefully welcoming my

colleagues Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, from the SpaceX [Crew Dragon] mission. So I

will have a full plate, and my mind will be engaged, but I'm still going to be talking,

communicating, and emailing with my family and loved ones and friends. I'll be living

vicariously through them.

I certainly am not going to be disengaged from it and think, Oh, it's not my problem. It's

certainly my problem because my family is living it, and my friends and my co-workers are

living it in real time.

COMPASS NSC Student Performance Assessment - Progress Reports for Term1 are now available on

Compass. Please refer to the attached Student Performance Assessment Criteria

document - SPA.PDF for an explanation of the scores. This document can also be found in

the School Documentation Reports folder. Janice Matthews Teacher and Compass System Administrator

A few weekends ago, we had a dedicated group of students from the NSC Athletics team

compete in the 5km Numurkah Fun Run. As a group, we entered two teams, one male and

one female

The female team—which consisted of Sian Lomax-Davie, Renae Russo,

Jorjiah Moody, and Charlie Payne—did an amazing job and, with their

average time, finished 6th in the team event. Well done, girls!

For the male team we had Kane Newby, Dylan Craven, Jack

Millen, Judah Moody, Ryan Russo, Taihla Harris, Darby Salter, and

myself running. With the quickest team average for the 5km event

(taken from the four quickest runners), we managed to beat all

other teams from across the region to place first. Well done, fellas!

Thank you to all the staff, parents, and guardians who came down on the day to support

our runners! I hope you felt the energetic vibe of our students and left inspired (they

certainly did). Also, a number of other students from the school competed on the day,

including Thomas Masters (who came 2nd in his 10k event), Summer Storer, and Jesse

Powlesland. Well done! I strongly encourage you to join NSC Athletics!

Over the holidays, Ms Bock and I will be running a

number of exercise and running programs for

students who are interested in staying fit and

healthy. Looking at our activity this week, we have

collectively run 115km so far. If you're interested in

joining these programs, please join our NSC Athletics

group on Messenger via this link: messenger.com/

t/2514729415312563 (parents and guardians

welcome!)

Stay healthy!

Chris Deitch, Teacher & VCE Co-Leader

NSC Athletics

On the 10th of March, the Unit 3 Outdoor

Education class headed down to

Wilson's Prom for their first camp of the

year. We were lucky to have three

perfect days of weather to compliment

the amazing terrain we walked along.

Day 1 was an extremely early start,

which had us arrive at the prom around

12 pm. We walked on the first day from

Telegraph Saddle to Oberon Bay, where

we camped for the night. The second

day of walking followed the coast back

to Tidal River campsite, which the

students smashed out in great time. We

then had some free time to swim, tidy up

and get ready for the evenings activity, a screening of the Australian movie Go at the outdoor

cinema. The last day had us attending an education session with Parks Victoria, exploring the past

uses of the Wilson's Prom environment. The students were fantastic on the camp and should be

congratulated for the way they represented our school and followed the guidelines of camping in

the Prom. A special thanks to Miss Gierveld and Mr Deitch who attended as support staff.

Andrew Nicholls, OE/PE Teacher

Outdoor Ed—Wilson’s Prom.

SCHOOL UNIFORM McPhersons Numurkah have reduced trading hours to 9am to 1pm Monday to Friday and

9am to noon Saturdays until further notice.

Please contact Duncan 0408 621 061 or Chris 0407 095 948 to arrange an appointment or

a pick up point for your convenience outside of these hours.

Stay healthy, safe and happy

Duncan McPherson

CHECK NEWSLETTER ITEMS IN C SIGLEY MAILBOX—CASSIE WILLIS ARTICLE FOR WHEN WE GO IN TO LOCK-DOWN.

PLEASE NOTE: New date for NSC

school photo day is Mon 15th June.