Walking through the halls of Northern College of the Arts and Technology, you won’t just see students sitting in front of a whiteboard.
Instead, they are performing on stages, recording music in studios or repairing cars in the garage.
Raffaela Galati-Brown has been the principal at NCAT since 1991.
Credit:Jason South
The school, which caters to Year 10 students, VCE, VCAL and post-secondary students, has been on a strong trajectory of growth for 10 years, improving its median VCE study score from a low of 23 in 2012 to a 10-year high of 28 in 2021.
It’s been achieved by supporting students’ passions, said the school’s principal Raffaela Galati-Brown, who has been in the role since 1991, covering its reinvention from the former Northland Secondary College into the artistic and technically focused school it is today.
“We’ve had students who were disengaged at their last school. They weren’t going, and their attendance was pretty poor. Then they’ve come here, and their attendance goes back to normal,” she said.
“Parents say, ‘Oh my god, you know, what have you done with my child?’ It’s so wonderful.”
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