Whole school events such as our Swimming Carnival, Year 7 Camp, the return of interschool sports, in-school excursions such as Medieval Day and Rosefest, have been important in helping build the social health and mental wellbeing of our students. The opportunity to interact, co-operate and work together are essential skills in a successful society and these skills, are arguably even more important after a year of significant isolation. Congratulations to our community for the sustained effort this term. I am certain that all students and staff are looking forward to a well earned break.

To our Year 12 Cohort, take a few days to unwind and relax but remember to complete the set work you will undoubtably have to complete over the next few weeks. Remember, Year 12 is a marathon, a long-distance race, keep up with the work by completing some regular work each day. Please speak with your teachers if falling behind.

It’s been fantastic to see a number of guest speakers in our College during the term. As part of our Year 10 Civics and Citizenship Program, our local State Member, Ben Carroll (who has been a fantastic supporter of our College and education in our local area) and the Moonee Valley Mayor, Cam Nation and Deputy Mayor, Katrina Hodgson were in attendance in person and discussed and explained the various levels of government to our students. Bill Shorten (Federal Member) was unable to attend in person, but was also kind enough to prepare video message for us. The importance for our students to understand and appreciate government and politics and be aware of issues that impact their lives now and in the future is vitally important.

The Year 7 Camp was a great success. I was fortunate to attend for two days and can report that our students and staff were magnificent. Camp staff reported that our school group were extremely well mannered and behaved. I rotated through 4-5 different groups and found the students were very much engaged in the activities and participated keenly and with large smiles on their faces. It’s opportunities such as these, that helps build strong friendships between students and long-lasting rapport between students and staff. Well done to the Junior School team for once again running a successful camp.

Our tutoring program is well underway and ILPs are being developed for every student involved in the program. This excellent initiative from DET will run all year and we have made some minor adjustment to the tutor staffing due to Ms Beechey taking maternity leave. A new literacy tutor will commence part time for the start of Term 2. The focus for Term 2 will continue to be Year 9, Year 11 reading support (selected students will receive notification this week), Year 8 and 10 supported by the MYLNS funding. If you have any queries regarding the program please contact our Tutor Coordinator Ms Bevinetto.

Additional work which is complementing our literacy tutoring, has been the access to expertise from both Misty Adoniou who spent 11th March working with our Heads of Department and English teachers, with a focus on writing throughout the day and, Terri Campbell who is working with us to further improve our reading program. Katarina Ivas our literacy Specialist is working closely with Terri and together they have assisted our Key Learning Area (KLA) leaders to conduct an audit of the literacy demands of their faculties. Katarina and Terri are also working with our Literacy teachers to assist them in further enhancing their skills to ensure a consistent approach in delivering reading conferences. Our work in this area is very exciting and I look forward to the progress and growth we will make this year.

The oval will be available for the start of Term 2. I have lost count of the requests from students as to the oval’s availability. I suspect it will be a very popular area next term. I would like to commend the students and the Physical Education staff for their patience this term and the ability of students to compromise and share the limited spaces throughout the school and on the basketball courts.

Late last year, Ms Mckay and I successfully secured funding for an additional counsellor. I can now report that we have appointed a new student counsellor, Alexander Reely. He is due to commence in Week 1 next term, and is a qualified counsellor and as a bonus, a qualified music teacher. We look forward to having Alexander join our welfare team and the Rosehill Community. He will be working as a counsellor two days per week, fully funded by the national Chaplaincy in Schools Program. I’d like to acknowledge OnPsych, the service provider, for their support and assistance during this process.

In more exciting news, we held a site visit with the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) Manager Paul Hilton, Geoff Cosier (Project Officer) and three architectural companies. This is the next step in the process of appointing an architect for the new $10.204 million dollar capital works. Once the architect is appointed we will begin what is known as AMP Phase 2 and this is essentially the planning and design stage of the new buildings. This process can take up to 46 weeks, so we do not anticipate any works until early next year.

I can report that the School Council for 2021 has been formed with the following members.

• President – Gwenda Griggs (parent)
• Vice President – Christina Kotsafaras (parent)
• Treasurer – John Spasevski (parent)
• Parent member – Mike Lloyd
• Parent member – Natalija Homatopolous
• Parent member – Mark Heintz
• DET member – Daria Villiani
• DET member – Natalie Fitzgerald
• DET member - William Stubbings
• DET member - Danielle Murray
• Student member – Nikala Bervanakis
• Student member – Emily Baker

The 2020 Annual Report to the school community provides an opportunity for the school community to celebrate achievements, reflect on the school’s performance, and understand where and how improvement efforts have enhanced student achievement, engagement and wellbeing.

The Annual General Meeting will be held from 5.15pm - 6.15pm on Monday 26^th April. Please notify Judith Wright on 9337 2488 of your attendance by 4.00pm on Wednesday 21st April, 2021.

Finally, on behalf of the staff at Rosehill Secondary College, I wish all families a safe, happy and healthy Term 1 break, and to all who celebrate Easter, wishing you a very Happy Easter.

Warm Regards,

Arthur Soumalias

PRINCIPAL

Swimming Carnival

For the third year running the weather gods were not smiling upon us for our annual Rosehill Swimming Carnival. With drizzle, 20km winds and 16 degrees predicted, the positive and resilient students of Rosehill Secondary College journeyed to Oak Park Pool for our swimming carnival. How great it was to see our students smiling and competing back in our college community.

Despite the weather, the attendance on the day was fantastic, with over 900 students attending. The vibe was positive all day and it was great to see so many students participating and getting involved in all events, both swimming, and novelty. The water polo was once again a big hit with record numbers of students participating. Students lined the pool to cheer students on in a very high-intensity water polo competition. A massive thank you to all staff, students, and PE faculty for once again helping to run such a successful college community event. Your efforts and support are much appreciated!

Scores were tight all day with each house leading at different times throughout the day.

Diamond once again reigned victoriously. Can another house rise to the challenge for the Athletics carnival later in the year?

Year 9/10 Boys and Girls Volleyball

On Wednesday 24^th March the Intermediate boys and girls competed in the division volleyball at Buckley Park College. A big congratulations to the boys who have been tirelessly training all year and have qualified for the WMR competition later in the year! All the boys have put in so much effort and training and encouraged each other throughout the whole day. The girls played so well on the day however narrowly lost one game to be knocked out of the top spot. Well done girls and bring on next year!

Year 8 Boys and Girls Volleyball

On Wednesday 17^th March the Year 8 boys and girls competed in the division volleyball at Buckley Park College. A big congratulations to both teams who won their competitions and have qualified for the WMR competition later in the year! All students have been training hard in the ECA at lunch and their efforts paid off. Well done everyone!

Year 8 Boys Cricket

On Wednesday 17^th March the Year 8 boys travelled to Buckley Park for division cricket. The boys were enthusiastic and positive all day despite the heat! There were many great bowls and big hits from the boys in all matches. There were many players who displayed some amazing cricket skills. Well done boys for your participation, effort, and good sportsmanship!

Erin McIntyre

SPORTS COORDINATOR/PE TEACHER

The VCAL students, were involved the whole day in various tasks helping teachers cook the meat, serve the hungry customers, stock the drinks and clean our area. The money we raised on the day, just over $1100 will support our fundraising for The Salvation Army Christmas food and toy drive and subsidise our self-defence course and excursions for Term 2. A special mention to all the regular tireless teachers who supported us throughout the day: Mr Raiti, Ms Boulos, Mr Pavlidis, Mr Sioukas, Ms Ivas and Ms Mortellaro. A very special mention to our Parent helper, Mr Ahmet Karabay, who supplied us with 20 kilos of Halal sausages and told me that he will continue to donate and help us with the BBQs until his son leaves our school (two years to go Ahmet!!)

Ms Vicki Handris

VCAL COORDINATOR

Students had the opportunity to handle artefacts and discuss and question their purpose. Then they watched a video of Joe de Haan, Holocaust survivor, speaking about his experience of the war. Afterwards, they were able to ask him questions directly via a Zoom call. Students realised that even though this couldn't happen in person, they were fortunate to be able to speak to him via a video call. Joe is 99 years old and very passionate about education! He was forced to leave school at 14 years of age and wanted the Year 10s to understand that education opens doors and they need to work hard to have opportunities in life. At the end of the session, students reflected on the importance of learning about this terrible time in history and contributed to the wall of memories and reflections. The museum staff repeatedly commented on the excellent behaviour of our students, and how respectful and engaged they were in the activities.

Well done, Year 10s!

Sirocha Bruckard

ENGLISH LEADER

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On Wednesday 10^th March, Year 7-9 STEP students participated in their first initiatives day for the year – The Lego Challenge.

Students engaged in a variety of exciting and challenging activities in mixed year level teams to earn points for the final task – to build a structure in Lego that represented our College. The students developed fantastic representations of our school community. They delivered heart felt speeches about what their Lego structure symbolised and spoke so fondly of STEP and their experience at Rosehill Secondary College. To complete the day, a spokesperson from HeartKids visited the students to announce that the Lego they had produced would be donated to children born with congenital heart disease. Our students were thrilled that they were able to support such a wonderful cause.

Ms Stephanie Barbaro

ENRICHMENT LEARNING SPECIALIST

Esma started her presentation by defining Resilience: the capacity to recover quickly in the face of adversity, trauma, threats, bullying or other significant sources of stress.

In our lives we are all faced with many challenges. These challenges can negatively affect our mindset, stress levels, self-esteem, confidence, faith and health. Last year “was a year like no other”, we were grieving for the life we knew before Covid-19, feeling helpless, lonely, overwhelmed and angry. Our perseverance, our core personal capacities, navigated us.

Resilience is embracing our challenges and fears and to never give up. Resilience is like a muscle. We need to train ourselves to achieve it.

How do we develop resilience???

TRY - FAIL - LEARN - TRY HARDER

Our brain is like a computer and we are the programmer. We decide how we want it to run, how well it works and what it can do. The right program and building will help us find resilience.

Esma finished her presentation by reminding us to build our resilience by:

• knowing your strengths.
• using visualisation as a tool to strengthen your abilities.
• building healthy positive relationships.
• control your self-talk.
• having confidence in your abilities and the positive things in your life.

Vicki Handris

VCAL

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On 25th February eight Year 10 students of Japanese used a Google Meet to communicate with students from our Sister School in Japan, Kogakkan High School.

Students enjoyed conversing in both English and Japanese for almost 40 minutes.

After introducing themselves, they talked about their favourite things and hobbies. The students who participated in this session included: David Angeloski, Khoa Bui, Ranush De Silva, Flynn Moran, Jaidyn Dinh Nguyen, Arabella Phillips, Summer Simpson and Jason Teoh. I would like to thank Mr Kobayashi from Kogakkan High School and Mrs Henderson for their support for facilitating the event.

We hope to organise more sessions in the future as it was enjoyed by all and a great benefit to the development of our language skills.

Takanori Hayakawa

LANGUAGES / KLA LEADER

Congratulations to the following students:

• Lola Berkeley
• Ethan Blackmore
• Kayleen Dela Rosa
• Geoffrey Fairservice
• Samuel Herriot
• Ruby Herriot
• Yukhesh Jegadesan
• Billy Jack Lazarevski
• Sarah McCartney
• Oriane Mckeown
• Hunter Morgan
• Angela Nguyen
• Shea O’Prey
• Zara Pearson
• Luvin Perera
• Thomas Quarrell
• Ruby Reynolds
• Sara Shekheldeen
• Nethasha Silva
• Anuk Wanigasuriya
• Casey Watanabe

If you were unable to book a meeting with your child’s teacher, please remember that the Term 1 interim reports and the assessment results under Learning Tasks on Compass provide information on how your child is traveling with their school work. I urge you to access and review these items with your child to discuss their progress to date and learning goals for Term 2.

Our next formal reporting point (Term 2 interim reports) occurs around week 4 of next term, followed by full semester reports at the end of Term 2. With our move to continuous reporting via Compass, you have the opportunity to view your child’s results, and the grades that will appear on their semester reports, in real time as assessments are completed.

Please take time over the school break to speak with your child about school and what they hope to achieve next term. Assist them to find a good balance between downtime, rest and rejuvenation and attending to any homework tasks they have. Reading for pleasure every day is a great way to begin.

I wish all families a safe and relaxing term break.

Frances Snow

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Students are reminded to look both ways before crossing the road.

Sapphire Street can become very congested so please do not cross the road between cars.

External family violence services and resource

If you or someone you know need family violence support, please refer to the following resources.

• Safe Steps (1800 015 188) is Victoria’s statewide family violence support service, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Live online chat is also available weekdays from 9am
• 1800 Respect (1800 737 732) provides family violence and sexual assault counselling and is available via telephone or online chat, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Kids Helpline (1800 551 800) provides counselling support service for young people aged five to 25 years old and for parents, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Parentline (1300 301 300) provides parenting counselling support service 8am to midnight, seven days a week, including support for parents experiencing family violence.
• The Lookout provides state-wide information on family violence and local services across Victoria.
• What’s OK at home? provides information on family violence to children and young people aged 10 to 17 years old as well as information for adult allies looking to support the safety of children and young people.
• headspace provides tailored and holistic mental health support to young people aged 12 to 25 years old, from 9am to 1am, seven days a week. The website also provides resources and a local directory for headspace centres.
• intouch.org.au (1800 755 988) provides family violence support for multicultural women, their families and communities in Victoria.
• orangedoor.vic.gov.au is a free in-person and phone service that provides family violence support and services.
• djirra.org.au (1800 105 303) provides both telephone and face-to-face legal and non-legal support to Aboriginal people who are experiencing or have experienced family violence.
• No to violence (1300 766 491) works with men who use family violence.

Every Monday - Whole school tuition program in the library from 3.30 pm to 4.30 pm.

Every Wednesday - Maths/Science study session in B4 from 3.30 pm to 4.30 pm.

Students will be able to receive the assistance they require in the completion of their work for two afternoons per week consistently across the year.

These Enhancement and Enrichment Programs have proven to be very successful in assisting students of all year levels in completing their homework and classwork. The improvement of literacy and numeracy skills has been an important priority for students attending, as well as the development of their study techniques in preparation for class assessments and exams.

Teachers from all key learning areas will be available to cater to students’ needs on a weekly basis. These programs are easily accessible to students, do not incur cost and are effective in improving study skills, results and the confidence in students to work independently.

For further information regarding these enhancement programs please contact Ms De Goederen or Ms Sharma on 9337 2488 or via the below emails:

nina.degoederen@education.vic.gov.au

meena.sharma@education.vic.gov.au