I wish everyone a safe and happy summer break and a wonderful New Year. To those who celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very Merry Christmas. On behalf of all the staff at Rosehill Secondary College, I thank you for your support and commitment to the college and we look forward to working with you again next year to continue our learning journey.

The long summer break is a great opportunity to spend time with friends and family and to recharge for the year ahead. However, I’d like to request that all parents/guardians provide support and encouragement in ensuring all children read all their novels in preparation for 2024. Just like watching a good movie again and again reading a novel multiple times has similar benefits and often we notice additional information possibly missed the first time.

Below is the list of the main novels for each year level. Ask your children about the main characters, themes or what they find curious about the novel.

Year 7

• Things a Map Won’t Show You - Susan La Marca and Pam Macintyre
• A Single Stone - Meg McKinlay

Year 8

• Runner - Robert Newton

Year 9

• Ghost Bird - Lisa Fuller

Year 10

• Town - James Roy
• Insight Shakespeare Plays: Macbeth

Year 11

• The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

Year 12

• English - We have always lived in the castle - Shirley Jackson
• EAL - The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa.

School Captains 2024

Congratulations to our appointed School Captains for 2024, Claudia Bradilovich and Evan Mckenna Burke. We look forward to their leadership and contribution to our community next year, and I’m sure they will be well supported by our Vice Captains in Xara Taveira, Paige George, and Jasmine You. Well done to all Year 11 leaders who applied for these positions this year. It was terrific to see so many students put their hand up to apply and is a testament to the strong student leadership program at the college.

Staff Professional Development

The lead up to the end of this year has been filled with many activities and events. Just recently we hosted a numeracy professional development program at the school, and it was a pleasure to have Dr Ryan Dunn attend and provide valuable expertise in effective numeracy pedagogy.

On 27^th November, all staff received a full day of training in the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM). This was Day 1 of four and it was a terrific professional learning opportunity to participate in evidence and research-based program. Staff participation and discussion throughout the day was exceptionally positive as we look to incorporate many of the key learnings into our practice in 2024.

Orientation Day – Grade 6

Tuesday 12^th December was the Grade 6 Orientation Day, and it was wonderful to see the 2024 Year 7 students have a positive experience, make new friends, and become familiar with our school grounds and our expectations. We look forward to welcoming our new families in 2024.

Awards Night

We celebrated academic excellence at Rosehill Secondary College on Wednesday 13^th December. It was wonderful to see so many students receive academic excellence awards across all subject domains. We thank our sponsors and partners for their continued support and are delighted to acknowledge the hard work and commitment required to achieve outstanding outcomes in learning. We are so pleased to see how proud and excited parents and families are when their child’s achievements are acknowledged.

I also take a moment to congratulate ALL students who have put in the hard work and are committed to their studies but may have missed out on an award this year…your effort and progress is noted, and we encourage you to keep up the terrific effort. Well done.

Facilities Update

The capital works program is well ahead of schedule, and we will be commencing 2024 in the new building. This positive news does require a significant effort to have all staff out of their staff room, with a large portion of staff having to relocate offices sooner than anticipated. I thank staff for their patience and understanding in moving to a temporary office at short notice. This now enables building works to commence on A Wing over the summer break, starting with the removal of asbestos before commencing the refurbishment of the building. A Wing will be unavailable for the first six months of 2024.

The update and modernisation to the Gymnasium toilets, showers and foyer is also almost complete and will be ready for the start of the 2024 school year. The new facilities look terrific, and we are excited to have our ECA back at full capacity.

Additional significant maintenance works are also scheduled for the summer break across many areas of the college. It will certainly be a busy time at Rosehill, over January, as we look forward to enjoying the new facilities next year and for many years to come.

Year 12 Results

I take this opportunity to congratulate our Year 12 cohort who received their results on Monday. Well done to the class of 2023! Many students achieved exceptional VCE results with ATARs in the high nineties. 98% of our cohort successfully completed their VCE or VCE VM. The Careers team continue their terrific work in ensuring we have 100% of our students’ obtaining positive exit destinations and have made phone calls to all offering support in securing the next phase of their learning journey.

2024 Start of Year

A reminder that 2024 will be a staggered start.

• Tuesday 30^th January 2024 - Years 7, 10, and 12 commence.
• Wednesday 31^st January 2024 - Year 8, 9 and 11 commence.

Warm wishes,

Arthur Soumalias

PRINCIPAL

School Policies have been updated in line with Department of Education and Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority requirements. Parents may review these on the school websitehttps://www.rosehillsc.vic.edu.au/under Our School > Policies > Minimum Standards Compliance – June 2022.

Wow – what a year – it has flown, our Year 12 students have left the nest at Rosehill – and we wish them all the very best for their future. Our Year 11s are moving into their final year of secondary school – and getting ready to have a break before they come back refreshed and ready to settle into VCE, do their very best, and make their final high school year one to remember.

This year we had an unprecedented number of students apply for leadership positions in Year 12. The application process is involved and requires time and commitment from applicants – and every applicant this year was outstanding, with each student having different skills and qualities to bring to the leadership team. It was extremely difficult to choose from such an excellent group of young people, and it makes me hopeful for the future to know that we are in such good hands with these wonderful young people as our future leaders.

At Rosehill we aim to encourage all students to see themselves as leaders, to recognise that each and every student has leadership qualities, and to understand that leadership is not a badge or a position, but an action – we make leadership decisions every day, both at work and in our personal lives. When we speak up for what is right, either at work or in our home lives, we are demonstrating leadership, and when we do what is right and model our RIL values, we are demonstrating leadership.

Our student leaders will build a strong and visible leadership in our Rosehill community, one that is guided by our values of respect, initiative and learning, and every student, and student leader, has an important role to play in modelling inclusive, respectful and positive leadership values, and in driving our school vision for student agency, voice and leadership.

In 2024 we aim to focus on student agency and student voice, creating a culture of pride in our school community, a sense of optimism for the future, and the self-belief that Rosehill students can achieve their goals, that Rosehill students are active agents in their learning and their lives, and that Rosehill students can look up to our senior students as positive role-models, as well as encouraging, inclusive, and proactive leaders.

We congratulate the following students and look forward to seeing them lead our students at Rosehill in 2024.

Introducing our School Captains & The 2024 Leadership team:

School Captains

Evan McKenna-Burke & Claudia Bradilovich

School Vice Captains

Paige George, Jasmine You & Xara Taveira

EAL Captain: Margad Tsolmon

SRC President: Toby Foster

House Captains

A final thankyou to our awesome Year 11 leaders who have been excellent role models and ambassadors for our school, who have been proactive in organizing events, who have modelled our RIL values, and who have been all round, good eggs. We salute you and wish you luck and success in your final year of high school in 2024.

Above: Year 11 - 2023 Leadership Team

Above: 2024 - Leadership Team

The annual Rosehill Secondary College Awards Presentation held on 13^th December 2023 celebrated the successes of our students and it also included the induction of the 2024 School Captains, Claudia Bradilovich and Evan McKenna Burke. Awards for academic excellence were presented in all Key Learning Areas and for all Year 12 subjects studied at the College. A number of special awards were also presented during the award presentations including:

Year Level Dux Awards – Sponsored by Bendigo Bank East Keilor

Year 7 – Sithuka Ranasinghe Kankanamalage

Year 8 – Romy Meilenbrock

Year 9 – Layla Lish

Year 10 – Delcine Li

Year 11 – Joelle Blackmore

Year 12 – Rayan Syed

‘Optima Semper’, Best Always Awards:

Year 7 – Chloe Kennedy

Year 8 – Adrian Sajjadi

Year 9 – Hoang Khanh Linh Nguyen

Year 10 – Hugo Bliss

Year 11 – Claudia Bradilovich

ADF Long Tan Leadership and Teamwork Award: Taylor Reece & Rusira Danwatta Liyanage

ADF Future Innovator Award: Natasha Apostolovska & Uday Singh.

Anthony Pryor Student Encouragement Award: Gypsy Skeggs

Ampol Best All Rounder Award: Tekeya Tran

Art Acquisition Award: Hadi Ahmad.

Chemist Warehouse Community Award: Xyza Lyle

Coughlan Motors Award: Teejay Johnson

Community Awards: Minh Ha Chu & Audrey Cook

CSL Excellence in Science Award: Nguyen Khanh An Tran.

Essendon Lions Club Award: Evan McKenna Burke.

Ges Vella Memorial Award: Zachary Ryan.

Insight Publications English Encouragement Award: Jasmine You.

Kevin Dennis Motors Technology Award: Gorja Bhardwaj & Natasha Apostolovska.

Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Program Recipients: Delcine Li.

Olympic Change Maker: Aydin Izlemek.

Pippo’s Pizza Shop Award: Nguyen Khanh An Tran.

R.I.L Awards: Gorja Bhardwaj, Karim Ahmad & Amelia Pongrac.

Roger Smith Memorial Award: Amalia Corbalan.

Sam Pennisi Student Encouragement Award: Lucy Hince.

Sporting Blue Awards: Josh Holtz & Jack Shears.

Gladys Mora

AWARDS COORDINATOR

During our last week of academic classes, the Junior School Voice and Agency group organised two events to celebrate the success of all Year 7 and Year 8 students in 2023.

Final Year Level Assemblies

On Thursday 7th December, the student leaders facilitated their final Year level assemblies. This was our opportunity to highlight some of our achievements from this year. Both assemblies were very lucky to be entertained by the Year 8 Junior Band at both the start and the middle of the assemblies. It was great to see our peers perform so confidently in front of a large audience.

As part of the Year level assemblies “Striving for Excellence” awards were presented for students who excelled academically in the classroom and strived to be the best versions of themselves throughout the year. The names of the award winners can be seen at the conclusion of this article.

To conclude, in our assemblies we heard speeches from the coordinators acknowledging our growth this year and were introduced to the coordinators that will be joining us as we move up a Year level in 2024.

Celebration Day

On the last day of academic classes the student leaders organised a range of celebratory activities that were held at lunch time. All Year 7 and 8 students were invited to the VCE Centre to witness an encore performance from the Junior Band, participate in fun games and enjoy a sausage and a zooper dooper which were a huge hit in the heat. (Some people may or may not have had more than one …)

It was a lovely way to reflect on the time we have spent together this year and socialise with our friends. A big thank you to all of the teachers who came down to assist with the event, especially cooking a BBQ in the summer heat. A special acknowledgement to Ms Hart and Ms Riquelme for organising the food supplies and assisting us with preparation on the day.

Written by Harley Barnes, Jemma Horvat, Jacob Peck, Spencer Szuveges & Gabriel Tarallo.

Striving For Excellence Award Winners

7A

Christopher Logan

Jeremy Jeffries

Ahmed Lebdeh

7B

Ella Jones

Advay Gupta

Claudia Stojanoski

7C

Sam Lonergan

Zara Gazzi

Azlan Malik

7D

Arie Arthur

William Dugan

Danai Kampouri

7E

Nikita Rahul

Avika Thakkar

Chloe Kennedy

7F

Gabriel Trippetta

Ryne Dunstone

Dat Nguyen

7G

Sithuka Ranasinghe Kankanamalage

Andrae Obeid

Tanay Soni

7H

Charlotte Emond

Jessica Nguyen

Luca Spedicato

8A

Tommy Nguyen

Sofia Alysandratos

Stefan Celic

8B

Matthew Chin

Chalee Loft

Talia Celtek

8C

Panagiota Bindevis

Jordan Raimondo

Thomas Skiadopoulos

8D

Julie Nguyen

Anne Stambolidis

Adrian Sajjadi

8E

Romy Meilenbrock

Gorja Bhardwaj

Audrey Cook

8F

Amelia Burrell

Hayden Luong

Nicola Wong

8G

Alix Dowie

Adem Akcay

Siena Inzillo-Fejes

8H

Locy Lam

Darko Nastic

Lauren Vu

8I

Alex Wu

Lachlan Lui

Shae Sawbridgeworth

And that’s a wrap!

2023 seemed to go by so fast, and students in leadership at Rosehill took advantage of many opportunities this year to step up as leaders, role models and ambassadors for our community.

Our awesome leaders have worked incredibly hard this year to advocate for their fellow students, to speak up for change, and to always be outstanding ambassadors for Rosehill – I am so proud of their dedication and commitment, proud of their conduct both in our school and in the wider community, and proud of their extraordinary capabilities as leaders, and of their numerous achievements in 2023.

Here are just a few examples of the achievements of our leadership group:

• organized fundraising days
• attended conferences, lunches, school council meetings, leadership meetings (so many meetings …)
• consulted with teachers and the Principal Team to amplify student voice
• facilitated Rosehill’s amazing Peer Support Program
• led year-level school assemblies
• presented data analysis of student surveys in staff meetings
• advocated for their fellow students
• attended VICSRC Congress
• gave speeches in parliament advocating for more equity in government spending in education
• helped out with the Breakfast Club program

In 2023 our leadership group have always been exemplary role models, and demonstrated our RIL values – congratulations for all of your hard work – we look forward to working with you in 2024.

Celebrating Student Leaders at Awards Night

What an amazing night at Rosehill’s Awards Evening on Wednesday 13^th December. The night ran incredibly smoothly thanks to Gladys Mora and her team, and with the support of many staff, and the tireless efforts of Maree Kelly and the administration team. Thank you so much for your tireless support for our students – they are truly lucky to have you supporting them 😊

Throughout the year, we strive to acknowledge and reward our students’ commitment to our values of Respect, Initiative and Learning, with our RIL cards, the RIL shop and sharing positive feedback through Compass reports. By celebrating these behaviours, we encourage our students to develop habits that will continue to serve them throughout their lives, and to be successful leaders in the future.

Our awards night is a celebration of our students, a recognition of their achievements, and a time to share these achievements with our extended community of family, carers, community leaders, peers and friends.

It is also an opportunity to showcase some of our outstanding Performing Arts students. The evening highlighted performances from the VCE Music Band featuring Ryan Rutledge's final Music examination pieces and a solo performance from Toby Foster. The night also saw a melodrama performance by Melissa Capogreco and Chloe Russell as well as dance works from our senior dancers. Thank you all for your moving, funny, talented and beautiful performances – we are proud of you and look forward to seeing you succeed in your chosen fields.

The Awards Evening reflects the deep pride we take in our students’ many gifts and achievements, the unwavering dedication we have to our students’ academic success, and the ongoing commitment we make to allow our students to realise their potential and to flourish and succeed in their lives.

The evening was a huge success, and a huge celebration of student achievement at Rosehill – we will continue to encourage all Rosehill students to strive for excellence, to always be guided by our values of Respect, Initiative and Learning, and to always aim to be ‘Optima Semper’ – the Best Always.

Congratulations again to all of our award recipients, and congratulations also to our talented student performers.

Ms Hart

STUDENT VOICE & LEADERSHIP

The Year 7 Visual Communication Design classes have produced some fantastic work this semester. This term, they focussed on learning the perspective drawing method. They worked through a mini design process to create a personal monogram which they then turned into a 3D icon.

Virginia Singleton

ART & VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN TEACHER

Seven Year 10 students sent Christmas cards to the students of Kogakkan High School, our sister school. It is the 11th year since we started our Christmas card exchange with Kogakkan. They wrote in both Japanese and English. Our sister school students also sent us their beautiful handwritten cards with impressively neat English! Students who wrote cards are May Goodall, Hannah Ha, Delcine Li, Hesanya Nambagodage, Iris Parry, Jasen Ramientas and Justin Steele.

Takanori Hayakawa

LANGUAGES KLA LEADER

The Poem Forest competition is a nature writing prize that breathes life back into the natural world that sustains us. Created by Red Room Poetry, in partnership with Wollongong City Council, POEM FOREST invites students and teachers to use their words to make positive climate action. For every nature poem received a tree is planted to help heal habitats and create a POEM FOREST for future generations. Since 2021, over 10,700 poem trees have been planted.

A total of 6400 entries were received this year over five different age categories. Audrey Cook (8E) came second in her age category Lower Secondary (Yr7-9). Congratulations, Audrey!

Bittersweet and Broken

Through the eyes of eight billion, love is a memory,

a childhood long passed, a friend since entombed.

We are so attuned to melancholy,

lungs breathing bittersweet, hearts beating broken,

we forget love is a future, too.

Her tears flooding our seas, her screams torching our forests,

our planet pleads for help.

Mining oil from her veins,

forcing poison down her throat.

Our future is burning, blistering,

until it is nothing more than ash

slipping through our fingers and

pouring from our lips.

We need to love our future as we love our past,

love our planet as we love her wealth.

Before we drown in smoke

born of a fire we started.