Principal's Report

With the Term 1 school holidays upon us, I take this opportunity to wish you all a safe, happy, and healthy term break.

I would like to remind our students and in particular our VCE students to spend some time each day during the next few weeks, reviewing and revising the work undertaken so far this year. Year 12 is a marathon, not a sprint, so it’s important that students work consistently throughout the year and chip away at the work bit by bit.

Parent Teacher Interviews

It has been a tremendously busy nine weeks with a great number of wonderful activities and events throughout the term. Parent/Teacher Interviews provided an opportunity to see, meet and chat with your child’s teacher and to take a moment to reflect on what has worked well and to perhaps, put some strategies or structures in place to ensure continued improvement. Many of my conversations with parents were overwhelmingly positive, in particular dialogue concerning our college, improving facilities and the work of our staff in providing a supportive, engaging and challenging learning environment.

I also take this opportunity to remind parents that the teaching industry is currently under enormous pressure with many quality teaching and support staff leaving, retiring, or pursuing less stressful work. Many of my secondary school colleagues, some just a few kilometres further out from us are still significantly short staffed. Children are attending school each day without a permanent teacher for multiple classes.

There are many factors that are contributing to this, but the recently released productivity report highlights that in a few years’ time there will be a teacher shortage of over 5,000 - the majority in the secondary sector. We too found it extremely challenging to replace staff at the end of last year, with suitably qualified and capable teachers.

It is vitally important that we retain good staff and ensure longevity in the profession. Our future depends on it! The main reason staff give for leaving the profession is workload such as having to do lots of administration and individualisation of teaching. No doubt poor student behaviour also contributes but support from parents in such situations really helps whereas poor parent behaviour can have a significant impact on staff mental health and wellbeing. As an industry the last one is of significant concern and has received lots of air-time recently. Whilst we encourage parents to communicate concerns with us it is also imperative that these conversations are respectful and considered. I wish to thank our parent/carer community for working with us and acknowledging our school values when communicating with our staff.

Our school values of Respect, Initiative and Learning (RIL) and the type of behaviours we like to see, form our RIL matrix below.

If you can, please take a moment to thank a teacher, it really does make a big difference to feel valued and appreciated.

JLTAV Award

Whilst I am talking about terrific teachers, I would like to acknowledge our Japanese teacher and Languages Leader, Takanori Hayakawa, for his life membership to the Japanese Language Teachers’ Association of Victoria.

Sensei was awarded life membership a few weeks ago and is highly respected and valued for his work over several decades. He was also acknowledged for his outstanding work with Haiku and his contribution to providing high quality professional development for many Japanese language teachers across Victoria. Well done Mr Hayakawa!

Top Arts

In further good news I would like to acknowledge Hadi Ahmad who completed Year 12 last year and is one of only 50 students in the state to have his work on display in Top Arts at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).

Hadi has a unique story, and his success is testament to his hard work, resilience, terrific values and the support and guidance provided from our wonderful Visual Arts Faculty and his family. Ms Davies attended the presentation a few weeks ago and was so thrilled to see Hadi achieve such exceptional accolades.


School Council Elections

I would like to congratulate our elected school council representatives, John Spasevski, Natalia Homatopoulos, Andrew Barker, Mark Heintz, Michelle Prosenica, Larry De Cata, Daria Villani, Annette Therik, Natalie Fitzgerald, Claudia Bradilovich and Evan McKenna Burke. I look forward to your contribution in ensuring Rosehill continues to be an excellent educational college for our community.

During the School Council meeting held in March, the following parents were elected to the positions below.

  • President: John Spasevski
  • Vice President: Andrew Barker
  • Treasurer: Mark Heintz

Acknowledgement

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the terrific work of all the staff at Rosehill Secondary College throughout this term. Our teachers, our support staff (Administration, Library, Wellbeing, Careers, ICT, Learning Support, Technology, Science, and Maintenance) and the principal class team, have worked tirelessly to ensure a very smooth, calm, and successful Term 1.

Our moral purpose as educators is to provide the best learning opportunities for all the students at our college but to also improve our society by raising well-rounded individuals. Our values of Respect, Initiative and Learning (RIL) are central to this belief and are referred to daily by our staff when interacting with students and one another. I trust that these values will hold your child in good stead throughout life.

I look forward to continuing our positive learning journey next term.

Arthur Soumalias

PRINCIPAL

Policies

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.

Calendar

Monday 15th AprilTerm 2 Commences
Wednesday 17th AprilOpen Day

Pupil Free Day

Tuesday 23rd April

Open Evening

Students dismissed at 1:30pm

Thursday 25th AprilANZAC Day Public Holiday
Thursday 2nd MayYear 7 Vaccinations

Library

Swimming Carnival - VM BBQ

Our Year 11 VCE VM class hosted the BBQ stall at our swimming carnival. The eager VM students, (Alyssa, Alex, Ailah, Ruby, Holly, Presley, Harry, Isaac, and Brody) were involved the whole day in various tasks, they were helping the teachers set up our marquees and tables, cook the meat, serve the hungry customers, stock the drinks, clean our area and finally pack up everything!

The money we raised on the day will support our fundraising for The Salvation Army and subsidise our incursions and excursions for Term 2.

A special mention to all the regular tireless teachers who supported us throughout the entire day: Mr Raiti, Ms O’Malley, Ms Ivas, Ms Filippone, Ms Georgiadis and Mr Vincent.

Vicki Handris

VCE VM COORDINATOR


Year 12 Legal Studies Excursion

On Tuesday 12th March, our lovely Year 12 Legal Studies class attended the Melbourne Supreme Court excursion.

To start with, students were treated to a Q and A with Justice Maree Kennedy. She indulged us in discussing the ins-and-outs of her role as a Supreme Court Justice.

Students were able to ask a range of questions from ‘what has been the most interesting case that has come before you’ to ‘what do you love about your job’.

Our students were able to sit in a murder trial, where the defence barrister outlined the closing arguments of their case.

This was an incredibly powerful experience as the students were able to see court processes in action! Furthermore, our students were praised by Justices Kennedy and Dixon for their politeness and candour.

A real treat of a day!

Robert Findlay

LEGAL STUDIES


Top Arts 2024

Congratulations to Hadi Ahmad whose VCE artwork titled, ‘Self-Reflection,’ was accepted into the prestigious Top Arts Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, Federation Square.

For three decades, this much-loved annual exhibition has provided a platform for the next generation of artists across the state to showcase their talent, passion, and ingenuity. Top Arts 2024 features the most exceptional work from students who completed the new VCE study designs of Art Making and Exhibiting and Art Creative Practice in 2023. The exhibition promises a fascinating survey of the curious, creative, and innovative spirit of young artists.

On Wednesday 13th March Ms Davies (Head of Visual Arts) was invited to attend the Top Arts gala evening. She was thrilled to see so many people recognise the beauty of Hadi’s sculpture and comment on the incredible success of Rosehill Secondary College’s Visual Arts Department.

Hadi states that his work, ‘Self Reflection’ represents an introspective journey, featuring a figure atop skewed stairs with an empty cage as its head, a metaphor for the boundless potential for self-reflection. The sculpture’s composition reflects life’s nonlinear path, emphasising personal growth while acknowledging the tendency to revisit the past.

Hadi’s Art Creative Practice Folio can also be viewed online via the NGV website, a testament to his hard work and art practice.

Hadi is now studying Architecture at Monash University.

Top Arts is on at the NGV Federation Square from March 14th until July 14th from 10am – 5pm daily. Entry is free.

Heather Davies

ART KLA LEADER

Year 8 Assembly and Awards

On Tuesday 26th March during our Student Agency and Responsibility (SAR) lesson the Year 8 students had a Year level assembly that was organised and presented by the Year 8 student leaders. As a cohort, the Year 8 students reflected on the extracurricular learning opportunities they have had this term and announced some of the exciting events to come in Term 2.

During the assembly, Harley Barnes announced that the Year 8 Student Agency and Responsibility (SAR) lessons for Term 2 will be created by Year 8 students. This is an example of student agency in action to respond to student feedback on the Term 1 Student Agency and Responsibility (SAR) lessons.

The assembly concluded with the celebration of Year 8 students who have demonstrated an effort to ensure they are Ready to Learn in all of their classes. The awards were presented by three of the Year 8 student leaders — Chloe Kennedy, Klarisa Cicolli, and Indie O’Donnell. After receiving their certificates, each award winner was personally congratulated by Assistant Principal, Frances Snow.

The Ready to Learn Champion award is for any student who successfully met the challenge presented by Head of Junior School, Sue Riquelme, on the first day of Year 8. The challenge was for any Year 8 student to achieve a GPA of higher than 3.4 in the work habits of ‘Effort & Participation’ and ‘Organisation’ across all their subjects. Our Ready to Learn Champions have demonstrated a phenomenal effort towards their studies this term and deserve to be commended.

Arie Arthur

Erol Palay

Spencer Szuveges

Gabriel Tarallo

The Ready to Learn award winners are awarded to any Year 8 student who has shown a great commitment to their studies in Term 1. These students have received very good or excellent results in their interim reports for the work habits of ‘Effort & Participation’ and ‘Organisation’ across all of their subjects. This is our opportunity to identify and celebrate the hard work they have done in Term 1.

Reeve Allen

Advay Gupta

Jacob Nowell

Tanay Soni

Lachlan Baird

Gabriel Jacobs

Andrae Obeid

Luca Spedicato

Harley Barnes

Jeremy Jeffries

Hazel O’Brien

Avika Thakkar

Sri Chandrasekaran

Ella Jones

Indie O’Donnell

Gabe Trippetta

Mehtaab Chawla

Chloe Kennedy

Nikita Rahul

Kaia Van Harmelen

Klarisa Cicolli

Janice Lam

Sithuka Ranasinghe Kankanamalage

Milla Vicario

Clare Devasia

Christopher Logan

Billy Ryan

Jett Vinci

Charlie Dickson

Sam Lonergan

Levi Savidis

Vivienne Walsh

Zara Gazzi

Kayla McNaughton

Juliette Scifo

Milla Watts

Summer

Gordon-Blight

Ryan Norton

Yaazhini Sivaprakasam

David Rose

YEAR 8 COORDINATOR

Student Voice & Agency

Although we have had a very short term, student voice has been loud and impactful in our Rosehill community – from positive engagement and colourful outfits from our Year 12 Students at the Swimming Carnival, to a whole-day planning event for student leaders, student-led assemblies, student planned and facilitated sausage sizzles, and organizing student surveys regarding the Student Agency and Responsibility program (SAR)

Student Voice Across the School Levels

Year 7

  • Peer Support Program – Year 7 students were guided by Year 11 students through key learning sessions related to our values, Respect, Initiative, Learning (RIL); in these sessions Year 7 students are encouraged to share their ideas, thoughts, and opinions, and to feel comfortable to ‘share their voice’.
  • SAR Program – Student Agency & Responsibility; surveys for student feedback
  • Camp – lots of student voices were heard and celebrated!! (Even at 4am in the morning …)

Year 8

  • Facilitated weekly leadership meetings chaired and scribed by Student Leaders
  • Planned a student-led Year level Assembly.
  • Student leaders inquired about making changes to the ‘Student Agency and Responsibility’ Program based on peer feedback and volunteered to write future lessons (with assistance from teachers).

Year 9

  • Run a student-led assembly
  • Weekly leadership meetings chaired and scribed by student leaders
  • Discussions around fundraising and deciding on their community project

Year 10

  • Organised an anti-racism pledge board in Harmony Week; student voice pledging to stand against any form of racism; students received a slice of fairy bread for a meaningful pledge – very popular
  • Organised a very successful sausage sizzle with popular face painting
  • Ran an Easter raffle to support their chosen charity (All together now) tickets available if you wish to purchase at the end of the meeting.
  • Organised sausage sizzle and Zooper Doopers for Year 7 students and Peer Support Leaders for their end of term Peer Support Celebration

Year 11

  • Peer Support Program: Year 11 students facilitated the Peer Support sessions with the Year 7 Students, demonstrating their active voice in engaging their younger peers in reflections and discussion, while developing their leadership, public speaking, and communication skills
  • Run a student-led assembly
  • Created a gardening club (if anyone has any contacts to nurseries, Bunnings etc could you please contact Ms Hart 😊)
  • Met with assistant coordinator to discuss their community project and future fundraising goals

Year 12

  • Collated articles, photos, and student feedback for end of year VCE book – celebrating student voice, achievements, highlights etc.
  • Run school assemblies
  • Created a suggestion box so they can address any student concerns e.g. students have requested some DJ decks to take over on some lunchtimes
  • Organised the duty roster for the Year 12 centre kitchen to ensure it stays clean
  • Sourced equipment for the kitchen eg forks

At Rosehill we are committed to continuing to ‘amplify’ student voice, and to making student voice a meaningful and authentic representation of our student body. We look forward to sharing our achievements in continuing to make student voice a visible presence in our community, and to making our students feel included, respected and ‘heard’.

#Student Agency in action # Student Voice is listened to and acted on at Rosehill

COME AND FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM – rosehillsecondarycollege

This page is an initiative of Rosehill SC School Leaders where we share student achievements and highlights and create a space to amplify student voice.

Colleen Hart

LT STUDENT AGENCY AND LEADERSHIP

National Scholarship Program

Rosefest

"Revenge at Rosehill"

What an awesome day we had at Rosefest Huge congrats to Mr Murone and the fantastic ID teachers who created a super successful event, with a great vibe, great music, great stalls and all round lots of fun and positive student energy.

But let’s face it, the real action was the ‘Pie The Teacher’ stand where student agency was actively in action as students took revenge and ‘Pie’d’ the teachers – students took things into their own hands and gleefully rubbed whipped cream into teachers’ faces – all in good fun right ????!!!!

The teachers smelt like curdled milk and had blurry vision, but all for a good cause …

Colleen Hart

LT STUDENT AGENCY AND LEADERSHIP

Peer Support

Congratulations to the Year 11 Peer Support Leaders who stepped up and showed agency and leadership by taking on this very important leadership role at Rosehill.

Through the Peer Support Program, student leaders develop and consolidate their leadership skills. They help our Year 7 students have a positive transition from Primary to Secondary school, and also act as a friendly and positive ‘trusted older student’, making the Year 7 students feel welcomed and included in our Rosehill community.

We are very proud of our Year 11 leaders who did such an awesome job of welcoming and supporting our Year 7 students into our community at Rosehill.

One of the most important things about high-school, is feeling a sense of connection and belonging, and the Peer Support Program is about building connections between Year 7 students, and between the Year 11 and the Year 7 Students.

In the final session of the Peer Support Program, students were asked to speak about themselves with their peers, and talk about some things they value, and that is important to them.

Students were asked to bring in an ‘item of value’ to share with their peers. Items were something that they felt connected to, some examples were: a photograph of a grandparent, a toy, a sentimental piece of jewellery, a souvenir from a favourite holiday or a trophy.

It was wonderful to hear students sharing important moments and memories, and expressing their values, and what is important to them. By encouraging students to share their stories, we are teaching them that their ‘voice’ is important, and that at Rosehill we welcome, we listen to, and we respect student voice.

We ended our celebrations with a sausage sizzle and zooper doopers, which the students loved. We held the sausage sizzle in front of C3, and it was a great opportunity to showcase our new building.

A huge thankyou to our most excellent ES staff who jumped in and got helped out, Cathy, Bernie, and Joyce, and once again, a huge thank you to the Year 10 student leaders who cooked the sausages, and gave up their time to hand out sausages and zooper doopers. You were amazing 😊

Peer Support Leaders 2024

Delcine Li, Hannah Ta, Cindy Ha

Olivia Karantonis, Omer Petro & Skyla Jenner

Jada Madikizia, Lily Black, Andy Tran, Kevin Vo, Lachlan Skilbeck

Hesanya Nambagodage, Olivia Calleja, Jaspreet Kingra

Olivia Pavan, Emily Mulcahy, Remi Watters, Madison Thomas

Olivia Cooper, Jessie Anderson, Siam Bertuna

Chris Thalalaios, Samuel D’Angelo

Jack Manning, Tharuka Perera, Phillip Homatopoulos, Kaia Harris

Melissa Capogreco, Chloe Russell, Sahara Medawar, Zainab Malik

Student Agency

At Rosehill we create independent and responsible learners with a clear focus on mental health and wellbeing – our Student and Responsibility (SAR) homegroup program is part of this vision for life-long learning.

Our students told us they wanted more input in the planning of the SAR program: at Rosehill we listen to and act on student voice, so Ms Riquelme, Mr Rose, Mr Waugh and Ms Hart worked with Year 7 and Year 8 students over the course of a student-focus group session to reflect on the SAR program, and to have a choice and voice in the future direction of, and activities involved in, this program. In Term 2, Ms Mortellaro and Ms Hart will be doing the same process creating student focus groups to seek student voice and choice in a planning for senior students.

#student agency in action # student voice is heard at Rosehill.

Colleen Hart

LT STUDENT AGENCY AND LEADERSHIP

Harmony - Cultural Diversity Week

Murmuk Djerring means “working together” in Woi Wurrung language

As part of the lively celebrations during Harmony Week, students were encouraged to incorporate a touch of orange into their outfits, symbolising unity and our shared commitment to an inclusive Australia. The colour orange not only embodies social communication and meaningful conversations, but also reflects the freedom of ideas and the promotion of mutual respect.

At Rosehill we always celebrate the wonderful diversity of our students, our families, our communities, and we always stand up against racial discrimination and intolerance.

Our Year 10s raised money for their charity ‘All together now’ by hosting a very well-run sausage sizzle, and some pretty great face painting. They also organised a pledge board, where students who made an anti-racism pledge received a slice of fairy bread.

The Year 10 students also ran an Easter raffle which was won by:

First Prize: Stephanie Logan

Second Prize: Jenna Van Harmelen

Third Prize: Emily Wright (Library)

Colleen Hart

LT STUDENT AGENCY AND LEADERSHIP

Moonee Valley School Holiday Programs

Community News

Newsletter, Issue 4 -2024 - 28 Mar 2024

Calendar

Monday 15th AprilTerm 2 Commences
Wednesday 17th AprilOpen Day

Pupil Free Day

Tuesday 23rd April

Open Evening

Students dismissed at 1:30pm

Thursday 25th AprilANZAC Day Public Holiday
Thursday 2nd MayYear 7 Vaccinations
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