Welcome to the final school term of 2023.

Recent World Events

Despite the positive start to the term many in our school community are affected by the devastating events in the Middle East.

All of us are upset and disturbed by the awful events depicted in media footage and images. Feel free to get in contact with any of the staff at our school if you would like to ensure we are aware of what your child is going through at this time.

Our wellbeing staff will continue doing all they can to support all our students.

It is possible that extremely distressing scenes from the conflict may be posted online in coming days. Please ensure your children are aware of where they can find support in the event they come across such images. At our school, this includes their year level coordinators and our wellbeing team.

You may find some aspects of this resource helpful: Helping my children after trauma: A guide for parents.

Support is also available through external services including:

headspace: 1800 650 890

Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636.

Year 9 Program

In more positive news, during Week 1 we ran Elephant Ed workshops for Year 9 students, and this will be followed up by a similar presentation to Year 10 students in the coming weeks. Elephant Ed is about empowering young people to make positive, informed, and safe decisions around relationships, sexuality, growing up and consent. They are evidence-based workshops delivered by young people for young people.

Camps/Excursions/Activities

An overnight Year 11 Environmental Science Camp went out on Monday 9^th October to Portarlington. By all reports it was a successful camp for our students. Well done to Mr Cole.

Junior Sport teams, tennis, and volleyball were successful in winning through to the next round this week. Well done to the students involved for participating and competing well and always displaying our Rosehill RIL values. We look forward to their progress and the next round of competition.

First Aid Training

Many staff have completed First Aid training this week. Due to the nature of the program this was run over two afternoons. This training is part of a PD cycle to ensure we are well placed to provide the necessary first aid should it be required.

Year 12

As we approach the final teaching days for our Year 12 students, we wish them all the best in their future endeavours. Our VCE VM students have now completed their course, and 13 years of schooling, but for most VCE students, their work is not yet over. The next three to four weeks are vital in continuing to study hard, seek teacher support and keep healthy by eating well, sleeping well, and getting out to enjoy some sunshine between study sessions.

This week the VCE team invited Victoria Police to present to our cohort and their message was well received. It’s important that our young adults make informed decisions in the coming weeks and months and can celebrate the completion of secondary school in a sensible manner.

Vale – Gesmond Vella

Finally, On Wednesday 11^th October, we celebrated the life of Gesmond Vella who was a long serving, respected member of staff. Both sad and happy emotions were experienced by all who attended the service, or viewed online, as we farewelled Gesmond. May he rest in peace.

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.

In a heartwarming display of community spirit and compassion, a group of dedicated VCE VM students from Rosehill Secondary College have come together to address the critical issue of homelessness that we have been studying in class.

As part of our assessment, our young minds have initiated a Salvation Army Drive aimed at providing essential items like canned foods, pasta, water, and toiletries to those experiencing homelessness in our community.

This initiative not only showcases our commitment to academic learning, but also our desire to make a real difference in the lives of the less fortunate. The Rosehill community is encouraged to support our cause by contributing food items and toiletries reinforcing the idea that positive change starts at home.

Contributions can be taken to the career’s office in the Year 11 VCE centre.

Adrian, Abdi VCE VM

Recently, our Year 11 VCE VM students participated in a Barista course at Melbourne City Institute of Education (MCIE). Our students were shown essential coffee skills under the supervision of qualified baristas, trainers Rachel and Gemma. The course teaches students how to make coffee from scratch. With no prior experience the students were taught how to:

• Grind coffee and dose
• Clean and maintain the coffee machine.
• Create different coffee styles.
• Develop skills required to texturizing milk.
• Taste and understand the range of strengths of coffee.
• Set up for service.

Our students had a fun-filled day making and drinking different types of coffee. This included: espresso, ristretto, double espresso, long black, flat white, latte, cappuccino, piccolo, mocha, and “Melbourne Magic” (which is made with a double ristretto and hot stretched milk with similar foam to a flat white).

The most enjoyable part of the day was the service component of the exercise. Students were divided into three groups (waiters, baristas, and customers) and rotated these roles. The waiters took the orders and served the coffees which the baristas made. Mr Raiti and I were customers during the duration of the role play, so we had our share of “test” coffees. At one stage, there was milk all over the floor, and a huge mess on the counters, but that too was part of the fun.

The students felt confident that the course was worthwhile and rewarding and will certainly help with their employment opportunities.

Ms Vicki Handris

VCE VM COORDINATOR

At the end of Term 3, three school leaders were lucky enough to attend VicSRC Congress – Victorian School Representative Council, with the purpose of meeting school leaders from across the state, and getting ideas about how to set up our own School Representative Council (SRC) at Rosehill.

Our primary goal in attending the student representative congress or “SRC” was to learn more about student agency to develop our leadership program at Rosehill Secondary College and amplify student voice in our school. As well as meeting a tonne of new people and learning new ways of implementing student leadership around our school, we got to have a seat at the table in finding problems and suggesting solutions with student wellbeing in schools across the state.

In small focus groups we discussed four different central ideas: Inclusive education, Mental Health, Greater Investments in Schools, Students and Teachers, and definitions of Success! After a thorough introduction we split into our focus groups who each focused on one specific issue - dissecting it and discussing any issues with it within schools. Then came lunch where we were had some amazing Vietnamese chicken rolls. Sooooo good 😊

After that came our second meeting where we looked at the issues outlined by the different groups, looking for solutions to them. The vital contributions made by students at congress then get assessed by the Victorian government with the aim of making schools more accessible, enjoyable, and safe for everyone everywhere.

We had an awesome day, and it was really inspiring to meet other student leaders, and to see how they advocated for student voice in their schools. We are looking forward to being part of the school leadership program next year, and helping to establish an SRC, to developing an SRC constitution, and to making student voice at Rosehill really heard by our school community, and acted on by school leaders, teachers, and our Principal team.

The theme of the congress this year was “Join the Roar of Student Voice” – and we would love students who are interested in student voice and leadership to join us in making student voice heard in 2024.

So come on Rosehill students, let’s get together and make student voice at Rosehill a “roar”.

Olivia Karantonis, Eleanor Quarrell and Alexandra Homatopoulos