As we head into Week 5 of the school year, I am pleased to report the start has been exceptionally positive. The school has been a hive of activity over the past couple of weeks. Year 12 Camp was a great success in the first week (despite Ms LoGiudice scaring off the penguins), as were the induction programs. They ensure everyone has a clear understanding of their role in providing a high-quality educational environment and help provide consistency in approach across the college. There has been a significant focus on having all students ready for class each lesson and well organised. All staff have very clear expectations that children are in class on time with their equipment, including the school diary, and are ready for learning and actively participating in their learning.

In addition to the Year 12 camp, I was also fortunate to attend the Year 8 camp and it was a terrific way to spend some time talking with these wonderful young people. I was suitably impressed with the ‘can-do’ attitude of the cohort and was proven wrong by many Year 8s who displayed amazing surfing skills. After losing the bet, I had to reward several with lunch at the canteen upon our return!

A reminder that the Swimming Carnival is on Friday 3^rd March - another great opportunity for students to make new friends, be active and support their house colours on the day – GO SAPPHIRE!!!

The VCE information evening on Wednesday was well attended with parents on-site and many online. Thank you to Mr Wallace and the senior school team for providing valuable information on what it takes to succeed in VCE. Please do not hesitate to contact the team if your child needs additional support.

Thank you to Ms Riquelme and her team for organising the parent/guardian Cyber Safety information evening on Thursday 23^rd February, and the follow up Cyber Safety event for students in the junior school. A very relevant topic and important component in helping navigate the myriad of issues our children will encounter in this modern world.

On 6^th March our local state member Ben Carroll MP and the Mayor of Moonee Valley, Pierce Tyson, will be visiting our college. They will be our guest speakers for our Year 10 cohort undertaking the current Civics program and will share some of their experiences, answer questions from students and explain the different levels of government in Australia and how they work.

I am pleased to report that our tutoring and extension programs are up and running this year and I thank parents for their support of these programs. Over the past three years the tutoring program has enabled us to differentiate more effectively in a secondary school. The program has shown benefits not only for our students but has provided valuable professional learning for our teachers and support staff to become better practitioners with their craft. We continue our Literacy work with Terri Campbell who, on Tuesday 7^th February, provided whole school professional learning on oral literacy and the link to critical thinking. She raised many different aspects of Accountable Talk, but one aspect that resonated with me was the notion that students need to actively participate in classroom discussion. The premise is that these discussions are based on knowledge and facts with links to explicit evidence to support claims made. This encourages thought and knowledge assimilation and helps to formulate relevant, viable and logical connections and conclusions. This is probably more relevant today than any other time in our history.

The college has also invested in the scaffolded numeracy program. We are targeting our Year 7 cohort with the support of our numeracy coach Rob Park. The trial last year showed significant improvement data across all student entry levels, we are excited to see how this program evolves this year.

School Council Election Results – Parent Representatives

Congratulations to the following parents who were elected to serve on School Council for the next two years:

• Andrew Barker
• Natalija Homatopoulos
• Lara Watson

We look forward to working with new and returning School Council members to achieve the best possible outcomes for our students.

Building Works Update

The inclusive school fund project is almost complete, and handover should be a few weeks away. We look forward to using this new space just outside the library as a learning area and as a passive recreational area for select students.

The new oval car park is progressing well, the kerb and channel has been laid with asphalt work due to commence in the next week. We hope to have the car park operational before the end of March which will resolve the parking issue for our staff but also provide a much safer environment for our students.

The new Year 7 locker bay is also complete, and this new space has removed significant congestion from the A wing classrooms. Even though there are still lockers in the A wing corridor, there is a plan to remove all lockers in the coming years once the new C wing building is complete.

In further good news the college has been successful in securing significant additional funds to complete the proposed works of A wing. This work will commence in 2024 and will allow the college to upgrade A wing, lift the roof, and modernise the classrooms.

I also take this opportunity to remind parents and guardians that mobile phones and air-pods are not permitted during school hours and if seen, they will be confiscated according to our policy. Thank you to our families who support us with this terrific DET initiative.

Finally, as many parents/guardians are aware, we have a school wide reading program which is a critical aspect of the success of our school. It is important that we promote the love of reading to our children. Discuss books or reading material with your children, encourage them to read a ‘real’ book, if possible, avoid reading online. Provide a nice quiet place for them to read and zone out. I was fortunate this summer to read several books, all of which I found thoroughly enjoyable. A sample of the books include American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith, and The White Girl by Australian Author Tony Burch (a very easy read) which tells a story about a strong independent first nations grandmother and her journey to protect her granddaughter while she is growing up in outback central Australia in the 1960s.

Arthur Soumalias

PRNCIPAL

Privacy Collection Notice

Information for students, parents and carers

The Department of Education (the department) values your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal and health information that schools collect.

All school staff must comply with Victorian privacy law and the Schools’ Privacy Policy. This notice explains how the department, including Victorian government schools (schools), handles personal and health information. On occasion, specific consent will be sought for the collection and use of information, for example, for a student to receive a health service. Our schools are also required by legislation, such as the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, to collect some of this information.

Throughout this notice, ‘staff’ includes principals, teachers, student support service officers, youth workers, social workers, nurses and any other allied health practitioners, and all other employees, contractors, volunteers and service providers of the school and the department.

On enrolment, and during the ordinary course of a student’s attendance at a school, schools will collect information about students and their families for the following purposes:

• educating students

• supporting students’ social and emotional wellbeing, and health

• fulfilling legal obligations, including duty of care, anti-discrimination law and occupational health and safety law

• communicating and engaging with parents

• student administration

• school management
• supporting policy in relation to student education and wellbeing.

If this information is not collected, schools may be unable to provide optimal education or support to students or fulfil legal obligations.

For example, our schools rely on parents to provide health information about any medical condition or disability that their child has, medication their child may take while at school, any known allergies and contact details of their child’s doctor. If parents do not provide all relevant health information, this may put their child’s health at risk.

Our schools also require current, relevant information about all parents and carers so that schools can take account of safety concerns that affect their children. Parents should provide schools with copies of all current parenting plans and court orders about or that affect their children and provide updated copies when they change.

When parents enrol their child in primary school, they will be asked to provide personal and health information in several ways, including via the Enrolment Form, the School Entrance Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) and the Early Childhood Intervention Service (ECIS) Transition Form.

The Enrolment Form is used to collect information that is essential for the purposes listed above, and requests information such as:

• Emergency contacts – Individuals parents nominate for a school to contact during an emergency. Parents should ensure that their nominated emergency contact agrees to their contact details being provided to the school and that they understand their details may be disclosed by the department if lawful, e.g. in the case of emergency communications relating to bush fires or floods.
• Student background information – Information about country of birth, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, language spoken at home and parent occupation. This information enables the department to allocate appropriate resources to schools. The department also uses this information to plan for future educational needs in Victoria and shares some information with the Commonwealth government to monitor, plan and allocate resources.
• Immunisation status – This assists schools to manage health risks and legal obligations. The department may also provide this information to the Department of Health and Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to assess immunisation rates in Victoria, but not in a way which identifies students.
• Visa status – This is required to process a student’s enrolment.

All schools may use departmental systems and online tools such as apps and other software to effectively collect and manage information about students and families for the purposes listed above.

When schools use these online tools, they take steps to ensure that student information is secure. If parents or carers have any concerns about the use of these online tools, please contact the school.

School staff will only share student and family information with other school staff who need to know to enable them to educate or support the student as described above. Information will only be shared outside the school (and outside the department) as required or authorised by law, including where sharing is required to meet duty of care, anti-discrimination, occupational health and safety, and child wellbeing and safety obligations. The information collected will not be disclosed beyond the school and department without parent consent unless such disclosure is lawful.

When a student transfers to another school (including Catholic, independent and interstate), personal and/or health information about that student may be transferred to the next school. Transferring this information is in the best interests of the student and assists the next school to provide the best possible education and support to the student. For further detail about how and what level of information is provided to the next school, refer to the: Enrolment: Student transfers between schools

Schools only provide school reports and ordinary school communications to students, parents, carers or others who have a legal right to that information. Requests for access to other student information or by others must be made by lodging a Freedom of Information (FOI) application.

To update student or family information, parents should contact their school.

For more information about how schools and the department collect and manage personal and health information, or how to access personal and health information held by a school about you or your child, refer to the: Schools’ Privacy Policy

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.

VCE VM YEAR11 are hosting the BBQ at Swimming Carnival held on Friday 3rd March.

Sizzling Sausages $2.50

Refreshing drinks $2.50

Onions $1 extra

Help support our programs by our fundraising!

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

If you have a current Health Care Card or Pension Card, you may be eligible for the Camps/Sport/Excursions Fund (CSEF) payment. This funding can be used towards excursions, camps and sporting activities that run throughout the year at Rosehill.

If you applied for CSEF in 2022, and are a current student, you do not need to complete an application form unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.

You will only need to submit a new application form in 2023 if any of the following changes occurred:

• New student enrolments
• Change in family circumstances

Schools can accept and process applications up until the end of term two each year. CSEF payments are made to schools from March onwards.

Application forms are available via the department’s website or at the general office.

Please complete and return this form to us along with a copy of your concession card.

Applications for 2023 will close in June 2023.

Levena Hayes

ACCOUNTS

STOPIT Service

STOPIT is a new Victoria Police text notification service enabling commuters, including school students, to report any form of inappropriate behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable, frightened or threatened on the public transport network.

How STOPIT works

The STOPIT service enables commuters to use their mobile phone to promptly, easily and discreetly report inappropriate behaviours.

To use the service, commuters simply text ‘STOPIT’ to 0499 455 455. This triggers an automated response that includes a link to where the commuter can provide more details about what’s just happened.

When people report these types of inappropriate behaviours, police can investigate and identify offenders to improve safety on public transport for everyone.

Parents and carers are encouraged to consider discussing the new service with students who travel on public transport. Students who use mobile phones outside of school hours are encouraged to save the STOPIT number in their mobile phone.

Please note, STOPIT is for reporting non-urgent incidents on public transport. Always phone 000 in an emergency.

For more information, refer to sexual and anti-social behaviour on public transport on the Victoria Police website.

A reminder to all students and parents that the Afterschool Tuition Program is currently running on Tuesday afternoons on a weekly basis from 3.30pm – 4.30pm in the college library and all students are welcome to attend. Individual assistance is provided to students in literacy and numeracy by teachers and highly academic senior students of Mathematics.

Come along on Tuesday afternoons to complete your class work, homework, and study, as benefits to be attained are numerous.

Ms De Goederen

ENGLISH TEACHER