Eleni Stathatos

The School Council President, Sharon Rogers, provided a document from the Department of Education entitled ‘Top Ten Practical Tips for School Council’ and the folder, ‘Improving School Governance,’ to ensure that council members are aware of the governance processes and the opportunities to attend training sessions.

There have been a number of meetings with Basketball Victoria and Ringwood Hawks and the College to discuss a basketball facility at the College. Further action is being pursued by the principal and Adam Bryant in order to ascertain a commitment in this area.

The Work Futures Expo on Wednesday 19th of June 5-9 pm is being held in the Junior School and College Hall.

The Principal’s report captures many of the activities that have occurred early this term. NAPLAN is progressing well in an online forum. Mt Gambier performances have been terrific with some outstanding achievements. The Athletics sports were held on a beautiful day and the House System is contributing to the wonderful carnival atmosphere. We are looking to go to tender for the next building project and the worksite in preparation will have to be managed carefully. We have been shortlisted as finalists for the Resource Smart Schools. The World Tour was successful with students putting on 21 performances. On this tour, the College travelled to Bandung Indonesia to visit our sister school. Michael Phillips showed council a video from the student experience in France which highlights the amazing opportunities the students had.

Mitch Hart reported the Athletics carnival went very well and said that there were many activities apart from athletics that were run to engage students. Year 11 and 12 students were spoken to by Sonia Karras, a speaker who inspires students. There are a couple of student led fundraising days coming up to support charities.

From the Policy and Education Committee, the Attendance Policy and the Yard Duty Policy were updated along with the VRQA requirements. The Policy and Education Committee is looking for new members to join the committee.

From the Facilities Committee a lot of work has been done around the school to update various facilities. The newly developed maintenance plan provides the College with a direction to steer funds over the next five years.

Ringwood Training facility numbers are at capacity in the three areas the training centre delivers in. This is an endorsement of the high quality programs we offer. Discussions with the Department of Education and training are happening about future funding possibilities.

Athletics

Congratulations to all involved in the organisation and participation of the Athletics carnival on Monday May 13th. The day was filled with sportsmanship, competitiveness and fun. It was a great way to start the week.

Education week

The link to the activities from the Department of Education and Training is here

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/events/Pages/edweek.aspx?Redirect=1

The Education week theme in 2019 is ‘Celebrating Careers.’ Our students and staff will have the opportunity to take part in the activities listed below as part of the week. This is on top of the wonderful support our Careers advisors provide to our students on a daily basis, assisting our college programs.

Tuesday lunch Helen Doherty will be running a Careers Interest Test session – Open to all students Years 7 – 12 – Library

Wednesday lunch Stacey Miriklis will be running an Alternatives to VCE Information Session – Open to all Year 10 students, Compass event created with pre-identified students invited – RT Presentation Space

Thursday lunch a session for Auto/Engineering in the RT is being run – Open to all Year 9 students, possibly Year 10 students – RT

A display for Careers Education has been created in the Library foyer

Bullseye Charts will be given to Heads of Learning to promote careers across the faculties

Careers Education images to be displayed throughout the College via display screens

Careers Education information will be published in the newsletter & on Compass newsfeed with helpful links for students and parents

The 1:1 Careers counselling sessions that are currently occurring and happen throughout the year include: the Careers Discovery Day for Year 9 students, the Careers Education lessons being delivered throughout Bounce, the Future Self 7-week unit for Year 9 students, the Morrisby Testing occurring in Term 3 for all Year 9 students, the Civics and Citizenship lessons on Careers for Year 8 students, the Work Experience program, the external presenters for Year 12 students, the VTAC information sessions and more!

In addition, the Heritage and Alumni Committee is gearing up for a magnificent display of career pathways with the Futures Work Expo which will take place on Wednesday 19th June at the College from 5pm onwards.

Staff Professional Learning

A magnificent resource on our doorstep is the Eastern Regional Library and the Digital Technology team from REALM will provide a professional learning session to our staff next week from 3.30pm- 4.30pm.

Parent Teacher Citizens Association

With the retirement of a number of members, the PCTA is looking for interested and enthusiastic parents who would like to be part of the committee. The PCTA organises the Debutante Ball, the Staff Thank you morning tea during Education week and is supporting the REALM initiative. The next meeting is on June 4th. If you are interested in joining the committee, please contact the College.

Eleni Stathatos

Assistant Principal

Maria Allison

House Athletics

A beautiful sunny day on Monday, allowed for the enthusiastic collaboration of our RSC community for our annual Athletic Sports. I would like to extend my thanks to Roi Boutsikakis and Kristy Usher for organising the whole day; to our supportive staff and our Pre-Service Teachers for ensuring a well-run day and lastly to our students for their enthusiasm, active participation and leadership.

As a member of Freeman House, I was very excited to have us as the winning house.

Go Freeman!

House Activities

Each term House activities have been organised into the allocated ‘Bounce’ time with the primary aim to create a sense of inclusion for all our students. I have witnessed many great activities that display, energy, fun and collaboration and I would like to thank Karly Horton who oversees the organisation and event planning with our student leaders.

There are many co-curricular events and activities available to our students, other than House events, to extend their breadth of learning. It is a timely reminder for students, that it is never too late to join a sporting team, help out with fundraising activities or involve yourself in a positive activity!

Parent Groups

I would particularly like to thank our parent groups such as the Music Association, PCTA, and our Heritage team, to name a few, who work tirelessly for our College. Their energy, commitment and enthusiasm provide wonderful opportunities for our students and I would encourage more families to become involved in College events.

Perseverance: this week’s wellbeing focus

The question: Why do some people succeed and others fail is often asked and is one to ponder?

Perseverance is not giving up. It is persistence and tenacity, the effort required to do something and keep doing it till the end, even if it's hard. Perseverance originally comes from the Latin perseverantia and means to abide by something strictly.

Other words such as persistence, tenacity, determination, resolve, resolution, resoluteness, purposefulness describe perseverance.

Angela Duckworth recently released a great book called Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance that explains her theory of "grit" as a predictor of success. She discusses how perseverance and passion matter as much as talent and intelligence and that true success comes when we devote ourselves to endeavours that give us joy and purpose.

Grit, the combination of passion and perseverance for a singularly important goal—is the hallmark of high achievers in every domain. By cultivating a growth mindset (a belief that our talent and abilities can be improved with practice), it allows us to talk to ourselves more optimistically (by challenging the reasons for setbacks or failures as neither permanent or pervasive) so we can persevere.

Ask yourself, when you’re faced with setbacks, disappointments or plateaus in your progress, what are the stories you tell yourself? For personal growth, I encourage you to contemplate how you may face adversity and how you may be kind to yourself in challenging life situations.

I have included some tips from parent zone that could be used to support your children, family and friends.

www.parenttoolkit.com/news/perseverance-and-grit-can-be-taught

Regularly encourage children to try new things. You may also want to try something new with your child, like roller-skating or a new arcade or video game. No one is perfect at anything when they start, and this is a great way to show your child that falling down or not winning isn’t the end of the world.
Adjust the degree of perseverance needed. If children need a small challenge, present one related to activities they already have ability in. If they need a bigger challenge, take them out of their prior-experience comfort zone.
Share some instances when you’ve needed perseverance and grit to accomplish a difficult task. We don’t often talk about our earlier failures, so children sometimes think that adult successes all come with ease.
Be overt. Tell them that they are working on perseverance skills and let them know that struggle and failure are likely. Knowing that they are meant to struggle makes it much easier to deal with.

How can you fall down seven times, and stand up eight?

Grit is the key element! So, if you are interested, you may wish to undertake a ‘Grit’ survey that measures the character strength of perseverance.

https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/user/login?destination=node/465

https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/learn/grit

http://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/

www.parenttoolkit.com/news/perseverance-and-grit-can-be-taught

Maria Allison

Assistant Principal

Kyle Simkin

As we near the halfway point of the term, it is amazing to think about the many fantastic learning experiences our students have already been involved in this term.

In early May nearly 100 school students travelled with the stage bands, choir, jazz combo and vocal ensemble to the Mt Gambier Generations in Jazz Festival. Thank you to Mr. Sorenson, Ms. Nicholls, Mr. Bonnett, Mr. Jaques, Ms. Sedergreen, Mr. Lucas-Evans and Ms. Kenna who not only accompanied them on the trip, but also spent countless hours preparing students for the festival.

Another highlight has been student participation in the school sport program and in particular the Athletics day held this week. The weather was very kind to us and it was great to see so many fantastic achievements on the track and in the field. The day also included a number of novelty and performing arts focussed activities which were enjoyed by many students. Congratulations to Freeman for winning the house competition on the day. A very big thanks to Ms. Boutsikakis and Ms. Usher for their superb organisation; capably assisted by our amazing staff throughout the day.

This week has seen our Year 7 and 9 students commence their NAPLAN testing in Writing and Reading, with Language Conventions and Numeracy to follow next week. Results will be available to families in late August and we hope that the results will show students and their families the progress they have made over the past two years.

Year 8 students Rel8 Wellbeing days are being conducted this week with students focussing on building healthy relationships at sessions conducted at EV’s Youth Centre in Croydon. The day includes guest presenters, discussions and a mini boot camp run be a personal trainer.

Many Year 11 students have been busy attending excursions which aim to enhance the learning that has been occurring within the classroom by visiting organisations, businesses and locations which allow them to witness and, in some cases, use their knowledge in a real-world setting. Recent excursions have included visits to Healesville Sanctuary, the Holocaust Museum, the Supreme and County Courts and the Mercy Hospital. I hope students have enjoyed the opportunity to venture into new settings in the community. Year 11’s also completed a whole day session last week looking at developing study skills, which also included an extremely engaging presentation from Sonia Karras which focussed on safe partying and the responsible use of social media.

Year 10 and 11 Exams

Year 11 exams commence on Monday 3rd of June and students’ exam times should appear on their Compass schedule shortly. Year 10 exams commence a week later, on Tuesday 11th of June. Students are encouraged to start their revision program early in order to develop their skills in preparing for exams, which will assist them as they progress into VCE study.

Students are only required to attend school when they have a scheduled exam, which will all appear on students’ schedules on Compass. When not attending an exam, students should be using their time to revise and prepare for their remaining assessments.

Year 10 Work Experience

Thanks to the effort of the work experience coordinator Ms. Hetherington, the careers and middle school teams and the parents and students of Year 10, over 100 of our students have already secured a work experience placement. Students will complete this placement during Weeks 9 and/or 10 of this term, depending on whether they are attending the Central Australia trip. However, this means there are still a lot of Year 10 students who need to organise a placement and submit their paperwork. Work Experience will come around quickly, so please encourage your Year 10 child to get this placement organised. Work experience is a great opportunity for students to get a first hand insight into a career they may like to pursue after completing school. Hopefully, many students’ experiences will foster existing passions or ignite new ones, whilst also giving them a glimpse into the realities of the working week.

RSC News

Issue 5 · 17 May 2019

In this issue