I am happy to report that the transition back to on-site learning has been very pleasing. The majority of students have adapted and adjusted exceptionally well to being back in the classroom. Students have shown great maturity and patience when moving throughout the school and have been a welcome sight. It has been pleasing to see students talking, socialising, playing and sharing their remote learning experience with their friends and peers.

Last Tuesday morning we ran a Virtual School Assembly – The School Captains Riley Callick and Stephanie Page, together with two Year 11 Leaders Emily Baker and Ada Sengul, spoke exceptionally well to our students in Year 7-10 who viewed the link from their classroom. Native flowers were placed by Riley and Stephanie at the flagpole after the assembly acknowledging recent events in the US and across the globe. We stand as one at Rosehill against racism and discrimination.

Semester 1 Reports will be available after the Term 2 holidays this year. You will receive a Compass notification when uploaded.

Year 12 VCE students will be expected to undertake Unit 3 exams this year. These exams will run in week 1 of Term 3. There will not be any scheduled Year 12 classes during this time. These exams will provide an opportunity for our Year 12 students to consolidate their learning, and provide teachers with data required to ensure our students continue to learn effectively during the remote learning phase in Term 2. I anticipate an exam timetable to be published prior to the upcoming school holidays. A reminder that Year 9 – 11 exams are not running this semester.

On behalf of all staff and students at Rosehill, we would like to acknowledge our local technician for over 20 Years Nu Apiromkasem. His contribution and commitment to the College over a long period of time has been fundamental in ensuring the school was well equipped to move into the digital age. Nu finished with us on Tuesday 9th June. Since the late 1990’s Nu oversaw the introduction of 1:1 programs, our old student management system in RAM and our current system COMPASS. Nu also was responsible for our report package Accelerus for many years. He built and maintained our school wi-fi system and servers during this time and worked with many students and staff supporting them with their devices. Nu formed many strong friendships over the years and we all wish him the very best in his future endeavours.

We recently welcomed two new computer technicians to Rosehill, Matt and Bryton. Both started with us a few weeks ago during remote learning and are a welcome addition to the College. We hope that they too can forge a long and successful career at Rosehill.

The frame of the new building is now on-site. Delivery was completed on Wednesday 10th June. The building is much larger than what we had previously and the builders KLMS, anticipate it will be finished by September. We look forward to the final product.

A time delay video put together by Mr Copping can be viewed below.

https://youtu.be/qD_Pbb71bTw

Part of the $4.513 million provided by the labour state government and promised by our local member Ben Carroll, included an oval upgrade. A team of contractors were on-site on Thursday and inspected our oval prior to the works going to tender. The expected timeline for the oval upgrade to commence is during the Term 3 school holidays. I’ll keep you posted.

Finally, I want to once again highlight the benefits of reading, especially in a secondary school. With all the distractions of COVID -19 and remote learning I do not want to lose focus on the core business of school, Teaching and Learning. Last year I mentioned a seminar I attended by Author and reading expert Anne Bayetto, from Flinders University. She emphasised the skills required to, read for understanding in a secondary school can be significantly different to a primary setting, in particular when dealing with so many different and varied ‘specialist subject areas’. I reiterate the importance of having your child read for at least 20 minutes EVERY day and to consider both fiction and non- fiction text. The benefits are immense, not just during your child’s time at school but throughout their lifetime. I remind you again of the correlation between reading time and the number of words children are exposed to per year.

One minute of reading per day – 8000 words per year.
Five minutes per day – 280,000 words per year.
Twenty minutes per day – 1,800,000 words per year.

It’s never too late to start and please take the time to discuss the reading material with your children. If reading more than 500 words, an electronic version/device is not recommended, hard copies have been shown to provide greater retention and recall.

Our library is open and students are able to borrow. Make use of this wonderful resource. I have recently borrowed the book, Fatal Throne - the Wives of Henry VIII Tell All, and it depicts the trials and tribulations that his various wives endured throughout his reign as the King of England from 1509 – 1547. What’s your favourite book? A couple of mine are, To Kill a Mocking Bird and the fantasy fiction series, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.

Happy reading!

Arthur Soumalias

Principal

Fundraising

Rosehill Secondary College