Alpine School Term 1 2020

The School for Student Leadership is a Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) initiative offering a unique residential education experience for year nine students. The curriculum focuses on personal development and team learning projects sourced from students' home regions. There are three campuses in iconic locations across Victoria. The Alpine School Campus is located at Dinner Plain in the Victorian Alps.

In Term 1 we had 6 Year 9 students attend the Alpine School: Mark Tubon, Olivia Burke, Rachael Banfield, Olivia Bernardi, Abyan El-Leissy-Soto, Roy Sarnecki. The Rosehill Secondary College is very proud of each student. They all embraced the challenge and received glowing reports. The following is reflections from the students who participated in the program:

At the Alpine School for Student Leadership, I have learnt many things and have improved myself in many ways. This has been a time cherished and will be a time I shall remember for the rest of my life. This school has been great fun, a great learning experience and a great opportunity for me and others. I have made many friends here and am saddened to know that they are now in the past, and although I have missed my family and friends greatly, I know that it was worth learning more about myself, my mind and even more about others. This school has given me the time to see from the perspective of others and to see from a different side of nearly everything, not only that but I have learnt more about myself and my own passions, that I have continued at home. It has also given me great excitement and gratitude to know that this school has allowed me to help the community and others in need with our Community Learning Project. It has also given me a better perspective of what is possible and my role of helping others. This school has helped me become more open-minded and I hope I can continue being so to help me be the best I can be.

Abyan El Leissy Soto

Year 9 Student

Hi, I’m Olivia Bernardi and I attended the Alpine for Student Leadership Program in Term One 2020. Sadly, the alpine school was supposed to last 8 weeks but was shortened because of the bush fires earlier this year and got shortened again because of COVID-19 - so we ended up with 4 weeks instead. Even with the shortened program, I had an amazing time up in the Alpines. In the program, we took part in a range of leadership activities like community service and teamwork games as well as classes on how to become a better leader. The school has a project we worked on throughout the term called CLP. This is our community learning project - it is a project we do to help the community when we get back home. The alpine school is a once in a lifetime experience. I made many amazing memories and friendships and when I had to come home I just wished I had more time there. I recommend to anyone who has the chance to be in the program to take the opportunity to do it.

Olivia Bernardi

Year 9 Student

My four weeks at the Alpine School for Student Leadership was one of the best experiences of my life. Our stay was cut short due to the devastating bushfire crisis earlier this year, and then again at the end due to the world-wide pandemic. I’ve made so many amazing friends and gained so much; leadership skills, confidence, a healthier mindset, and more. The friendships I have made have been great and strong bonds will last a very long time. We shared lots of laughs, tears, stories, secrets and created many amazing memories. We became one huge family of 45. Everyone was incredibly close by the end. We all learned new things from each other, whether it be homework tactics or cool new songs. We spent so much time in the outdoors; hiking, camping, bush dancing, campfires, making music, playing sport, bridge building, mountain biking – just having fun. We were constantly laughing at something, sometimes nothing. A lot of the SSL was very physical and hands-on, but mentally challenging and rewarding. Of all the things I have learnt at my time there, I hope to keep applying throughout my school and personal life. This is an opportunity I would recommend to anybody who gets the chance.

Olivia Burke

Year 9 Student

The Alpine School (TAS) was an amazing experience that changed the way that I approached different situations, as well as learning more about myself. The classes at TAS were very enjoyable but at the same time they taught you lessons that you didn’t know that you needed to know. The lessons ranged from Metacognition to other things such as Cultural diversity. TAS has also taught me many good habits. Simple things like washing my hands properly and covering up my sneezes or coughs with my elbows. TAS has also taught me team skills such as communication with my teammates, conflict resolution, decision making, organisation and what it means to be reliable to the people that you are working with. I would recommend TAS not only for the life lessons that you learn but also for the experiences and memories that you bring back. I forged strong bonds with the TAS community of Term 1 2020. I also made many memories that I won't be able to forget. One of my greatest memories was going on our second Expo. An expo is when we go camping. Sadly, because our term was shortened our Expo’s were also shortened. Despite that, spending time in an unknown environment with people who I had strong bonds with was extremely enjoyable. We hiked through the bush, up and down a mountain and even camped in the rain. Also, sadly, our time at TAS was cut short even if only by 4 days. The last thing that TAS has taught me is that you should ALWAYS cherish time. One of my favourite quotes from TAS was, “An inch of time can buy an inch of gold, but an inch of gold can’t buy an inch of time.” If you want to have fun and learn more about yourself then I would highly recommend TAS. It’s not as scary as I thought it would be. You craft memories and bonds with the community that gets built. In the end it’s up to the person and choice that they make.

Mark Tubon

Year 9 Student

My time at the Alpine School for Student Leadership was a once in a lifetime experience. I truly had an awesome time and learnt so much on becoming a true leader for our community.

Roy Sarneki

Year 9 Student

What felt like yesterday, the experience of a lifetime began. I walked into the school for student leadership campus knowing only the people from my school, and here I am now after attending this school for 4 weeks with many great friends and memories to cherish for a lifetime. It took me a few days to adjust to this new way of living and for everyone to learn to get along, but here we are, feeling like we’re siblings and have such a close bond with each person. I loved my time at the Alpine School and wish that I could get back the time that we missed from the fires at the beginning and the Covid-19 crisis at the end causing it to get cut short. The time that we lost made us all upset but bought us closer. Knowing that we all had to go through the same thing made it a little easier. The things that I’ve learnt at The Alpine School are seriously unforgettable, words will never be able to describe how amazing it was. You really need to attend The Alpine School to experience how amazing it was. Every time something went wrong, it just makes the result even better. Going to a school where you are thrown into new situations at first is scary, but they soon become easy to adapt to and prepare you for the future. At first, we all needed guidance from the staff and help from each other, but soon en

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