As we approach the middle of Term 3, I am pleased to report that the past few weeks have been extremely positive with many exciting happenings at the College.

Kogakkan High School – Japanese Sister School

Last week we farewelled our Japanese guests from Kogakkan High School. I acknowledge and thank our staff, students and host families who supported this program. They helped make a memorable experience for Kogakkan High school students and staff. Well done to Ms Alexandra Kavanagh who was instrumental in coordinating the successful program during their 10-day stay.

The Pink Room – School Production

Last week I attended the school production, The Pink Room. I am sure all who attended would agree that it was full of terrific performances and full of colour and energy. The money collected was for such a worthy cause, The Cancer Council. Well done to all our student performers, Ms Bonett, Ms Wasif and all the staff who assisted during, prior and after the event.

Course Counselling

Our planning for 2026 is well underway. All students from Years 9 to 11 have been afforded the opportunity to select subjects for next year through 1:1 course counselling. This is a comprehensive undertaking as we believe that providing a tailored curriculum, and subject offering, allows for the best possible student outcomes.

The next phase will be subject selection for our current Year 7 and 8 students over the next two weeks. This entire process is complex, and subject offerings are based on student choice and staffing availability. Please be mindful that first choices are not always feasible as some subjects are extremely popular and exceed capacity, whilst some may not attract enough interest to run. The timetabling team will communicate directly with students and families if back up choices are not available.

The new Grade 6 students starting Year 7 in 2026 will select their subjects by late August. We will once again have approximately 200 new students joining us. The demand for enrolment into Rosehill at Year 7 for 2026 has been significant and we have done our best to accommodate as many families as possible within the DOE guidelines.

Professional Practice Day

A reminder to families that staff have their annual Professional Practice Day (PPD) on Friday, 22^nd August. This is a pupil free day.

Bendigo Bank

Bendigo Bank has been a long-time sponsor of our college, with our Awards night celebrations. This association has been ongoing for many years, and it is highly valued by our school community.

We thank Bendigo Community Bank Airport West for awarding the College a grant of $8,500 from the Community Enterprise Foundation with the support of John Sipek.

The grant has assisted with the purchase two new 3-D printers, each with a value of approximately $2,500 and a new split system air conditioner valued at approximately $3,500

The college has recently repurposed a new space for our neurodiverse students, it's an Inclusive Hub with constant staff support and a range of resources. Many are highly capable academically and this technology enables their designs to be refined and enhanced relatively quickly throughout the day and better encourage them to pursue STEM based subjects.

This room was also in need of a split system air conditioner/heater as the evaporative unit was ineffective making the room very uncomfortable on days of extreme weather.

The grant has significantly supported our STEM and Technology teaching and learning for many of our neurodiverse children and encouraged them to better access subjects that they traditionally avoid, whilst having a comfortable space, in the Inclusive Hub, to work in will produce positive learning outcomes for all our students.

Acting Principal to end of Term 3

I take this opportunity to notify our community that Frances Snow will be the Acting Principal until the end of this term and Ann Anderson will be an Acting Assistant Principal replacing Ms Snow while I take some long service leave.

Finally, I have had a chance to read a couple of novels of late, and plan to do some additional reading during my leave. I recently finished the novel by Donna Tartt – The Secret History, and plan to read the true story of Sister Bullwinkle by Lynette Silver, and a current text for VCE, The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. What are you reading? Please encourage your children to read every day. The benefits are significant, and it hopefully helps keep them away from their devices.

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.

Congratulations to our year 7 boys AFL team on becoming the Western Metropolitan Sports Region Runners Up!!!

This is an amazing achievement, something that Rosehill Secondary College has not done in a very long time. Congratulations to Maribyrnong College on becoming the region champions by kicking a goal after the siren. It was a very emotional afternoon, knowing that the team was one kick away from being the region champions.

The boys worked so hard to get this stage and we are so incredibly proud of them. In such a short time together, the boys have demonstrated so much passion and support for each other. You would think that they have been a team for years. In the first two rounds of footy the boys demonstrated excellent team play by winning 7 games with ease.

Every student on the field played their role to perfection and it showed in their dominant outcome of each win leading into the regional final. Already the team is looking at putting plans in place to hopefully go that one step further and become the region champions next year.

Thank you for all the support from the parents, it was fantastic to see you come to Werribee to cheer the boys on. I know how much that meant to the team to see the support that they had.

I cannot comment enough on how well these group of boys represented our school, not just by their amazing talent on the footy field, but by how respectful they were to each school and official through every round of this tournament.

We also thank the principal staff, who provided lunch for the team on August 13th as a gesture of appreciation. Their ongoing support reflects how proud the entire school community is of these young athletes—not just for their talent on the field, but for the respect, integrity, and teamwork they’ve shown throughout this journey.

Once again, congratulations to our Year 7 boys. You’ve made Rosehill Secondary College proud!

Mitchell Waugh

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH TEACHER

Over the last 15 years, the Alfred Hospital has presented their PARTY (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth) program to over 5000 students across Victoria. Each year, over 200 schools compete for the opportunity to participate, and this year our school was one of the lucky 16 schools chosen to attend.

The Alfred Hospital is one of Australia’s busiest emergency and trauma centres, treating over 8000 trauma patients each year. Trauma is the leading cause of preventable death, injury and disability in 15–25-year-olds. The most common causes of trauma being road accidents, assaults, falls (workplace accidents) and distractions. Drugs and alcohol are also involved in some form or another. With this in mind, the Party Program aims to target secondary school students and provide insight into the consequences of traumatic injury.

Emergency Department Nurse Sue, along with her team of medical staff and dedicated volunteers run a valuable educational program at The Alfred Hospital. Students hear, see, and experience first-hand what happens to a trauma patient. During the excursion we toured the Emergency Department, the Intensive Care Unit, rehabilitation centres and finally the wards.

It was in the wards where we met Olivia* a young mother of two children aged 6 months and 6 years who were all left with critical injuries and multiple broken bones when their car was hit by another car near their home. Olivia told the students that while she was airlifted to The Alfred, her children were taken to the Royal Children’s Hospital. She felt hopeless as she waited for news while her mother rushed to be with her and her husband went to be with their children. We heard how Olivia now faces a long road to recovery, separated from her children, with her mother keeping her company during the long days in bed.

We also met Oscar who at 21 years of age got into his car intoxicated and sped off at 140 kilometres an hour in a 60 zone. He lost control of his vehicle and hit a pole. Over the following two years, Oscar endured 23 operations and ultimately lost his leg.

We learnt that surviving trauma could lead to devastating outcomes. At times, the experience was very raw for both staff and students - but that is the aim of the program. Students were left in no doubt that risk-taking behaviour can lead to death and or permanent disability. They learnt that the consequences of our decisions may not only affect ourselves, but others as well. Sometimes a wrong choice can forever change the lives of innocent people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There was total silence as our guides led us into the “Bad News Room” in the Emergency Department. It is best described as a sterile space with white walls, grey carpet and little furniture overlooking the calming gardens outside the Alfred Hospital. This is the room you do not ever want to be in, for here they tell you that your loved one has a brain injury that is irreversible and will need lifetime care or even worse that their injuries were too severe and nothing could be done. Either way, the outcome for the family is devastating. This is the room where we never want to encounter any nurse or doctor.

It was made painfully clear that we are not invincible.

*Name has been changed.

Vicki Handris

VM COORDINATOR

During my class with the Japanese students, we began by playing some fun games with them, and then we had the opportunity to interview them. I asked them questions about their school life and general lifestyle. It was really interesting to learn about that, and one thing that stood out to me was that many of them attended cram school but didn’t study much outside of it, which is very different to Australia. I also found out that I had a lot of hobbies in common with the Japanese students. It was a little challenging to communicate with them well since my speaking and listening skills in Japanese aren’t great, but we were able to make it work. Overall, it was really fun and I’m glad they came!

Ezra Mckeown

YEAR 11 STUDENT

In class, we got the chance to interview Japanese exchange students using questions we had prepared. It was a little scary at first, but it ended up being really fun and inspiring. We talked about where we’re from, our favourite foods, hobbies, and more. It was interesting that we shared interests like sports, music, and how tough, but rewarding it is to learn a new language. Even if we didn’t understand every word, the whole experience was definitely worth it.

Athens Abasolo

YEAR 10 STUDENT

During one of our Japanese lessons, we were visited by the Japanese exchange students and were lucky enough to be able to speak to them. We were able to talk to new people and understand what their experiences were like such as their school life and daily routines and see how it's different or similar to our own experiences. It was also great to be able to utilise and practice our Japanese skills in everyday conversations. I had such an amazing time talking to everyone, I found the experience helpful and I was also able to make many new friends as well!

Locy Lam

YEAR 10 STUDENT

Our lesson consisted of each table group going around and asking different questions to the exchange students, such as what their favourite colour is, what they like about Japan and the difference between school life in Japan and Australia. I personally really enjoyed the class as they all had different experiences and opinions so it was really interesting to make conversation with them since we could agree on a lot of things like. Interesting information I discovered was that they all said they would come back to live in Australia if they got another chance to live internationally. Our conversations flowed well with barely any challenges as they were also trying their best to communicate in a bit of English so everyone could understand and participate in the interview.

Chihiro Fujio

YEAR 10 STUDENT

From Monday 28th July to Thursday 31st July, 40 excited students and 5 enthusiastic staff members hit the slopes of Mt Buller for our annual ski camp. For many, this was their very first time on the mountain — and what a week it was!

Over the four days, students embraced lessons in skiing and snowboarding, conquered runs big and small, and built their confidence on the snow. There were plenty of tumbles, plenty of laughs, and one particularly adventurous snowboard that made a daring escape down the mountain — only to be victoriously returned to the grateful rental shop.

Evenings were just as memorable as the days on the slopes. We gathered around the fire, toasting marshmallows until they were perfectly gooey, swapping stories, and laughing together. Afterwards, the group enjoyed board games and cards until lights out — the perfect way to wind down after a big day in the snow.

Wednesday night saw the group head to the iconic Bourke Street run for some magical evening skiing under the lights. With the mountain glowing and snowflakes falling, it was a truly unforgettable moment for students and staff alike.

A huge thank you to our amazing staff team for their energy, encouragement, and patience, and to our students for their enthusiasm and resilience. Whether they were seasoned skiers or complete beginners, everyone left with new skills, new friends, sore muscles and some incredible memories.

Until next year — keep the snow spirit alive!

Leesa Wilson

ACTING YEAR 12 COORDINATOR

Dear Parents, Guardians, and Families,

We’re thrilled to invite you to this year’s Presentation Ball/Formal — a special night where our students will showcase the dances and skills they’ve been working hard on, celebrate their achievements, and enjoy a memorable evening with family and friends.

The night will include a delicious three-course meal as we cheer on our students and share in their moment to shine. Your support in the audience will make the evening even more special — every cheer, and round of applause will mean the world to them.

Event Details:
📅 12 September 2025
🕒 7pm – 11:30pm
📍 Melrose Events

Year 11 students are to book their tickets via the Compass post.

Parents and guests to secure your tickets, please visit https://www.trybooking.com/DBJOL or use the QR code provided in this post.

Bookings close on Monday, 1 September 2025.

Let’s make it a night full of laughter and celebration. We can’t wait to see you there!

Fiona Morabito, Daniel Wallace and John Tetradis

SENIOR SCHOOL LEADER AND YEAR 11 TEAM

The 2025 School Aquila is now available for pre-purchase.

Don't miss your chance to secure a copy of the 2025 school magazine, which will be distributed to families in December 2025. Get ready for a sneak peek into the year's highlights and achievements, with every student featured!

If you wish to purchase the School Magazine, please accept the invitation on Compass and process your payment.

Please note if the event says ' Attending ' in Green, the school magazine has been paid for and you will not be able to process a payment.

Ms Wasif

SCHOOL MAGAZINE COORDINATOR

On Friday, 8th of August, our school came alive with colour, music, and flavour as we celebrated Multicultural Day. The event was organised and led by the Global Student Voice Leaders and the Year 11 Student Leaders, who worked collaboratively to create a vibrant celebration for the entire school community.

Multicultural Day is an opportunity to recognise and honour the rich diversity that makes our school so special. It’s a time to share traditions, learn from one another, and appreciate the many cultures that shape our everyday lives.

The day featured a range of activities and experiences, like cultural dances that showcased traditional music and movement from around the world. Students and staff proudly wore cultural outfits, representing their heritage through colourful fabrics, unique patterns, and meaningful designs.

One of the highlights of the day was the food stalls, where everyone could enjoy delicious desserts from across the globe. From sweet pastries to traditional treats, each bite was a journey to a different part of the world.

Events like these remind us that our differences are something to be celebrated. They enrich our school community, encourage understanding, and bring us closer together.

Thank you to everyone who dressed up, shared their culture, and most importantly, embraced the spirit of the day. Together, we’ve shown that multiculturalism isn’t just something we talk about; it’s something we live every single day.

We also thank the Year 11 Student Leaders and Global Voice Leaders for their hard work and dedication in making this day such a success.

Alexandra Homatopoulos

YEAR 11 STUDENT

Opportunity to attend a free webinar: “Adolescence – Netflix vs Reality”

What you’ll gain:

• Certificate of completion which may be used to demonstrate professional development.
• Actionable strategies to promote mental wellbeing.
• Insights into addressing key challenges facing young people.
• Opportunities to engage with experts in the field.

Click on this link to register:

https://www.generationnext.com.au/webcasthome/?utm_source=newsletter

Lena Husdon

Assistant Principal

Students, parents, and teachers are all welcome to participate in a very important enhancement program of our college throughout 2025.

When: Wednesdays, 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Where: A3

This whole-school tuition program provides students with consistent academic support every Wednesday afternoon, ensuring they receive the assistance needed to complete their homework and classwork effectively.

Proven to be highly successful, this enhancement and enrichment initiative supports students of all year levels in strengthening their literacy and numeracy skills while refining their study techniques in preparation for assessments and exams.

This program is easily accessible to students, has no cost incurred, and is effective in improving study skills, results, and the confidence in students to work independently.

We encourage all students to take advantage of this valuable opportunity to develop their skills and achieve their best!

For further information regarding this enhancement program please contact Ms Sharma on 9337 2488 or email: meena.sharma@education.vic.gov.au

Term 3 is in full swing, and the early signs of spring are starting to emerge.

Valley Youth have been busy planning workshops and events for young people in Moonee Valley, and we’re excited to reveal the first of many exciting offerings for Youth Month in September: Wicked Scented Singalong!

Our Avenue Productions Committee has been working with Scented Storytelling to deliver an immersive experience for young people in Moonee Valley. Click on the link below and keep reading to find out more!

Valley Youth Newsletter

Valley Youth Newsletter July 2025

Kerry McKay

WELLBEING & DI TEAM