Term 3, Week 3, Newsletter - Thursday 10 August 2017

Written on the 10 August 2017 by Rostrevor College

From the Principal

Mr Damian Messer
Principal

Further to my communication to you yesterday, EREA have begun their process for the appointment of Rostrevor College Principal 2018 and an announcement should be received by our community in the coming weeks.  I look forward to working closely with the new Principal for the remainder of 2017 to provide a smooth transition into next year. 

Intercol

It was a pleasure to be involved in our annual Intercollegiate competition over the weekend.  The behaviour and sportsmanship of our young men was exemplary and I would like to thoroughly thank them for the way in which they engaged in their interactions with Sacred Heart College.  The competition across the board was extremely close and, again, provided a wonderful example of how the Rostrevor community supports each other. 

Assembly

Last Friday our Year 5 to 12 students gathered for an assembly in Purton Hall.  This assembly was a great example of how the Three Pillars at Rostrevor continue to be the focus of all we do.  The information and presentations that the young men provided were outstanding and gave all present a wonderful picture of what has been achieved over the past Semester.  In my address to the young men, I encouraged them to continue to focus on the Three Pillars but to pay particular attention to their academic endeavours by reviewing their report and setting appropriate and achievable goals for themselves during the remainder of our academic year. 

Our Junior Years boys will gather on Tuesday morning when we will present our academic awards for Semester 1.  This will serve as a wonderful start to our Marian Day celebrations. 

Marian Day

On Tuesday, we celebrate Marian Day with our annual Mass and Walkathon.  All Parents and Caregivers are warmly invited to attend the Mass in Purton Hall at 11am followed by some light refreshments in the Gold Room of Rostrevor House.  Being a Catholic School, it is a wonderful chance for us to come together to celebrate Mass on a holy day of obligation and to continue the Christian Brothers' passionate devotion to Mary.  I also take this opportunity to acknowledge our first Australian Saint, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, whose anniversary we celebrated earlier in the week. 

Parents & Friends (P&F)

As a community, we are very fortunate to have an extremely dedicated group of Parents & Friends who came together earlier this week to continue preparations for the Twilight Fair on Friday 3rd November 2017.  I encourage all parents and friends of the College to support this event.  More details about how you can provide that support will be published in our Newsletter in weeks to come.  On Friday night, the P&F will gather at the Appreciation Drinks co-hosted with the Rostrevor College Foundation, to say thank you to everyone that has supported them through 2017 so far.

IN CLOSING

Although it is early in Term 3, the year seems to be racing by at a rapid pace.  Our Year 12s have a short time left and they are certainly showing signs of that limited time.  We have much to achieve during the remainder of this year and I ask for your continued support of your son and how we can work together with staff to ensure a smooth second half of 2017.

Yours in Edmund
Damian Messer
Principal

From Leadership

Mr Frank Ranaldo
Deputy Principal

Balaklava Eisteddfod

One of the many great offerings at Rostrevor is our Music Program. Our boys recently achieved outstanding results at the Balaklava Eisteddfod. Congratulations to the Middle Years Rock Band, placed first in the Intermediate Rock Band Section and the Senior Years Rock Band placed second in the Senior Rock Band Section. Congratulations to all of our bands who participated.

Much time and effort is invested in order to be successful in any field and our music students and teachers are no different - an extraordinary amount of after-hours time is spent rehearsing. We congratulate Marnie Tiggemann, Music Programs Coordinator, and all of our wonderful Music staff for their continued dedication.

Principal's Assembly

Most of our major assemblies have a theme but our Principal's Assemblies often include quite a diverse range of items, as was the case last Friday morning. This is not unusual when you consider the many and varied opportunities offered at Rostrevor and therefore the nature of the reports shared with the community.

Our Semester One Palma Merenti Award winners were presented with certificates; there was a significant increase in the number of Middle and Senior Years award winners compared to the previous term. Recipients are:

We also took the opportunity to congratulate students who will receive either a Principal's Award for academic achievement or Christian Brother Award for outstanding effort at the respective House Assemblies. 

Owen Selby and Jackson Sutcliffe presented a report on the Darwin Music Tour and Sam Hearn a report on the Ski Trip. It is always heartening to hear of the many positive learning experiences attained by our boys when they participate in such activities.  

Cyril Saji spoke so eloquently and passionately about the Service Learning experience he participated in at the end of last term and students who exceeded the required 50 hours of Service Learning as part of the Year 11 Religion Studies Program were presented with special Service Learning badges in acknowledgement:

• Thomas Basso, for service to Adelaide's Christian Community Radio Station, Life FM, Arch D Radio and voluntary media assistance with the Adelaide Adrenaline Ice Hockey Club.
• Adam Feder, for service to the Men's Shed in his hometown of Kaniva and Rostrevor College.
• Fabian Vassallo, for service to the residents and staff at BUPA Aged Care -  Campbelltown, Special Olympics, Social Justice and Build the Bridge 'Friday Night Hangout' initiatives.

Mr Joel Phillips spoke briefly about the ICAS Digital Technology Competition and announced certificate recipients. This competition assesses ICT skills drawn from a range of curriculum areas, focussing on a variety of computing contexts, including: common operating systems and hardware, graphics and multimedia, programming and scripting, spreadsheets and databases and more. The following students were presented with certificates:

• Year 7:  Ishaan Oak (Distinction); Cameron Tunno (High Distinction)
• Year 10:  Archer Newton (Distinction); Jake Tatarelli (High Distinction)

Year 11 students who participated in the 2016 Indian Pilgrimage were presented with a Mithra Badge, promised to us by Helen Mahoney representing Friends of Mithra. Friends of Mithra is a non-for-profit organisation which aims to keep alive Sr Mary Theodore's dream of providing education and rehabilitation services for poor children with multiple disabilities and contribute towards the reconstruction of the buildings destroyed by recent floods in Chennai.  Badges were presented to Alexander Cusack, Benjamin Davies, Flynn Pisani, Michael Sosa, and William Sullivan.

Flynn Pisani presented a report on Intercol and encouraged all students to attend on Friday night and Saturday as spectators. Flynn also invited students to meet in the Valley at lunch time to take part in a Spirit Rally to support our Rostrevor teams. See the YouTube below:

I would like to congratulate all coaches and of course students for entering into the competition with so much passion and determination and Mr Jeff Fischer for co-ordinating the event. Please see elsewhere in the Newsletter for results.

Marian Day

On Tuesday we will celebrate one of the most significant days in our College calendar Marian Day.  August 15 is a special day in the Catholic Church as it is the Feast of the Assumption.  In the context of Rostrevor College, an all-boys school in the Edmund Rice tradition, this feast is very important. This day is also an opportunity to give thanks for our own mothers. We emphasise the respect that all Christian gentlemen should show for women but particularly our mothers, who have all made so many sacrifices for us.

After the whole school Mass, students will gather in House groups as guest speakers from their House charities will present on the theme of advocacy. Students in each House will then come together and participate in a special school-provided luncheon, followed by an R-12 Walkathon in House groups on one of three different routes off campus.

While celebrating and enjoying themselves, the boys are asked to be mindful that, in celebrating together, we are privileged people and as such, must stand in solidarity with the underprivileged and unfortunate in our world.  Hence, we are asking each student to seek sponsorship for the Walkathon to support the nominated Charity for his House. Sponsorship forms will be distributed to students. Please encourage your son to participate wholeheartedly in this community-building day and support him with the collection and return of donations/pledges.

God bless
Frank Ranaldo

Senior Years Co-Curricular News

Mr Jeff Fischer
Head of Co-Curricular

Inter-Col weekend was a huge success in that we had a large number of boys enjoying the opportunity to compete against Sacred Heart in fierce yet friendly competition.  On the Friday night, the Rostrevor 1st XI fought valiantly to retain the Br Bourke Inter-Col trophy with a 0-0 scoreline at the end of the match against one of the most talented Sacred Heart teams I can recall. Goal keeper Jamie Signorella was outstanding in goals and most deservedly was awarded the medal as best player for Rostrevor. On the Saturday, Rostrevor matched Sacred Heart point for point from the outset in the Open A Basketball with an even spread of contributors both defensively and in offence. Sacred Heart was pushed to perform all the way to the end of the match but were just too good, holding on to win by 10 points. Open A basketball captain Brodie Clement deservedly claimed the Inter-Col medal having scored 25 of the team's total of 43, including some impressive long range 3 pointers. The last match of the day, 1st XVIII Football, was a great contest for both teams, but Rostrevor was unable to score accurately with the assistance of a strong breeze in the first quarter and spent the rest of the day playing catch-up football. Harrison Petty continued his fantastic form taking big marks all over the ground and was awarded the Intercol medal.

There were a lot of really close matches throughout the day and great wins by teams in both soccer and football, but I was most impressed by the manner in which the games were played and the support offered by Rostrevor families.  I am proud to say that the day was extremely well supported by the Rostrevor community with plenty of cheering for the boys during the games and that the games were played within a spirit of sportsmanship.

1st XVIII Football

Rostrevor                            3-10-28
Sacred Hart College         12-10-82

Goal Kickers: H Petty, M Lochowiak, C Ball - 1
Best Players: H Petty, L Valente, T Matsis, M Lochowiak, M Gum

View Intercol Results Here

Game Summary:

Round 10 saw us play our "Intercol" match against Sacred Heart at their home ground. The oval, despite being very soft underneath, had held up well from the previous day's rain but our game was still played in very windy conditions, which strongly favoured one end of the ground. This was a keenly anticipated match with a great crowd presence creating a fantastic atmosphere for the game. Nothing separated the teams' last match, with SHC winning in a very close contest. We haven't beaten SHC for a long period now and with our team  building form as the season has gone along, we went into this game with high confidence.

Unfortunately for us, we had a shocker on our biggest day for the year. As a team, we put on a very disappointing display - a display that was uncharacteristic for what has been shown in the past. We were beaten comfortably in all facets of the game as SHC brought high pressure and, under the conditions, outworked us to get stronger numbers to the contest than we did.

The pressure game SHC brought is something that we ourselves have built a reputation for over the past 2 seasons and this time around we were beaten at our own game. Our ability to adjust to the pressure applied and the conditions fell short as our skill level and decision making wasn't up to the standard.

For both quarters when  we had the strong wind, we were unable to take advantage as we often overused the ball or panicked with it. SHC were very good at getting numbers to the contest and crowding the game up, often forcing us wide going inside 50 with most of our scoring shots under pressure, causing us to kick points rather goals, thus not creating any score board pressure.

On the other hand, when SHC had the wind they put us under strong pressure by getting the ball deeper into their forward line which made it extremely difficult for us to get any rebound out of defence against the wind. Often, we found ourselves just kicking to big packs which they proved too dominant in. In the end, the sheer weight of entries allowed SHC to kick a commanding score on the day.

Better players for the day were hard to find for us, with many players having below average games. We had a few boys who had strong moments during the game but no-one played an effective 4 quarters. Harry Petty probably led the way showing his strong marking skills around the ground; Luke Valente was one of our only winning midfielders; Mihail Lochowiak and Mitch Gum held up well down back under lots of pressure;  and Tom Matsis provided some good running moments as a small forward.

They say big games are where players and teams build their reputations and unfortunately we all took a hit in this area from our performance on the weekend. Our team has struggled to come together as a collective unit most of the year but hopefully the positive out of this performance is that the boys have now learnt that in important games, it is "Team" brilliance not "Individual" brilliance that often proves successful. We look forward to finishing the season off on a positive note over our last 2 games.

Steve Symonds
Rostrevor 1st XVIII Head Coach

Middle Schoool Debating

Topic "That parking spaces for prams are unnecessary"

Rostrevor Black 8: (Hussain Hardwarewala, Manish Augustine, Ishaan Oak, Chairman: Tristan Hunter) defeated Glenunga International High School.
Best Speaker: Ishaan Oak

Rostrevor Red 8: (Jordan Zorzi, Alessio Ruggiero, Kyle De Reuver, Timekeeper: Jack Basso) lost to Saint Peters Girls.
Best Speaker: Kyle De Reuver

In other Co-curricular News:

• Congratulations to all of the inter-col medalists with special mention to the 8A football team who lost to Sacred Heart by 20 goals in term 2 and bounced back to claim an inter-col victory
• Congratulations to the 9A football team who progressed to the semi-finals of the state knockout competition against a very strong team in Sacred Heart.  The boys went down by a goal but should be proud of the manner in which they played and the endeavour shown throughout the game. Better players for the day were Ned Carey who was outstanding in the ruck, Xavier Tranfa who provided run from centre, Hamish Shute in defence, Harrison Scholz who gave the boys a marking target across half forward and Raheem Betts who was lively all day.
• Well done to the 1st XI soccer team for claiming top spot in the Wednesday Twilight competition. Unfortunately, the boys were unable to defeat St Ignatius in the semi-final match played this week, to qualify for the state knock-out Grand Final, going down 1-0. The team fought valiantly and created a lot of chances, particularly in the second half but were not able to find the back of the net. Goal keeper Jamie Signorello was again outstanding in goals, Lachie Barr and Thomas D'Antonio used their speed and skill to effect in creating scoring opportunities and Mark Ulaj provided plenty of run in the midfield.

Jeff Fischer
Head of Co-curricular Activities