Term 2, Week 5, Newsletter - Fri 2 June 2017

Written on the 1 June 2017 by Rostrevor College

 

From the Principal

Mr Damian Messer
Principal

Over the past week, the College received 2 hoax bomb threats. I would like to thank the members of our community for their feedback in regards to the process and I would like to express my thanks to everybody for their considered concerns as we deal with each individual incident. I fully understand that these types of events cause a great deal of stress for families, but I again assure you that the safety of our boys is of paramount concern to myself and the College and we will continue to deal with each situation as it arises.
If for some reason you didn't receive any of the email and/or SMS notifications, I would ask you to contact the College so we can check the contact information we have for your family on our database. It is times like these that the importance of up-to-date information is vital. Furthermore, if at any stage you require your contact details to be updated, please ensure you contact the College to update your contact details (email: contactdetails@rostrevor.sa.edu.au). Again, thank you to all of our staff and students for their behaviour and co-operation.
Reconciliation Week

We are currently in the middle of celebrating Reconciliation Week for 2017. The significance of Reconciliation Week has been promoted across the campus with a number of planned activities, with this year being rather significant as we mark 50 Years since the referendum. Students have been involved in a number of key events/activities, some of which include: liturgy and prayer services; smoking ceremony/ritual prior to the scheduled St Peter's and Scotch College Football matches (held last 2 weekends) and participation in the AFL McLeod Challenge, where some of our Year 8 & 9 students participated in a pre-game match and ceremony before the Round 10 AFL game kicked off at Adelaide Oval.

During this significant week, a major highlight has been the Boarders' Reconciliation High Tea, where Old Scholar, Arrin Hazelbane ('11) & former AFL Player, Marlon Motlop, attended as our guest speakers. They both spoke of the importance of the journey that a young man undertakes when he takes up the challenge of education at Rostrevor. They both pointed out the importance of these challenges as they significantly shape the future of every young person. The message was well received and very significant for our young men. Lastly, our annual Mabo Day Football Match takes place this Friday 02 June at the start of lunch and will act as a conclusion to our National Reconciliation Week celebrations.

Year 11 Retreats
Last week our Year 11 students had the opportunity to take part in the Year 11 Retreat program that was conducted at a number of locations around Adelaide. These Retreats provide a wonderful opportunity for boys to explore spirituality and continue to develop strong relationships with the staff and the College. The Retreats went very well and I would like to thank everyone involved in the planning, and in particular, the boys for their participation.

3 June P&F Ball Casino Royale
I would like to take this opportunity to pass on a well-deserved thank you to our Parents' & Friends' volunteers and wish everybody well for a great night on Saturday. The P&F have organised another great community event which continues to bring our College together as one.

College Tours / Enrolments
Word of mouth is one of our greatest advertising tools. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents for actively supporting our College. To that end, we have a couple of key dates coming up for the 2018/2019 enrolment cycle.

On Wednesday 7 June, we will host our first of two, 'Come and Try Rostrevor Day' events for 2017. At our Come and Try Days, we warmly invite boys from Years 5, 6 and 7 to spend a day at Rostrevor College to experience senior secondary schooling in the Rostrevor environment.

Our next Principal's Tour will take place from 9:00am on Thursday 15 June, and we are also accepting enrolment applications for our mid-year reception enrolment intake. If you are speaking to others that are thinking about joining our College community, please refer them to our Enrolments Office or suggest they register their interest in these events via our website.

Yours in Edmund.
Damian Messer
Principal


 

 

From Leadership

Mr Frank Ranaldo
Deputy Principal

Three Pillars

We are all aware that many life-long lessons are learnt outside of the classroom.  Much of what a Rostrevor College education aims to achieve is centred on life after Year 12.  The catch-phrase, "A Man for Others" implies our young men leave our College understanding that their life is not all about them and that in the scheme of things, they are not universally important; hence, they should aim to help others less fortunate than themselves.  What we all eventually discover, is that through giving of ourselves to others, we become happier.  This was the focus of our Edmund Rice Day celebrations a few weeks ago.


Rostrevor's three pillars provide this basis and our co-curricular program allows all members of the family to become involved.  While expectations are high on how our boys participate in co-curricular activities, we ask parents and family members to uphold the highest standards when encouraging and supporting the boys. We also ask families to continue to support the College by ensuring that boys attend training during the week and matches on the weekend. Please refer to the College website for fixtures, maps and information regarding any late cancellations. The mobile version of the website can be saved to your device desktop for easy access.


Our Outdoor Education Camps and Retreat Programs are also important aspects of the learning which occurs outside the classroom. The Outdoor Education Program is an integral part of the school's co-curricular program. Students engage with their peers in a series of physically and mentally challenging activities which are adventure-based. The activities are designed to be sequential but structured so that students can participate at their own level. The program aims to develop teamwork, leadership and imitative skills that students can utilise in their school environment and community. This in turn provides the opportunity to develop kinaesthetic awareness, coordination and physical strength as well as teach teamwork skills and foster a greater sense of cooperation to counteract the competitive environment of the school.


In this day and age, where society believes there is no real need for Religion or 'Spiritual' life, we know that our young men absolutely thrive in these situations. Reports received following Retreats are always glowing in praise of the boys, how well they participated and how wonderful the opportunity was for staff and students to build life-long relationships. Each year at our Year 12 Valedictory Ceremony, students fondly recall the Year 11 and 12 Retreats among the highlights of their journey at Rostrevor


Attending Retreats, coaching sports teams or involvement in other co-curricular activities are the positive building blocks for many of the life-long learnings that will enable our boys to contribute significantly to society for a long time after they graduate.


Reconciliation Week
National Reconciliation Week (NRW) runs annually from 27 May 3 June. These dates mark two milestones in Australia's reconciliation journey: The 1967 referendum and the historic Mabo decision 25 years ago, respectively. The referendum saw over 90% of Australians vote to give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and to recognise these people in our national census. On 3 June, we will mark the anniversary of the High Court of Australia's landmark Mabo decision, which legally recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a special relationship to the land that existed prior to colonialisation and still exists today.


Rostrevor has been celebrating NRW through a number of activities which have taken place during the week, including Reconciliation as a theme at House gatherings. The week will culminate with the Mabo Football Match at lunch time on Friday and a BBQ for students.
Many thanks to Tania Garrand, Coordinator Indigenous Education and Anthony Callisto, Coordinator Service Learning for planning the many activities to celebrate NRW.


Attendance
Regular attendance and participation in schooling is an important factor in academic success. Under the Education Act of South Australia, parents/caregivers are responsible for the regular attendance of all children in their care between the ages of 6 and 16 years and there are legal implications for those parents/caregivers who are unable to demonstrate that they are meeting this responsibility.


Occasionally requests are made by parents/caregivers for students to be absent for long periods, e.g. to accompany the family on an overseas trip or participate in a recognised, non-school organised sporting or cultural activity. In all cases, the Principal must be informed in writing of the extended absence. Furthermore, parents/caregivers of students undertaking SACE studies are asked to contact Kerry Hodkinson (Director Teaching & Learning) to discuss the implications of the absence on academic progress. Once the Principal is informed, teachers will be notified. However, we do expect students to discuss any absence with their teachers well prior to the departure date so that arrangements can be made with regard to missed work and compulsory SACE assessment tasks.


According to our Attendance Policy, students are required to attend school or school-based activities, including major College events, on all designated school days in accordance with legislation, unless otherwise specified. The school must account for every absence of every student and record the reason. Unacceptable reasons for absences include:

  • truancy;
  • helping at home or at parent's/caregiver's place of work;
  • part-time or casual work (including travel to and from such work);
  • appointments which are able to be made out of school hours (including driving lessons/tests, haircuts, etc);
  • catching up on assignments or studying during non-Swot Vac periods.

Nevertheless, some parents do give consent for their sons to stay home to revise for a test/exam or complete a task that is due the following day. As we approach the end of semester, we tend to see a slight increase in these occurrences. In the busyness of life and as our children become more proficient at arguing their point, it is easy to say "yes", but as parents we need to learn to say "no" to our children.

Keeping to deadlines, attendance and punctuality are "real world" expectations and we have a joint responsibility to ensure that your sons develop the necessary skills to meet these expectations through schooling and beyond.
We thank you in anticipation for your support in this matter.

 

Br John Ahern
APRIM

Last week saw our entire year 11 Cohort out for their retreat time. O'Brien travelled to Pt Elliot, Webb and Murphy to Aldinga, Gurr and Barron to Woodhouse in the Adelaide Hills and Egan to the Monastery at Glen Osmond. The aim of this time is to help each young man to grow in self-knowledge, as well as to learn more about others and God. Reports indicate that good progress was made across all of the Houses and we look forward to these young men becoming our Leaders next year. As well this week, we had a very important excursion for our year 11s to the Cathedral and a Mosque. Given the fractured world that we live in and the attempts by some to sow hate and division, this was an important step in understanding the two largest world religions and seeing what we have in common as well as where we have different paths to God.

We are in the final week of the Easter season in the Church and the great feast of Pentecost occurs this Sunday which marks the sending of the Holy Spirit on the first Apostles and followers of Jesus. Last Sunday was the feast of the Ascension which featured two Angels telling the Apostles to stop gazing at Heaven and to get on with the work of Jesus in the world; this is what we need to be doing today. The world needs it more than ever.  Have a restful weekend.


 


 

 

Junior Years

Mr Geoff Aufderheide
Director - Junior Campus

 

Student Leaders in Action:

Last Tuesday our Senior Leadership group participated in a day of leadership development with a health and physical well-being focus. The Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER) ran a student leadership day in the Callan Hall. A number of students from other Catholic schools joined us for the day and all seemed to enjoy the first-class facilities we have on site here at the College.

Our Leadership group worked on a series of activities designed to increase physical activity for all Primary students in the State. At the end of the day they all reported that they had developed some ideas around engaging our boys in relevant, fun and enjoyable activities in school to promote fitness and encourage participation. We look forward to their presentation to the SRC in coming weeks where they will use the class representatives to drive more physical activity and play based games for all in the Junior Years.

Da Vinci Decathlon:

On Tuesday of this week we sent a team to the annual Da Vinci decathlon hosted by St Peter's Girls School. The Decathlon originated in Knox Grammar School, NSW and is designed as an academic competition that challenges and stimulates the mind by asking students to think through challenges in a different way. Some of us might call this 'left field thinking'. Of course, Leonardo Da Vinci was considered one of the world's greatest thinkers and scholars by demonstrating an ability to understand the interconnected nature of all knowledge.

Our team competed across 10 disciplines: Engineering, Mathematics, code breaking, Art and Poetry, Science, English, Philosophy, Creative Producers, Cartography and General Knowledge. With a particular emphasis on higher order thinking skills, problem solving and creativity, the boys reported that it was a challenging day but one full of interest and enjoyment.

We congratulate the boys for firstly being selected to represent the College, but also for their endeavours on the day of competition;

Year 5:

Carlen Becker
Pellegrino Iasiello
Oso Oyugbo
Oseremen Oyugbo

Year 6:

Alexander Pertl
Charlie Crafter
Jack Dundon
Elliot Melino

We will be informed of results in coming days and I look forward to sharing these with you in coming editions of the Newsletter. Congratulations boys and thank you for representing the College with pride.

 

Junior Years Connections:

In previous communication to the community, I have written extensively about our engagement with Kidsmatter a social/emotional framework for positive mental health, resilience and well-being within our school community. At the end of 2017 our audit of students, staff and parents revealed several Action areas for us to pursue to support such an important part of our whole community development.

Shortly, the Junior Campus will release our first edition of 'Junior Years Connections'. This publication will share some of the pro-active work we do in classrooms and will report on activities based on our Resilience framework, 'Bounce Back'. We will also hear reports from individual classes about their work so far this year and from our Counsellor, Mr Adrian Terminello, who has been hard at work supporting some of our boys in small groups to help them understand social situations.

Keep an eye out for this publication in coming days.

God Bless,
Geoff Aufderheide
Director, Junior Campus


 

 

Senior Years Co-Curricular News

Mr Michael Vickery
Head of Gurr House, Acting Head of Co-Curricular

3XI Soccer 4 def by Saint Ignatius 6
The 3rd XIs this week started much stronger with a very well-played first 10 minutes. The team pushed forward and after a few early chances were 2 - 0 up after 20 minutes. The formation held well into the first half until a goal to Saint Ignatius dropped some heads going into the break with a lead 2-1.

After the break, the group were slow to get started and Saint Ignatius capitalised on this scoring 2 early goals. Unfortunately, this meant the Rossie boys lost shape and before they knew it, we were 6-3 down. A goal in the last few minutes lifted the team and were able to apply pressure but with no result, finishing the match with a 4-6 loss.

8A Football 2-1-13 def by PAC 14-14-98
Once again, we confronted a very good side that showed us how to play. We tried hard but our systems and consistency of performance need work - especially our commitment to the contest and ability to pressure the ball carrier and run off the contest when we have the ball.

The core of the side works hard and shows signs of being good players. The consistent performers once again put in. The likes of Walls, Piro and Snowball continue to put in 100% effort for the team.
9A Football 20-8-128 def PAC 6-6-42
A complete performance right across all areas and this squad's best game in two years. The stoppage work was clinical and well executed, with captains Xavier Tranfa and Elliot Murada dominant whilst Tom Cusack negated PAC's best player and then dominated all over the field with his athleticism and speed. Emmanuel Deng also worked his way into the game to play a terrific second half. The midfield dominance was finished off by the forwards, with Raheem Betts (6 goals), Ben Browne (4) and leading full forward Jake Slivak continuing his fine season, kicking another 4 goals and assisting many others.

The strong half back line let very little through all game. Ned Carey and Sam Rahaley dominant in the air, with Sam taking some spectacular contested marks whilst Hamish Shute and Morgan Crabtree read the play beautifully and used their penetrating left foot to great effect.

Our small forwards didn't let up with their pressure and desire to keep the ball inside 50, with the smothering tackling and forward press a feature.

An outstanding turnaround, having lost to PAC at Rostrevor by 10 points only four weeks ago, so very hard to name only seven best players.

9B Football 11-14-80 def St Michael's 11-1-67

The game was a tightly contested one with scrappy play and many skill errors, as displayed in the score line. The boys fought hard for the four quarters despite trying condition at St Michael's.

Harry Scholtz was outstanding on ball, leading majority of clearances for our team, with Theo Ashley holding down the back line and saving us multiple times being on the last line of defence. Hamish May provided us with a target upward and if not marking the ball, he brought it to ground and crumbed himself; he also went through the ruck and on ball with his big body and contested well.

1XVIII Football 10-12-72 def Scotch 4-10-34
Round 4 saw us venture to Scotch College. The small sized oval combined with wet, windy conditions made for a scrappy affair with both teams not being able to transition the ball from one end to the other effectively. Scotch played with great intensity all game and their plan to close up the contest and get high numbers back into our forward line made it extremely difficult for us to get any strong momentum going during the game.

After a strong season in 2016 we are finding we are now being the hunted, so our ability to be able to absorb the pressure thrown at us is a continued work in progress. Scotch's ability to apply relentless tackling pressure for a full game is something we can learn from and incorporate into our own game.

Both teams had moments of momentum during the game and for a 10-minute period in the second term we were under siege as we struggled to get the ball out of the opposition's front half. We eventually steadied during the quarter and were able to go into the half time break with a 34-point lead. Torrential rain hit in the second half, making it very difficult to execute any free-flowing play. We were only able to slightly increase our margin in the second half running out eventual winners by 38 points.

We will learn a lot from this game, as we tried to play too cute for the conditions and often tried to over possess the ball. The smaller ground made for the ball to transfer quickly from one end to the other and too many times we didn't react quickly enough defensively to trap the ball in our front half allowing the opposition out too easily.

We do continue to have good moments within games where our game plan comes together and we are all on the same page. When done right, our ball movement is exciting to watch and we are capable of scoring very quickly. The challenge for us is to be able to absorb the pressure the opposition are throwing at us each week and to combine this with four quarters of consistent execution and effort.

Our back line held up well all game, constantly rebounding the ball. Cameron Ball and Mitch Gum continued their great form down back in the key posts. Lachlan Spehr and David Hamann played their best games for the season, forming a strong defensive group. Jackson Sutcliffe had a strong second half in the ruck with Jacob Kennerley, Murphy Short and Cameron Taheny having good moments through the midfield. Up forward, Anzac Lochowiak backed up his great game last week with another 4 goals.

We now prepare ourselves for this week's game back at home against arch rivals Sacred Heart. It will be a big game for our group. Hopefully we can start to play a consistent 4 quarters; if we do, we give ourselves a great chance of getting the win. We look forward to seeing some great support.

In Other Sporting News
Our indigenous students unfortunately lost the McLeod Inter-School Challenge Grand Final on Saturday night at the Adelaide Oval. The final score was:

Rostrevor/Wirreanda  7-6-48.def by Wiltja/Woodville High  12-4-76  

Congratulations to the following boys:
Benjamin Browne
Raheem Betts
Nathaniel Bloomfield
Leon Laughton
Kuranye Owen
Tristan Hunter

 


 

   

Co-Curricular Results

Senior Years

Junior Years

 

Work Experience

Mrs Belinda De Conno
VET & Careers Coordinator

Tuesday 27th June to Thursday 29th June Term 2, Week 9

Career Planning involves decisions and choices that will impact upon your future and there are many options available to students, so you need to be aware of what's offered.  These may include:

  • undertaking further education and training at University/TAFE
  • taking up an Australian Apprenticeship (Apprenticeship or Traineeship)
  • gaining employment
  • taking a 'gap year' to work, travel or volunteer
  • or a mix of these options


As part of the subject PLP at Year 10, we are providing an opportunity for all year 10 students to undertake study and planning in possible future options. 

What is a Personal Learning Plan?
A Personal Learning Plan is designed to help students realise what their skills and interests are, so it can help them decide what future pathways might be the best fit.  

Working with school on their PLP can help them plan from the middle years right up to the last stages of schooling.  Transition Planning also helps record the types of activities students have been involved in whilst at school and will help build a portfolio for talking to employers. 

Design PortfolioMedia, Film, Arts, Acting, Journalism
Records of Work Experience for applications
Mentors and Coaches - those who can be a referee
Volunteer Activities Camps, Service Learning, Coaching
Extension ProgramsUniversities offer them, keep an eye out!
ScholarshipsApply, Apply, ApplyYou don't know if you don't try!

Work Experience is an innovative program, which exposes students to real life situations in the 'world of work'. Students are involved in an adult environment and have the opportunity to receive some workplace training and be assessed on their skills.

The Work Experience Program is an option for all Year 10 students at Rostrevor College to undertake three consecutive days of Work Experience.  This program helps student to fulfil assessment components that are part of the Personal Learning Plan.  Students will need to organise their placements by Friday 9th June Week 6.  If you are undertaking Work Experience ALL forms need to be returned to the Equity Centre signed

So, students have 2 options: 1 - undertake Work Experience OR 2 - participate in the Pathways Programs run on the same days.
 

 

  

 

 


Author:Rostrevor College

A CATHOLIC BOYS' DAY AND BOARDING COLLEGE IN THE EDMUND RICE TRADITION RECEPTION TO YEAR 12

Glen Stuart Rd Woodforde Sa 5072 Australia