Volume 17

Our Year 9 students participated in a camp experience that included the Duke of Edinburgh's Award program. This was a challenging experience for many of the students who had to take risks and step outside of their comfort zone. As a result, they were able to develop stronger relationships with their peers and gain greater confidence in themselves and their abilities. Overall, the experience provided many opportunities for personal growth and development.

Our Year 7 and 8 students had the opportunity to participate in an exciting array of learning activities that catered to their individual interests and passions through our Festival of Creative Spirit (FoCS). These activities were curated by dedicated teachers who shared the same level of enthusiasm as our students. At the end of FoCS week, we had a showcase event where we celebrated these students' accomplishments and presented awards to some of the brightest faces. Being a part of this event was an absolute joy.

I want to thank the teachers and support staff who gave up family time to be on retreat or camp and for the time spent thinking about the particular needs of all of our students in and out of the gates of Rosebank. The Rosebank staff are an incredibly dedicated group of professionals, and I am very grateful to them. 

I am proud to acknowledge several teachers who received well-deserved recognition at Friday night's event for The Teacher's Guild of NSW. Jennifer Jackson, our Dean of Professional Learning and Culture, will write more on this.

I also want to mention the fantastic representation we had of Rosebank Alumni, from 1955 to 2022, at our Rosebank Reunion and the official opening of the College Archives this past Saturday. 

It was a pleasure to meet so many past students, and hear their stories. I was in awe of this family, with five daughters who all attended Rosebank. All four surviving sisters joined us for this special event. 

Please enjoy more photos of the event below.

Finally, I try not to spend too much time discussing or refining expectations around uniforms in this forum, but I do want to seek your support as parents in gaining consistency around the Rosebank uniform and dress. Please be mindful that for every parent who asks us to make an exception for their child, we can be accused of being inconsistent by another parent. There are some extreme cases where we do need to bend for our student’s welfare, but these should be rare. The majority of our students should be adhering to the Rosebank standard, which is clearly outlined in our enrollment pack. My experience with teenagers is the stronger the line you draw, the safer they feel, and the more we can continue to discuss the more important aspects of school, that is, learning and engagement.

Thank you to all of the parents who do a wonderful job of supporting us as we support you. Additionally, thank you to members of our P&F Committee for organising a banquet morning tea in recognition of our staff members on World Teachers’ Day. 

The Catechist program has definitely helped me grow as a person; both religiously and personally. I know I can say for all my fellow peers that the Catechist program has given us the opportunity to teach and enlighten the next generation of Catholics whilst also allowing us to form a multitude of relationships; from the children we help each week to the adult Catechists who have shown us how to be true teachers of spreading the good news. Personally, witnessing the selfless nature of the adult Catechists has inspired me to learn more about my faith in order to continue to give back to the Catholic community. As a former student, a part of the Scripture program at school run by Catechists, I understand the immense importance of volunteering as a Catechist and their impact on encouraging a love of faith from an early age. Now as a student Catechist, the program has not only furthered my development in my own faith but given me the rewarding feeling of being able to share my knowledge of the Catholic teachings with younger Catholics as once done for me. The program has definitely been an eye-opening experience for me to explore my faith further and has given me the opportunity to give back to the community. 

Sophia Ferrara, Year 10

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Mr Colm McCaughan 
Assistant Dean of Ministry

Year 11: Retreats … and advances

Over the second week of the term, all Year 11 students participated in the annual Senior Retreat held at Kiah Ridge Christian Conference Centre in the Southern Highlands or the Edmund Rice Retreat Centre at Mulgoa. Joining our students was a team of staff who willingly and joyfully joined our young people over these days.  What impressed me most this year was the engagement of our students in all the sessions and activities that were offered. The retreat is a time out of the usual; it is a time to step outside my daily routine and slow down in order to let the "still, quiet voice" speak deep within and for me to listen.  And we did a lot of listening - to self, to those in the small groups, to those who shared something of their own faith and life journeys, and to Jesus who spoke to us in the Word of God, in our shared experiences and in the ancient rituals of Reconciliation and Eucharist.  

I had the privilege of listening to many young people tell a part of their story, in their words, and in their own time.  I really did feel that I was walking on sacred ground.  I have been reading my way through the student evaluations over the last week, since we returned from Retreat, and I am so impressed by the honesty of responses and the willingness of our students to take the risk of stepping into the "God space" with a willingness to be amazed.  And many appeared to have been "amazed" at the experience.  

Let these photos describe something of the joy that many of our young women and men described.

ISAAC FIGHTS AT ISKA WORLD CUP 

Isaac Herodotou (Year 8 Cassidy) entered the International Sport Karate Association (ISKA) World Cup 2023 on Saturday, 21 October in Sydney. For Isaac's weight division he achieved gold in Gi and gold in no Gi. Well done Isaac on your achievements and your dedication to Jui Jitsu.

Ms Annalisa Di Bella  
PACE Coordinator (Representative Sport)

Year 9 Students Conquer their Bronze Duke of Ed Adventurous Journey 

On Wednesday, 18- Friday, 20 October 88 Year 9 students completed their Bronze Duke of Ed Adventurous Journey whilst on Year 9 camp. These students participated in a range of activities to ensure that they had planned and were prepared for the challenge ahead. On Wednesday the students completed their Practice Journey component and on Thursday and Friday the students completed the Qualifying Journey component of the Adventurous Journey section, successfully completing a number of hikes and working together with their group members to overcome challenges. Well done to all students for successfully completing their Bronze Adventurous Journey!

The Bronze Duke of Ed award was an amazing experience with my friends and others in my year group. It allowed me to make friends with people I didn’t really talk to and strengthened the bonds between people I know. Through hikes in the mountains I got to see breathtaking views. Although we struggled to get up some hills, it was by far worth the effort to see them. My favourite part of the trip was swimming in the Colo River. After our 6 hour hike, it was a refreshing way to cool down and have fun with everyone. I was able to learn many different skills like setting up tents, locating and working out time for fire trails and finding the best way up a hill with our rucksacks. With the group, tasks such as cooking, cleaning and collecting firewood were sufficient. Increasing our sense of teamwork as we accomplish tasks quickly and effectively. If I had the opportunity to participate in the Bronze Duke of Ed award I would. If you’re considering partaking in the Bronze Duke of Ed award I highly suggest you sign up as it leaves you with everlasting memories. 

Sophie Buttigieg

The Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award Adventurous Journey was an enjoyable experience. Although there were a few cases of rolled ankles, overheating and nose bleeds, it is an unforgettable experience. The Duke of Ed Camp consists mainly of hiking and one activity on our first day of camp. The hiking split up into three parts. One small hike on Wednesday to our campsite, a 6 hour hike to our second campsite on Thursday and another hike back to base camp on Friday. We were taught all the necessary navigation skills to navigate the hike. Everyone got the chance to navigate. We were also taught how to apply first aid. My group specifically focused on overheating and how to manage when someone is facing heat stress, heat exhaustion or heat stroke. We were all given the chance to cook and help prepare meals for the whole group. The Duke of Ed adventurous is an unforgettable and enjoyable experience and I recommend everyone to challenge themselves. 

William McNamara

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Ms Maryanne Di Bella  
PACE Coordinator (Cultural and Diverse Activities)

What Drives Creativity in our World?

What drives creativity in our world? This is what we were asked to discover this week during FoCs. We were given opportunities to test different art mediums and techniques. On Monday we went on an excursion to the Art Gallery of NSW, there we observed the real variety of art and were inspired by the creativity of the artists. On Tuesday we did paint and sip for our incursion. We were joined by Rachel, a lovely artist from Pinot and Picasso who assisted and taught us to paint a gorgeous landscape. Ms Adams kindly provided delicious canapés and beverages that we would like to thank her for. The following day we tested a new material, led pencil and charcoal. We were given the opportunity to learn the technique of sketching and had an awesome time testing it out. On the final day of art we were given total creative freedom to use all of the things we had learnt over the week. We had a variety of Art from sketches, paintings and collages. This was an awesome experience that taught everyone so much. Thank you so much to the teachers Ms Goodenough, Ms Luppino, Ms Naylor and Ms Nijhawan for helping and organising this great week!

Sophie O'Driscoll

During Focs Week The ‘What drives creativity in our world?’ Group learned different art techniques through videos, and physical lessons with Rachael from Pinot and Picasso. She taught us how to paint a colourful sky with mountains and water with a reflection in it!  
Ms Luppino got us some pencil sets with different pencils and charcoal sticks and showed us some videos which taught us how to use a pencil properly and how to blend in sketches, and a little bit of perspective. Some of us produced some amazing art over the week, Especially on thursday where we were able to be creative and produce artwork of any kind based off our minds. Overall this was a very fun experience for the group, and also the teachers!

Alessia Cremona

Rosebank Active

For FOCS week, around 80 people participated in Rosebank Active. In the mornings we would walk down to the Tiger's elite training facility and come back at noon. The training at the Tiger's facility was all about having correct form while doing exercises and keeping fit. Over the four days, we learnt the correct form for squats, deadlifts, push-ups, and burpees with the help of Antonio, Louis and Bronson. The coaches were very helpful and supportive if we didn't manage to get the correct form straight away. Overall, my favorite part of Rosebank Active was training at the Tiger's elite training facility and learning new skills!

Lachlan Maiden

Rosebank Active students also had to complete an artefact, the artefact was to create and present an online 3D - designed gym. This gym was created using a software called SMAI, students could design their gym by searching for their machines, weights, furniture and more. We could simply click and drag the items we wanted and then transfer them into our gym. Students used the online recording tool in exchange to fim a walkthrough of their created gym. The creation of our gym was really fun and at the West Tigers Elite Training facility we got to see what is in a specific gym to alter to the customer's likings. My favourite part of Rosebank Active was the creation of the gym, because we got to be creative and test new skills!

(Luca Sasso)

On Broadway

We chose On Broadway for this year’s FoCS week. On Broadway is an amazing opportunity to sing, dance and act even if you haven’t done some of those things before. We even got to see Wicked in the Lyric Theatre! Students had the chance to be creative and come up with their own ideas all together for the scenes, and even what we wanted our musical to be about then with the smaller groups we developed the songs and acting. At the beginning of almost every day we get to play drama games, sing, and dance with the whole group providing us with new skills that we could incorporate in our performance. This week has been innovative, engaging, but most of all fun. On Broadway is an incredibly rewarding experience that we would recommend to everyone who has a slight interest in any aspect of musical theatre. We really hope whoever is reading this chooses On Broadway next year!

Leila Woods and Violetta Clarke

Bridge to Victory

Bridge to Victory is a task where you are given a kit of balsa wood, string, and PVA glue, with those materials you design and make a bridge. On Monday we got started on learning what the topic was as well as starting the PowerPoint for this task. We also practiced making joints with the balsa wood and the design and drawing for the PowerPoint with which we learned how to use Sketch-Up.

On Tuesday, we went on a whole-day excursion where we went to look at bridges around Sydney. This inspired us to make different kinds of bridges, (eg. Truss bridges, Arch bridges, and Cable Stay bridges). This excursion helped us in getting a better understanding of the task of creating bridges.

On Wednesday we all got to work making our bridges. It was one of the most stressful days of 
the week because of the limited amount of time we had to complete our bridges. There was also a lot of stress on the fact that all the glued pieces needed to be dry for the next day so that we could put our bridges together for the next day and get them ready for stress testing on Friday.

On Thursday a special guest came to talk to us about bridge design as he is a bridge designer himself and has approved most of the bridges in Sydney. He will also look at our designs and give us feedback to make them better than they already are.

All together you get about two and a half days to make the bridge and on the last day, it is stress tested on just how much weight it can hold. Each bridge was weighed and then put on a testing platform where it was tested for how much weight the bridge could hold until it snapped. That is then recorded and the group with the strongest, lightest bridge wins.

Throughout the task, we faced many problems that caused us to have to rethink our designs and sometimes restart. Things like the balsa wood would not cut very well when it needed to be shortened, the glue didn't stick instantly and had to be left to dry but in the end, we found creative ways to fix all of the problems with the help of our groups. FOCS week is a great 
opportunity for friendships to form and work on team-building skills, as we worked on our bridges in teams of three.

Samuel Irvine

Future Skies

Future Skies has been an experience like no other. The opportunity to fly and program drones is unlike anything I’ve done before, and I would highly recommend it for anyone on the fence about an activity for Discovery Week. The points and leaderboard made every challenge exciting, whether it be maneuvering through an obstacle course manually, or programming your drone to take a photo of an object hidden through the room. My personal favorite part has been setting up the final races, and practicing the course. A big thank you to all the teachers for allowing this wonderful experience, and especially Mr Stivaktas for teaching us all how to fly drones.

Lachlan Restifa
Hi, this is my review of the Future Skies for the newsletter. This week during FOCS, me and many others participated in Future Skies. This program was run by Mr Stivaktas, his initiative and interest in drones and programming really showed during his teaching. 

This week we learnt how to code and fly Tello drones. These are small drones the size of two of your hands, which we flew through obstacles and coded to do many 'missions'. Some of these missions required us to use the drone camera to find things and required us to take photos from high above. On Friday we were able to compete in a race against each other for the ultimate glory. As this had been written before the race, we do not know who has won, but we do know that this will be an action-packed race. This race is filled with high speeds and complex obstacles. Overall this week was amazing and I would highly suggest doing this for FOCS.

Peter Giannone

Step into the Dugout

Throughout FoCS week, we have participated in the workshop “Step into the Dugout”. This workshop has been filled with many fun activities including completing a coaching course, and an eye-opening speech by Mr Amos, who was an elite coach for the Wallabies, Melbourne Storm, and many more accredited well-known rugby league clubs. This speech introduced us to many different principles, perspectives, and strategies for how to become a great coach. “Step into the dugout” has challenged us to think about new ways to communicate with players, taught us many essential skills to be able to coach a team, and upskilled us as a player, by putting ourselves in a coach's shoes. We also enjoyed creating our very own training session for selected sports like soccer, netball, and basketball where we taught specific skills, and coached our classmates to master them, helping us feel accomplished of what we created. Overall ‘Step into the Dugout” was a fun, engaging workshop, with many opportunities to excel in coaching as well as being a player.

Katia Reichle and Giacomo Crawly

Rosebank Cinema Presents

For FOCS Week this year, we joined Rosebank Cinema Presents, where we were required to create an original movie in a group of 6 - 8 people. We learnt how to make a short film in a few days and how to recreate camera angles to help create mood and tension during the filming process. Through doing this we learnt how to work as a team and developed the problem-solving skills required to make changes for the benefit of the film. We learnt how to use cinematic techniques, costumes, make-up, lighting, and sound to make our movies engaging and original. Each group had their own Director, Designer, Producer, Actors, and Videographer.

Our favourite part was being able to control our movie production company and make a unique film that we could freely experiment with and be proud of. The retakes and dressing up made the experience funny as we made silly mistakes that ended up in the main cut. It was extremely fun to work collaboratively with our friends and make our film our own. However, sometimes we couldn't agree on scenes which ended up in a small argument. We ended up persevering, talking our problems through, and deciding on the scenes based on the time limit we had and the complexity needed to express the story we wanted to tell.

Overall, we had a great time in FOCS Week collaborating with our peers,  drawing storyboards, building scripts, and creating sound effects to produce rewarding and entertaining short films.

Matea Lado and Callum Reeves

Miniature Wargaming

During this week we explored different techniques to create and paint our miniature war figures featuring a skeleton and zombie army, a human army, a goblin army, and a dwarf army. We built a fantasy city for our figurines to fight to the death in. One student wrote a storyline about why the armies were in an eternal battle. Some students made a couple obstacles like wood piles, bridges and ladders from cardboard and wood and painted them. And some students 
even made entire buildings!

Hal Durham

This week, Miniature Wargaming gave us the opportunity to construct and paint our own miniature figurines to use in tabletop battle games such as Warcry. Many of us came into this activity with little knowledge of wargaming in general, but this experience has taught us many things including the techniques involved in creating our own miniature figurines. These include the use of specialized paints and washes. We were then able to apply these skills in our figurines and use them to play Warcry. Warcry is a game where players take control of miniature figurines on a battlefield and attack each other in tactical warfare. It is based on a custom scenario that changes gameplay elements, including the way players win and lose. The scenarios were written by students and included a point system. Overall this week was a great experience and we would like to thank Mr Booker and the other staff/ teachers who made it happen.

Liam Jessimer

My Cafe Rules

This week 14 groups of eager entrepreneurs stepped into Discovery Week to create and produce a unique, functional, and realistic cafe. We started our journey by teaming up in groups with like-minded peers and brainstorming ideas for our cafe. We then took a quick walk to Papas Patisserie to immerse ourselves in what a real cafe looks like and how it functions. We were met by a very eager Jim, who led us through a door where we were met with a very Charlie and the Chocolate Factory experience. We all eagerly glared through a glass window as we watched the magic of Cannoli’s, Gelato, Cakes, and many more delicious treats being made. Jim then led us through a very engaging talk about the different concepts of a cafe and what we needed to know in order to make our cafe the very best. We were then fed delicious homemade pizzas and gelato to fuel us for the rest of our journey. For the next few days, we eagerly designed our cafes, boosted by the melodies of Taylor Swift and plates of lollies.

After many hours of hard work, we were finally ready to present our cafes to Jim. This experience has been extremely rewarding and fun. Not only have we been able to take a break from schoolwork for a week and let our imaginative minds run free, we have also learnt some very valuable lessons such as how to present a sales pitch, how to manage a big business's finances, and just how much work it takes to build a business. A big thank you to our teachers who have guided us through this process and let us print practically the whole school's supply of paper out in photos for our mood boards and menus.

Isabella Fogarty (Year 7)

The Art of Transformation

This week we were in the FOCS group ‘Art of Transformation’. In this group, we had to come up with a final look, ours was Mario and Luigi and to help us we did three different workshops. The first workshop we did was accessories. In this workshop we were given many different materials to help us create a headpiece or accessory of any kind to go with our final look. We used paper mache to make a green shell to go with our Mario and Luigi character designs. 

Our next workshop was SFX (special effect makeup). In this workshop, Allyra used latex, tissue, and lego pieces to create the effect of lego sticking out of her skin. Our final workshop was face painting. In this workshop, we learnt different techniques and ways to use and apply face paint to our faces and bodies. In our final design, we used face paint to create the illusion of us having large cartoon-looking eyes. Overall it was a really fun week, we learnt a lot of new techniques and ways of transforming someone into someone or something else through the use of makeup.

Allyra Dante and Christina Giardina

The Lip Lab

Wow, what a week it has been with all of the excitement preparing for FoCS Week 2023! The activity that I chose for FoCS Week (The Festival of Creative Spirit) was the greatest and most fun project that has ever been created, The Lip Lab!! What made my Lip Lab experience so amazing that I hope to do it again next year? There are so many things that I can say from my journey of creating my very own lip balm that I got to take home with me. However you will have to pick it next year to find out. The Lip Lab was the best way to bring out your passion for skin care and cosmetics as well as your creativity through designing, constructing and producing our very own, you’ve guessed it…  lip balm.

On the first day, we formed a group of three which then was separated into an Economist, Chemist and a Marketer. I chose to be a Chemist because I felt like it was a great way to demonstrate my creativity and have lots of fun making a lip balm. The Lip Lab presented us with a workshop with a special guest who shared with us her thoughts and what we needed to think about before we started making our products. After the workshop we started planning as well as making the product to make sure it was the best that it could be.

I could go on about what we did all week however I have just told you some parts. I would like to thank all of the teachers that put their effort and hard work into making our experience unforgettable for us, as well as Mr Couani who made the FoCS week all come together. I have such great memories with my friends and I hope this will be an opportunity for you to bring out your imagination should you choose to try it next year.

Genessa Mieli

FoCs 2023! Wow, what an incredible adventure at The Lip Lab! The purpose of The Lip Lab is to encourage those who love makeup and skincare to learn more about how these cosmetic companies make, create, design, and promote their latest products. 

At the beginning of the week, we were fortunate enough to talk to someone within the makeup industry who owns her own business. For me this was a real eye-opener as it helped show the behind-the-scenes work that is put in to produce these lip products. This program allowed students to form their own small groups and collaborate with their friends and socialise with others. Each group would then have a marketer, economist and a chemist. Each role was vital in contributing and successfully creating our very own lip balm brand by the end of the week. I was the marketer in my group and was able to see the wide variety of marketing approaches different companies took in order to attract the public's attention. This was so fun as I was able to produce different posters and use different marketing strategies to help promote and attract our audience’s attention. This was an incredible journey as each activity was organised and thought out really well allowing for a fun and interactive experience for all. I am so glad that I decided to choose this FoCs activity and would strongly encourage and recommend choosing The Lip Lab for those who want to have fun, be creative and have a fantastic week!! So ultimately the decision is yours however I would like you to consider one thing before selecting your FoCs choice in the future… Do you enjoy having fun and creating awesome memories? 

Isabelle Calleja

Digital Storytelling (iCreate)

A must-try experience. This workshop allowed me to explore my creativity through art and animation. I had the chance to work with different people I never expected myself to even interact with. Each teacher was supportive of the animations in progress, giving informative feedback to help each person improve their piece. At the end of each day, we were informed to complete mini reflections on what we have learnt and what we could have improved.

On the first day of FoCS, everyone got a chance to introduce themselves by interacting with multiple different activities. We ended the day by starting to plan our animation plot in the span of 300 words. On the second day, three small groups were formed and everyone got the opportunity to share their ideas and express their feelings for other groups. On the third day, everyone started animating their plans. Many techniques were used, such as stop motions, legos, and even live-action films. By Thursday, everyone began to finish up with the final details. I truly enjoyed this experience I was given and would recommend it to others who enjoy filmmaking, art, and animation.

Marissa Kotsidis

My experience with iCreate was very positive. Everyone was really involved with their projects and even gave feedback to other groups. There were a range of projects, from a stickman animation, to a live-action film about soccer. The three teachers were very encouraging and open to ideas. On the first day we got together to find three spies, a murderer and overall have a good time with some drama activities. It was very interesting learning about how good stories are made through the large range of drama activities we completed at the start of the week. Some of us were even able to start planning our own story. The second day mainly consisted of us putting together our scripts and storyboard. By the third day most groups had finished this and moved on to filming, animating or drawing their story. The fourth day was all about editing! The fifth and final day will (It hasn’t happened yet as of writing this) consist of presenting our stories to the general public of Rosebank. It was surprising when we were able to compare our finished project to projects made last year and see how different the projects are. 

If you know someone who was in iCreate, I would highly recommend that you ask to see their projects, as all of them are amazing and everyone worked really hard to finish their project during this FoCS Week. Overall, I had an amazing time and loved every minute of it. If I weren’t in Year 8, I would have done iCreate next year too.

Adam McKay