Newsletter Term 1 Week 6

This year the Principal Ms Bright will shave her head if the College's World's Greatest Shave team gets to $20 000 raised. Donate here

From the Senior Executive

Congratulations Mr Kerr

We congratulate Andrew Kerr our TAS Head teacher on successfully gaining a Deputy Position at Seven Hills High School for 2023. Mr Kerr will be overseeing the transformation of their VET centre in addition to the usual DP duties and we wish him well. His skills, calmness and quiet good humour will be missed by our students and staff.

 Weekly Doings

Despite the weather we had a highly successful carnival last Friday. It was a delight to see the camaraderie and support of all the swimmers. It is days like these that reinforce the wonderful culture and diversity of our college.

Our debaters are excelling again this year with successes in the East Side competition. We appreciate the support of our teaching staff and also the commitment of our tutors; ex-students who are returning to enrich the College.

There was great excitement in the Hall last week with the announcement of the cast for Grease. Block out your calendar for the performance dates as you will be assured of a high quality production full of energy and talent.

 Stage 6

Year 11 and 12 Students are currently signing of on NESA entries for Preliminary and HSC courses. It is important that all information is correct and that students sign up to their NES online account.

See below the process.

Students can submit through the following link

https://studentsonline.nesa.nsw.edu.au/go/access/

 ASSESSMENTS

As the end of term approaches there is a heavier load of assessments due. Please check our assessment planner page on the website to support your child in planning and organising their study. The homework centre runs on Monday and Wednesday afternoons in the library . This invaluable resource is only possible due to the generous support of our P&C.

Years 7 and 9 Fortnightly Communication

It was wonderful to see so many Year 7 and 9 students at the swimming carnival last Friday competing and cheering on their respective houses. Over the last two weeks, unfortunately there have been some incidents occurring at school that should have been reported to a teacher or Deputy Principal when they first occurred but students didn't report it for fear of being labelled a "snitch". We have repeatedly told students that they must report unsafe, inappropriate behaviour and that this is not "snitching" but rather ensuring that they are safe at school. We would like to extend this reminder to the parents and encourage you to talk to your child about what they would do if they witnessed or where a victim of some inappropriate behavior. 
We repeatedly emphasise to our students that they should always feel safe and comfortable in our school. If they experience anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe, they should immediately report it to the nearest teacher or the Deputy Principal. We take every concern seriously and we are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all our students. It is important that our students understand that reporting any concern is not "snitching". It is a responsible action that helps to keep everyone safe. We encourage our students to speak up if they witness or experience any form of bullying, harassment, or inappropriate behavior.
We believe that all our students deserve the best opportunity to learn and grow in a safe and respectful environment. We appreciate your support in reinforcing these values with your child at home. Together, we can ensure that our school is a place where all students can thrive.
Thank you for your continued support and partnership with us in creating a safe and positive school community.

MS Teams Workshop

Year 7 Advisor Georgia Bowd presented a thorough overview of how Rose Bay Secondary College utilises MS TEAMS. Although designed for new Year 7 parents and carers, this information is valuable to all our families across all year groups in understanding how the students are accessing their learning through their devices.

From the Year 7 Advisors

Dear Year 7 Parents/Carers, 

Miss Bowd and I are super excited to be starting the process of camp organisation. To help you with your planning, here is some important information:  

Dates: Mon the 22nd-Wed 24th May 2023 (Week 5 of Term 2).  

Location:  The Great Aussie Bush Camp – Tea Gardens. See map below for where it is located.  

Cost: Please start putting some money aside for the camp. We will send pricing details, permission notes and other essential information in the next few weeks.  

At The Great Aussie Bush Camp their mission is to deliver the best possible outdoor recreation-based teaching and learning outcomes in a fun and challenging way. The students will get to do some amazing water and land-based activities whilst developing lasting friendships.   

Here is the website if you want to check out all the amazing activities we can do there. Miss Bowd and I will be selecting the activities from the extensive line-up on offer.  

https://www.bushcamp.com.au/locations/tea-gardens/ 

Adele Flack  PDHPE Teacher. Year 7 Year Advisor

Word from the playground.

Students were asked to describe their favorite experience at Rose Bay so far

Amelia Rustamov - Learning something new in dance and making new friends

Annika De Bartolo - Having different classrooms and moving around a lot

Ariella Heik - Finding lots of new friends

India  Alefosio - Making new friends and meeting people.

Year 7 P&C Social Event

Please book early to ensure a space at the year 7 social event as bookings will close March 24th. Book here

From the Year 9 Advisors

Year 9 continue to impress both in the classroom and outside of it. We were particularly proud last week of the cohort's conduct at the annual swimming carnival; without exception, Year 9 behaved admirably the entire day whilst maintaining a clean and sensible environment. We congratulate all those who participated in races, and extend special honours to the following students who represented us at Zone: Charlotte, Kelian, Connor, Yoshi, Dora, Angelika, Pele, Leo, Poppy, Elliot, Tabilla, Joseph, and Ida. Well done to Kelian, who'll be representing us in the relay at the Sydney East Regional Carnival. Good luck, Kelian!
Mr McEvoy and Mr Regina                                 

SRC News

On Friday the 3rd of March, the college students traveled to Botany Bay in hopes of participating or
cheering on their friends in the schools first sport carnival- the swimming carnival. Although there were issues regarding the weather, the carnival was completed with many smiles.

Additionally, next Tuesday is when our college’s efforts for the World's greatest shave will be presented. On this day we will see the many student and teacher volunteers either shave, cut or dye their hair for a good cause. Please continue to donate towards our schools page, so that we can reach our goal donation amount of $20,000 and see Ms Bright shave her hair!

 http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/RBSCShavers2023 

The SRC are working on future upcoming events such as Harmony Day so stay tuned for those updates.

School Tours and Open Night

Rose Bay Secondary College is scheduling school tours for interested prospective parents and carers and child/ren.

Tours will be held Tuesday and Thursday at 10am – beginning Tuesday 21 February 2023.

The tours will run for approx. 1 hour.  Tour numbers are limited. Contact the school on 9301-0300 to book.

We will also be holding Open Night on March 21st -  please RSVP via this link

Chess Club

Interschool Chess Challenge 

 On Monday 6 March, 8 Year 10 students participate in the Interschool Chess Challenge - local heat and won 2nd place! (out of 3 senior high school....). All the students achieved at least 50% wins out of the 7 games they each played. Special mention to Tanner Weinbren who came in sixth place in the individual category. The rest of the team included: 

Gabriel Foo (captain), Caleb Foo, Erynn Marlowe, Oliver Hemsworth-Smith, Ethan Saptura, Toby Machet and Alistair Zeng 

The Interschool Chess Challenge is organised and run by the Sydney Academy of Chess. 

 Chess Club Years 7-8 

Expression of interest for the school's chess club for years 7-8 students is now open. Please register using the form: https://forms.office.com/r/DMZ2FRrqtF 

The registration is only open to Ys 7-8 students. 

 All levels of play are welcome.  For more information, please see Mr Magal in Science.

Debating Report

Debating Coaching Week 5
The debating rooms have been a hive of activity as students learn new skills, refine old ones and engage in some enthusiastic debating practice. It was particularly pleasing to see how quickly our new debaters across all years have settled into the program and building confidence in debating and public speaking.

Eastside Round 1 Report
Round 1 certainly tested our teams’ mettle with some challenging topics, but it was pleasing to come home with three wins against Sydney Grammar School. Well done to the Year 8,9 and 11 teams. See the motions below!

I was able to watch the Year 8 and Year 12 debates and Kim Kench, our P&C Debating Representative watched the Year 9 debate - we were so impressed by our students’ ingenuity,
enthusiasm and resilience.

Round 1 Motions (RBSC debated as negative for all motions:
Year 7 - That we should ban juvenile detention centres, and, instead, force all children who commit crimes to complete community service
Result - Loss
Year 8, 9 & 10 - That adult children, where they are financially capable, should have a legal obligation to look after their elderly parents
Year 8 Result  – Win Year 9 Result – Win Year 10 Result - Loss
Year 11 & 12 - That art generated by AI (eg images, painting, poetry, text) which is specifically based on the work of an artist should be legally considered intellectual property of that artist.
Year 11 Result – Win Year 12 Result – Loss

Eastside Round 2 – March 10th
This round is a home round and it will see us debate against The Scots College on the topic Education. Year 7,9 and 11 RBSC teams will be affirmative and Years 8,10 and 12 will be negative.

Stage 6 Premier’s DebatingChallenge
Our Year 11 and 12 teams competed in their first round last week. Congratulations to our Year 11 team (Tarquin, Edward, Finn and Ben S) who won their debate against Newtown Performing Arts High School. Our Year 12 team (Maya, Isaac, Ben L and Holly) were narrowly defeated by the same school. The PDC is a knockout competition, but fortunately, each team has two lives.
Year 12 will debate for their second life against Northern Beaches Secondary College (Manly),
while Year 11 enters round 2 against Denison College (Bathurst). The very best of luck and
skillfulness to both our teams! 

IEF News

The IEF had a wonderful time at the swimming carnival on Friday, there was some great participation and a very happy 2^nd place from Sebastian Wheelwright-Zhang.

IEFM walked to Bondi Beach shopping precinct to access the Woolworths Metro. Independence is key to future success and public transport knowledge and buying groceries are vital life skills.  The Community Access was a complete success, the students even had a spare 10 minutes to watch the waves roll in on Bondi Beach.

V-Fest

The V-Fest poster Design Competition is now open and entries need to be given to Miss Cave (B Block staffroom) by Monday 27^th March. 

Change of Details

A reminder to all parents/carers to please update any change in details for students ie address, email, phone numbers. This ensures all correspondance from the school is going to the correct place and important information is not missed.

Uniform Shop

Please be aware that the new Senior polo shirt and new sports shorts will not be in stock until July / Term 3. Please note that the Uniform Shop is no longer accepting cash.

Fortnightly Star Awards

Students receive Star Awards for their positive behaviour, academic achievements, community involement, and contributions across a range of other areas that form part of each day at Rose Bay Secondary College. As a school community, we are committed to recognising the great number of Rose Bay students that achieve excellence on a daily basis. We would like to congratulate the following students on receiving a significant number of star awards this fortnight:

Homework Centre

The Homework Centre provides a quiet, secure environment where students can get help, support and guidance from specialist tutors with their research, homework and assignments after school. It takes place in the library. The tutors, all ex- RBSC students give current students the opportunity to ask questions and get assistance with all subjects. The Homework Centre runs on:

 Monday 3.30pm-5pm  

 Wednesday 3.30pm-5pm  

Every student is a member of the Homework Centre Teams page.  Information and notices regarding the Homework Centre will be posted on Teams.  We have two tutors each afternoon and four different tutors altogether. Please check the Homework TEAMS to see which days the tutors come so that you can receive the specialist help that you need. 

 If you have any questions, please contact either Ms. Sara Debono or Ms. Henrietta Hawke.  

WORLD'S GREATEST SHAVE

World's Greatest Shave is back at RBSC and better than ever. The World's Greatest Shave is a campaign led by the Leukaemia Foundation, an Australian charity dedicated to supporting people living with blood cancer by providing information, treatment, and care. Last year, with the promise of our principal Melinda Bight dying her hair, we were able to raise over $12,000 dollars for this fantastic charity, smashing our goal of $10,000.This year however, we have raised the stakes, upping our goal to a whopping 20,000 DOLLARS. The event will be held at the school, available for the whole student and teacher body to watch. Applications are open to all students and teachers, who want to either shave, cut or dye their hair. If you are interested please sign up at the following link;  http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/RBSCShavers2023 or scan the QR code in the posters. We hope to see all of you either joining or donating the event, and supporting this amazing cause. For any questions feel free to email me at Zachary.villa@education.nsw.gov.au

 Thanks to all of you,

Sincerely Zac

RBSC WGS Team leader

Library News

International Women’s Day
To celebrate #IWD2023 and NSW Women’s Week, the library entrance shelves were filled with
a wide range of books full of stories about trailblazing women throughout history – from activists,
artists and discoverers to leaders, athletes and performers. UN Women Australia’s International Women’s Day theme for 2023 is ‘Cracking the Code:Innovation for a gender equal future’.
#Crackingthecode highlights the role that bold, transformative ideas, inclusive technologies, and
accessible education can play in combatting discrimination and the marginalisation of women
globally.

Premier’s Reading Challenge
A gentle reminder that the 2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge is now open. Students can use
their Department of Education login credentials to access their reading logs and start entering
titles to read via the PRC website at: https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html
The challenge closes August 18.
Registration, information and challenge rules can all be found on the PRC website. Students will
also be inducted in this year’s challenge during their fortnightly Library lesson in the cycle
ahead. For enquiries, email prc@det.nsw.edu.au. Or, of course, you can always ask the Library
staff!

Department of Education: Parent webinars and resources

The NSW Department of Education has a collection of webinars and resources from the eSafety Commissioner and their trusted partners to aid families in setting up good digital habits.

These webinars are aimed at supporting young people to have safe, positive experiences online as well as providing resources for young people living with a disability. To access these valuable resources please follow this link.

P&C News

RBSC P&C warmly welcomes all parents/carers and other members of our school community!
Join us at P&C meetings - hear about P&C and RBSC initiatives, get the latest updates from the RBSC staff executive, and have a say in how the P&C supports the College and spends P&C funds.

P&C meetings on-site at RBSC 7pm on 3rd & 8th Tuesday every term

All P&C meeting information can be found on the P&C G-drive
Thank you to all those parents/carers (past, present and future!) that generously give
their time and talent to assist P&C in supporting students and RBSC.
RBSC P&C run programs/subcommittees need you in 2023!
• P&C executive committee
• Music Ensemble Program (MEP) – extracurricular music program
• Sports - extracurricular netball, basketball & touch football
• Debating – extracurricular debating program
• Building and Grounds – improving RBSC physical environment
• Social – social events for parents/carers
• Alumni – bringing former RBSC students together
If you have a teen participating in these programs, please consider volunteering your
time and/or expertise to help out.
MUSIC ENSEMBLE PROGRAM, SPORT & DEBATING will not be able to
continue to operate in future without NEW parent/carers involvement.

How can I help?

Positions include Chair, Secretary & Treasurer but there is no limit to the number of people that can help. Debating support is required for the teacher co-ordinator.

There are lots of other opportunities to support RBSC P&C

P&C representation is requested for RBSC subcommittees including uniform, canteen and finance. P&C representatives are also required to assist with RBSC staff recruitment as part of the merit selection panel process.

How do I get involved with P&C?

If you would like to participate there are lots of opportunities. Please come along to a P&C meeting, you don't have to be a member to get started! Membership is open to parents, guardians and citizens from the College community by gold coin donation (please note that paying P&C voluntary levies via school fees is not the same as P&C membership).

To receive P&C news/information directly use the QR code to register your details. Please note RBSC does not give us your contact details due to privacy legislation
Contact RBSC P&C to express your interest in supporting RBSC to ensure we continue
to have robust parent/carer representation now and in the future: rbscpandc@gmail.com

P&C Meeting & AGM - Tues 14 March 2023

We are very excited to let you know that the next P&C Meeting is Tuesday March 14 at 7pm in the school hall. Entry will be via the gates in front of the hall. Please note this is also the AGM, including election of the P&C Executive and Subcommittee representatives. All positions will be vacated and filled at the AGM but we note that several parents are leaving RBSC and will not stand for re-election. Please see the information below. Membership of the P&C and voting rights is by gold coin donation.

The P&C plays an active role in the school community, supporting important programs (eg. Homework Centre, legal mock trial, Writers Day, Science Day and the debating program), contributing to capital expenditure to improve the school environment (shade covering and divider in basketball courts), as well as resources to assist students and staff (eg. upgrading digital cameras for the photography department and purchase of equipment for the marine science labs).
 
It is very worthwhile developing closer relationships with the school and the parent body. All parents, carers and school community members are welcome. We especially look forward to welcoming those new to the school. 

Membership of the P&C and voting rights is by gold coin donation which will need to be paid either at the meeting or online. 

Please note, the P&C voluntary contribution paid with school fees is separate from the gold coin donation for P&C voting rights. In order to vote the P&C Federation requires you to be a financial member, this is achieved with a gold coin donation. The P&C voluntary contribution allows RBSC P&C to provide funding to many school programs and projects.

The bank details for a gold coin donation are:
 
Name: RBSC P&C  
BSB: 062238
Account: 10113005

Payments should note ‘P&C 2023 + name’ so membership can be verified.
Please also send an email address with bank receipt to rbscpandc@gmail.com. 
 
Please feel free to email us at:  rbscpandc@gmail.com
 
The agenda and meeting documents are available 7 days prior on the P&C Public Drive.