End of Year Newsletter 2024

It is hard to conceive just how quickly 2024 has come to a close.

Our students worked well on improving their skills and knowledge, as well as on shaping their attitudes to learning and life in general. I speak on behalf of our staff as I extend my congratulations and gratitude to all our students on their efforts this year, particularly our awards winners as they represent themselves, their families and our School with care and appreciation for being a member of a special learning family. Congratulations are extended to our Year 12 2024 cohort who represented themselves both academically and in relation to vocational training with success, and I am proud of the many young people we guide who embrace a conviction and purpose in relation to learning.

We made it to the end of another year! And, what a jam-packed year it was – from Day 1, I have constantly been amazed at the wide and varied opportunities that are presented to our students. We constantly engaged and supported our students in their academic endeavours, artistic pursuits, their sporting challenges, and perhaps most importantly, connecting them to their future pathways and becoming caring people. There are far too many activities we offered this year to mention that “ADD-VALUE” to our students’ school experience and help produce well-rounded, capable, and confident person. Whilst, what we do in the classroom is always our core focus, educating the whole child is critical. 

Our strategic goals remain the same in 2025. These goals are a key focus of the daily work that all staff lead in the school. Our goals to improve Literacy and Numeracy levels, as well as work to shape a Confident, Self-aware, Self-regulated and Caring individual will drive the actions we implement to succeed. 

This year has continued to be challenging, in relation to staffing. However, I have been pleased with the pool of staff we have been able to employ. Daily, I witnessed the excellent work that happens in the classroom, from extending learners who need to be pushed to achieve higher, to lifting those who need a little extra support – or a lot of extra support at times! We have implemented a Tutor Learner program that has supported over six hundred students and have sharpen the attention to higher standards, building and maintaining a positive mindset when we come to work every single day, expecting the best of those around us by giving the best of ourselves. We nurtured positive wellbeing, through our new structured student pastoral care model, Weekly Connect and now in 2025 introducing Daily Connect and maintain high standards for staff and students. A key focus we will build from next year is incorporating students voice and agency alongside staff into our ongoing planning and review of Learning as well as Teaching. 

I hope everyone has a safe and restful school holiday period and I look forward to 2025 – which is also, as always, jam-packed! 

Finally, I extend my appreciation to our staff, students, and the school community for a positive and productive 2024 school year. Much has been achieved by many individuals and teams this year, and we will continue to find new ways to accomplish the mission and vision of the school as laid out in our School Strategic Plan. A good school requires many attributes, the core element of these coming from its students, staff, parents/carers, and school community. I sincerely thank all those who supported Roxburgh College for their endeavours and care of our family. 

My best wishes to all for a safe and restful holiday period – do not forget to drink water and avoid watering rocks, water only what lives and gives back!

Thank you for your support of me as the principal of this fantastic school.

With gratitude and appreciation,

Fernando

Fernando Ianni PSM

The Year 7s have been working on a poetry unit, exploring the use of poetic devices such as metaphors and similes.

For their Portfolio Tasks, students were required to draft, edit and publish their own poems, including visuals that support the themes of their work. Students then presented their poems to their class, demonstrating their poetry reading skills.

During October a group of year 8, year 10 and staff members attended the EmpowerHER Retreat.

The aim of the camp is to provide a diverse range of young women the opportunity to build relationships outside the school environment. It is also designed to support young women in developing leadership skills and emphasise supporting each other as females.

The camp was a great opportunity for our students to build new friendships and discover a different side to some of their current friendships, a side where they support each other.

Are you an anime fan? Do you enjoy knitting or crochet? Are you an avid reader or a big gamer?

The Roxburgh College Library staff are pleased to offer interested students the opportunity to choose from a broad selection of clubs available to all in 2025!

Follow us on rc_library on Instagram to keep up-to-date (and have your say by voting on our polls!) on all the details regarding student clubs running out of the Library space in 2025!

Our students recently embarked on an incredible journey of puzzles, mysteries, and adventure at The Great Escape Melbourne.

They uncovered the secrets of an ancient tomb in The Mummy, stepped into Sherlock Holmes’ world to solve a thrilling Victorian mystery in Sherlock’s Home, and faced spine-chilling supernatural challenges in Paranormal Activities.

The excursion was not only a fun-filled adventure but also an opportunity to foster essential skills like teamwork, critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving. It was an unforgettable day that left students inspired, engaged, and eager for more!

Our world is evolving rapidly, and technology plays a significant role in this transformation. Recognising this, our languages team has been integrating technology into the classroom to support student learning and skill development in Turkish, Italian and Japanese. Using technology and digital presentations enhances engagement, accessibility, and learning efficiency. It fosters interactive and dynamic learning experiences, making complex concepts easier to grasp through multimedia resources. Digital presentations support students to organise and present information effectively, boosting their communication skills and confidence. These tools prepare students for a technology-driven future by equipping them with essential digital literacy skills.

Japanese

The Japanese class has been using instructional YouTube clips to learn to write hiragana (the most basic Japanese alphabet) – it’s great for them to hear how the letters are pronounced by a native Japanese person. Instructional YouTube clips are a great way to support classroom learning as it allows students to see how to write the letters up close and more importantly, students can review these videos to improve their own technique.

Turkish

For our Turkish class, we had to do a descriptive report on an animal, and I chose the jaguar. We had to include all the information about it. It was fun to research about the Jaguar and I liked all the new things I’ve learnt. I learnt about the jaguars’ habitat, diet, and population. Using the computer in the classroom has been good because it helps us obtain information about our topics and we study more about the things we are interested in. Kina KINAH 8A

Italian

Learning about Pompeii and Ancient Rome has been very interesting. This learning cycle has educated me on not only the beauty of the landmarks and country itself but also its rich history and tragic past events. Understanding the grandeur of ancient Rome, with its advanced engineering, culture, and way of life, makes me appreciate the lasting impact it had on modern society. Exploring Pompeii, especially through its tragic destruction by Mount Vesuvius, offers a powerful reminder of the fragility of life and the importance of preserving history. Overall, this topic has given me a larger understanding about Italy, Rome’s culture, history and the impacts they have made today. Ameena SHEIK DAWOOD 8S

On Friday 8th November, the Year 9 Language Support class rode in the bumpy, small, old, school bus to the Melbourne Museum. We walked through a noisy, crowded, busy courtyard with old people dancing. Also, there were lots of excited, young, cute children. After dropping off our bags, we went to the technological, comfy but chaotic learning hub. There we worked in pairs to make educational safety videos. It was fun, but sometimes frustrating. Then we moved over to the interactive gallery where we learned how we need to protect our bodies in a car crash. When we finished at the museum, we walked to Café Cavallino. Here we ate some saucy, delicious and spicy meals. Later, we walked to 7-11 and had slushies, lollipops, energy drinks and coffee. Unfortunately, the shop keeper was a little bit rude. We took our treats to the rainy, brown and green park that was nearby. We ended our excursion with some tasty, sweet, mango ice-cream that we got for free! Overall, it was a positive and amazing experience.

In Semester 2, students from Year 9 Baking in the Kitchen created a themed cake.

Students designed, baked and put together a cake for their final assessment.

Some colourful and creative cakes included a Kinder Surprise cake, a Basketball cake, a Beach Party cake, and an Elmo cake.

Thanks for a great effort Year 9 Baking!

Ms Osman.

Congress is a flagship student-led experience where secondary students from around Victoria all meet up and come up with issues and solutions about 4 main topics that were given to us, affecting our education system.

This year, 3 students were chosen from the SRC to go and have the experience of congress, which were: Dima Dawood, Sura Sarhan and Sara Badra, all from year 11.

Each student was placed into a group consisting of 7-10 participants. The main topics discussed included:

Gateway students from the Banksia Gardens campus took a trip down to the Old Melbourne Gaol and gained hands-on experience of what it was like to participate in a court case. Every student and staff member had a particular role to play and a script to read from. Facilitators said the students were one of the best groups they’ve had.

The trial was followed up by a tour of the City Watch House. Prisoners would often end up in the Isolation Room (pictured) for dobbing people in. Clearly, Danilson and EJ didn’t abide by the Roxy motto: “Snitches get Stitches”.

Our Year 7 Italian students have been learning about all things food and due to their love of pizza, they had a very special opportunity to meet a world famous pizza maker (pizzaiolo), Johnny DiFrancesco, to learn how to make his award winning Neapolitan pizza. In Year 8 our Italian classes have been learning about the ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii, making new discoveries about different landmarks that date back to 79A.D. While in Year 9 our Italian students have been reflecting on Italian culture through films.

Pizza Masterclass with 400 Gradi’s world-famous pizza maker, Johnny DiFrancesco. Thank you to the teachers who supported this incursion on the day – Ms Foti, Mr Altavilla, Mrs Christofis, Mr Haviaridis, Mr Christofis, Ms Risqo and Ms Franz.

Our Turkish students have been learning about food, natural disasters, and health and fitness. After a very enjoyable year learning about the language and culture in Turkiye, our students celebrated the year with Döner Kebaps (Kebabs)!

Japanese students have been learning about food and shopping in Japan and have been creating roleplays where they order food and buy things at the shops. This term they did a cross-cultural cooking activity with Ms Osman where they learned to make Turkish gozleme – the Turkish class made sushi with the Japanese class during Term 2, so it was wonderful for them to be able to make food from another culture to compare and contrast what they’ve been learning about in Japanese.  The Japanese students also made their own hachimaki, a type of headband that’s meant to inspire pride and determination (the one being held up says “determination”).

This term Year 9 students attended the city experience in week 9. They enjoyed the Melbourne Skydeck excursion, with the virtual ride being the highlight of the day. Later students explored Melbourne’s iconic graffiti lanes, followed by lunch at Melbourne Central. Ms Osman was proud of our students on the day as they demonstrated model behaviour.