Welcome to our final edition of the Newsletter for 2018 in which we are pleased to share some images from our Junior School performance of 'A Christmas Carol' on Thursday night in this week's photo gallery. Sitting in the audience I felt enormously proud of the boys, along with a tremendous sense of joy as they sang and performed with great enthusiasm.

In an article setting out his argument for wide ranging education reform in Australia, Laureate Professor John Hattie (Chair of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership) concludes his piece with the challenge that all schools should be inviting places in which to come and learn. Looking back over the last twelve months at Rostrevor, it is most reassuring to know that our students have enjoyed many opportunities to become deeply involved in their learning through both the formal academic curriculum and the broader extracurricular program.

As we bring the academic year to a close I would like to publicly thank our teachers and support staff who have worked tirelessly through 2018 to ensure that each Rostrevor student has been provided with many rich learning experiences throughout the year.

In celebrating the end of the year, we hope that all boys complete 2018 feeling more confident in their abilities, more hopeful in their outlook and more appreciative of their many gifts including the love they receive from family and friends. We hope that they look forward to returning in 2019 ready for all that will come their way.

2018 SACE Results
Of course, our graduating class of students from Year 12 are looking forward to receiving their SACE results in the coming weeks and then making their final course selections for 2019. While this can be an anxious time for some, our experience at Rostrevor is the vast majority of our young people make a successful transition into their preferred course at local universities and TAFE colleges or directly into the workforce. With this in mind, we wish our graduates well and look forward to sharing stories of their success with you in early 2019.

With that, Co-Curricular Activities for 2018 have come to a close. For some, it might seem quite surreal that they are about to advance into a higher year level whilst for others they may simply enjoy having a few more hours of personal time... to use on study I'm sure! The diversity of the Co-Curricular program was a real highlight this past year, with a number of students indicating they were surprised at how much they enjoyed a 'foreign' sport and have also inquired about starting up teams in previously unoffered sports and activities. This truly is an ideal result from my perspective, as whilst we have always had exceptionally strong and supportive programs in certain sports we always strive to offer as many unique opportunities as possible.

2019 continues to look more promising by the week at the moment, with the potential for some partnerships with sporting bodies and also additional teams than those offered in Term 4, 2018. To continue to build on a very solid year of success, I invite any parents, caregivers or friends of the Rostrevor College Community to get in contact with me if you have an interest or past-experience in any program. It would be fantastic to have a couple of experienced individuals to coach, mentor or even offer their assistance with various sporting teams. If you would like to know more about how this would all work, or even just some general information please contact me.

Finally, there will be a survey sent out to both students and parents/caregivers in the coming weeks in relation to the Co-Curricular Program in 2018. The idea of this survey is to seek feedback about various aspects of Co-Curricular life from a number of different stakeholders in the hope it can assist the positive direction we are heading.