Parent-Student-Teacher Interview Evenings
These evenings are offered to provide families with greater detail regarding your son's progress in Term 1.

On the Monday prior to students commencing Term 2, Years 7-12 teachers had the opportunity to meet with boarding families to discuss their sons' academic progress. While the number of boarding families in attendance was lower than last year it was pleasing to see those who were able to attend.

On Wednesday we had the first of our evenings for day students (surnames A-L) and next Thursday 16 May we look forward to meeting with the remaining families (surnames M-Z).

Co-curricular
It was great to see so many students and parents on Saturday morning for the start of our winter co-curricular season.

The co-curricular program at Rostrevor is about building relationships and learning to relate with others within and beyond the College community. Through your son's participation, he will grow in character, confidence and esteem where his personality is further nurtured, shaped and formed. Through his participation, he will feel a sense of belonging to a team and as a member of the Rostrevor community.

I would like to offer a reminder to families that we do encourage boys to participate in at least one co-curricular activity during the year from the range of sporting and non-sporting options available. Additionally, in the area of sport, your son's first priority should be to make himself available for school teams if his chosen sport is conducted by the College. For example, if your son plays a sport at club level and that same sport is offered by the College, then we would expect that he will play that sport for the College.

We have had many old scholars who have played sport at very high levels while at Rostrevor and have gone on to play at a professional level after graduating. We understand that there may be clashes on training days or matches and we simply ask that boys negotiate with their coaches regarding the level of participation. In this way, the needs of all parties are met.

NAPLAN
Next week, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be participating in the NAPLAN testing and this year most tests will be undertaken online. Your son will need to ensure that he brings his iPad to school, fully charged, on the scheduled day. Students will access the tests using a 'locked down browser' which has already been installed on their iPads. This information has been communicated to families and students will be informed shortly regarding the scheduled days of testing.

As expected, the opening week of Co-Curricular Fixtures brought with it an abundance of challenges, surprises, madness and hilarity both in the lead up and on the Friday and Saturday themselves. I am however, incredibly grateful for all the work behind the scenes by many staff, coaches, students and parents involved

The Winter Co-Curricular Season is always a significant one at Rostrevor College. As of this weekend, the number of 'sporting teams' has skyrocketed and eclipsed 50 in total. We also have 10-15 teams in additional activities that further diversifies and strengthens our ability to cater for a wide variety of young men. Put simply, it's never been a better time for students to involve themselves in the Co-Curricular Program. I'm very passionate about delivering quality programs in every single activity we offer and whilst there is certainly a long way to go before I'm content, there has been and will continue to be some noticeable improvements in various fields.

I'd like to echo Frank Ranaldo's message in relation to our expectations of students here at Rostrevor College. Engaging in the Co-Curricular program is an essential pillar of student life, and one that is required of all students. The expectation to prioritise school over Club commitments is a longstanding policy, and one that is clearly identified on the enrolment forms and also information sent out annually to families. It takes a phenomenal amount of effort from many parties to organise, facilitate and orchestrate all Co-Curricular events and it's imperative we have the support of students and families to reflect this.

Over the next few weeks we will undertake a concerted effort to solidify this expectation. If you have any questions in relation to this, you are always welcome to contact the school or myself.

To finish, I highly recommend you read through the sporting results from the weekend and also peruse the 'In other Co-Curricular News' section which highlights some phenomenal achievements from our students in some unique and exciting fields. I'm incredibly proud of all of the students and am positive their successes will impress many families who take the time to read them.

In other Co-Curricular News:

Theodore Ashley (Year 11) recently represented South Australia at the Australian Gridiron Junior National Championships held in Sydney between 14-20 April 2019. The state team, known as the South Australian Sharks, played 4 games over 6 days, winning 2 and losing 2, finishing 4th overall. Playing against the bigger states (with much bigger players!) this was the Sharks best result ever.