Personalised Learning Week This term, Personalised Learning Plans were completed on the My Learning Hub App for Year 9 students for the first time. In this process, students were able to set goals for their first year in the Senior School as Year 10 students in 2017. Some of the goals that were set by Year 9 students for next year included achieving higher results, improving their GPA and continued involvement in extracurricular activities. Students were also able to list strategies to achieve these goals on their Personalised Learning Plan. Some examples included creating a study timetable, participating more in class discussions and asking teachers for help when they get stuck. During Personalised Learning Interviews, students were able to review their grades from each of their subjects and comments written by their teachers to see how they have progressed in their learning and what areas they can improve on. Over the course of Week 8, all students in Year 9 completed their Personalised Learning Interviews. LEAPS
Term 4 saw the end of the LEAPS program for Year 9 students. In their last session with their mentors the group attended a formal graduation lunch with the mentors at Ashurst Law Firm. Throughout the year each student who attended the LEAPS program had the opportunity to attend many exciting places including Sydney Aquarium, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, Sydney Wildlife Park, jet boating, cupcake making at Sparkles C u p c a k e r y a n d L a s e r Ta g .
Participating students also learned many very valuable lessons from their mentors. Throughout the year each student has successfully upheld all of the PERSIST values and been outstanding representative of RHHS. Congratulations to the graduating students of the 2016 LEAPS: Aidan Beath, Julia Becci-Vatavuk, Emin-Mustafa Bitiktas, Emily Cosgrove, Kyla Fisher, Aylee Fraser, Komal Gupta, Matthew Holden, Jarrod Jones, Mason Kamoe, Hayley Logue, Lisia Mafi, Ethan Phillips, Chantelle Romero, Tayla Seaton, Paris Staal, Ruwand Talabani, Jael Tarakegn, Latrel Vista and Maja Zlomislic
Start Smart The Start Smart program was held by a representative of the Commonwealth Bank and was organised by Ms Tran and the Maths faculty. This program taught Year 9 students about taxes, how much we should be earning in our casual/ part-time jobs and tips and tricks to help save up our money to put aside for our futures. One of the activities we completed was looking up different job fields and researching what the minimum wage was and the entitlements each position had. The presenter on the day was very interesting, enthusiastic and motivating and Year 9 students walked away with the knowledge needed to enter the workforce. A huge congratulations to Ms Tran and the Math faculty for all of their hard work in organising this workshop for Year 9 students. Compass Spectacular Science The Compass Spectacular Science excursion held on Tuesday 22 November was an amazing experience for the participating Year 9 students and was held at Sydney
University. Students participated in many different experiments. Paris Staal, one of the students who attended the program, stated “The Spectacular Science excursion was truly an amazing day - we were involved in various science experiments throughout the day including putting flowers inside of liquid nitrogen to see the reactions and testing the outcomes of putting balloons into different elements.” A huge thanks to Ms Melville and the Science faculty for giving participating students the opportunity to attend the excursion.
We Are Successful Seniors The We Are Successful Seniors program, held in Week 9, was designed to help Year 9 students prepare for our entry into the Senior School. The program included many different activities and workshops and helped Year 9 students prepare for the pressure and expectations of the Senior School in a fun, engaging and exciting way. In Week 7, Ms Andrews and Ms Short held an assembly where students were able to form their groups for the program. As a result of this program, Year 9 students, such as Ethan Phillips were quoted as saying “I’m so excited to start Year 10 at Rooty Hill High School because there are so many opportunities for me to explore what I am passionate about”.