Edmund Rice Education Australia Touchstone

Gospel Spirituality

We gathered as a community on Tuesday February 12 to celebrate the Commencement Mass to begin the school year. This important event provides the opportunity for us to unite in prayer for the year ahead, asking the Lord for guidance, courage and resilience in the pursuit of our own goals as individuals and as a community. Our theme for this celebration was ‘Be the best you can be’. We have all been blessed by God with certain talents and gifts, and students were challenged throughout this celebration to use their talents to be the best of their ability. At St Edward’s, we encourage students to extend themselves beyond their comfort zone, whether it be in their learning, in social justice or on the sporting field. We hope to foster a climate where in every endeavour students are encouraged to strive towards being the best version of themselves that they can be.

Most importantly, students were encouraged to set high expectations of what they would like to achieve throughout this year in relation to their learning. Setting high personal expectations is the key to ongoing success and we will support them along the way. We urge them not be afraid to take risks with their learning or to make mistakes, as quite often this is where true learning takes place. If reflected upon, mistakes we make have the power to turn us into something better than we were before.  We encourage boys to demonstrate resilience, discipline and perseverance on their learning journey. Throughout this year, we will continue to work with students on setting goals for the year. We encourage parents to take an active role in this process by discussing with their sons their goals and regularly communicating with them regarding their progress throughout the year. Research strongly suggest that parental involvement in their son’s learning journey is a key contributing factor to success in all endeavours.

A variety of opportunities exists for parents to engage with their son regarding their learning. The Parent Portal allows parents to access their son’s homework, assessment tasks and daily timetable. Parents are provided with this facility to assist them in engaging with their sons regarding their daily routine, time management and planning to complete assessment tasks successfully. Parent Teacher evenings provide a wonderful opportunity to meet with each teacher to discuss progress, as do the various information evenings held throughout the year. We also encourage parents to make contact with teachers if concerns arise regarding their son’s learning.

We genuinely believe that our boys have untapped potential and we look forward to working with them throughout the year in support of the wonderful things that they will participate in, developing the boundless talents and gifts that they have been blessed with.

High Achievers Assembly

On Wednesday February 13, we invited back our high achievers from the 2018 HSC Class. At this assembly, we acknowledged a range of students who excelled in their performance in their overall results. In continuing to promote the theme of “Being the best you can be” we importantly highlighted the students achieving the highest ATAR’s and top band results, but we also took time to acknowledge a range of students who worked hard developing various individual skills and talents which has enabled them to establish a career path in their chosen field. For many that is a University or College pathway, for others it is an apprenticeship or a wonderful job opportunity. We are very proud of the achievements of our 2018 HSC cohort and we wish them every success for the future.

Senior Assembly

On Friday February 15 the Year 10, 11 and 12 students were invited to attend our Annual Senior Leadership Assembly. This assembly forms an important rite of passage as we welcome our new, Year 11 students to the senior fraternity of the College. The Year 11 students are presented with their senior tie by the College Prefects and we discuss our leadership expectations with them. We invite Year 10 students to attend this event, to impress upon them their inclusiveness as leaders in our College. Mr Beattie, the Year 11 Pastoral Leader highlighted the Pastoral themes for each year, making clear connections with leadership. An outline of the various opportunities that exist within the community to develop leadership skills exist and we challenged students to consider these options. Most importantly, we encouraged boys to demonstrate good leadership all the time in the way that they interact with junior students and model our expectations of students at the College in all endeavours. We believe that all our students have great leadership potential and we are pleased each year to see this potential grow.

Enrolments Now Open for Year 7, 2020

Enrolments for Year 7, 2020 opened on Monday 18 February 2019.  We invite all members of the community seeking enrolment for 2020 to complete an application by the closing date of 8 April 2019.  For further information regarding the process of enrolment and the College’s enrolment policy, please see the links below:

Swimming Carnival

The 66th Annual Swimming Carnival was held on Friday February 8, at the Peninsula Leisure Centre, Woy Woy. Students in attendance entered into the spirit of the carnival with great participation in all the events in competitive and non-competitive races. Doolan (White house) was the winning house, and a variety of records and personal bests were set on the day. Congratulations and thank you to Mr Carpenter for his organisation of this important event on the yearly calendar. To those students who will represent St Edward’s at higher levels of competition, we wish them all the very best in their events.

Year 8 Wellbeing Program

At St Edward’s College we are working hard to create a positive and safe environment where all students feel supported and valued as they strive to reach their full potential.

Student wellbeing is defined as a sustainable state of positive mood and attitude, resilience, and satisfaction with self, relationships and experiences at school. (Commonwealth SW Scoping Study: Literature Review, 2008)

This term all Year 8 classes began their school journey with the introduction of a Wellbeing Lesson. Each week, students will complete one Wellbeing lesson with their Religion teacher. The lessons will teach students how to build respectful relationships with their peers, teachers, parents and others to support strong connections to school, a sense of belonging and feeling valued. They will learn the importance of positive mental health and how it fosters positive emotions, so students can cope with the normal stresses of school and their personal life. Students will learn how to be engaged in their learning and give them a voice, while also teaching them how to be resilient in the face of challenges. Throughout the year, we will highlight other Wellbeing initiatives happening at St Edward’s for students and parents.