Gospel Spirituality

We invite people into the story of Jesus and strive to make his message of compassion, justice and peace a living reality within our community.

We gathered as a community on Tuesday February 9 to celebrate the Commencement Mass to begin the school year. We thank Father Greg for joining us in this celebration. 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 in striving to be the best we can be.

Our College Aspiration Statement provides boys with guidance about what we value to be important in achieving our personal best. This statement outlines the expectations we have as a community in relation to how boys learn, relate to others, develop a social conscience and explore their own faith and spirituality. Two important values inherent in the Aspiration Statement were emphasised throughout the Commencement Mass. The first relates to ensuring that St Edward’s promotes a safe and inclusive community. A community which maintains high expectations regarding respectful relationships, ensuring that we look out for the wellbeing of every member of our community. The second theme which remains a focus for 2021, relates to student learning. Our Aspiration Statement refers to students being curious and autonomous learners. Learners which are committed to growth and improvement. This aspiration challenges boys to focus on improving by taking responsibility for their learning, by being curious and not being scared to take risks or make mistakes with their learning, as quite often this is how we will learn the most. Students were challenged to seize every opportunity to learn and grow, developing their own individual gifts and talents even if it means at times stepping out of their comfort zone to do so.

I look forward to sharing with you each fortnight the wonderful ways in which staff and students work together in bringing these values to life.

We also took time at the Commencement Mass to farewell Mrs Nicole Thomas who retired from teaching at the start of this year. Nicole has been a member of our community for twenty-six years holding a range of positions including Religious Education Coordinator, Senior English Teacher and Senior Retreat team facilitator. Nicole will always be remembered for the wonderful care and empathy that she demonstrated towards all the boys in her care. Nicole will be dearly missed and we wish her all the very best for the future.

High Achievers Assembly

On Friday February 12, we invited young men from the 2020 HSC class to an assembly to celebrate their Band 6 results in a variety of HSC subjects. Throughout the HSC years, these young men worked hard to develop their knowledge, skills, gifts and talents, and with the support of their wonderful teachers they were able to realise great things, throughout what was an extremely difficult year due to the COVID pandemic.

The very pleasing aspect of their achievements is that they were able to achieve great results across a broad range of academic and skilled based disciplines including Mathematics, Investigating Science, Business Studies, Industrial Technology, Hospitality, Construction, English Extension 1, Visual Arts, Music and Studies of Religion. Their results have created great opportunities for them for the future, with many pursuing career pathways closely aligned with the subjects in which they excelled.

It is important to also acknowledge the many other students from last year’s cohort, who achieved great personal growth in many of their subjects even though they may not have received marks in the top bands. We are fortunate each year to be provided with a detailed analysis of our results which is developed by Catholic Schools NSW. This analysis has demonstrated the continued growth and improvement in results in comparison to state averages and student learning gain, with our overall school performance improving again on the previous year’s results. The teaching staff at St Edward’s has maintained a clear focus on ongoing improvement in teaching and learning. We continue to collaboratively plan, engage in targeted professional learning and share our practice through lesson observations and critique. We are very proud of the individual and collective achievements of students in the 2020 HSC class and we continue to look at ways of learning and growing as a community for continued positive outcomes for the boys in our care.

Welcome Year 7 Students

It has been very pleasing to see how well our newest Eddies boys have transitioned into the College. They were welcomed by the whole school community at our first assembly and they are quickly developing an understanding of the expectations of them as a student at the College. Their Core teachers have explored with them concepts such as what is like to be an Eddies boy, the type of teachers that they like at St Edward’s and some essential agreements in relation to their learning. The following info-graphs were developed by students in Mr English’s Core class after discussions about expectations.

The quotes below provide some insights into the boys’ thoughts on their start to the year.