Edmund Rice Education Australia Touchstone

Liberating Education

As a Catholic School in the Edmund Rice Tradition, we aim to provide quality teaching and learning experiences to enable students to experience personal achievement within a safe, supportive and healthy environment.

Celebrating Student Achievement

On Wednesday July 24 the College Community gathered to celebrate the academic achievements of students throughout Semester 1. A new process for acknowledging student academic achievement has been introduced this year to align more closely with the College Learner Profile which was implemented throughout 2023.

Students received awards in the categories of, Learner Profile Awards and Academic Achievement. The Learner Profile Award is awarded to students in the top 10% of their year based on their Learner Profile score. The Learner Profile and the College values are informed by our College Aspiration Statement which encourages students to be respectful, autonomous, and resilient learners who are committed to personal growth.  The Learner Profile also reflects contemporary learning dispositions which are recognised as important for cultivating the skills for life-long learning.  The Learner Profile is used in classrooms, along with the College values, to help students to be aware of our expectations for how they should approach their learning.

The Academic Achievement award is presented to the top 3% of students in each course, based on their cumulative assessment marks for Terms 1 and 2.

I would like to congratulate the many students who received awards at this ceremony. In particular I would like to acknowledge the following students for their outstanding achievement in receiving Academic Awards in many of their subjects placing them at the top of their cohort.

Liam McEvoy

Logan Atherton

Beau Duncan

Hoi Tin Ho

Harrison Evans

Xander Byrne

Liam Best

Christopher Dodd

Matthew Kairouz

Joshua Malek

I would like to thank the many parents, carers and family members who attended this assembly in support of their sons. Importantly I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful St Edward’s Teaching and Support Staff for their dedication, professionalism, and care of our students and the work they do in supporting term in achieving their learning goals.

Learning Conferences

I would like to thank the many parents who have scheduled meeting times with teachers for the second round of Learning Conferences over the last two weeks. These meetings provide an important means of obtaining feedback on student progress, identifying commendations on student performance as well as recommendations for ongoing improvement. The importance that you place on meeting with your son’s teachers as a show of support for his learning can never be undervalued.

The approach that we adopt for these conferences is designed to engage students directly in conversation with their parents and teachers about their learning. It is hoped that by students being encouraged to lead the conversation that they take greater ownership and responsibility for their learning, establish learning goals and work with their teachers on achieving these goals.

The conferences are scheduled at this time of year to provide further feedback to students in Years 7-10, following the Semester 1 Academic Report, provide guidance to Year 11 students as they approach the completion of their Preliminary Courses and to support Year 12 students as they prepare for their Trial HSC Examinations in the coming weeks.

Year 12 HSC Trial Examinations

Year 12 students will be sitting their Trial HSC Examinations from Monday August 5 and conclude on Monday August 19. These examinations contribute significantly to the final Higher School Certificate Assessment mark that is submitted to the NSW Education Standards Authority. All Year 12 students are encouraged to establish a structured revision program in consultation with their teachers to best prepare themselves for these examinations. The examination timetable is available on the College Website at the following link Trial HSC Examination Timetable. I would like to wish all of Year 12 the very best of luck in these examinations.

College Annual Report

The 2023 College Annual Report to the community of St Edward’s College provides a summary of the achievements and operations throughout last year. This report is completed each year as part of the College’s registration and accreditation requirements and provides evidence of accountability to the College’s Strategic Improvement Plan. The Report outlines some of the key strategies introduced in 2023 to improve the learning for all students and an overview of expenditure and resourcing aligned with our improvement plans. The Annual Report is available on the College website on the following link. Annual Reports.