Over the course of Term 2, St Edward's has transitioned dramatically toward a greener environment. New initiatives, such as ‘Trash Free Tuesday’ and ‘Envirobank return and earn scheme’ have contributed greatly towards setting the pace for a cleaner environment within St Edward's and other local schools. There has been a noticeable increase in staff and students responding to environmental issues within the community, and there has been a noticeable change in attitude toward the way we, as a community, care for our environment. During Term 2, St Edward's has seen a steady incline of student and staff participation in ‘Trash Free Tuesdays’, an initiative to encourage students to bring a reusable lunchbox, with no disposable items. The initiative started with only 12% of students participating, it has however risen to 20% of the school bringing no disposable plastics every Tuesday over the past 8 weeks, with 31 students consistently bringing a trash free lunch box every week, which eliminates the chance that 1000’s of pieces of plastics end up in our pristine environment every week.  The environment portfolio is working to increase this percentage and encourage more staff and students to care for our environment.  Our aim is for 300 students to bring a trash free lunch box each week for Term 3. The ‘Envirobank return and earn scheme’ has diverted a total 4559 bottles from going to landfill.  This is a great improvement to our environment over the term, with the funds collected from the scheme used to help future initiatives.  Many of these bottles were collected by 15 students, who handed in their orange Return and Earn bags filled with containers in exchange for Waterford hours and working towards the Tatham Award. At the start of the term, St Edward's installed a water fountain and bottle re-filler to reduce the waste contributed by water bottles, and through this initiative, we have helped remove 3570 bottles from our environment.  Most students are now bringing in reusable water bottles. It has been exciting to be a part of the environment portfolio at a time when the College is moving to a greener future. Lars Cleeren, Year 11 Environment Portfolio Member  

As the Semester draws to a close so do the units that have been studied by the students involved in Computing Studies. We have classes that give specialist knowledge in the areas of computing technologies, game design, programming and the use of the related technologies. The application of the boys to these units show that the opportunities are being greatly appreciated. I would really like to take this opportunity to thank the teachers in Information Software and Technologies, Mr Austin on Year 9 and Mr Brown and Ms Saxon on Year 10 who have created these learning opportunities for their classes. In Year 9 the focus has been on the web, internet and programming with drones. The Web Design unit is a good way to introduce the boys to the challenges and opportunities of the web. From understanding the beginnings of the technology used to create the Internet to being able to create their own environment and develop in Dreamweaver and HTML5. The second half of the semester was dedicated to the use of the new Tello drones we purchased, this culminated with the boys flying a course using the controllers as well as the boys coding the drone to fly the course autonomously. Year 10 have been working on 2 streams through the semester. Firstly on a Digital Media unit with Ms Saxon and developing their skills with the Adobe suite of products including Premiere, Animate and After Effects. The boys were creating movies for their assessment. With Mr Brown the boys have been working with Fusion in the areas of Modeling and Simulation. This has been finished off with boys printing their objects designed on the WASP 3D printers. Some great work being produced. Information Processes and Technology have really been focusing on the game development and the Information Processes for their semester. These theoretical components have been aided by the use of Animate and Unity to develop a 'choose your own' adventure game. These elements start as a literacy task and go through the information processes and end in the final result, a playable game. Some of these projects utilize components from the web whilst others choose to design their own characters and use these in their game.                   Year 12 have a very interesting Semester 1 with a huge range of content. In these terms the boys cover network design in their major projects and communication systems through to information systems and the databases that make them useful. This includes projects, practical examples and looks at the skills required in project management to make them desirable employees and flexible beyond those 21st Century skills.   In Software Design the Year 11 students have spent this semester looking at different programming methodologies and specifically at the Agile approach, which most students do without realizing, and it’s use in the greater development industry. There are a huge number of tools and utilities on the net and the developers of today need to embrace them. They foster these CASE tools and work with them to create new and exciting opportunities. This semester they created text-based games using Python. The average project contained around 1400 lines of code and essentially had at least 3 rooms and adventures to work through. The boys in Year 12 Software Design were completing our version of the One Laptop per Child Project. This project gives the boys a budget and they need to build a RaspberryPi based technology that meets the needs of a developing community and asks them to build the technology using the parts purchased, the 3D design software and 3D printers and laser cutter. Some of the work included weather stations, tablets with English learning tools and translation devices.      ICT Traineeship for 2020 to 2021. The ICT sector in Australia is growing faster than other industries, which means the demand for talented, knowledgeable and experienced individuals continues to grow at a rapid rate. The Catholic Schools Office, Diocese of Broken Bay have partnered with the Australian Training Company to run a 2 year ICT Traineeship Program that offers vital on-the-job and educational opportunities that will ultimately create a platform to build an amazing future in ICT. Click the link below for more information. [embed]https://csotraineeshipict.com/?fbclid=IwAR0YlYcF7ivHZyvBg6Gfkb7rSPosp4IbDcaEwDNi-MbaDEZY10VHIekbOcE[/embed]  

Recently, Gosford Private Hospital approached all local high schools to create an idea for an artwork that would decorate a hallway within the grounds of the hospital. The idea of the decoration was to create a more welcoming and visually interesting corridor for patients travelling between wards or treatment rooms. St Edward’s boys created the idea of a panelled artwork consisting of five large photographic works around the following theme: The students of St Edward's see the Coast as having the best of three worlds: Proximity of beaches and waterways that are central to both the Coast as well as to most residents' lives A creative community that supports the development of artists such as the budding photographers who will be creating this artwork The ability to provide a sense of wellness to enhance the recovery of patients who may stay at the Hospital through exposure to the beautiful local landscape. Hospital patients can feel trapped inside and are unable to fully experience the Central Coast landscape, which could help their recovery. Over the top of the photographs of the landscape, the students will digitally draw white outlines of other features of the coast – such as a symbol of our connection to Edogawa in Japan (and the Gardens at the Regional Art Gallery) through Hokusai’s 'The Great Wave' and symbols of the wildlife surrounding us such as birds and fish. All of this imagery will overlap so viewers of the artwork can see each photograph separately or as a whole piece. St Edward’s students were chosen as the winners of the competition and have received $1000 towards the production of the artwork and its’ framing. Stay tuned for the finished artwork to be revealed by the chosen students and their submissions!

Preliminary Visual Arts is an exciting year – we have the freedom to 'play' with various artistic media and extend our learning and knowledge of Visual Arts in many ways. Recently we were privileged to have Author Rae Hogan visit the class and spend some time discussing the art and practice of her artist husband, Ron. She also spent some time discussing with the boys their own artistic practice and how they are approaching their HSC Body of Work. Rae has had a fascinating life, living and breathing the artwork of her husband, as they moved from Australia, to the UK and to Bali. She has lived a large part of her life promoting the work of Ron, who is amongst the same genre of artists in Australia as Long, Drysdale, Lindsay and others. Rae wrote the first “Lonely Planet Guide to Bali for the Australian Government in the early 70’s and has also written “Of Dreams Unborn” – an anthology of the life and works of Ron Hogan. A copy of this text was given to the boys as a class and other copies were given to the school library for their Catalogue collection. It is these moments with highly engaging and inspirational people that drives the boys to think further outside their comfort zone, in preparation for their HSC year. [smallgallery fooid="20160"]

Last week the College hosted 16 local high schools over Tuesday and Wednesday for the annual Science and Engineering Challenge, with 500 visiting Year 9 and 10 students from these schools. The event is coordinated by Central Coast Rotary Clubs, with over 60 volunteer Rotarians helping coordinate the activities. Each day, the students had to undertake activities ranging from bridge building, coding, electric power distribution, creating earthquake proof towers etc. The students from Mrs Welsh’s Year 10 Science class represented the College and finished with 1100 points, falling just short of the winners Central Coast Grammar School on 1150. The boys were excellent ambassadors for the College and demonstrated great teamwork, creative and reflective thinking. [smallgallery fooid="20141"]

On 27 June St Edward's College was represented at the annual Central Coast Oztag Gala Day by two junior teams. The day is open to both Year 7 and Year 8 students however the College puts in an all Year 7 team and an all Year 8 team so that the younger students can get a chance to represent the College. Our Year 7 team played outstanding on the day winning three of their four round games. They played well as a team and were led on the field by Matty Humphries and Hunter Kay. Playing up against older boys our students represented the College with pride and came back from behind twice to win the game. Unfortunately, Kincumber High School were too good in the quarter final. Well done to the Year 7 boys who represented the College. The Year 8 team, coached by two Year 9 students, Amyn Hamilton and Jack Legge, started slow, and took a while to gel. However, once they started to play as a team, they were nearly unstoppable. Will Hodder and Dylan Day scored several tries and inspired the boys to come together and start playing as a team. It was great to sit back and watch the students interacting and encouraging one another. On the day there were several parents who commented on how well our boys were behaving and how positive their attitude was. All the boys represented the College with pride and for me I was just proud to be part of the black and red! Michael Gentle Coach

After two cancellations due to wet weather, the Under 14 Rugby League team got their opportunity to play in the Central Coast All School Roosters Cup on Tuesday 2 July at Morrie Breen Oval, Kanwal. A cold but very sunny day greeted the boys at the picturesque facilities. The format for the day involved games of 10 minute halves, with a short break in between. We were drawn in Pool B and played round games against Wadalba High School (winning 34-0) and St Brigid's Catholic College (winning 38-0). In both games the boys had all the running and scored some spectacular team tries. The turning point for the day, came in our last pool game against a very big Wyong High School team. Poor discipline and trying too hard as individuals, saw us move away from what we had been doing well earlier and the dreaded ‘frustration’ crept in. To their credit, Wyong was able to take advantage of a glut of possession and draw the game 16-16, late in the second half. A quiet chat and some minor adjustments to our starting team, led to a renewed enthusiasm in our approach as we moved into the semi finals against Terrigal High School. Intensity in defence early, saw us take two intercept passes that led to Aymn Hamilton and Harry Bates scoring runaway tries. From there we seemed to click, and the boys piled on some terrific team tries to win convincingly 34-0. Our grand final against MacKillop Catholic College had the added bonus, of the winning team progressing in both the NSW State Finals and the Cochrane Cup. When a MacKillop player dropped the ball from the kick-off, our boys took control of the game and raced in a brace of team tries to win comfortably 42-0. Our Central Coast Champions now play the Newcastle/Hunter winner in the next round of the Cochrane Cup in Week 1 next Term (Cochrane Cup – Thursday 25 July, 9:30 am, St Joseph’s Aberdeen at Baddeley Park, Cessnock). They also play in the NSWRL – All Schools on Thursday 8 August. The team consisted of: Tyrone Dorrell, Aymn Hamilton, Zak Zibara, Dylan Day, Harry Bates, Kieran Diamond, Gabe Stuart, Mason Stafford, Malachi Smith, Will Hodder, Kyle White, Zane Dale, Jack Legge, Jackson Herbert, Tom Breen, Atticus Fotofili, Aidan Deacon, Luke Marsters, Leroy Carter-Mason and Jacob Hassen. I would also like to thank Mackenzie Zammit and Nate McLean from the Year 11 Sport Coaching class, who assisted the boys on the day.  

This week in sport: Week Event Venue Date Week 10, Term 2 Under 14 Rugby League Roosters Cup Morrie Breen Oval Tuesday 2 July Week 10, Term 2 Rugby Union State Finals - Under 14 and Under 16, Waratah Cup Kings School, Paramatta Wednesday 3 July Week 10, Term 2 Intermediate Football NSWCCC Cup Round 2 vs All Saints, Maitland College Oval, kick off at 11.00 am Thursday 4 July Week 10, Term 2 Central Coast Rugby League Grand Finals Under 13, 15 and 16 Morrie Breen Oval Thursday 4 July Week 1, Term 3 Central Coast Open Rugby League To be confirmed Tuesday 23 July Week 1, Term 3 NSW All Schools Surfing Coffs Harbour Wednesday 24 to Thursday 25 July Week 1, Term 3 NSW All Schools Cross Country Eastern Creek Raceway Friday 26 July  

Challenging parents' mindsets isn't always easy. Watch the YouTube clip below: [embed]https://youtu.be/N9YdpqYhRe8[/embed]  

The University of Sydney, Year 11 and 12 Information Evening    ICT Traineeship for 2020 to 2021. The ICT sector in Australia is growing faster than other industries, which means the demand for talented, knowledgeable and experienced individuals continues to grow at a rapid rate. The Catholic Schools Office, Diocese of Broken Bay have partnered with the Australian Training Company to run a 2 year ICT Traineeship Program that offers vital on-the-job and educational opportunities that will ultimately create a platform to build an amazing future in ICT. Click the link below for more information. [embed]https://csotraineeshipict.com/?fbclid=IwAR0YlYcF7ivHZyvBg6Gfkb7rSPosp4IbDcaEwDNi-MbaDEZY10VHIekbOcE[/embed]  

The St Edward's College Year 10 graduating class of 1994 is having a 25 year anniversary reunion on Sunday 22 September 2019. For more information see the link below: https://www.trybooking.com/book   Year 10, 1994 - Warrumbungles Camp [smallgallery fooid="20230"]

'No Parking' signage changes from Central Coast Council