Thank you to all of the parents that were able to attend the Parent Information and Welcome Evening last Wednesday afternoon.  It was great to see the Ezzy Centre buzzing with great conversation after the information sessions.  The evening certainly confirmed for me the great support that EAC enjoys from our families.  The staff were also very appreciative of the number of parents that came to the information sessions and introduced themselves on the evening.  It was also an exciting opportunity for our new families to connect and engage with our community for the first time.  In wonderful EAC fashion, I saw numerous incidents of existing parents reaching out to new parents to simply say hello and welcome.

Research tells us that when parents and teachers build strong relationships and work collaboratively, numerous positive outcomes for students are likely to emerge.  Our teachers actively encourage open and regular communication and are strong believers that the sooner a concern or question is raised, the sooner it can be worked through and resolved.  If you have any issues, questions or concerns throughout the year, the first point of contact for primary students is the Class Teacher and for secondary students it is the Pastoral Care Teacher or the Subject Teacher.  Our policy is that we will return contact within 24 hours of your email or call.  Please understand that during the College day, the teachers are in the classroom teaching and may not receive your correspondence or have a chance to respond immediately.  I am sure you appreciate that they have lives and families too, and therefore may not have the opportunity to respond to an email sent late at night requesting a response prior to school the next day.  For more urgent matters, particularly change of pick up routine and the like, please contact the College office and we will ensure the message is passed on to the students and staff as required.

We were able to take advantage of the break in the weather to hold the secondary school swimming carnival at Alstonville Pool today.  I wish to congratulate the students on their enthusiasm throughout the event.  House spirit was very obvious on the day with students dressing up in House colours and cheering every race.  The level of participation was very high, with many students swimming in multiple races.  As race starter I was delighted to see multiple heats in each age group, with many competitors filling all eight lanes!  Special thanks to Mr Graham Walker for his organisation and Secondary House Captains for their leadership on the day.  Thank you also to all of the parents who joined us at the pool for the carnival.  Your support and encouragement of the students was greatly appreciated.  Finally, congratulations to our Age Champions on their success.  We look forward with great anticipation to our Primary School carnival next week.