Term 3 | Week 5 | 15-19 August 2022
"They sing to the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the flute."
Job 21:12
From The Acting Principal
When Louis Armstrong said that “Music is life itself”, he must have had this week’s activities at the College in mind. From practice rooms to band spaces, students have been preparing for performances at school as well as the Gold Coast Eisteddfod, and filling College corridors with a richness of sound.
On another music note, this week I drew inspiration from the story of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, led by the Canadian Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, which is currently preparing for a 12-city global tour to promote the richness of their country's culture and to bring a focus to their plight. One member of the orchestra stated, “I don’t have a gun, but I do have my cello“. This reminded me of the power that music has to express that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.
Music really is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and anything else, can have in common. It tells us that the human race is greater than we realise and gives colour to the air of the moment.
Nowhere is this more apparent at the College than at the rehearsals for Matilda, where our crop of budding thespians, drawn from all corners of the student body, come together to sing, dance, entertain and have fun. Soon you will have the opportunity to share their journey with them with opening night just weeks away.
Dia dhaoibh
Mr Francis McGuigan
Acting Principal
OFF THE ACTING DEPUTY'S DESK
Why read and celebrate Book Week?
Costumes, decorations, balloons - it's good fun for everyone! Of course, we are all busily planning for the Book Week festivities in true EAC style.
But what is it all for? Why is it important that we encourage children to love reading?
Like everything we do at EAC, children’s learning is at the forefront when planning events like Book Week.
Research shows that reading stimulates that part of the brain which allows children to understand the meaning of language and helps build key vocabulary, literacy and social skills. It allows us to be transported from our own world to another. Between the pages of a book, we can become immersed in the lives of fictional characters and learn about a culture entirely different from our own. We can also learn new words and phrases, experience a range of emotions, and acquire skills and knowledge.
In addition to this, sharing stories is a great way to enjoy time together and help children build a love of reading for pleasure. So why not grab a book and take a wild adventure with your family? Not only will you be having fun but you will also be benefiting their future education.
I am looking forward to seeing the College community celebrate a love of reading and have lots of fun over the coming week as we all remember this important time.
Also a quick reminder that all parents in Years 4-6 are requested to bring something to be shared at morning tea for grandparents. This can be dropped at the Ezzy Centre at the beginning of the day.
Amanda Middleton
Acting Deputy Principal
Term 3 | Week 6B
Monday 22 August
- Athletics Training @ 7.30am
- Secondary Girls Rugby 7s Training @ 7.30am
- Year 3 and Year 5 Public Speaking Competition Finals
- Matilda Rehearsal @ 3.15pm - 5.15pm
Tuesday 23 August
- Primary NCIS Netball Training @ 7.30am
- Purcival House Chapel
- Year 4 and 6 Public Speaking Competition Finals
- Year 9 Marine Studies Excursion
- Mountain Bike Training, Woolgoolga
- After School Volleyball Program @ 3.30pm - 5pm
- Year 4 Byron Writers Festival Excursion
Wednesday 24 August
- NCIS Rugby 7s Coffs Harbour
- Year 11 Excursion to CrossFit Ballina
- Purcival House BBQ
- Secondary Book Week Celebrations
- Matilda Rehearsal @ 3.15pm - 5.15pm
Thursday 25 August
- NCIS Athletics Carnival Coffs Harbour
- Walker Chapel
- Secondary Byron Writers Festival Excursion
- Year 10 Courage to Care Presentation
- Year 9 Human Movement Excursion
- After School Basketball Program @ 3.30pm - 5pm
Friday 26 August
- Secondary Rugby 7s Training @ 7.30am
- Athletics Training @ 7.30am
- Primary Book Week Celebrations
- Grandparents Day
- Library Book Swap
Coming Soon...
Sunday 28 August
- Tournament of the Minds Regional Finals
Monday 29 August
- North Coast Leadership Summit
Tuesday 30 August
- NCIS Tennis Selections - Secondary
Wednesday 31 August
- NCIS Tennis Selections - Primary
Friday 2 September
- EAC Dad's Day Brekkie @ 8am - 9am
- AusCycling National Cycling Challenge
Friday 9 September
- R U OK Day
Monday 12 September
- Year 7 Camp
Wednesday 14 September
- Year 11 Camp
Wednesday 21 September
- Years 1-6 Japanese Culture Day
- Year 12 Valedictory Service, St Mary's @ 7pm
Thursday 22 September
- Year 12 Graduation Ceremony @ 11am
Friday 23 September
- EAC to host Inter School Chess Competition
- Last day of Term 3
Tuesday 11 October
- First Day of Term 4
Matilda Show Season
- Friday 28 October - Opening Night @ 7pm
- Saturday 29 October - Matinee @ 2pm & Evening Performance @ 7pm
- Wednesday 2 November - Matinee @ 11am
- Thursday 3 November - Reserve Date - Matinee @ 11am
- Friday 4 November - Evening Performance @ 7pm
- Saturday 5 November - Matinee 2pm & Closing Night @ 7pm
Wednesday 9 November
- Year 12 Formal @ Ballina RSL
Tuesday 29 November
- Year 6 Camp
Wednesday 7 December
- Last Day of Term 4
Sports Round Up
EAC Trains to Win!
From dawn till dusk the College grounds are buzzing with teams training and preparing for upcoming tournaments, carnivals and tests. Whether it be Rugby, Athletics, Netball, Mountain Biking or one of the other many sporting activities on offer at EAC, all the teams are doing a great job 'putting in the hard yards'.
Training is not always easy. It can be inconvenient and exhausting. At times, the measures of improvement are excruciatingly small with the gap between effort and reward frustratingly large. Our students however, keep turning up to training week in and week out, determined to improve and be ready for competition.
Well done team members - your efforts in training alone deserve our congratulations.
Well done coaches - your dedication is appreciated more than you know.
Well done parents and carers - your commitment and support makes it all possible.
EAC 2022 Tennis Championships
Move over Serena and Roger - EAC's tennis players are coming through!
The College will hold the 2022 EAC Tennis Championships in the coming weeks with secondary students playing to win on Tuesday 30 August. Primary students in years 2 to 6 will face off on Wednesday 31 August.
These championships will also serve as selection trials for our College NCIS Tennis Championship team.
The Championship is best suited to players with some experience, ideally at Club level and, as the event will be held off-site at the Ballina Tennis courts, prior permission will need to be given via the Parent Lounge for students to participate.
Students are to wear their sports uniform and will need to bring their own tennis racket.
For students successfully selected for the EAC representative team, the NCIS Tennis Championships will be held on Thursday 27 October in Grafton. The top four students from each division will be selected to represent the College.
If your student wishes to compete in the championships, please give permission on the Parent Lounge by 24 August 2022.
Music Notes
EAC Music Students show Amazing Grace
Our EAC Music students have been achieving some really fantastic results of late and have represented the College with great pride and grace.
Congratulations to the Emmanuel Concert Band who competed at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod. The students performed brilliantly and were awarded a Silver Award. This is an amazing result considering we had a number of students from our lower bands step up at the last minute to cover for unavailable students. Both on and off the stage, the students represented the College with pride.
Roi Chang & Ashlyn Stevenson
Matilda News
Rehearsals are now well underway as cast and crew prepare to take on Mrs Trunchball at Crunchem Hall in October and November this year.
The whole cast are now busy learning their lines, songs and choreography, none more so than Year 4 girls Charlotte and Isla who will play the role of Matilda.
The commitment and dedication the production team have shown, even at this early stage or preparations, puts us on track for a season of fantastic performances. Remember to mark the dates in your diary now and watch this space for news of ticket sales.
Matilda Show Season Dates
Friday 28 October - Opening Night @ 7pm
Saturday 29 October - Matinee @ 2pm & Evening Performance @ 7pm
Wednesday 2 November - Matinee @ 11am
Thursday 3 November - Reserve Date - Matinee @ 11am
Friday 4 November - Evening Performance @ 7pm
Saturday 5 November - Matinee @ 2pm & Closing Night @ 7pm
Library Lowdown
The 2022 Friends of EAC Book Swap is HERE!
Canteen Cookup
We Need You!
Looking for a way to connect with the College, meet some new friends and fill in a morning or two? The EAC Canteen is in dire need of volunteers to help out over the coming weeks. The work is simple, the banter is hilarious and your kids will think you are a superstar! Grandparents are welcome too so please spread the word.
Email enquiries@eac.nsw.edu.au to register your interest or simply drop by the Front Office for more information.
Fresh for Kids campaign back by popular demand in 2022.
The campaign promotes fresh and vegetables and offers students the opportunities to win prizes.
Each student is rewarded for making a fresh fruit or vegetable choice. Students receive a token card to fill and will receive a stamp for their card for each day they make a fresh fruit or vegetable choice. The food choice must be fresh though (i.e. not fruit sticks, dried fruit etc.).
The campaign will run for three weeks starting Monday 22 August till Friday 9 September.
Class teachers will collect the token cards and send them to the canteen for verification and then prizes (character stickers) will be issued (while stocks last). Token cards will then be forwarded to Sydney Markets to participate in the major prize draw.
Love Food, Hate Waste? Take a bite out of this Free Online Course.
In light of rising food costs and inevitable food waste with children, the Ballina Shire Council has made available a wonderful free online course for the EAC community. The course includes four fun cooking videos and a downloadable handbook with recipes.
You can complete the whole course or just pick out the bits that tickle your taste buds.
Check out this video for more details.
The course was created with funding from the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) through their Love Food Hate Waste project and is available free of charge until the end of the year.
How To EAC
How to... Get in the Loop on Parent-to-Parent Communications
Parents and Carers from each year group may choose how they wish to communicate with each other to share informal information such as invitations to social engagements and the like. Popular choices for this communication are Facebook, Facebook Messenger and What’sApp. In keeping with Emmanuel Anglican College’s professional standards and policies, College staff are unable to participate or provide formal assistance in the administration of these online communication methods.
However, the College does provide a platform for the sharing of communication details - the Parent Directory which is available via the Parent Lounge on the College website at www.eac.nsw.edu.au. Parents and Carers are able to elect what, if any, contact details they wish to share with other College families and features other useful information such as a list of students. Parents are able to download available contact details from the Parent Directory and import them into their chosen communication platform. Individuals are then free to manage their own participation in informal forums without disrupting their official College communication pathways.
It is important to note the Parent Directory available securely through the Parent Lounge is totally separate to the EAC community Business Directory available from the home page of the College website. The Business Directory is a paid listing available to EAC families to advertise their businesses.
For assistance with the Parent Lounge Parent Directory, please contact enquiries@eac.nsw.edu.au.
Early Learning Centre Corner
ELC Welcomes Families Commencing in 2023
The ELC has been busy of late with families looking to commence their children in 2023. This is such a big step for parents and carers as well as their little ones, many of who are attending activities outside the home without their 'big people' for the first time. ELC staff work hard to make this transition from home to pre school as easy as possible with lots of patience and small steps.
Each new child starting at the ELC has the opportunity to enjoy an experience day, just like the big kids do in the Primary and Secondary Schools. The College receives consistently positive feedback around the presentation of our grounds, the conduct of our students and the approachability of our staff.
We look forward to welcoming a whole new group of families to the ELC in 2023.
Primary Pulse
Gearing Up for Grandparents Day
We are looking forward to Grandparents Day next Friday 26 August. The day will start with our Book Character Parade in the Lindsay Walker Centre at 9:15am. Following the parade, Grandparents will have the opportunity to go back to school with their little ones to share some time in the classrooms.
At around 11am, we will invite Grandparents to a morning tea in their honour in the Ezzy Centre. A call out has gone to our Years 4-6 families to provide a plate to be shared at the Morning Tea. Plates can be dropped off at the Ezzy Centre prior to the Book Parade on the morning.
Given its hiatus over the past few years due to the pandemic, we anticipate large numbers on the day and ask all families to consider this when timing their arrival and parking on the day. It may be best to drop Grandparents at the Lindsay Walker Centre prior to the Parade and collect them after the morning tea from the Ezzy Centre.
I have already had a few pictures emailed through from Grandparents who cannot make the day but still want to get in the spirit and share a picture of them in a costume. I did ask for one photo per child, but obviously that can be two if both sets of Grandparents wish to send a photo through.
Wayne Cross
Director Primary
They Won!
In a thrilling round of the New South Wales School's Debating Competition, our Stage 3 EAC Blue Debating Team slam-dunked a victory to win the Semi Final against Newcastle Grammar School.
Henry Drew, Stella Du Plessis, Montague Hewitt and Aurelien Rignault presented their arguments with clarity and courage. The Team represented the College with great pride and their fellow students were thunderous in their support.
The topic the team negated was 'That it is inappropriate for politicians to communicate through social media.' A 'ripped from the headlines' topic if ever there was one!
Along with some strange routines that include a luck packet of Rice Wheels (?!), the team practiced and prepared diligently and it sure has paid off!
Well done Blue Team.
Secondary Scoop
Year 10 Wellbeing Day does Wonders
This week, our Year 10 students had a fantastic day of reflection on their wellbeing at our Year 10 Wellbeing Day.
In the morning they participated in a workshop run by Tomorrow Man / Tomorrow Woman which helped them reflect on the expectations and practices that they live by. Students found this to be a powerful experience and really engaged with the facilitators and each other.
In the second half of the day students rotated around four activities linked to the Australian Wellbeing Framework, exploring spirituality, physical health, mindfulness and creativity. Students had great fun with these workshops and deepened their connection with their peers.
Students are invited to wear the tie-dyed socks they created to stand in solidarity with each other on R U OK Day on Friday 9 September.
Julie Fryer
Acting Director Secondary
Emerging Leaders Encouraged
It is at this time of year that we start to think about farewelling our current Year 12 students as they prepare for their final exams. It is also time for our Year 11 students to begin to step up to become the next leaders of the College.
Over the next week we will start our process for Year 11 students to apply for leadership roles for 2023. Our year 11 cohort has excellent leadership candidates and we encourage students to reflect on their experiences and the strengths they could bring to the College.
We'll be looking for our next College Captains as well as leaders of other areas including the Student Representative Council, Arts and Culture, Service and Sustainability, Sport and Spirit and, of course, each College House.
Students are now preparing their nomination submissions and will then be invited to interview. A shortlist will be developed for each available position and these students will then present speeches to their fellow Year 11 students and House groups before voting takes place by staff and students.
We encourage all our future leaders to apply!
Friends of EAC
Honor Roll: Spotlighting Success from the Broader College Community
We want YOUR stories!
We are on the hunt for news from our College Community. Know of an update from one of our Amazing Alumni? Maybe you are one of our Terrifically Talented Teachers with tales to tell. Proud Parents and Cherished Carers, we want to celebrate your achievements. Superhero Support Staff, we see you too and want to share your stories!
Our College community is full of remarkable people achieving the most incredible of things. The 2020s have featured some interesting challenges and we have all grown so much as a result. There are most certainly heroes in our midst with stories of inspiration and achievement that we can all benefit from. This is the place to share those stories and celebrate those heroes.
Please email enquiries@eac.nsw.edu.au with your good news.
Northern Rivers News
