“God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people. So be gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient. 13 Put up with each other, and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you." Colossians 3: 12-13
From The Principal
Thank you to all of the parents that were able to attend the Parent Information and Welcome Evening last Monday. 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 parents to visit the Innovation Centre and marvel at the wonderful learning spaces that our upper primary students have recently occupied. The feedback from the students and parents has been very positive and I am delighted that the students have such awesome facilities to enhance their learning.
The College will bless and open the new facility on Foundation Day which takes place on 5 March 2019. We will commence the day with a special service, which includes the induction of the Student Representative Council, at 9.00am in St Mary’s Anglican Church, Ballina. Please add this special date to your calendar.
Just a reminder that 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.
Last Thursday and Friday we held the College swimming carnivals at the newly constructed Ballina Pool. The students participated and competed with great enthusiasm. House spirit was very obvious on the day with many 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 multiply heats in each age group, many with competitors filling all eight lanes! Remarkably, there were 34 race records set throughout the two days. Special thanks to Mr Graham Walker for his organisation and the Primary 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 carnivals. Your support and encouragement of the students was greatly appreciated. Finally, congratulations to our Age Champions on their success and to Walker House who were crowned the Champion House. We look forward with great anticipation to our performance at the NCIS Swimming Carnival on 28 February.
Thank you to all families with your patience around the transition to the new Drop Off and Pick Up zone. As we all get used to the new routine, the flow of people and car traffic during the busiest parts of the day will become even more streamlined and efficient. A reminder once again that in the morning the bays adjacent to the College are ‘Kiss and Drop’ only. There is no parking on that side of the zone in the morning.
Mr Robert Tobias
Principal
Off the Deputy's Desk
It is always great to see young people showing initiative and pitching in to get jobs done. Last week saw our Primary and Secondary Swimming Carnivals take place at Ballina pool. They were days of great competition, camaraderie and some rivalry between the 4 houses. At the end of the Secondary carnival, students were asked to clean up their areas and to assist with pack up. The venue was left really clean and a group of hard working Year 11 and Year 12 students jumped in and packed up tents. Many hands made light work and no one had to be asked twice to assist.
This week sees our Year 7 and Year 9 students out on camp and one of the greatest benefits from outdoor education is the development of the so called ‘soft skills’. Soft skills are highly valued by employers and include the following:
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Adaptability
- Problem solving
- Creativity
- Work ethic
- Interpersonal skills
- Time management
These skills are developed when students are put into cooperative, group style situations and outdoor education is a perfect vehicle for this. You learn a lot about others when things are challenging but you also learn a lot about yourself. Best of luck to the students in these year levels.
Last week the Secondary students were involved in workshops with presenters from Elevate. Students and parents can access the follow up resources, practice test exemplars for Years 11 and 12 students and platform by going to elevate education.com. When asked to log in, the password is 'rondo'. I am presently reviewing the student feedback data from these workshops.
The Primary students begin their rotation of assemblies next week starting with 6A being in charge of presenting at the assembly. I am looking forward to being at this assembly and seeing an exciting presentation by this class.
Just a reminder to Primary parents that the new carpark is now open and we are operating the drop off and pick up arrangements as per Mr Tobias’ information in the newsletter. It will take some time for parents to become accustomed to the system but once everyone learns the ropes it will provide a great facility for our parents.
Finally, it was fantastic to be able to touch base with as many parents as possible during Monday’s Parent Welcome Evening. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding your child. Your first port of call is your child’s class teacher in the Primary whereas it is your child’s Pastoral Care teacher in the Secondary.
Mr Darren Parks
Deputy Principal
Term 1 Week 4
Monday 18 February
NCIS Swimming Training
Primary Netball Trials
Tuesday 19 February
NCIS Hockey Trials @ Murwillumbah
Primary Football Training
Primary Assembly-6A
Wednesday 20 February
NCIS Swimming Training
Taiko Drumming Performance
Thursday 21 February
CIS Football Cup vs Lindisfarne @ Alstonville Football Club
Friday 22 February
NCIS Swimming Training
Secondary Sport
HICES Debating vs Lindisfarne @ EAC
Term 1 Week 5
Monday 25 February
NCIS Swimming Training
Primary Netball Training
Cross Country Training
Tuesday 26 February
Primary Chapel
Wednesday 27 February
NCIS Swimming Training
Thursday 28 February
NCIS Swimming Championships at Alstonville Pool
Friday 1 March
Cross Country Training
Secondary Sport
Sports update
Swimming Carnivals
We were blessed with two fine warm days for our Swimming Carnivals last Thursday and Friday. The Carnivals were held at the new the Ballina Pool. College spirit was on display during the carnivals with students competing in multiple events to score points for their houses. Well done to all students who participated. Thank you to our team of Teachers for helping run the carnival. Thank you also to our parent volunteers who assisted with timekeeping on the day.
There were an amazing thirty four individual and six relay records set over the two days with several students breaking multiple records. Well done to the following record breakers Charlotte Shepherd (4), Jackson Bond (4), Alastair Miller (4), Lachlan Walker (7), Lachlan Miller (6), Jayden Matthews (2), William Shepherd (1) Abigail Matthews (1), Coco Paola (1) Poppy Robinson (1), Milos Safranek (1), Mikala Campbell (1), Abigail Hanna (1).
This year we also held an Open 100 m Freestyle Championhips for the first time which saw the fastest 8 swimmers from the Secondary School race to be the overall fastest swimmer in the school. Congratulations to Lachlan Walker (Year 10) and Charlotte Shepherd (Year 9) who won this event.
Congratulations to the this years swimming champion house Walker.
(1) Walker 2193
(2) Smith 1861
(3) Brockington 1392
(4) Purcival 1347
Congratulations to our Age Champions and Runners Up.
| EAC Swimming Age Champions 2019 | |||
|
Age |
Gender | Champion | Runner Up |
Primary Boys |
|||
| 8 | Boys | Zachery Kikaras | Matthew Letvensky |
| 9 | Boys | Anthony Kikaras | Benjamin De Marco |
| 10 | Boys | Sam Carrigg | Phoenix London |
| 11 | Boys | Jayden Matthews | William Shepherd |
| 12 | Boys | Finnigan Robinson | Luke Bond |
Secondary Boys |
|||
| 12 & 13 | Boys | Zephyre Westover-Jones | Elvis Shakespeare |
| 14 | Boys | Jackson Bond | Milos Safranek |
| 15 | Boys | Alistair Miller | Samuel Hanna |
| 16 | Boys | Lachlan Walker | Hamish Walker |
| 17 | Boys | Alex Chapman | Thomas Lane |
| 18 | Boys | Lachlan Miller | Jevan Mills |
Primary Girls |
|||
| 8 | Girls | Sylvie Thomson | Stella Du Plessis |
| 9 | Girls | Abigail Matthews | Sarah Vanem |
| 10 | Girls | Coco Robinson | Zoe Campbell |
| 11 | Girls | Coco Paola | Olivia De Marco |
| 12 | Girls | Ellen Miller | Summer Thompson |
Secondary Girls |
|||
| 12 & 13 | Girls | Charlotte Shepherd | Sofia Rezai-Smyth |
| 14 | Girls | Poppy Robinson | Mikala Campbell |
| 15 | Girls | Charlotte Kean | Indiya Ledingham |
| 16 | Girls | Annie Milne | Kirsten Smith |
| 17 | Girls | Abigail Hanna | Alanah Osborne |
| 18 | Girls | Britney Osborne | Sienna Seymour |
Bill Turner Cup Football / Soccer TeamTrials
Secondary students turning 15 or under in 2019 are invited to trial for the College's Bill Turner Cup teams. Bill Turner Cup is a nation-wide knock out football competition for students turning 15 and under. We will be selecting a girls and a boys team for this competition. The first round games for Bill Turner will be in March. These teams will also be our NCIS teams which will compete in Armidale on May 6 & 7. Please give permission on the parent lounge for your child to attend.
Trials
Boys Wednesday 20 & 27 February 7.15 am
Girls Thursday 21 & 28 February 7.15 am
Training for selected students
Boys Wednesday from 6 March 7.15 am
Girls Thursdays from 7 March 7.15 am
Mr Graham Walker
Sports and Coaching Administrator
From The Office
Working With Children Checks
At EAC we take our commitment to child protection seriously. In order to provide a safe environment we expect that parent volunteers undertake the Working With Children Check for volunteers. This means that parents will not be able to assist with excursions or activities until they have been checked and the College has verified your WWC status. Working with Children Checks are completed online by going to the website of the Office of the Kids Guardian in NSW. We thank you for your support with this important matter.
Secondhand Uniform Shop
The EAC secondhand uniform shop is open from 2.30pm to 3.30pm on Tuesday afternoons in the Ezzy Centre. Please note that it will be closed on Tuesday 19 February.
Friends of Emmanuel
Chaplains Chat
This Sunday at many churches we will hear the story that many people know as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – except its Luke’s version, and he isn’t on a mountain! It is also sometimes spoken of as the Beatitudes; they are magnificent, and incredibly challenging as they outline what life is, or could be like in God’s way and God’s love. Jesus doesn’t pull any punches as he reminds those who gathered that life is not always easy, in fact a life lived for others, a life fully lived very rarely is. Much of the challenge in Jesus words lies in the reminder that even in the best of circumstances, we do not live in an idyllic, utopian existence, and that we cannot, possibly should not, be protected from what is real and all too frequently very unpleasant in life.
Thanks to the recommendations of a friend, I am currently reading ‘The Good Life” (Hugh Mackay). This isn’t a new book – it was first published in 2013, but oh my…it is a book for today.
You know it’s struck a chord when you haven’t made it past the introduction and you start making notes! I have been deeply challenged by Mackay’s thoughts around happiness, and the belief that we, and our children should always be happy. Rather like Marie Kondo has now made famous, we can begin to believe that if it doesn’t ‘spark joy’, then we should ditch whatever it is immediately, for from there we will find happiness.
But genuine happiness, comes not from ease but from depth and persistence. Contentment comes from appreciating life as it is now, what we have now and relishing that moment.
Mackay says that ‘the more we examine our Utopian fantasies and our energetic attempts to turn them into reality, the more you wonder if the very things we’re so desperate to acquire as symbols of this imagined good life may be insulating us from deeper and more enduring satisfactions, fuelling our dreams while limiting our vision, encouraging us to settle for the most trivial and fleeting meanings of ‘good”.
This sounds a little like many of the minimalist movement’s claims of reducing what we have in order to live a less complicated life. True, but there is more to it. We need to ask – what are we clearing the way for?
The vision that Jesus holds out to us in the words of the beatitudes are yes, about living simply, but also about living and loving deeply.
Deeply. With eyes that actively seek to find and serve the other.
Our College Prayer says that we want to continue to become a place of compassion, honesty, affirmation and support. To become. We have been, and we want to go further. We are not there yet but we will persist.
In the midst of celebrating and encouraging our children academically, creatively, in the sporting arena, let’s also give mind to encouraging our children to be grateful, helpful and generous, to help them become men and women who strive to bring out the best in others because it brings them joy to see others succeed.
A utopian dream? Oh perhaps, but Jesus calls us to this life. A life of beatitude – blessing, grace and mercy. Indeed – a good life.
Peace
Rev Sal
Primary News
Bounce Back Program
The BOUNCE BACK! Wellbeing & Resilience Program addresses the environmental building blocks and the personal skills for fostering resilience in children and young people. The program focuses mainly on the teaching of coping skills to help children and young people respond positively to the complexity of their everyday lives. In other words, children are taught how to ‘bounce back’ after experiencing sadness, difficulties, frustrations and hard times.
Everybody experiences sadness, failure, rejection and setbacks sometimes, not just you. They are a normal part of life. Try not to personalise them.
Canteen
EAC Canteen opens at 8.30am and operates 4 days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, with special lunches on Tuesdays, canteen is open on Tuesdays for general sales at LUNCH only.
Canteen opens at 8.30am and the Menu is available here:
SPECIAL LUNCHES:
Sushi 5 & 19 March, 2 April
Noodle Box 26 February, 12 & 26 March
Subway 9 April
Sushi – Tuesday, 19 February
Sushi from IGA, will be available from the canteen this Tuesday, 19 February. If you would like to order Sushi for your child’s lunch this Tuesday please complete the order form
Attach your order to a paper bag with your payment enclosed. This should then be put in the canteen basket on MONDAY morning, 18 February. Order forms are also available from the canteen or college office.
PRIMARY LUNCH ORDERS
Please place the money in a paper bag of sufficient size to fit all of the lunch items. If you are ordering a drink with your child’s lunch please provide two (2) bags. Please remind your child to place their lunch/recess bag in the class tub NOT directly to the canteen.
PLEASE DO NOT STAPLE / TAPE BAGS CLOSED, FOLDED IN 4 APPEARS TO WORK WELL
BAG 1: Name, Class, Teacher, Lunch Order (John Smith, 5A, Mr Falvey, 1 Junior Pie)
BAG 2: Name, Class, Drink/Cold Order (John Smith, 5A, Mr Falvey, 1 Orange Juice)
Any change required will be placed in the bag for return with the child’s lunch order.
Christine Hall
Canteen Supervisor
0414 811 668
Can you help in the canteen?
Community News
