“Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest”
Matthew 11:28
From The Principal
Congratulations to Mrs Lisa Weingarth who has this week been accredited by the New South Wales Education Standards Authority (NESA) as a Lead Teacher. Lisa joins a very small but highly distinguished group of teachers across NSW who have been confirmed as exemplary educational practitioners. In fact, across NSW there are almost 150 000 teachers and less than 200 have been accredited at the highest level. Lisa has been through a very rigorous process which involves submitting an enormous amount of evidence to demonstrate her effectiveness as a practitioner and her ability to support and lead her colleagues in their professional journey. Her performance is measured against the Australian Standards for Teachers and validated by an external panel following the submission of observation reports by an externally appointed NESA representative. She was also required to submit reports from a number of her own colleagues who also observed her teaching practice and provided written feedback. We are extremely proud to have such a committed, diligent and talented educator on our team. Congratulations Lisa!
It was an early Saturday morning for the students, their families and the teachers participating in the Lego League Challenge in Brisbane on the weekend. Having won through the Northern Rivers Competition hosted by EAC two weeks ago, our Year 6 team was competing against nearly 40 other teams from schools all over Queensland. The challenge has two components. Firstly, the team must design, build and program a EV3 robot to complete a number of pre-determined challenges that include navigating a course and interacting with items and obstacles. The second part of the challenge involves researching an issue and developing an innovative solution to improve the current situation. I am very proud to say that the students represented their College with great pride and demonstrated wonderful skill and talent throughout the competition. Congratulations to the students for their efforts and creative thinking. Thanks also to Mrs Tina Cahill for their coordination of the team and mentoring of the students. Thanks also to the parents who made the journey to support the teams.
I would also like to formally acknowledge and thank the Friends of EAC for their incredible work and support of the College throughout 2018. Friends’ action and initiatives in 2018 include the 20th Anniversary Dinner and Car Raffle, BBQ’s at our major carnivals, providing hospitality at many school events including Grandparents Day and the College Art Showcase and coordinating the Primary Discos. All of these events have brought people together, created friendships and help build our community.
The efforts of Friends have also been very successful financially with the Friends of EAC donating $40 000 to the Building Fund to support construction of the Multi Purpose Centre. This is an amazing contribution. A huge thank you to the hardworking committee and dedicated group of people who regularly attend the Friends meetings, plan events and help out on the day. We are really blessed to have such generous and committed people in our community.
Once again I remind everyone of the upcoming end of year events and celebrations. I hope that you will be able to join us at some of these special occasions prior to the College breaking for the summer holiday.
29 November – Year 6 Celebration Dinner
4 December – Christmas Concert
5 December – Early Learning Centre Christmas gathering
11 December – Whole College Chapel Service
12 December – College Presentation Day
Mr Robert Tobias
Principal
Off the Deputy's Desk
This coming Thursday evening our Year 6 students have their Celebration which marks the beginning of the end of their Primary years. It also marks the transition to Secondary education and for many parents will be a bittersweet moment when their child becomes an adolescent. Rites of passage are important in helping students celebrate milestones and provide a key step in the transition process. Education just like life, is full of transitions and I hope that the Year 6 students have a wonderful evening celebrating their achievement. I would like to thank all the parents who have been involved in the organization of the event, we certainly have appreciated your efforts and support and know that you have put an enormous amount of work in to make it a special night for the students.
For our Year 8 students, Thursday is their retreat day at Lismore. The idea behind a retreat day is to take students out of their normal routine timetabled setting to allow them to undertake the process of personal and spiritual reflection. I am looking forward to spending the day with the Year 8 cohort and hope to be able to play some part in supporting them on the day. Thanks to Rev Sal and Mrs Miller for their work in the organization of this day.
I am currently in the process of proof reading Primary reports and whilst this can be a time consuming and sometimes tedious task, it is also a very valuable and illuminating one as it allows me to look at the progress of each child and gain a picture of their efforts and academic progress over the course of the semester. Next week it will be Secondary reports and I will hopefully be able to gain an in depth picture of the progress of our students from Years 7-10.
The end of the year is zooming towards us and I remind our students that it is our expectation that they will work hard right up until the end of the year and make the most of any assessment related feedback that they receive. Acting on teacher feedback is a challenge for some students but applying new insights from feedback can help lift achievement in the future if the student receives it in the correct frame of mind (as a learning and personal growth opportunity rather than a criticism)
Next week sees our Primary students involved in Step Up Day where they find out their class and teacher for 2019. I have no doubt that this will be an exciting time for our students. Our teachers in the Primary and our Welfare Leaders have put countless hours of work into arranging these classes and I would ask that parents respect and support the professional judgement of our staff when it comes to making the decisions about class allocations.
Mr Darren Parks
Deputy Principal
Monday 3 December
Year 10 Transition Program-All week
Year 11 Hospitality Placement-All week
Tuesday 4 December
Christmas Concert Rehearsal Day at St Mary’s Anglican Church
Christmas Concert at St Mary’s 6.30-7.30 pm
Year 10/11 Elevate Study Skills Program
Primary Chapel
Bishop Murray Visit to EAC-9.00-11.00am
Wednesday 5 December
Step Up Day Yrs. 1-6
Year 7 2019 Experience Day
Year 3 Christmas Performance
Early Learning Centre End of Year Performance
Friday 7 December
Year 6 Cake Stall Fundraiser at Recess –all funds go to the College’s Indonesian Sponsor Child)
Secondary Sport
Monday 10 December
College Picnic Day-Letters have gone out to parents of students in each Stage from ES1 to Stage 6.
Tuesday 11 December
Whole College Chapel Service-9.00 am-St Mary’s Anglican Church, Ballina
Wednesday 12 December
College Presentation Day-Primary 10.00 am-St Mary’s Anglican Church, Ballina.
Secondary-12.00pm-St Mary’s Anglican Church, Ballina.
Early Learning Centre News
The Early Years Learning Framework has five outcomes designed to capture the integrated and complex learning and development of all children across the birth to six age range. The outcomes are broad and observable. They acknowledge that children learn in a variety of ways and vary in their capabilities and pace of learning.
Outcome 1 - Children have a strong sense of identity - demonstrated as Hannah blissfully and confidently moves her whole body calling, "I can see the whole world!"
Outcome 2 - Children are connected with and contribute to their world - evident as Matilda finds a gifted feather from the 'peewee' bird who waits patiently for us in our gardens to finish eating so it can pick at our crumbs.
Outcome 3 - Children have a strong sense of well being - illustrated here through Jack's expression of happiness as he perseveres with the challenge of building a tall tree structure for his birds.
Outcome 4 - Children are confident and involved learners - exploration and problem-solving supports Georgia as she discovers the answer to our question, "what two colours create purple when mixed together?"
Outcome 5 - Children are effective communicators - evident as Mason finds each letter of his name and then has a go at writing his name too.
Natasha Livock
Early Learning Centre Coordinator
Outcome 2 - Children are connected with and contribute to their world
Outcome 3 - Children have a strong sense of well being
Outcome 5 - Children are effective communicators
Outcome 4 - Children are confident and involved learners
Primary News
VALUES BARREL
Christ-Likeness, Integrity, Compassion, Commitment and Excellence
Students receive tokens for demonstrating our College values on the playground and in the classroom. Tokens are placed in our Values Barrel and three names are drawn out, acknowledging and rewarding positive behaviour.
This fortnights three deserving winners are: Tiara, Hugh and Ben.
Merilyn Mule' Paul Christensen
K-2 Welfare Leader 3-6 Welfare Leader
Secondary News
MyState Film Festival
During Term 3, the College registered to take part in the MyState Student Film Festival. This Tasmanian-based event is a free artistic opportunity that is open nationally for young people to showcase their talent and creativity in visual arts and filmmaking.
Students from Years 7 to 10 were invited to take part in the festival by submitting their own short films within their chosen genre category. The project was treated as an extracurricular activity requiring students to film and edit their videos outside of school time. The only requirement of the submitted films was that they had to incorporate a festival-nominated feature item. This year’s item was a ‘hat’.
Several EAC students stepped up to the challenge and entered their productions. The festival received a record-breaking 306 film entries, with over 1500 students taking part from all over Australia. Over the last three weeks, every film has been through a rigorous judging process by a panel of esteemed film-industry judges and the finalists of each category have now been announced.
I would like to acknowledge the incredible achievement of Year 7 student, Ned Cowan, whose short film has been nominated as a regional finalist. Ned worked with his schoolmates, Jackson Bond and Miloš Safranek, to film a ‘Sun Safety’ promotional video which was submitted under the ‘TV Commercial’ category.
You can view Ned’s entry below. Please feel free to show your appreciation of his work by liking the video and leaving a comment.
I’d also like to also acknowledge the hard work of all the students who submitted entries for this film festival. The quality of our EAC submissions was excellent and I encourage these students to continue following their passion for storytelling and film-making.
The winners of our Regional Awards will be announced online on: Friday, 7th December 2018. We wish Ned the best of luck!
Mr Tom Papworth
Nihongo NEWS
WORD OF THE WEEK
Year 4 enjoyed making Merry Christmas origami wreaths.
Mrs Jennifer Buddee
Primary Teacher
First Lego League
On Saturday the 24 November, the State Final for First Lego League was held in Rothwell. It was an early start for a committed and talented group of Year 6 students who were selected to represent EAC in this event. The group of students included Lukyn Patrick, Kaiden Smith, Chris Flavel, Hugh de Gruchy, Anya Grant, Aviva Moon and Stella Brandon. They competed in a very challenging Robotics competition and delivered an awesome presentation about Growing Plants in Space. There were 40 teams and the standard was very high. Whilst our group, The Moon Trekkers, was not successful in placing, they worked with persistence, enjoyed the experience and came away with lots of ideas for next time. Well done students!
A big thankyou to their parents who travelled the distance and spent the whole day supporting the children.
Mrs Tina Cahill
Primary Teacher
Special Event
Canteen
EAC Canteen 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.
LAST CANTEEN DAY: FRIDAY 7 DECEMBER
CANTEEN STOCK - END OF YEAR
With the college year coming to an end I will be cutting back on my ordering so that excess stock is not being held over the Christmas break. I will keep you posted of the availability of items through this newsletter and in the parent lounge, updated daily. I will post what is no longer available and what stock I am running low on. I will always have available fresh items, sandwiches, rolls etc but will also guarantee dino nuggets and junior pies.
Thank you for your continuing support of the canteen in 2018.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Ham Pineapple Pizza
Lasagna
Potato Pies
Orange & passionfruit Juice
LOW ON STOCK - PLEASE GIVE ANOTHER OPTION
Hamburgers
Cheese & Bacon Pizza
Sausage Rolls
Canteen opens at 8.30am and the Menu is available here:
Special Lunch Dates - Term 4
SUBWAY DATE: 4 December
Subway – Tuesday 4 December
Subway from “Subway” at Ballina Fair, will be available from the canteen next Tuesday, 4 December. If you would like to order Subway for your child’s lunch next Tuesday please complete the order form then attach your order to a paper bag with your payment enclosed. This should then be put in the canteen basket on Monday morning, 3 December . Order forms will be sent home but are also available at the canteen, office or online.
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
Community News
