Foundation Day Principal’s Address 2018

Good morning everyone and welcome to this wonderful occasion to celebrate the many fantastic opportunities, experiences and friendships that we all share as part of the EAC community. Today we celebrate and give thanks for 20 years of learning, living and leading and take time to acknowledge the founders and pioneer families of the College who had both the vision and the courage to step out into the unknown to bring Emmanuel Anglican College to life.

The Founders of Emmanuel Anglican College were obviously like the wise person in the scripture reading from Matthew’s Gospel who built their house on the rock. Our firm foundations include our Christian faith and heritage, core values such as Christlikeness , compassion and integrity and God’s enduring presence with us, which is best encapsulated in the College name, Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’. The dream of the Founders was to build a College community that provided access to a quality education for their children in a Christian environment which truly values each and every individual.

As we look back over the many blessings of the last 20 years, I would like to share with you a little about our foundation history.

On 13 December 1995, the Rector of the Parish of St Mary’s Ballina, Rev Geoff Smith called together a group of interested people to discuss the possibility of establishing an Anglican School to service the families of the Ballina, Byron and Lismore region. The minutes from the meeting propose ‘the establishment of a double stream school of approximately 700 pupils, Kindergarten to Year 12’. With this vision in mind, the committed and faithful group, led by Rev Geoff Smith (Patron of Smith House) set about the process to seek support of the Anglican Diocese, the relevant government authorities and the people of the region, to bring their vision to life. Included in this group of early visionaries were Mr Howard Brockington (Patron of Brockington House), who had been a Secondary Principal and district supervisor for the Department of Education. Also present at the initial gathering was Mr Keith Purcival (Patron of Purcival House), who had been a long term Primary Principal in the northern rivers. Both men providing great advice and support to the process of establishing a high quality educational institution.

Support for the establishment of a school grew quickly and over the next two years, all of the necessary processes were put in place to establish the College. It was determined that the school would be known as Emmanuel Anglican College and in September of 1997, Mr Robert Baker was appointed the inaugural principal. Planning commenced to open the College in 1998. It was decided that, Initially the College would operate at the Anglican Church retreat centre known as Gunundi, which was located on the East Ballina Headland. Once the school was up and running, a permanent site would be purchased and the school relocated to this site.

The College then advertised for a suitably qualified, experienced and dedicated teacher to educate the first students of the College. There were over 80 applications for the position with Mrs Joan Pickup being selected to undertake this most important role.

The College Council formally met for the first time on 10 November 1997. The minutes of the meeting highlight discussion relating to the search for a permanent site, purchase of a demountable building for Gunundi to be used as the Classroom and Office, registration of the College with the Board of Studies and selection of College colours for the uniform.

After much preparation, hard work, prayer and with an enormous amount of faith, Emmanuel Anglican College was officially opened on 8 March 1998. There were 16 students on that day. Today there is just under 680 students from Pre-school to Year 12.

Mr Lindsay Walker (Patron of Walker House) joined College Council and took a lead role in the process of identifying and investigating proposed sites for the new school.  A number of sites were explored and finally the current site was purchased and work commenced on construction of Stage 1 of the master plan.  The College was officially opened on its current site on 5 March, 2000 by which time the College enrolment has swelled to 176 students!

When we look at the incredible facilities and learning opportunities we have today, it hard to believe the courage of the pioneer families who choose to support the small fledgling school.  Without these determined, committed, faith filled and courageous people, we would not be here today.

I am very pleased to say that a number of our founders and pioneer families are present today and I would like them to join me on the sanctuary so we can acknowledge them. As they come forward, our Captains will present them with a Certificate of Appreciation and a 20 Year Celebration pin as a small token of our great thanks.

Founders Mr Howard Brockington and Mr Lindsay Walker, both College Council members, House Patrons and great contributors to the College.

Rev Greg Ezzy, former Parish Priest of St Mary’s Parish and a member of College Council for almost 15 years.

Pioneer parents: Mr Mark Coghill, Mr Bill McInerny, Mrs Michelle Trudeaux, Mr Rick Beattie, Mrs Jodie Shelley and Dr Ann Staughton.

All of these parents have given an enormous amount of their own time to the establishment of the College. They enroled their children in the College when it had very little in terms of resources but they were committed to their shared values, a caring community and a common goal to build a great school for their kids. Each of them gave many volunteers hours as either a member of College Council or as President of EAC Friends. They have spent many hours involved in working bees, coordinating events such as the Harvest Fair and the Friends Ball.

EAC is widely renowned for its capacity to care for each student as an individual learner and our ability to support them to achieve their best. At the heart of the culture of EAC is a loving acceptance of all students, but never an acceptance of mediocrity, a love of learning and achievement but never a blinded obsession with results and a desire to encourage students to make the world a better place for all, not just themselves. And I think it would be fair for me to say that the person who has had the single most significant impact on the culture of EAC is our Foundation Teacher –Mrs Joan Pickup. Joan embodies all that is EAC.

For all of these ‘true believers’ I genuinely want to say thank you and hope that you see the wonderful College we have today as part of your legacy to our community.

Please congratulate and thank these wonderful people.

Central to this year’s celebrations is the Induction of the Student Representative Council. I congratulate the students who have been identified by their peers as having the skills and talents that mark them as a leader. I am sure they will make a wonderful contribution to EAC in the coming year. I also want to thank and congratulate all those students who were generous and courageous enough to nominate for election this year. A willingness to be involved, to lend a hand and to give of your time are all signs of a person with great character. If you did nominate and were unsuccessful, I say thank you and also encourage you to continue to look for ways to be involved and to support the College. Whether wearing a badge or not everyone has the opportunity to be a role model for others and to give something back to the College and our community.

There are many opportunities for student leadership across the College and today I would also like to recognise a number of students who will be taking on a leadership role as part of our Band and Music Tuition Program. To be a Band Leader a student must demonstrate a high level of proficiency as a musician, support the Band Coordinator in the preparations for rehearsals and performances as well as mentor and guide the younger members of the Band.

It gives me great pleasure to announce our Band Captains for 2018.

Leading the Primary Concert Band – Olivia Carter and Alexander Kier

Leading the Secondary Concert Band – Niva Ewald and Kate Utting

This year we have also asked a number of students to take on the role of Section Leader to help coordinate each section and its players.

Our Section Leaders for the Primary Band are:

Section Leader (Woodwind) – Matthew Smith and Lola Wagner

Section Leader (Brass) – Christopher Flavel and Marlie Koenen

Section Leader (Percussion) – Jack Whitaker

Section Leaders for the Secondary Band are:

Section Leader (Woodwind) - Ella Kratzer and Noah Grosser

Section Leader (Brass) – Francios Van Kempen and Kirsten Smith

Section Leader (Percussion) – Ella Peart

As we celebrate the foundation of the College, I also wish to acknowledge the hard work, commitment and dedication of a number of the EAC staff at our assembly today and present our 2018 Staff Service Awards.

Each of these staff members has completed 10 years in service of the students and families of the EAC community. Their contributions are numerous, extremely valuable and greatly appreciated. Today we acknowledge and thank:

• For her service to secondary students and Information Technology across the College, we thank Mrs Julie Beavis.
• For her service to primary students we thank Mrs Joanna Macpherson.
• For his contribution to curricular and co-curricular sport across the College, we thank Mr Paul Pryor.
• For his services to Secondary students through his classroom teaching and pastoral and curriculum leadership, we thank Mr Daniel Kelly.
• For her services to the College Community through her management of the College Canteen and support of Food Technology and Hospitality, we thank Mrs Christine Hall.
• For his service to music, student performance and development of the College Band program and for his pastoral leadership, we thank Mr Adam Holmes.

Each of these members of staff have made a generous and significant contribution the development of the College. We pray that they may they be greatly blessed for all they have given our community throughout their time of service. Please congratulate them once again.

Today we also celebrate the success of our Year 12 Graduating Class for 2017 as we formally acknowledge the 2017 College Dux. Following allocations of the Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranks (ATAR) I am pleased to announce that the 2017 Dux was Courtney Osborne.  Courtney was also the recipient of Southern Cross University, Louise Morgan Scholarship and has commenced her studies for a Bachelor of Science Degree. Please congratulate Courtney.

As I have said many times, we are greatly blessed to live and learn in such a beautiful part of the world in such a fantastic school that offers so much to each and every one of us. As we take a moment to give thanks for all we have, I ask every student to think about how they might get the most out of the wonderful opportunities that EAC has to offer. I encourage you all to take advantage of the great gift that God has given you and to make the most of this gift. So use your learning time wisely, get involved in as many parts of College life as possible, build as many strong friendships as you can and always be thankful for the many gifts you receive.

I wish everyone a very happy Foundation Day for 2018.

Mr Robert Tobias
Principal