Term 1 | Week 8 | 21 March 2019
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Matthew 1:12-15
Off the Deputys desk
Mr Tobias is in Japan this week visiting sister schools and attending end of the year presentation functions (yes, the Japanese school year finishes in March). We hope that he travels safely and continues to create strong links and build intercultural understanding between our schools.
On the home front Primary and Secondary students have been involved in activities to build a knowledge and level of resilience towards bullying via National Day of Action Against Bullying activities. The purpose of explicitly engaging students in these activities is based on the premise that by being involved in planned activities our students develop greater empathy and respect for others and have it reinforced that bullying is not acceptable in a civil society. We are currently reviewing our bullying policy and will gain feedback from students via the SRC and parents via the strategic planning survey. However, it is important to look at what the research says about bullying. The section below is taken from the Bullying No Way! website and lists what works and what doesn’t work in school approaches. These recommendations come from Australian and overseas research.
Research, both in Australia and overseas, has identified the following combination of broad strategies as most likely to prevent and reduce bullying:
- a universal whole-school approach over a long duration that takes a multi-faceted approach rather than focusing on one single component
- A focus on building positive relationships and reducing bullying in the school community through a range of activities that engage students, families and staff (including professional development for teachers)
- a whole-school detailed policy that addresses the effective prevention of and response to bullying within the broader context of improving school culture and fostering student engagement
- effective classroom environments supported by statements of rights and responsibilities developed with student involvement
- the promotion of a positive school environment that provides safety, security and support for students and promotes student wellbeing
- effective approaches and strategies to encourage positive student behaviour as well as approaches to discipline that are consistent, inclusive, solution-focused and non-punitive
- explicit teaching of values and skills to all students (and especially bystanders) including strategies for responding to bullying behaviour and supporting students who are bullied
- integration of social emotional learning within the curriculum.
Knowing what doesn't work is just as important for schools.
There are many beliefs about bullying and ways of dealing with bullying that have been shown to be far less effective than whole-school, positive behaviour support approaches.
These include:
- zero tolerance and 'get tough' suspensions and exclusions in the absence of positive and preventive approaches
- rigid control of student behaviour
- labelling students as “bullies” or “victims”
- belief that students must receive punitive and negative consequences in all cases
- increased security measures
- unfair and inconsistent use of discipline
- punishment without support
Congratulations to our Secondary students for their excellent assembly on Tuesday. We heard from Mrs Campbell regarding our significant Round 1 debating victories against Lindisfarne. Mrs Campbell also invited students to join the newly formed Secondary choir and she espoused the benefits of choral singing. I hope to see the choir take off in the Secondary as it is a great team building activity as everyone in the choir needs to play their part in order for the choir to perform well. We also acknowledged our female sporting stars who were subject to an NBN news item this week regarding excellence in sport. Well done to Jade Corrigan-Rugby 7’s, Stella Atkinson-Netball, Hayley Oakes-Mountain Biking and Lara Truman-Hockey.
In the Primary excitement is building as Thursday night sees the first Friends Primary Disco for the year. The theme is Easter and we hope that our students will enjoy the night and that the storms stay away. Thanks to the staff who will volunteer to supervise on the night and particularly to all the volunteers from Friends for putting the event together. Primary teaching staff are also very excited with the new digital portfolio platform-Seesaw and the possibilities that this opens for teachers to share exemplars of student learning with parents.
Parent Teacher Interview bookings open Monday night for Years 1-12 and I hope that many parents will take the opportunity to book appointments with their child’s teachers for Wednesday 10 April. The opportunity to build partnerships between school and home is of vital importance and research shows that student learning is enhanced when these partnerships are built and maintained.
Finally, in the near future, parents will have the opportunity to contribute to the College’s strategic planning process. I hope that parents take the chance to engage with the survey as we really need your responses. The consultant will with College Council and the Executive Team to help plot the future course of EAC. It is an exciting time to look forward into the future and imagine what the College might look like, sound like and feel like 10 years into the future.
Mr Darren Parks
Deputy Principal
Term 1 Week 9
Monday 25 March
Year 7 Immunisations-Ezzy Centre-All forms need to be returned by 21 March at the latest as vials have to be ordered.
Period 1-7.1
Period 2-7.3
Period 3-7.2
ADF Visit-Recess in the Library
Hiroshima School Visit
Tuesday 26 March
Year 10 Natural Ability Testing Introduction-9.00am-Ezzy Centre-Mrs Evans will run the introductory session
NSW CIS Secondary Hockey
Primary Assembly-5A-9.00am-Discovery Centre
Wednesday 27 March
NAPLAN Online Practice Test
Year 3-Discovery Centre-Periods 1 and 2
Year 5-Innovation Centre-Periods 1 and 2
Year 7-Ezzy Centre-Periods 3 and 4
Year 9-Ezzy Centre-Periods 5 and 6
Bill Turner Cup Football EAC vs Xavier College @ Xavier College 11:40am departure
Thursday 28 March
Year 7 Experience Day-9.00am-Ezzy Centre
Imagine Japanese School Visit
Friday 29 March
Secondary Sport
Term 1 Week 10
Tuesday 2 April
Teen Challenge Drug and Alcohol Education Workshop-Stage 6-9.00 am-Ezzy Centre
Stage 5-11.10am-Ezzy Centre
Wednesday 3 April
NCIS Primary Netball at Tweed Heads
Thursday 4 April
NCIS Surfing and Bodyboarding at Sawtell
Australian geography Competition
Senior Primary Concert Band Workshop –Ballina Players Theatre
Kindy Easter Craft
Bill Turner Cup Football (Girls) vs Mullumbimby High School at Alstonville
Friday 5 April
Interhouse Cross Country-Lennox Head Cricket Club
Interhouse Cross Country-Primary-9.10am-12.20pm
Secondary-11.10-2.50pm
All students must travel to and from the Cross Country on the bus.
Chaplains Chat
It is funny how words, song lyrics pop into your head out of nowhere. It’s less funny how they usually have really annoying tunes you can’t shake.
Be careful what you hear little ears….be careful what you see little eyes.
As a parent I got very familiar with what we always called ‘the gospel according to…insert current teachers name here….’, over the dinner table as we were frequently put in our place because Mrs Suchandsuch said, or Mr T says. As I started working in schools I would often think – I wonder how (and if) this will be repeated at home. Conversely many of us have experienced that excruciating feeling of a story from home being shared in the class room, the awkward news stories, which you often don’t find out about till some time later, and helps to explain the inability to look you in the eye that can occur.
I mean, if you haven’t been misquoted or taken out of context for a Primary school news item…have you even lived??
Usually in all these circumstances – context is the key.
Be careful what you hear little ears….be careful what you see little eyes.
Some of you may be aware that this week I have invited our students to send messages of hope and support to our brothers and sisters in the world wide Muslim community. The events in Christchurch NZ last Friday have caused many people to sit in shock, to be astonished that such a thing could happen…in a place like that. I think we mean, in a place that looks like our own homes, our own country. I well remember the attack at Port Arthur had very much the same surreal feel to it and shook what we all understood as our safe, quiet little country.
You know what has shaken me even more deeply than the horrors of last week – the discovery I made when seeking to make contact with our local Muslim community. It has left me sad and disappointed, and somewhat ashamed.
We do have a Muslim community, but essentially they meet very privately – not for shame, but often for fear.
What? In this beautiful part of the world?
Then I heard the same from our Cathedral church in Grafton, who held a prayer vigil in response to the murders and to stand in support of those who grieve.
Then I heard the same in wider news reports.
Fear of openly meeting. In Australia. In 2019.
I have clearly been living under a very lovely rock. Of course I hear the grumblings and rantings, but I thought they were the opinions of a few outriders.
Then I made the mistake of looking on Facebook. What was I thinking?
Be careful what you hear little ears….be careful what you see little eyes.
And then I started to talk with our students, across the age groups. My word. I have been rendered speechless. I think it’s easy to forget that our little ones don’t have the capacity for creating a broad context or for filtering the rubbish that is uttered as fact. In fact as I am writing I am trying to remember if I ever did that for our kids. I hope I did.
Today, I was told very seriously by a secondary student that Muslim people drink goats blood, (ah, no, no they don’t) to pray for Muslims was the wrong thing to do because they’re not Christians (I don’t even know where to start with that one.)
Again, it’s all about the context – news stories not fully listened to or understood, scenes from movies (or other forms of media) taken as fact.
Be careful what you hear little ears….be careful what you see little eyes.
I am very proud that here at EAC we are working towards giving our students context, a broad and inclusive way to interpret differences in our world. I hope that we are partnering well with you all, as parents to create compassionate, thoughtful, generous and loving stewards of all our futures.
When the students have asked why have bothered to make our paper chain people, to offer prayers of support for people we don’t even know, I remind them that all it takes for evil to take hold is for one good person to remain silent. Our words of support, our actions may not stand for much, but they serve to remind us, each other, this school community that we will not accept such horrors as normal. This is what compassion looks like – feeling for the other.
This is how peace grows – learning about and listening to the other.
I offer you this prayer, given by the Anglican Church’s Liturgical commission to help in our thinking and praying.
Where hate is planted in the garden of a community
although it is a poisonous weed;
Where violence is worshipped like a God
although it is an idol;
where faith is targeted like an enemy,
although it is a friend;
when lives are lost and hearts are broken
and neighbours of goodwill are clinging together.
amid the damage done by fear,
come to us, Spirit of hope.
Weep with us.
Make our love grow deeper.
Make our embrace grow wider.
Gather us together as sisters and brothers
and friends
under your sheltering wings.
Peace
Rev Sal
Sports Update
NCIS Football (Soccer)
On Tuesday 12 March the EAC primary girls and boys soccer teams had an early start for their carnival at Bishop Druitt College in Coffs Harbour.
Each team has been training hard over the past 4 weeks with each student's soccer skills and positional game play improving under the guidance and tutelage of our new soccer coach (Wendy Britton) and staff. The excitement was building on the bus journey to Coffs Harbour as the players have been keen to test themselves against the other NCIS soccer teams. After early morning rain the weather quickly cleared into a very hot and humid autumn day that made it difficult playing conditions.
Both teams won all of their pool games placing them at the top of their respective pools. As expected the semi-final games were closer games but both teams were successful in winning the major semi final ensuring they progressed to the final.
The boys'and girls' finals were played in very hot and humid conditions. Both teams were up against Bishop Druitt teams who had a number of supporters from students who had stayed back after school to cheer for their players. Not to be out done the EAC players rallied before each final to provide an loud cheer for their team as they ran onto the feild.
Both finals were tough battles given the conditions on the day. In the girls' final EAC had significant possession and a number of opportunities but was continuously denied by Bishop Druitt. Eventually the EAC pressure converted into a goal and then a 2nd goal which sealed the match with the girls coming out victorious with a 2:0 final scoreline. A huge congratulations to all of the girl players who are the 2019 NCIS girls soccer champions!
The boys' game was a closer encounter with Bishop Druitt having a very strong team and key players in defence, mid field and strikers. Bishop Druitt scored first but to their credit the EAC boys dug in harder and it was a real battle with the ball travelling up and down the field a number of times as both teams probed for defensive errors that were rare, then finally our team scored the equaliser!
The game was a 1:1 draw at full time which sent the game into extra time. In extra time it was decided their would be a golden goal to determine the winners. Late in extra time Bishop Druitt scored and secured the win. Whilst disappointed our players conducted themselves in an excellent manner congratulating the other team and referee. The boys still finished a well deserved 2nd in the boys 2019 NCIS soccer tournament!
A number of the students in the boys team played very well during the carnival and this culminated in 4 players (Kalani Franklin, Cooper Keane, Jack Lawson, Josh Weingarth) and 1 shadow player (Nick Ford) ) being selected in the NCIS primary boys team which will compete in Sydney at the NSW combined independent schools carnival.
A special mention to the players/students who demonstrated sportsmanship on the field all day and excellent behaviour and manners to officials and staff.
Mr Randall Evans
Sport and Coaching Assistant
Primary News
National Day of Action Against Bullying
Students in 4A were learning resilience through a board game focussing on using their 'Resilience Toolbox' to pick the strategy that they would use when reading a variety of role play situations. Students discussed these strategies, ignore, walk away, friendly talk, powerful talk and report) to work out what they would do and had to defend their reasoning for their choices. The students thought that it was really fun and it was great to see them using resilience language and talk about what they would do in each situation.
Mr Paul Christenson
Leader of Welfare - 3-6/Year 4 Teacher
Primary Teacher Year 3
Teddy Bears Picnic
Library News
Book Club Issue 2
Orders can be placed directly online with payments made by Visa or Mastercard. Paying online also unlocks great benefits and special offers throughout the year.
You may also pay by cash or with cheques payable to Scholastic Australia.
Scholastic Book Club Orders must be completed online or given to me by FRIDAY 22 MARCH 2019.
Mrs Fiona Wilson-Jones
Library Resource Centre Manager
Vacation Care
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:
SUSHI DATES: APRIL 2
NOODLE BOX DATES: MARCH 26
SUBWAY DATES: APRIL 9
Noodle Box – Tuesday 26 March
Noodle Box from “Noodle Box” at Ballina Fair, will be available from the canteen next Tuesday, 26 March. If you would like to order Noodle Box for your child’s lunch next Tuesday please complete the order form (found here)
then attach your order to a paper bag with your payment enclosed. This should then be put in the canteen basket on Monday morning, 25 March . Order forms will NO LONGER be sent home but are also available online or from the office or canteen.
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
