‘Ask and it will be given, search and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened to you’ "
Matthew 7:7
From The Principal
I am pleased to confirm that EAC will be participating in the NSW Independent Coeducational Schools Debating Competition again in 2018. The College will select teams in each of Stages 3 through to Stage 6. Initially students will debate against the four other Anglican Schools in our diocese to decide the Northern NSW regional champions. Those winners will then progress to compete against the winners from the Hunter region for the opportunity to go to Sydney to compete in the State Finals. The students involved in 2017 had a tremendous experience and relished in the opportunity to speak publically and contest their wit, insight and arguments against the skill of their counterparts. Students who are interested in participating in the completion should speak with Mrs Sue McLintock or Mr Chris McCotter. The first round will be held at Bishop Druitt College on March 12.
Good luck to Year 12 students Arran Hughes, Erica Truman, Juliette McDonald, Emily Wiltshire, Niva Ewald and Kate Utting who have all entered the Lions Youth of the Year Quest. The quest has been running since 1964 and in 2018 is a truly national competition designed to celebrate the talents, efforts and hopes of young people. It is open to students who are 16 years and older. The Quest to identify the Lions Youth of the Year involves three parts. Firstly, Participants in the Quest are required to prepare a portfolio outlining their hopes and goals, their personal achievements and their community involvement. Secondly, they must meet with an interview panel of three to answer questions about what they have presented in their portfolio. Finally they must attend a speech evening and present a prepared five minute speech on a topic about which they are passionate and they must also speak for two minutes about two impromptu topics. We certainly wish them well and look forward to hearing about their achievements in the Quest.
On Tuesday, March 6, the College community will celebrate Foundation Day. This is a particularly special day in 2018 as we give thanks for 20 years of learning, living and leading at EAC. Students from Kindergarten to Year 12 will commence the day at St Mary’s Anglican Church, Ballina for a Whole College Assembly. During the assembly we will induct the 2018 Student Representative Council and acknowledge the pioneer students, staff and family who bravely stepped into the unknown to found our great College. I invite all our parents to join us for this very significant celebration in the life of the College.
Last week Year 7 and Year 9 were blessed with fantastic weather for their respective camps. Camp is a great opportunity for the group to build an identity, get to know to another a little better and to develop their independence, self confidence and team work. The students were involved in a range of activities across each camp including canoeing, surfing, stand up paddle boarding and rope challenges courses. I am sure the comradery developed over the three days will form a solid foundation for great things in the future. I thank Mrs Heidi Miller, Mr Justin Cleverley, Mr Tom Papworth, Mr Paul Pryor, Mrs Daniela Payne, Mrs Brigette Campbell and Miss Kellie Guest for the generosity, leadership, energy and enthusiasm in providing these great experience for the students.
Mr Robert Tobias
Principal
Off the Deputy's Desk
Habits of Mind
Managing Impulsivity
This habit is all about taking your time! Thinking before acting; remaining calm, thoughtful and deliberative. It is a highly valued habit in workplaces where calm, rational and reasoned decision making is required. I think of air traffic controllers, law enforcement and military officers when I think of managing impulsivity and staying calm under pressure. When the heat comes on, you need to stay calm. Elite sportspeople are also very good at managing impulsivity, controlling the adrenaline. ‘Keeping your head when everyone else is losing theirs” is a nice analogy for this habit.
Effective problem solvers are deliberate: they think before they act. They intentionally establish a vision of a product, an action plan, a goal, or a destination before they begin. They strive to clarify and understand directions, they develop a strategy for approaching a problem, and they withhold immediate value judgments about an idea before they fully understand it. Reflective individuals consider alternatives and consequences of several possible directions before they take action. They decrease their need for trial and error by gathering information, taking time to reflect on an answer before giving it, making sure they understand directions, and listening to alternative points of view.
Often, students blurt out the first answer that comes to mind. Sometimes they shout an answer, start to work without fully understanding the directions, lack an organised plan or strategy for approaching a problem, or make immediate value judgments about an idea (criticizing or praising it) before they fully understand it. They may take the first suggestion given or operate on the first idea that comes to mind rather than consider alternatives and the consequences of several possible directions.
Managing impulsivity is especially important when teaching or managing the behaviour of boys. If anyone has ever had a teenage son they would know how impulsive boys can be. I once worked with a wise colleague at an all-boys school who used to calm his Year 6 class down when they were calling out by saying, ”soon but not quite yet”. Is amazing how this little tactic assisted his students to restrain their natural impulsivity.
This week sees a relatively normal week with not too many events on. By now our students should be starting to settle nicely into their academic routines. The importance of establishing good study routines early in the year cannot be underestimated. Once students get into productive and consistent study habits they are more likely to be able to find homework less of a chore and see it more as an extension of, and support of, the normal school day in terms of reinforcing learning.
Before School Student Supervision
Just a friendly reminder that students should not be dropped at school before 8.15 am unless they are involved in a planned, supervised event such as sports training or band practice. Our staff hours of supervision do not start until 8.15 am. The staff member on duty before school starts will supervise students from this time in the undercover area. However, there is no one on duty before this time.
Parents are asked to not put staff into a difficult situation by dropping their children off early and then expecting staff to supervise outside of their allotted hours of duty. Your support with this matter is greatly appreciated.
Upcoming Events:
Week 4
Tuesday 20 February-NCIS Hockey-Grafton
Tuesday 20 February-Secondary College Assembly
Thursday 22 February-NCIS Swimming Training-Evans Head
Friday 23 February-Secondary Sport
Week 5
Monday 26 February to Friday 2 March-Stage 3 and Stage 4 Writer in Residence
Tuesday 27 February-NCIS Swimming Championships-Murwillumbah
Thursday 1 March –SCU University Showcase-Ezzy Centre
Friday 2 March-Secondary Sport
Mr Darren Parks
Deputy Principal
Year 7 Camp
When year seven arrived we were advised to leave our bags at the front of the hall and take a seat inside. Everyone was directed to set up the hall by arranging all the tables and chairs to fit everyone in for all our meals.
Once morning tea was served and everybody was eating we were assigned the groups that we would do activities with, for the next three days. There were four groups and each group had a teacher with them.
As they were calling out the groups a lot of the girls were crossing there fingers to see if they got any of there friends in their group (well I was), and we were all happy with who we were in a group with.
I was so excited because my group and I had vertical challenge first but before that we all just got to hang out with our friends around our cabins. After lunch we went over to the vertical challenge and rock climbing area. We had to get into our harnesses and helmet before we climbed.
The first challenge was a big rope wall that two people had to climb up together. Surprisingly I made it all the way to the top without wanting to come down. The second challenge was to climb up a telegraph post using these little handles to pull ourselves up to the top.
After the vertical challenge was afternoon tea and sand castle making. We got taught how to make some really cool sand castles. We put ourselves into groups and started sand sculpting. My group consisted of Conrad Bahadur, Sylvie Peart, Josie Falconer and Ryan Neilson. Our group had so much fun, we decided to make Conrad a mermaid and we used sea weed as hair.
At night we got to go to the F111 museum to look at a bunch really cool aeroplanes and helicopters. The man that showed us around talked a lot about the second world war and how fast some of the planes could go and it was both amazing and interesting. We were even aloud to go inside some of the aircrafts and it was so cool inside them.
On the second day my group went stand up paddle boarding for our first activity, it was so exciting. Not everyone was a fan of stand up paddle boarding but it turned out to be really fun. Most of us went the wrong way to start off with which was pretty funny. After we paddled around the lake we partnered up, jumped on a board and used our arms to paddle to a tree get off the board run around the tree then get back on the board and paddle back.
Our second activity was laser tag. Our group got put in to two teams, blue or red. I was in the blue team, it was my first time playing laser tag and let me tell you it was probably my last, I was NOT good. The blue team (my team) won most of the challenges which was good.
Our third was activity for the day was rock climbing. We all lined up to get our harnesses checked and then our group got split in half and we stared to climb up the wall. I didn’t do that well, I only made it three quarters up the wall on both sides. After everyone was down the wall we got to go on the pole again which everyone was excited about. When I climbed up to the top I could see the ocean and it was an amazing view!!!
After that we had OWN activity which was a RAVE lesson with Rev Sal and Mrs Evans which was fun and it wasn’t as hot in the church. We wrote a time line about our lives and picked one thing from the time line and wrote about it. I chose to write about when my little sister was born, I had a lot of fun with Rev Sal and Mrs Evans writing about ourselves.
That night group one and two got to play trivia. We picked our groups and decided on a name, my team was called ‘The Trees’. I was so excited to start and I hope we would win but we came second last but we were happy with it because we had so much fun playing trivia.
The next morning, we all cleaned our cabins and packed our bags ready to leave. We moved our bags to the front of the main hall and put the things we needed for the day in our back packs.
For most of the morning we just hung out with our friends and took a lot of photos with our year. The only activities I had that day were ‘rock it’ and canoeing as my last ones at Camp Koinonia.
As soon as we got to the lake put our life jackets and helmets on. We split up into two teams and one team started on the ‘rock it’ and the other did a blindfold challenge around the trees. The rocket was a big white ball that had a blue rim around it that we could stand on four sticks poking out the side. The idea was to get everyone in your team on the rocket then make it spin and then we got to push everyone off.
When we got back to camp it was morning tea. When we finished morning tea we got to get changed if anyone needed to and we went on to our last activity. My last activity was canoeing at the lake, we paired up and put our life jackets back on and got our paddles. I paired up with Sylvie, and to start off with we were going alright but then we got stuck in the mangroves, ran into trees and couldn’t find our way back so we followed some other people.
When we got back to camp we got dressed and boarded the bus back to school. I think Camp Koinonia was a really good experience for the year seven cohort and everyone enjoyed it.
Lara Atkinson
Year 7 student
Year 7 Camp
I was dreading camp. Visions of Lord of the Flies danced in my mind. You can imagine my surprise when we actually started having fun from the very moment we arrived. One of my favourite activities was on the first day, when we went down to the beach for sand sculpting with my friends. This isn’t just building you average sand castle, but rather using a variety of tools and water to create an architectural masterpiece.
Water based activities were conducted in the river at Evans Head. These included stand-up paddle boarding, canoeing and Rockit. What is Rockit, you may ask? We were divided into two teams with the objective of being the last team standing (i.e. clinging desperately) to the giant blow-up ball in the middle of the river. Rather than seeking to to vanquish the opposing team, we ended up trying to get our entire group on the ball together.
The way we fuelled all our bursts of physical activity was through six delicious meals and snacks starting with breakfast and ending with supper each day. This gave the entirety of Year 7 an energy high which the proprietors and teachers immediately regretted. Sleep became short and precious.
Other activities included laser tag, rock climbing and the vertical challenge, which involved a cargo net and telephone pole. I’ll leave what we did with these two items up to your imagination. In a rare moment of reflection, as opposed to the fast-paced physicality of camp, we looked towards the future and all the promise it might hold. A tour of the F-111 museum inspired a new generation of jet pilots.
Out of all the things I got out of camp, here are the most impacting on me. The activities, though they were sometimes challenging, demanded teamwork, unlocking hidden talents and strengthening friendships. Camp gave me a deep appreciation for all the things we can achieve when we combine our various strengths and talents. It also gave me a deep appreciation for sleep.
Eliza Grosser
Year 7 student
Year 9 Camp
Nestled between the looming mountains of both the Lamington and Springbrook National Parks, Year 9 spent an entire three days on camp and without the comfort of modern technology.
There were challenges aplenty and perhaps some withdrawal issues, however, surrounded by some of the most stunning landscapes they thrived.
The teamwork was tremendous as they climbed what seemed unnaturally steep ranges, soared through trust exercises, abseiled over cliff faces and trudged through kilometres of slippery creek.
Year 9, suffice to say, soon realised there is more to people than an Instagram account, learnt a great deal about what they can personally endure and have cemented lifelong friendships with each other.
Thank you for another successful camp Year 9!
Ms Campbell, Mrs Payne and Mr Pryor
Sports Update
Primary Sport Martial Arts Program
This term our Primary students are participating in a Martial Arts Program run by the instructors from Strike Martial Arts. Students are learning the Olympic Sport of Taekwondo. The program will be covering: stretching to prevent injury; balance skills and coordination drills; combinations of punches and kicks against kicking targets; non contact sparring skills; grading to earn their white belt / yellow stripe. The program started in Week 3 and will continue until the end of the term.
Mr Graham Walker
Sport and Coaching Administrator
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.
Canteen opens at 8.30am and the Menu is available here:
Hot Cross Buns now available $2
Traditional, Chocolate choc chip, Sticky date.
SUSHI DATES: MARCH 6 & 20, APRIL 3*
NOODLE BOX DATES: FEBRUARY 27, MARCH 13 & 27
SUBWAY DATES: APRIL 10
Noodle Box – Tuesday 27 February
Noodle Box from “Noodle Box” at Ballina Fair, will be available from the canteen next Tuesday, 27 February. If you would like to order Noodle Box 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, 26 February . 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