The Chronicle Issue 7

Dear Parents, Guardians, Friends and Students

Welcome back to the last term for our 2020 Academic Year.  It has been wonderful to see all of our students back in class this term.  For some of them it has been up to 20 weeks since they were last in school full time. This has meant that we have all had to start again. Things are still not quite back to normal for us. However, we are certainly in a better place than our counterparts on the east coast, in particular Victoria. They are all in our thoughts and prayers during this time. 

If you had asked me at the beginning of the year what were the things that would happen during the year I would never have imagined the number of events and activities that we have had to cancel or postpone.

Unfortunately the Executive has had to make some decisions around our major events of this term due to the lead up time for preparation and organisation of our Open Day, Presentation and Awards Ceremony and Graduation. As we have still not gotten to Phase 5, and that it has been pushed back again, there are still social distancing guidelines that we need to have in place while we remain in Phase 4. 

As we started our new term we gathered as staff to reflect on our ‘History and Faith’. An emerging theme surfaced during the day – that was we are a family. We are a family to each other as well as to our students. We all have the capacity to reach out and welcome acceptance to a friend and stranger; to everyone in our community, to those with whom we are comfortable, as well as to those who look different and who are different because of their circumstances, their culture, their country of birth, their religion.

St Paul wrote: “Make hospitality your special care” (Romans 12, 13). Hospitality is first and foremost an attitude of heart, but it requires practice. When we practice hospitality, we build relationships and lay the foundations for gaining respect and trust. Nurturing authentic relations with our students in an integral part of our teaching pedagogy and must flow over into our daily teaching and learning practices.

Our staff spent some time at the start of term welcoming new students to their classes and establishing collaborative expectations. The time spent implementing hospitality in our classrooms allows for our students’ voice to be heard and for all to have a better understanding of each – hence putting our College Values of Respect, Excellence, Honesty and Tolerance into our everyday practice.  As educators in an EREA school we are accountable to reach out to students and to each other.

Perhaps we can make a habit of it by asking ourselves at the start of each day: “How can I be the Eucharist  –  bread broken and given for others today?”.

Paula Bacchiella
Deputy Principal

Above:  Staff came together for the Faith, Story & Witness component of accreditation.  A lovely day of reflecting, visiting the College grounds and surrounds and sharing their life journeys.

On Monday the 20^th July the entire staff of Edmund Rice College had the opportunity to come together as a faith community and be part of the Faith, Story and Witness component of accreditation. The staff had a tour of the College and were given snippets of the rich history of the College. All members of the staff community reflected on their own faith journeys and how they would embed this into their teaching practices. Staff were able to interact and share with one another their life journeys and ponder on their relationship with God and others. Thank you to all the staff who participated.

“Come journey with us, walk with us, listen to our story”

Courtney Clark & Anne Brown
Teaching Staff

A group of Year 7-12 students went to Holy Cross College for a conference with Justin Langer and Christian Porter to talk about their experience in leadership and sport. The students had the opportunity to ask questions of the two in an open forum, then had a shared lunch and got to know other schools. The day was extremely valuable and both were amazing speakers. The students got a lot out of the day and speaking to an Australian player, Captain and Coach and the highest legal official in Western Australia.

Scott Smith
Teaching Staff

Well that was certainly the coldest Carnival I have ever been a part of. In saying that, I am beyond proud of our students and how well they took on the cold and participated in the events on the day.

Waterford started the day off strong but dropped off as the day went on. Mt Sion kept their momentum going and finished strong taking out the win on the day.

The highlight of the day has to be the Mexican food truck organised by the Year 11/12 Sport and Rec students as part of their Cert II course. It was great to see the Year 7’s at their first carnival and the Year 12’s enjoying their last ever carnival.

I couldn’t be happier with how the day turned out and the help from all the staff and students in getting the day up and running, it really goes to show the culture of family that we have here at ERC.

Hopefully Waterford can regain the shield next year.

Scott Smith
Teaching Staff

Above:  The freezing conditions didn’t stop the students and staff from putting in an amazing effort at the Interhouse Athletics Carnival.

Above:  In boarding the term has started with football kicking off and students attending a weekend excursion to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory.

I’d like to take this opportunity to remind parents and the Boarding students of our Behaviour Management Policy. This is available to parents if they wish to speak to me regarding their child’s behaviour. As parents would know, we take the Boarders on an outing every Sunday which normally finishes at a shopping centre so they can do some essential shopping (clothes, shoes, toiletries and snacks). Snacks are vital to Boarding students, perhaps even essential! During the week, or weeks students  may be given ‘points’ as a consequence of any misbehaviour in Boarding time. Boarding staff will always take time to speak to students about behaviour and attitude and we usually find a quiet chat helps and with some guidance behaviour often changes for the better. If behaviour is ongoing or escalates, students are allocated points – a ‘You are Grounded’ form is given to the student and they choose what consequence (job) they want to do to work off their points. Students are given many opportunities to do this and as a last resort students who have made no effort or refused to complete their points are not allowed on the Boarding excursions. This means that some students remain behind in the Boarding house with staff. If parents would like to discuss this or any other matter with myself, please call me anytime 0457518155.

Sam Jenner
Head of Boarding