Principal
Amongst all that is happening across the College this week, importantly on Wednesday morning, we paused as a community to celebrate the feast day of Blessed Edmund Rice. We proudly refer to ourselves as a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition as do another 50 plus schools around Australia and over 280 schools around the world. It is the spirit of Edmund Rice that helps to shape and define the common identity that we share with these schools, even though we all operate in many different contexts.
Feast Days enable us to reflect on this identity and every year around this time, leaders within the Edmund Rice network share their thoughts. One particular reflection has always stayed with me. It was written by Br Philip Pinto, the Congregational leader of the Christian Brothers for some years. In my mind, he is challenging each of us to be people of action, people who put others first. Below is an excerpt from his article:
And as we celebrate the feast of Blessed Edmund - the 5th of May - I ask you, what are you celebrating. You belong to an Edmund Rice school - but that does not necessarily mean that you are an Edmund Rice person!
So what must you do to be an Edmund Rice person? I think the answer is with Edmund himself. He lived in such a way that his heart was broken open for people - we are told that he opened his whole heart to the poor - compassion was at the heart of what Edmund was about. And compassion means opening my heart so that someone else comes into the centre - and I am not in the centre of my life; someone else is at the centre of my life.
When was the last time you moved away from the centre and let someone else in? And if you really want to celebrate the feast, then I invite you over the coming days - even today, for one moment, for one experience, for one situation - put someone else at the centre, see who needs you.
You belong to a group that is much bigger than the school - the Edmund Rice Network spreads all over the world, in over thirty countries, in all of the continents; can you open your heart large enough and big enough - to allow people from other parts of the world to occupy that central space - so that their needs come before your own!
When you do that - then you are celebrating Edmund Rice day!
Have a look at some of the beautiful photos from our Founder's Day liturgy in the Identity section.
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Another celebration in the week ahead is Mother’s Day. Our Year 12 Mums were able to enjoy a special preliminary celebration last Sunday. After attending the 10am mass at the Cathedral of St Stephen, we shared an uplifting lunch together at the Sofitel Hotel. It truly was a memorable day. In a simpler way, our Year 5 and 6 Mothers will be able to enjoy breakfast with their sons and our staff on Friday morning at the Junior School. It is always a beautiful gathering. We wish all our Mothers, step Mothers and those who play a maternal role in the lives of our boys all the best for Sunday. Special thoughts go to some of our boarders and their Mothers who cannot see each other in person this weekend.

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Some points of interest:
- Congratulations to the top performing Year 12 students who have been selected as the Academic Firsts. To be selected, these students have achieved results in the top 10% of the Year 12 cohort with raw scores above 90% and/or have ranked in the top decile for 4 or more of their General subjects. These boys will be presented on assembly next week.
- Senior Assessment: There are a handful of senior exams next week combined with numerous assignments being drafted and/or finalised across Year 11 and 12. For Year 12s, these Internal Assessment (IA) 2’s are the second piece of important assessment to be completed and contribute to exit results at the year’s end. Consequently, there is some degree of pressure on many Seniors at this time.
- NAPLAN testing for Year 5, 7 and 9 students will be held over the coming two weeks. While we have prepared the boys in these respective year levels since they returned to school, there is no preparation program per se beyond the effective learning and teaching of numeracy and literacy every day. The NAPLAN results give parents and teachers insight into the capabilities of each boy as well as indicating their improvement since previous testing. The College uses these results as one set of data that informs teaching for individuals as well as the adjustments that may be necessary for cohorts of boys. Our continued focus in recent years has been around improving our boys writing skills.
- Open Day is just over two weeks away on Saturday 22 May. This has become a significant day in the school calendar and we again anticipate a large crowd. To register for Open Day, click here. Further information on admissions for future years is available at this link.
With every best wish for the week ahead.
Mr Peter Fullagar
Principal