Principal Reflections
From the Principals - Alison & Pete
Year 6 Debating Team
Yesterday our Year 6 Debating Team travelled to to St Nicholas School to compete in the final round of the Armidale Diocesan Debating Competition. The topic for the debate was Australia should close all its zoos. St Edward's had prepared the negative argumentand were so convincing, they won what was described by the adjudicators as a close debate with well structured and delivered arguments and rebuttals.
This means that our team finished the three rounds with one loss and two wins. An absolutely amazing effort. Over the course of the rounds our teams was made up of Martha Ferris, Amity Wall, Isabella Hoskins, Paris Michell and Felicity Shields. The improvement these students have made over the duration of the competition has been outstanding and we would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Carla Michell for working closely with these girls to prepare them for each debate. Well done girls, we are so proud of your efforts.
Below are some comments from our debaters about what they have learned from their experience:
"When I was debating this term I felt like I was fighting for my beliefs, there was something about the experience that made me feel passionate with every word I said. Debating has also made me excel in my English which is even better." - Martha Ferris
"I learned that you need to have teamwork. Without the teamwork, the debate team would be nothing. We worked all week together and we all helped with the rebuttals of the debate." - Felicity Shields
"The thing that I learnt about the debate we had yesterday is that it is really fun to just talk in front of others and that it is all about fun, teamwork, and just participating counts." - Amity Wall
Father's Day Breakfast
Last Friday we welcomed all our wonderful dads and families into school for our annual Father's Day Breakfast. Mrs Clarke, the P & F and her enthusiastic band of cooks and servers arrived at 6:30am to busily prepared over 450 bacon and egg rolls for our visitors. The beautiful spring weather ensured that we had a huge crowd gather in our primary playground to share breakfast and a coffee along with some basketball, handball and some kicks over our brand new goalposts.
An enormous thank you to all our helpers who made the morning such a success and to all the dads, grandads and family members who attended. It was a wonderful whole school community event.
P & F Meeting
As communicated our P & F meeting was held on Tuesday evening at the Primary Campus. During the meeting it was decided that the P & F would organise and purchase some extra picnic tables for each campus, a new BBQ and a St Edward's School gazebo. We appreciate the fundraising efforts of our P & F Committee to allow our school to receive these wonderful resources to support our school.
Attendance
- Currently, we have a school attendance rate of 90% (the number of days attended as a percentage of the total number of days we have been open for instruction).
- We also have 62% of students with an attendance rate equal to or greater than 90%.
Attending school is vitally important, especially as there is a direct link between attendance and achievement. If you have any questions regarding attendance, please get in touch with your child's teacher, as we are always happy to help.
Uniform Update
Please see the attached letter and questionnaire regarding some uniform changes and improvements the school is starting to work towards.
Until next week,
Keep Smiling
Alison Hatton and Peter Flynn