Foundation Day 2018

14 Years! Wow how we have grown!

This year we celebrated 14 Years since the schools Foundation. Due to the cooler weather we utilised our Resource Centre, accommodating the whole school inside this comfortable, dynamic space! We were thrilled to be joined by many special guests including Alumni Jack Carey (Class of 2011) and Carly James (Class of 2014) who gave fantastic speeches about their lives since Moama Anglican Grammar and how their schooling has shaped who they are today and the paths they have taken. It was a fabulous celebration of how far the school has come, celebrating some fantastic milestones for staff and students.

Not only did we celebrate the start of our school 14 years ago. We also celebrated a small group of Year 7 students who commenced their very first school day with us on Monday 7 February back in 2011. This group of students started Kindergarten with Mrs Zweck and have progressed all the way through our Primary School into Year 7. Congratulations to the following students:

Archer Carlile
Ava Charnas
Olivia Davy
Lachlan Donchi
Samuel Edgar
Ella Furness
Marli McKenna
Genevieve McLindo
Jake Muus
Tilli-Rose Peters
Tanner Tomkins
Logan Warde

We also acknowledged Isabella Ferguson who was also a Foundation Kindergarten student and who has returned to our school this year.

Back in 2011 we had the Kindergarten students and Mrs Zweck do their hand print on a canvas and today Mrs Zweck presented that canvas to the students and the school.

Foundation Day also marked the start of a new tradition where the whole school celebrated significant milestones in staff service to the school. Congratulations to the following staff who have achieved 10 Years Service:

Debra Jardine
Tara-Lee Moon
Greg Cadd
Fiona Gibbs
Michael Zweck
Paula Smith

Congratulations to the following staff who have achieved 5 Years Service:

Kylie Moon
Kim Day
Andrea Cowin
Shelly Barnes-Webb
Shelley Bennett
Lauren Williams
Leah Thompson

An extract from Mrs Spry's powerful Principal address:

Our school is young when you compare us to many others, we don’t have hundreds of years of tradition to look back on but this does not make today or us, less significant.

Our story of foundation is similar to many other foundation stories, even in schools where they reflect on over a hundred years. That central narrative talks about a group of people who saw a need, took the opportunity and the risk to make a difference, to improve the lives of others by establishing an Independent Anglican school in Moama.

They were a group of ordinary people who wanted the next generation in the Moama/Echuca area to have a choice about their education. They saw a chance to create a school for future generations; they were people who believe that education can improve people’s lives and create opportunities for us to contribute more fully in the communities where we live.

This might sound like a simple thing to achieve but consider the challenges: the many difficulties they would have faced, the problems that needed to be solved, the number of decisions that were made during planning and building and the many times when they may have felt that everything was too difficult and they wanted to give up. But they didn’t, they persevered. They persevered not because there was a personal gain for them – they worked for others, often people they did not know and had no direct connection with.

Margaret Mead, an American cultural anthropologist commented that we should “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” We are sitting in this space together today because a small group of thoughtful and committed people changed the world for others, for all of us here today and the many, many students, staff and parents who will follow in future years. Perhaps some of you at times have thought you would like to change things about your world. Things you have considered ‘unfair’ or times when you have thought it would be better to do things differently. I wonder what you did about that? Perhaps you have made changes to benefit others but perhaps you felt that you, one person, alone didn’t have the power to make a difference. You do – and I would encourage you to remember that your school is an example of what people can achieve.

Your challenge is to work to improve the world for others. I know from attending the Primary assembly where student leaders spoke about ideas for making positive changes and the SRC meetings in secondary that there are already groups of students and staff who are discussing the way they can serve their community, this community and working through ideas to make changes that can improve other people’s lives. This is wonderful and the challenge for all of you to be active members of your community, this community to benefit all of us and those who will follow in the future.

And when things become difficult, as they will and you consider giving up, keep in mind the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson an American essayist and poet who wrote that “to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - that is to have succeeded.”

Foundation Day Cup

A fun afternoon of activities for our annual Foundation Day Cup! Students and Staff enjoyed participating in a number of activities including; tug of war, tunnel ball, hula hoop, soccer, bean bag toss, football kick, sac race and basketball throw. A big thank you to all the staff and student helpers for making the cup possible!

Congratulations to our Foundation Day Cup Gift Winners: