“Break a leg!” That was the wish that was extended to the cast of the College’s 2020 musical, Beauty and the Beast, during their opening few nights. In the sold out event, many students from St. Edmund’s, St Clare’s and Canberra Girls Grammar School were united in rehearsing and performing their rendition of the famous Disney film with many of our boys participating in major acting roles and also in the backstage crew. It is fantastic that all the hard work that was dedicated into rehearsing for this event was permitted following the COVID break, and the publicity it has received has been well warranted. Many of our senior boys in particular have sacrificed the time they would usually allocate to studying, playing sport and relaxing into producing a performance that would highlight their final years at the College; which is truly admirable amidst a condensed Term 4 assessment period. For those lucky audience members who have purchased tickets for the coming week’s performances enjoy the show, and for those who may have missed out or are busy over this time I applaud your positive social media comments recently and encourage you to continue reaching out to our fantastic cast of Beauty and the Beast.
I’ve already mentioned that this term for us is a really condensed for our students this year. We are completing our regular school term within a six week time period for our seniors and it is eight-and-a-half weeks for the rest of the school. With not a lot of time left in this term, as our musical boys have displayed, it is important to remain focused and to effectively plan your time. Without this structure in such a busy and important term it is easy to perhaps become complacent and lose sight of our goals. As this year is hastily concluding, our Year 11 students are preparing for next year. In my last article I wrote about the recently elected College Captains for 2021. Last Friday, we had each of our College House Captain speeches presented to our house cohorts. House leadership is an esteemed role within the College dynamic and is a valuable position to have in order to forge bonds with younger students and to achieve the ultimate goal of earning the House Shield. This House pride, which stems from our wonderful Heads of Houses, becomes student-driven and motivated in the pursuit of House glory. It is an extremely competitive race which our prospective 2021 leaders will maintain and fight for.
Continuing on from the theme of school and house pride, this upcoming Friday is our annual Market Day. Here this sense of house spirit is flaunted with various activities run throughout the day for boys to express their talents. The day also has a number of market stalls run by our Business students which will raise funds and develop our students’ marketing talents. These type of days provide a unique flare to us as a College and only add substance to what we define as school culture and ‘Eddies Pride’. Because being an Eddie’s boy is cultivated by enjoying time spent with the boys and being open to new challenges and passions.
I look forward to living out the best of my qualities in my final few weeks of the College.
Patrick McFarlane
College Vice-Captain