Last week, on Thursday, Year 4 students participated in a retreat aimed to ease their transition into Year 5 and to reflect on their start at St Edmund’s. Expertly led by Ms Cusack, our 2020 student leaders and Fr Dan, the day proved a huge success. On Friday, students were able to battle in teams through muddy obstacles at BFIRM. Lee Campbell took the boys (and staff) through their paces and challenged them the whole day. Well done to all of the students for their effort and commitment throughout the challenges.
As we draw closer to the end of the year, our thoughts turn to Christmas. Each family will have different challenges, celebrations and holidays to look forward to. This week our students have begun practising for the Christmas Concert, to be held in the Hall on Thursday 5 December at 6pm. It is an expectation that all Junior School students will attend. Clearly, the more students we have involved on the evening, the more jovial the atmosphere. Junior School staff members will be cooking a barbeque from 5.00pm on the evening and we are hoping all of our Junior School families can come and join in this end of year celebration. There will be a cost associated with the sausage sizzle (e.g. $5 for a sausage and drink combo). There will also be snacks and sweets available to purchase throughout the evening. All proceeds from the event will go to our Performing Arts Faculty. Our EREA touchstone of, ‘Inclusive Community’ should be alive and well on the 4th of December.
As a Junior School staff we will be keeping our expectations high in terms of academic rigour and behavioural expectations. Sometimes, boys can lose a little focus towards the end of the year and we would ask for parental support in pushing the boys right until the end. We have a number of interesting and fun incursions occurring this week and next to ensure the students are engaged. This week students enjoyed looking into forensic Science with CSI Investigations and next week we will have a financial literacy incursion – Start Smart. We also have some Tyke-Oh Japanese Drumming to look forward to in Week 8.
Junior School Picnic Day – Friday 6 December (note date change). On this day students of the Junior School will attend Big Splash Waterpark in Macquarie, ACT. Students will catch a bus to and from the venue. Students may wear mufti clothes on this day. Please return your son’s note as soon as possible to his class teacher.
Junior School Presentation Ceremony – Tuesday 10 December @9.15am. On this occasion award recipients (first, second and third) for each class will be recognised, along with other major awards including sportsman of the year, a music award and improvement awards for each class. All Year 6 students will receive a graduation certificate. We have had a few questions about whether family members can take their son’s out for lunch afterwards…this is of course absolutely fine. If your son will be leaving after the ceremony, please email Mrs Gray in advance.
December Holiday Program
In the upcoming holidays, the Junior School will be hosting a Team H.E.A.T holiday program during Week 10 of Term 4.
The activities will be based on a variety of fun themes and will run from Monday December 16th to Friday December 20th.
The program will be led by Mr O’Rourke and Mr Rutter and will run from 9:00am to 3:00pm each day.
For more information please contact via email team_heat@outlook.com
David Kelly (Assistant Principal – Junior School)