To the community of St Edmund’s College,
There have been a number of achievements by our students in the last few weeks which deserve special acknowledgement. Two of our students broke records at the 2017 ACT Track and Field Championship – Luke Levay (Year 9, Mulrooney) in the 13 years 1500 metres track event and Oscar Curtis (Year 12, Haydon) in the 17 years javelin. Nicholas Taylor (Year 12, O’Brien) has been awarded the School Sport ACT Achievement Award for his achievements in water polo. Congratulations to Angus Jones (Year 10, O’Brien) for his exceptional efforts in the NSW State Karate Championships, receiving a Silver and a Bronze medal. Congratulations also to Louka Mantzouris (Year 12, Haydon) and Corey Davis (Year 10, Clancy) for their range of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at the Australian Dragon Boat Federation 2018 Australian Championships. Bailey Sullivan (Year 5, Rice) has also achieved significantly in the recent ACT Swimming Championships, achieving a personal best in each of the nine races in which he participated, winning the overall competition, being awarded the 9 year old age champion for ACT and achieving two qualifying times for NSW country in July this year. We are also very proud of our Year 5/6 Rugby League team, coached by Mr Fox, who became the State Champions in the Laurie Daley Shield, and of our Year 4 Rugby League team, coached by Mr Balmaks, who were runners-up in the Year 3/4 competition. Our Year 5/6 Rugby Union team was also successful in winning the Matt Giteau Cup.
Also of great encouragement to me were two messages we received in the last few weeks concerning the positive behaviour and attitude of our young men. A few weeks ago we had a group of Year 12 students (with Mr Masters) assisting at the Legends Rugby League Gala Day. We received this encouraging letter from NRL Game Development Canberra: “I want to take the time to let you know what an excellent job your students did at the Legends Rugby League Gala day today. Your students and your staff did an excellent job of refereeing and ground managers at the event, and I know that is due to (Mr Masters’) extraordinary leadership that helped make this happen. During the day the students conducted themselves in a manner that the school should be extremely proud of. Throughout the day the students refereed games, assisted scoring, time keeping, picking up rubbish and packing up equipment, and not once complained or said they didn’t want to. In fact, it was quite the opposite. They couldn’t have done enough to make sure the event was a complete success. We also had great feedback from parents and teachers over the course of the day commending how well the students had been officiating. Again, thank you for such an outstanding performance.”
St Edmund’s is a community where the young men here should be looking out for each other. I keep challenging our students to respect themselves, respect others and respect the environment. In this context, we received a lovely message from one of our junior school parents about the way in which our College Captain, Zane Hogan, recently assisted a younger student, “Can you help me out by letting the Principal know that yesterday the School Captain helped my son out when he was very distressed after school and didn’t know where to go for cricket photos and couldn’t call us as his phone was out of credit. It is so heart-warming to know the big boys look out for the young ones. We are truly in awe of this young gentleman, and are proud that my son is in such great company. Another fine example of why St Edmund’s stands out, guiding boys and teaching them to grow into thoughtful, considerate active members of their community. Please pass along our thank you to this young man.” Many thanks to Zane for exemplifying what a true Eddie’s boy is!
I take this moment to thank our Heads of House and our Heads of Faculty for a very strong start to the year, establishing a settled and positive environment for our students. It is so important for boys to feel settled and motivated, and the following members of staff have worked hard in establishing routines and structures in which our boys can succeed, achieve and flourish.
| Heads of House Clancy – David Mead Haydon – Alana Beard Mulrooney – Jonathan Hall O’Brien – Anna Blore Rice – Tim MacArthur Treacy – Leanne Gair | Heads of Faculty Creative and Performing Arts – Nigel Palfreman English – Tim Bibbens Food Science and TAS – Jason Moore Library & Information Resources – Lisa Millar Mathematics – Edward Mickleburgh PHPE – Joel Richardson RE – Carmela Wilson Science – Ross Bristow SOSE – Matthew Calder Teaching and Learning Support – Leonie Owens |
Palm Sunday
Some of us approach Palm Sunday with a sense of trepidation. The Gospels describe for us a very joyous occasion as Jesus enters Jerusalem as King. He receives a glorious reception from the crowd, who acclaim him with the words of our Eucharistic Prayer, “Holy, holy, holy”. It was the first time people could celebrate Jesus in a very public way, even if their understanding of Jesus as a leader was not our understanding. For us today, beneath Palm Sunday’s songs of joy and shouts of conviction there is a shadow. We know what is to come. We know the Passion of the Christ. I was fortunate enough to visit the Holy Land a few years ago, walking the same pavements and pathways through which the Passion takes us. Walking around Jerusalem allowed me to gain a better sense of Jesus’ experience at this time, from the adulation to the mockery, from the excitement to the pain. Although Jesus is Divine, the events beginning from Palm Sunday present us with a very human experience – an experience of betrayal, of disappointment and of despair. We see a very human side to Jesus, a side with which we can easily identify. We are able to engage with the coming Passion with a greater sense of awareness and recognition. Pope Francis reminds us that as Holy Week begins, “we should contemplate not only the glory with which Jesus is recognised as king as he enters Jerusalem, but also the suffering he endures before his death, and which is seen in the many who suffer due to war, violence and slavery today. In this poignant contrast, our hearts experience in some small measure what Jesus himself must have felt in his own heart that day, as he rejoiced with his friends and wept over Jerusalem.”
So although we might approach next Sunday with some trepidation, we need to remind ourselves that there is joy in the Passion story because of the very fact that we do know the outcome, and it is the outcome that allows us to sing our own songs of joy and shout out our own convictions of Jesus as the Son of God.
Loving God,
In your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility:
Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering,
and also share in his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Blessed Edmund Rice, pray for us.
Live Jesus in our Hearts, forever.
Christus Lux Mea
Joe Zavone (Principal)