Edmund Rice Education Australia Touchstones

Liberating Education

As a Catholic School in the Edmund Rice tradition, we are committed to enabling students to experience personal achievement within a safe, supportive and healthy environment

Learning Conferences – Years 7 to 11 – Thursday 27 August

Thursday 27 August will be the first of two evenings set aside for students, parents and teachers to participate in online Learning Conferences. This initiative has emerged out of the learnings that we have gained from using online platforms to engage with students and parents in response to COVID-19. We trialled this approach with our Year 12 boys and their families in Term 2 with great success and are looking forward to the upcoming meetings. The learning conferences have replaced the traditional Parent Teacher Interviews that have previously been conducted in the Edmund Rice Centre. Not only has the format changed to be online, but the focus of these meetings has also changed. Two key statements in the College’s Aspiration Statement which describe the type of learners that we aim to promote at St Edward’s are:

St Edward’s College inspires students to be compassionate, curious, respectful and autonomous learners.

St Edward’s College students demonstrate resilience, discipline and perseverance on their learning journey.

This new approach to the Learning Conference is designed to encourage all students to take responsibility for their learning. Teachers have provided time in class for the boys to complete a reflection activity about their learning in each subject. Boys will be asked to lead the online conversation, discussing ideas such as: what they have learnt, how they could improve in completion of assessment tasks, their commitment to learning in terms of their behaviour in class, application and effort, home study routine and future learning goals. The purpose of this new approach is to provide them a supportive environment in which to evaluate their own progress and set goals for continuing improvement.

Thank you to the many parents who have booked in appointments for these conferences. As these conferences will commence at 3pm, classes will finish at the end of period 5 and parents can collect their son/s at 2:10 pm to allow them to get home in time for their conferences.  Supervision will be provided for all other students remaining on site and normal school buses will run.   The second date set aside for Learning Conferences is Wednesday September 9 and the same arrangements for an early school finish time will be in place.

EREA Commitment to Child Safety

Edmund Rice Education Australia has recently released a revised statement of commitment to Child Safety. This commitment is in alignment with the EREA Child Safeguarding Standards Framework which is being implemented across all EREA schools nationwide. We have been asked by Dr Wayne Tinsey, Executive Director of EREA, to share this revised statement with our community. This statement and the EREA Child Safeguarding Standards Framework are available below:

COVID -19 Updated Health Advice Reminders

It is important that I take time to remind families of the updated advice from NSW Health on additional measures to help mitigate the risk posed by COVID-19 to school communities. These measures relate to ongoing vigilance associated with safety, health, hygiene and school operations. We will be implementing the changed operational considerations throughout the remainder of the term and continue to monitor the health advice provided.

Important changes have been introduced in relation to staff and students who are unwell. The following protocols must now be adhered to:

• Students absent or sent home due to flu like symptoms need to be tested.
• If you are asked to collect your son who is unwell, we ask that you do not come into the office – call the office when you arrive and we will send your son to the front gate.
• Parents must notify the College when their son has been tested.
• Staff and students must not return to school or work until they return a negative COVID-19 result and are symptom free.
• Schools must sight the negative COVID-19 test result prior to allowing students and staff to return to school. This can be done by forwarding the actual text message (not a screen shot) and including the student’s name at the top of the text to 0416 907 361.  Alternatively, you can email a screenshot to info@stedwards.nsw.edu.au including the student’s name.

We continue to ask parents to keep their son home from school if they have any of the following signs and symptoms:

• fever
• coughing
• sore throat
• shortness of breath