ERC Newsletter - Week 9 Term 4 2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

In the final newsletter for the school year, I would like to thank each of you for your wholehearted support of the College throughout 2022. This year, after a COVID-19 impacted 2020 and 2021, we had what is considered a “normal” school year. Sporting competitions, camps, excursions and daily face-to-face classes were all back. Parents were back on site and engaging with teachers and support staff. While there were times throughout the year when our lack of ‘match fitness’ required us to be resilient in overcoming the challenges presented within a new normal, we each found a renewed appreciation for the human need for social interaction within this vibrant learning community that is ERC. We have much to be grateful for as a College community as we remain faithful to the charism of Blessed Edmund Rice himself.

Congratulations to all students on their efforts and individual progression on their learning journeys. Well done to those students in Years 7-10 who, earlier this week, were formally recognised at the College Thanksgiving and Advent Assembly. Students who were recognised with Individual Awards are as follows:

Paul Scully Community Leadership Award – Youssef Achaechi (Year 8)
Allison Byrne Community Leadership Award – Oliver Campbell (Year 10)
Kathleen McGuiness Public Speaking Award – Isaac Mitrevski (Year 7) & Daniel Morozov (Year 7)
Ansto Science & Engineering Award – Harrison Macdonald (Year 8) & Matthew Carolan (Year 10)
Fr Chris Riley Award for Leadership through Social Justice & CSL – Henry Jones (Year 9)
Fr Hugh Leonard Award for Catholic Studies – Joel Suciadi (Year 10)
Fr Hugh Leonard Award for Accelerated Studies of Religion 2 – Matthew Carolan (Year 10)
Reuben F Scarf Award – Isaac Kari (Year 10)
ADF Long Tan Leadership Award – Patrick Sirianni (Year 10)

The award recipients for Pastoral Care and Christian Service Learning are included further in this newsletter.

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In preparation for 2023, the following updates are for your reference within the area of Pastoral Care for individual year groups. As mentioned earlier in the year, Mr Mark Jackson and Mr Trent Mitchell have decided to step down from their leadership positions after 40 and 22 years in the Pastoral Year Coordinator role. While we are very fortunate they will remain at ERC, this is an impressive stint of leading, supporting and guiding ERC students over such an extended length of time and should be rightly celebrated. I also wish to congratulate Mr Luke Fields who has been promoted to the College Leadership Team for 2023 in the role of Director of Operations. Well done and thank you to all.

The Pastoral Coordinators and their Assistants for 2023 are as follows:

Year 7: Mr Russell Bates, Mr Marco Panozzo
Year 8: Mrs Carmen Russell, Mr Ryan Griffiths
Year 9 Mr Pat Preeo, Mr Brendan Belsito
Year 10: Mr Jeremy Forshaw, Mrs Jade Roper
Year 11: Mr Ben Bourke, Mrs Diane Schodde (Semester 1) Mrs Rosanna Stella (from Semester 2)
Year 12: Mr Andrew Marsh, Mr Daniel Breeze

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Thank you to the members of the College Advisory Council who once again shared their skills and wisdom in contributing to the College’s strategic direction throughout 2022. On behalf of the Chair of the Council, Mr Chris Lyon, l would like to publicly acknowledge and thank those members who will be concluding in their roles at the end of this school year after many years of service. Thank you to Mr Brendan Pearce, Mr Matthew Hennessy and Mr Barry Formosa for your generous counsel and strategic input over such a significant period of growth for the College. We have been blessed to have people with their experience and commitment supporting the College in this way. At the same time, we warmly welcome two new members joining the Advisory Council in 2023. Welcome to Mrs Sally Jones and Mrs Natasha Hewlett, who will bring their national safety and child-related law respective backgrounds to the Council.

I also wish to publicly thank and farewell the NSW Director of Schools for EREA, Mr Peter Leuenberger. As he concludes in this role at the end of this year, I sincerely thank Mr Leuenberger for his steadfast support of the College over many years. We wish him all the best for the future and the next stage of his life.

I take this opportunity to wish all families a healthy, safe and blessed Christmas and may each family experience the joy, the hope and the deep love that the birth of Jesus heralds.

Stephen Gough
Principal