EAPS News

Chickens, Puppies, Piglets & Lambs: No need for students to head to the Melbourne Show to see baby animals this year. Over the last few weeks, Year 2 have had an exciting time hatching chickens in their classroom with a 99% success rate. Yr 2 teacher, Miss Jackson brought her 6 gorgeous fluffy pups in for 'show & tell' and our school chaplain brought her not so gorgeous piglet. Over at the ELC two very young lambs have become favourite residents for the next month or so and the children have been delighted as they help bottle feed and care for them each day.
Prep Orientation Days off to a good start: Our new class of Preps who will commence school next year came to school the last day of third term. There were smiles all round as they waved goodbye to their parents and settled in to a busy morning of real school! There are two more practice days before the end of the year - October 10 and November 7.
Success again in German Poetry Competition:
Edinburgh Adventist Primary and Lilydale Academy were represented by 10 students from Years 5 through to 8 in the regional finals of the German Poetry Competition held over two days in August. Competing with around 8 schools and 47 students, Edinburgh students came home with two prizes! Jane Titterington (Yr 6) won an 'encouragement' award and Grace Wilson in Yr 5 won first prize!

The Good Old Days: Yr 5 have been studying the gold rush and life in Australia in the early days. Grandparents were invited to join the students for a special day of good old fashion games, cooking damper on open fires, and stories of what school was like 'back then'! Teacher, Mrs Smith is pictured here with a very good looking boys who were obviously portraying the more successful benefactors of the gold rush.

New Technology: Our classrooms have all seen the installation of brand new interactive whiteboards. These are proving most popular with both students and teachers. One of our Year 4 students stated, "I think these white boards can do just about anything, they are very cool." Federal Government Funding was used to purchase 4 of the 7 whiteboards as well as the purchase and installation of some new play equipment, air conditioning for 5 classrooms, an extra 17 new computers and 2 printers and an extension to our very busy parent car park.

Service to others: Edinburgh students have a real sense of duty to serve others.. "We believe that we should always help others," said Edinburgh school captain, Matthew Shaw. "We've raised funds for diabetes, cancer research, and the recent Burma disaster." This conviction is carried on through to the Secondary campus where students from Middle School have just completed 'Operation Orphan Fill'. This project saw the students and their families involved in raising over $20,000 and filling a large shipping container for an orphanage in Kenya. Many senior students choose to volunteer a week or two of their school holidays to work on service projects organized by our school chaplain and it's these projects that are later viewed as some of the highlights of their school year. Character...through nurture, learning and service is our school's vision statement and we are proud that our staff and students have a real and practical commitment to this vision.

Values Education: A lot of emphasis is based on providing sound values at schools these days and being a Christian school, Edinburgh is very proactive in teaching our children good, sound values. Recently, a Values Seminar aimed at Primary children was conducted at the school for all students. Some of the key points included: Friendships - everyone is priceless and we need to care for each other, treat others as you would like to be treated; we are all different and we are all valued; loving God and loving and caring for each other are the two most important things in life. Resilience: We need family to love us and set boundaries for us; we need education to learn to be part of a group; we need community, church, sporting, hobby group to be part of and enjoy friendships; we need values - things that we not ony believe but that we also do.
Young Readers Share Talents: Each Tuesday afternoon our Yr 2 class walk across to the Early Learning Centre to meet with their young reading buddies. "We spend 30 minutes each week reading to our buddies and doing a related activity," said Yr 2 teacher, Miss Jackson. "It's a great opportunity for the students to practice their reading skills and to share a fun time with their buddies. Hopefully the modelling of the joy of reading will have an equally positive influence on the young minds of the children at the ELC." According to Director of ELC, Mrs Joan Hope, parents are actually choosing to send their children to the centre of Tuesdays because of the 'reading to buddies' session.