Dwardu's Scoops - Prize Day edition

Dwardu’s Scoops

Thebusinessofgettingwiser

ByDanielCaruanaSmith

What is a school’s primary function? “To teach and educate”, might be your answer. We expect schools to teach us about all the nuances of life and how to be successful; that’s what they’re for, right? Paradoxically, most don’t. More often than not it is life itself, through painful, meaningful experiences, that serves to be our best tutor.

This idea carries with it a hope and, to a certain degree, a provocation. We are challenged to believe that there is some way to ‘hot-wire’ the system, and learn systematically (and in a shorter time), what might take others years of stumbling to discover. Although there is no real short cut to acquiring such knowledge, this realization does serve to critique the ways in which we set about acquiring the skills we need to succeed.

Although we may feel the weight of milestones such as our thirtieth or fiftieth birthday, do they

Inside this issue

Little farmers 3

Droid Dominion 5

Sicily trip..........................................6

Chinese celebrations 9

Togetherness in art 10

Japan vibes 11

Prize Day highlights 12

Budding historians……………. 14

Special points of interest

• Editorial: the prize of life

• EQ and IQ and how they differ

• A celebration of different cultures

• Changing perceptions on the concept of being a historian.

ByeBye2022,Hello2023

ByAnnetteAgius

We welcomed 2023 by remembering the events that highlighted our 2022 with an energizer quiz. This made us aware of certain things that occur around us that we sometimes take for granted. Our Youth worker sessions are a safe space to speak up without judgment, where you can open up

about your highs and lows. The young people had the opportunity to express their main emotions during the year 2022. To conclude our session, we had the chance to write a letter to our future selves about what we wish to achieve, work harder on and the goals we want to accomplish by the end of the year. All the letters were confidential and enclosed in an envelope to be opened in January 2024 to see what had been

TheSchoolofLife

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really have a profound effect on the way we think? Are we suddenly wiser because we’ve been roaming the planet for a certain while? The short answer is probably not.

We aren’t ever really done with the business of becoming wiser, or more experienced in life, more emotionally mature or, to put it simply, more grown-up. In an ideal society, it would not only be children who are directly targeted and timetabled into formal education; adults would also be included. All socalled ‘grown ups’ would recognize that they inevitably require a continuing education, and not just in academic fields. We could all be emotionally intelligent followers of a psychological curriculum.

Schools would no longer focus on the instruction, but more on the interactions between individuals, where emotional intelligence as a discipline can be studied by everyone. Children would no

Let’sTalkFarming

If there is one thing that the college is blessed with, it is a large and relatively green campus. While the sports areas are, understandably devoid of vegetation, the number of trees on campus and the way the land is lovingly tilled makes the college quite unique among educational institutions on the island. Indeed, this love of land is instill in our students at a very early age with the youngest of all annually helping our resident gardener of the past 50 years, Joe, to plant, water and harvest potatoes. This is an experience which never leaves them. For St Edward’s College, therefore, participating in the government sponsored program ‘Let’s talk Farming’ was quite a natural progression.

This program aims to increase awareness related to food systems: food production, the consequences of climate change, animal welfare and husbandry, employment and community building. These aspects are woven into the curriculum through subjects such as Maltese, English,

Mathematics, geography and creative arts. Using these subjects, the schools participating in the program take on activities which increase awareness of this vital sector of the economy. The activities which may be submitted as participation and which St Edward’s is actively working on include artistic and creative skills, school outings to food production sectors, creative thinking exercises and growing food on the college premises.

Prize fight

There is a saying that Life’s not fair. Well there is a nasty word involved so I’ve doctored it a bit. Actually, this saying is a bit inaccurate. Life may not always be fair but then it all depends on how we approach the challenges it presents us: are we moaners? Are we people who wait for others to do things then ride the wave? Are we problem solvers? Are we creators?

The value of a good education is not simply in the number of certificates a person can hang on a wall. Rather, it lies in the tools that it gives people to face life and turn the ‘unfairness’ to their advantage. This is the true value of the removal of formal examinations: that students focus more on learning and applying rather than remembering and participating in a rat-race. This is why we do not need to fight over prizes, but focus on individual development.

Fishing trip

ByLuanaCassar

The Year 7 Italian students finished off the topic of Articoli Determinativi. They were divided into two groups and received 6 article cards. The game was to fish for a correct word that matches the articles.

TheexcitementofstudyingHistory

Studying history is usually associated with a mountain of books and old letters, trips to the library and the occasional magnifying glass. Wrong. Just look at our Year 9 History Option students who visited Valletta on a sunny day in December to learn all about the building legacy of the Knights of St John!

The students accompanied by their teacher Ms S. Abela, had a booklet to fill in as they learn about the entrance to the city and how it changed over the years; they discussed the importance of architectes Francesco Laparelli and Glormu Cassar; they visited Our Lady of Victories church where the first stone of Valletta is said to have been laid; observed the Auberges and noted their current use today amongst others.

The main aim of this tour of Valletta though was not only to see with their own eyes what they had learnt about in class but also to visit the Co Cathedral of St John, one of the biggest infrastructural gems left behind by the Order. The boys were taken a back when they saw the contrast created by its mannerist outside compared to its richly decorated barqoue inside. The marble flooring comprising of various tombs was fascinating together with the majestic cieling done by Mattia Preti.

The students were able to follow an audio guide that explained what they were seeing in every chapel they visited. The Beheading of St John by Caravaggio was also a special moment for them with its chiaro-scuro technique it creates a very sombre athmosphere. The lightning in the Oratory is also very suggestive.

This site visit enable the boys to complete a ‘Site Visit Report’ which is a task in which their investigative and observational skills are put to test and it is also part of the LOFs required tasks.

Fruitoftheearth

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Once the college finalizes it’s entries, these will be passed on to a selection committee who will apply published criteria to the entries received from all educational institutions. The more areas which the college submits and the more these entries are spread over the scholastic year, the greater will it’s chance be to obtain a Gold award. This is why we would like to ask your help in supporting your children in this venture: obtaining the Gold Award to which the college naturally aims, will give them a sense of pride and achievement. It will also make them appreciate more the work of the farmer and the hard work and thought and planning which goes into the broccoli and potatoes which they find so appalling on their plates!

Meetthe‘DroidDominion’

STEMdemonstrationkeepsStEdward’sMiddleSchoolboystransfixed.

The explanation had been interesting enough. The videos that showed the different development stages of the robot took things a notch higher. But the moment the Droid Dominion robot hit the stage and spun into action, excitement levels hit the roof. The boys gathered in the College Hall let out a collective “Wow!” when the robot’s speed and agility were displayed on stage.

As part of the Middle School Friday Activities, the College was being paid a visit by Mr. Lydin Camilleri, representative of the IEEE Malta Students Branch. Mr. Camilleri and a student at the University of Malta. IEEE stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. It recently organised a Robots Championship in Malta, and Mr. Camilleri had brought his team’s creation to show to our boys. Every participating team was required to design and build their own robot, which would then battle it out against the other inventions in challenges aimed to find the robots’ limits. The competitive rounds were aptly called

ByJeremyDeMaria Contpg8

Memories are made of this

With the Covid-19 restrictions lifted, one of the last things to fall into place for the college students was the coveted trips abroad. This year, these came back with a bang. Year 6Y went to Sicily. Here are some recollections.

JanFiorentinowrites

The night before the trip I was so excited I could not sleep. It was my first trip without my parents. At the same time I was hyped because I was going to be with my classmates. Early in the morning when we arrived at the sea terminal, I saw my friends and I went to chortle with them for a bit. We then said our goodbyes and went on the ferry. The ferry was bobbing up and down in the sea but luckily I did not feel dizzy. After two hours on the ferry we arrived in Sicily and I merrily went down the stairs and into a van which was going to take us to Mount Etna. The adventure was about to begin!!! I was on cloud nine because I got to see the lava and the snow. We threw the snowballs at each other and to the teachers as well. It was so much fun.

The first day in Sicily was almost over. All we had to do go into our hotel, have a shower and sleep. I shared the same room with two of my best friends. We went into bed and dozed off at midnight. The following day we woke up early and had our breakfast. There were kids who had up to 3 croissants each. During our second day in Sicily we went to a lovely place where we were shown how to make pasta ourselves. It was a bit complicated mixing all the ingredients together but we managed. Then we cooked this same pasta and ate it. The pasta was delicious and scrumptious. I also bought some pasta to take with me home. After eating we went to a shopping mall with a lot of different shops. Finally we went back to the hotel, packed our stuff and went to the port to get the ferry and return back to Malta. It was an experience that I will never forget.

over a month that we have I really my favourite under the hotel food we were given. The pasta making class was fun but nothing beats I wanted to also thank the teachers who organized

It was the 2nd of December 2022. I had woken up early because I was going to Sicily with my school friends. After I got dressed up my mum took me to virtue ferries meeting point where I met my friends and my educators. After we showed them our passports we got on the ferry. After we got on the ship my best friend and I started to eat some snacks. Then we took some pictures and sent them to our parents. When we got off the ferry, we visited Mount Etna with 4x4 vehicle.

After that, we stopped at a place to eat there. As a first course, we ate pasta. Then for the main course, we ate meat with fries and finally for dessert a delicious piece of cake. After we ate, we went to a snow field and had a snowball fight. Everyone had a blast there. Later, we visited a place underground and saw lava rock. After that, we went to the hotel for the check-in. The hotel was amazing. Everyone settled in their

rooms and then we went to the dining room and ate a delicious meal. Mathias Camilleri The next day when we woke up, we went for walk. After breakfast, we did the checkout and left the hotel to a place where they make pasta. There we made some delicious pasta. In the first process, we made a volcano out of flour. In the second process, we made a crater in the flour. Finally, we added water to it and mix it with our hands. That is how we did the dough. After that, you need to make sure it is nice and hard then flatten it, and then cut strips. Then cut the strips into squares and finally use a fork to make a pasta shape. Moreover, we visited a huge mall. There were lots of shops but the one I was interested in was a shop called the game shop. Unfortunately, our amazing adventure came to an end, but thanks to our dedicated educators at St Edward’s College I will never forget this unforgettable adventure.

MathiasCamilleriwrites

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longer feel alienated by the notions of Hooke’s Law and Pythagoras’ theorem. Instead, they would be aware of participating in the early stages of a lifelong process.

The beauty of such a school would be that there would be no age limits. Seven-year-olds could take the same classes about anger management or sulking as fifty-five year olds. Pensioners could sit alongside teenagers during lessons about blame or consideration. Emotional intelligence does not deal in terms of physical age, but in terms of maturity and life experiences.

Returning to our present reality, it is clear that such a school will probably never exist (although you never know). Notions of pride and shame would most likely cloud our judgement and ability to learn alongside our superiors or significant juniors. One this remains clear though; the phrase ‘I’ve finished school’ would become redundant. ‘Finishing school’ in such a scenario would imply an emotional death of some sort an end to the lifelong learning process. It is the same pitfall we unwittingly find our-

selves falling into in everyday life. Just because we hit a certain age does not mean there isn’t more to learn or discover.

At some point or another, we have all collectively left to chance something or other that would have proven worthwhile to learn. We may have unwittingly denied ourselves an opportunity to systematically transmit, or absorb wisdom, reserving our belief that we somehow know better thanks to our technical or managerial skills.

The moral of the story an acceptance of the reality that sometimes, even a five-year-old may have valuable lessons for us to learn. By going off the experiences of others, no matter how unlikely or improbable they may seem, we can further enrich our repertoire of emotional capabilities.

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Mr. Camilleri spoke about his project in detail, from the initial spark of an idea, to the final product we saw before us. There were a great many questions from the interested boys.

The exciting world of Science and Technology is an area that many of our students display a strong interest in. Demonstrations like the one recently witnessed at College really help to make learning exciting and bring theory to life. Who knows what the future may hold for the excited eyes watching the Droid Dominion on our College stage.

College is reliably informed that the Droid Dominion made it to the semi-finals of the contest and also won the IEEE Award in Maneuverability. Well done to Mr. Camilleri and his team.

“Emotional intelligence does not deal in terms of physical age, but in terms of maturity and life experiences.”

WelcometotheRabbit

ByRichardWang

2023 is the Year of the Rabbit and the students at St Edward’s College are preparing to celebrate it. At the college we have a number of Chinese students so that makes it possible.

Lunar New year is the most important festival of China; it is the most tremendous and oldest of traditions. The Chinese New Year can be dated to have more than 2000 years of history; thus the origin still has many sayings. Now the Spring Festival is mainly a folk entertainment carnival, with fireworks all over the sky, saying goodbye to the old year, and greeting the new year with other activities. As for tradition, every 12 years is considered as a period and each year in the period is represented by an animal as the mascot which goes: Rat; Ox; Tiger; Rabbit; Dragon; Snake; Horse; Goat; Monkey; Rooster; Dog; Pig. For this year, it is the year of Rabbit, which means that everyone who has their Chinese Zodiac to be Rabbit will be their year.

As in Malta, many activities are celebrated each year as well, for instance: writing Spring Festival couplets, pasting window grilles, performing dragon and lion

dances with traditional customs, making dumplings, cooking glutinous rice balls and other delicacies.

Visit by reading ambassadors

Over the past weeks, the Junior School took part in the Reading Ambassadors/Ambaxxaturi tal-Qari programme organised by National Literacy Agency. The article which appeared in the last Dwardu’s Scoops was erroneously attributed to one teacher when in fact it was the whole team of Maltese teachers that was involved. The inconvenience is regretted.

TheJoyofWorkingTogether

ByIanStilon

This year, one of our main focuses in Art was for the students to have the joy to work together again, after two years of not being able to because of the pandemic. In regard to this, I decided to come up with a project which they can work in groups, test themselves, as well as learn about one of the most famous artists in the 20th Century, Keith Haring.

In the first part of this project, I explained who Keith Haring was and we discussing his style of art. Many students took a liking to his art as it is very comical and involves lots of colour. They were also very interested in the doodles he used to draw as they look very fun and amusing. After the discussion, the students were split up in groups and instructed that they will be doodling in the same style of Keith Haring, but with a twist, it will be a life size poster drawing. This got the students very excited, and they immediately started thinking of actions they can do as they had to trace themselves on a large piece of paper. They enjoyed this part as everyone was involved and were coming up with different poses to trace.

After tracing the figures, the students outlined their figures in marker and chose a single colour for their figure and started painting. They had to work together to paint the whole figure, which they enjoyed. When they eventually finished painting the figure, they were instructed to add their own unique doodles around the figure itself. This gave the students a chance to be creative and think outside the box, which is always encouraged during art. Each group worked brilliantly together in drawing the doodles, coming up with very different ideas and helping each other to better their artwork. As their teacher, I enjoy coming up with these types of projects as they show the importance of team work and ultimately, pushes the students to challenge themselves and strive to do their best.

Kon’nichiwa

The students in the Junior School this year participated in a special project: the Koinobori Peace project courtesy of the Malta-Japan Chamber of Commerce in association with JMT and ICA Japan. The koinobori is a Carp Streamer, a form of wind sock associated with the event known in the Japanese calendar as Tango no Sekku today celebrated as Children’s day. In Japanese culture, the carp is a symbol of strength and courage because of its ability to swim up a waterfall. The Boys' Festival was originally an event, expressing hope that each boy in the family will grow up healthy and strong like wild carps. During this festival, people set up a warrior doll or a yoroi armor set in the house, and Koinobori, large carp-shaped windsocks, outside the house. On May 5th, these carp streamers can be seen all over Japan celebrating Children's Day.

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six centuries old theatre performance, involving music, dance and drama by Tatsumi Manjiro.

Koinobori

December 2022 started on a good note as the school organised a jampacked two day trip to Sicily for Year 6 students! I was so excited for the trip that the night before I couldn’t even sleep because I worried that I would oversleep and miss the scheduled ferry. On the day, at 6am sharp I eagerly waited at the ferry terminal for the teachers and students to arrive. During the plain-sailing ferry ride, our excitement skyrocketed by the second. On setting foot in Sicily, a bus driver welcomed us and drove us to a designated area to catch a few 4x4s and set off on our Mount Etna adventure. A delicious lunch awaited us, yet the most thrilling activities were undoubtedly snowball fighting and snowman building. As this was my very first experience on snow, I was overwhelmed. I simply regretted not packing any gloves as I had to endure ice burns’ pain. At end of day, we were all so exhausted that as soon as we lied down on bed, my roommate stated snoring while I was still saying my bedtime prayers. I dozed off within two minutes. Next morning, we started the day with birthday celebrations then went to a specialised pasta factory where we learnt how to make Cavati pasta and later devoured into our very own creations. It was amazing! In the afternoon we had time to shop for memoirs to always cherish as we recall this experience. Notwithstanding that due to bad weather the ferry trip back home was not up to standard, I will treasure this experience all my life.

AndreasBraywrites:

Ms Samantha Abela sums it up...

When students hear the words “Trip Abroad” their first reactions are: “Wow!”, “Super!” and a “Yes!”. With sparkling joyous eyes, they usually bombard the organizers with hundreds of questions because they can’t contain their excitement. This was the case with our young Year 6 students when back in Term 1 they heard that they will be going to Sicily. Unfortunately, the first time the trip was planned it had to be postponed due to bad weather, however we managed to make it happen in the early days of December.

Such a trip involves a lot of logistics which could be possible without the help of Virtu Ferries especially Ms Julie Friggieri and Mr James Vella as well as the Extra Curricular Department at SEC and the Accounts office. Thanks also to Mr Ayrton Spiteri and Mr Peter Moore who accompanied myself the boys on this adventure.

From exploring the rocky paths of the Etna, to eating and making delicious pasta, shopping and serenading on the coach; the boys had two full packed days during which they learnt not only to be more independent but also to be responsible of their own person, the people with them and of their belongings.

I am sure many fond memories were made that our boys will be also to share with their friends and loved ones for years to come!