A hot-bed of activity

By NollaigMacAnBhaird Headmaster

Schools are always dynamic busy places! Some weeks more so than others. This past week saw two Compliance visits, one for Early Years and Junior schools and one for Middle School and Senior School. We will have the reports after the Easter break but the ‘mood music’ for both visits was positive. Both sets of visitors commented on the facilities we have, the polite good nature of the students and were generally impressed with what St Edward’s is doing in terms of education.

Outside my office right now I can hear the excitement of boys energetically engaged in their Easter egg hunt! No stone left unturned! This past Friday we had the IB (International Baccalaureate) arts evening where students presented their artwork, we had a play written and performed by IB students, and not to forget, the band that played, ably accompanied by drummer extraordinaire, Mr. Galea.

I also must mention the Early Years and Junior school concerts that took place this week and will continue after the Easter break. The amount of time, energy and patience that is put into these concerts by teachers, LSEs, parents and above all Ms. Brown, is not just commendable, but astonishing!

Wednesday saw the Middle, Senior and IB Sports day, again, a huge debt of gratitude to all staff involved, particularly Mr. Ferrante and the sports department. Shots were put, jumps, long and high, were jumped, discus thrown and naturally races were run. I will leave it to your child to let you know which house won …

Hot off the press is the news that the teachers came back from 2 – 0 down against the students to win, 3 – 2. An exciting and extremely competitive game! All that remains is for me to wish everyone in the St Edward’s community a very Happy Easter.

L-Għid it-tajjeb lil Kulħadd!

Media Literacy

Over the past few days I had the opportunity to discuss newspapers with a group of older students. The had an array of British newspapers, both broadsheet and tabloid and we discussed layout, visuals, headlines etc. The students had some pertinent comments, some of them very perceptive ones. However I was struck by a few points:

• Fact Checking is not an automatic response to information. Too much is believed at face value. This underlines the need for Media Ethics in the media profession as well as more critical thinking on the side of the readers.

• Self-awareness with regards to reactions to visuals is still lacking. In the media a visual is not chosen because it is ‘nice’ (only) but because it passes a message. Visuals have a language which needs to be deciphered.

• Attention-spans are rapidly declining, even among the cleverer people. Which is why such emphasis is being made on adroit headlines and, at a pinch, sub-heads. BUT...these rarely tell the whole story.

In conclusion, my brief stint confirmed my long-held belief that media literacy is as vital as the air we breath.