Head of Preparatory School

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Calendar Updates

Games Day and a Special Afternoon

In further support of wellbeing, our teachers have planned a special movie afternoon following Games Day on Thursday 24 September. Students will be allowed to wear mufti on this day with a colour from their Houses if they can. The House shields and their colours can be found on page 7 of the Student Planners.

The focus of the day will be on games, teamwork, fun, celebration and connection with each other. Prep students must remember to wear hats and running shoes as well as sleeves to cover their shoulders in the sun. In the session after lunch, the children will push back their tables and chairs and sit on the floor to watch a movie together. They can bring in a special cushion, pillow or soft toy for this session too if they’d like. We hope these activities and wellbeing themes build our students’ sense of belonging and connection to each other and our Redlands community. We’re all so proud of them!

STEAM Week

What an exciting few days we have had in the Prep with the annual STEAM Day activities taking place. On Wednesday and Thursday, our Yr 1 and Kindergarten students were engaged in hands on challenging activities that included coding, engineering skills, music creation and finding the treasure by coding BeeBots. As I walked around, a hum of activity and busy conversations were taking place as students asked questions, experimented, took risks to find a solution but most of all had fun with the activities. Days like these are always a wonderful reminder about the resilience and the enthusiasm that our young learners demonstrate when engaged in their learning.

Morning Car Drop off line

Please be aware that there is no parking allowed when dropping off students in the mornings at the Allister Street drop off zone in front of the Prep School. Each morning we have a staff member assisting with opening car doors and placing bags on backs for our young students. Please have your child’s bag ready on their lap or in a space available for the staff member to access. If you do need to exit your car and walk your child to the gate, please park in surrounding streets and walk in. These measures have been put in place to ensure the steady flow of traffic in the mornings. Thank you for your assistance .

Lunchtime Clubbin’

Facilitated by our Chaplain and School Counsellors, Redlands Friendship and Lego Clubs are tailored for Yrs K-2, providing students with the opportunity to engage in creative play during lunchtimes and explore friendships with peers who perhaps they would not regularly play with on the playground. It is a calm and quiet space for children who perhaps find the playground at times overwhelming to navigate, or for students who simply just want to unwind and hang out during their break undercover.

At Lego Club (Tuesday and Thursday lunchtimes in the OOSH Room), students can explore the possibilities of creativity and problem solving while having fun, and can choose to work independently or with a group to design their Lego interventions. The power of Lego is that it helps children to bond, encourages teamwork and communication whilst building, and enhances important skills such as problem solving, persistence and sharing. 

At Friendship Club (Monday, Wednesday and Friday lunchtimes outside the Yr 2 classrooms), students can play games with one another, make puzzles, draw freely, or do mindful drawing with handouts provided. Mingling with peers helps to enhance the students’ social skills and build on their confidence, allowing them to expand their social circles and build connections that they might not otherwise have made.

The rules of our Lunchtime Clubs are to line up by the Prep Reception and come with a big smile and enthusiastic attitude! 

Seven Steps to Writing Professional Development

This week all staff from P-6 participated in the first training session of Seven Steps to Writing program. This is the new writing program that we will be embedding into our writing programs next year. Seven Steps is a program that empowers teachers to inspire their students to rapidly improve their writing skills and more importantly, learn to love writing. Over the next few weeks you may hear your child come home discussing sizzling starts, ban the boring, exciting endings and tightening tension! If you do hear these words, ask them what they mean!

Wellbeing Matters

As Term 3 draws to a close, our wellbeing workshops across the campus will focus on ‘hope’. Studies have found that hope and overall wellbeing are closely connected, as the way we perceive the future can greatly affect how we feel in the present. Students will be encouraged to identify hopeful thoughts for themselves, their family and our community. We’ll be putting our messages of hope onto spring blossoms and creating a mural in each section of our Junior Campus.

‘Redlands Spirit of Christmas’ Card

Supporting Anglicare Toys ‘n’ Tucker Appeal

This year, Redlands will celebrate the Christmas spirit by showcasing the students’ creativity in a range of Christmas cards featuring art from our talented Junior and Prep School students and sharing the joy with those in need. Submissions of artworks can be drawing, painting, mixed media and digital art, together with a short description of the image, and will close on Wednesday 14 October (Week 1, Term 4). Students can hand them to class teachers or at the Prep School office.

Artworks are to showcase what Christmas means to our students – they can select from the following themes:

1. An Australian Christmas – bush, beach, BBQ, summer holidays
2. Christian images – The nativity, baby Jesus, Three Wise Men 
3. My family Christmas– students depicting what Christmas looks like at their house/in their family/in their culture
4. Favourite Christmas meal/food/snack 

Ten artworks (either individual or group submissions) will be selected and featured in this year’s ‘Redlands Spirit of Christmas’ card set which will be available to purchase in Term 4. Please join us to create a wonderful Christmas spirit for our broader community!

RPFA Community Trivia Night

book here

Chaplain

Mrs Ainslie Breckenridge
Head of Preparatory School
abreckenridge@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9848