Head of Preparatory School

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Prep Presentation Day

Ms Sarah McGarry sent out a letter to all families last week outlining the upcoming events across the campuses. I can confirm that the Preparatory Presentation Day will be commencing at 10.00am and will be live-streamed. An emailed invitation will be sent out to all families next week with the Zoom link and also an electronic program for you to follow. Our staff and students have been working extremely hard to ensure the Presentation Day includes as many students as we can. Please be aware that we will endeavour to have all our students visible at some stage during the event. We will respect the wishes of those families who have requested their child not to appear on the live stream.

The students will remain at school after the Presentation this year and normal car line times and processes will remain in place.

2021 Prep Student Class Placements 

Prep School staffing for 2021 will be finalised shortly and we continue to have the same number of classes in each Year Group as listed below:
Kindergarten: 4 classes
Yr 1: 4 classes
Yr 2: 4 classes

Class teachers have commenced the meticulous process of class formations for 2021 and will finalise the composition and balance of each class factoring in the teaching teams in Year Groups. Past experience has shown that the careful and professional approach we take ensures the optimum learning environment for each student. 

Class placements are organised by the teaching staff who see and teach these students each and every day and hence know the students best in the context of the classroom learning environment, taking particular account of the following factors:

• the individual learning, social and emotional needs of each child
• friendships of students where this has a positive impact on their learning (students are also involved in this step)
• ability levels to ensure an even spread of ability levels across each class
• an aim to balance gender in each class, as best possible

You will understand and appreciate that it is not possible to request a specific teacher for your child as this would set a precedence that is neither sustainable nor fair to all families. Please also note that younger siblings will not necessarily be placed with the same class teacher as older siblings as invariably, siblings can be very different in both their learning preference and their personal traits. 

A significant amount of time, professional dialogue and thought goes into this important operational process to aim to match each individual student with the right teacher and peers and our Dean of Students, Counsellors and I also take part in this process with our additional knowledge of students. 

Once Year Groups have finalised these, there will be a comprehensive face-to-face handover of knowledge between teaching staff before the start of Term 1, 2021, to ensure that teachers have as much information as possible ahead of next year. These class lists are then prominently displayed on the first day of the new school year but we also have individual student timetables up on the portal before the start of term so that parents have access to see who their child’s class teacher will be before the start of the 2021 academic year. 

I hope this summary clarifies the detailed process that will take place later this term in this very important part of our preparation for 2021.

Melanoma Awareness Day

Today our Prep students and staff wore crazy hats to support Melanoma Awareness Day. A very important and timely message as we enter our summer months. Our students were encouraged to remember the message of slip slop slap! As always, we ensure our Prep students are wearing their play hats in the playground and encourage them to sit in the shade when they are eating their recess and lunch.

Thank you to all our families who sent a gold coin in with their children or bought merchandise to support this important message.

Yr 2

This term, Yr 2 have been learning about materials and their properties. We have engaged in the design and make process to create structures for a particular purpose. Some students designed a structure to protect an egg when doing the Egg Drop Challenge. Other students elected to design a boat that floats. Students have been testing, reviewing and refining their designs this week. We had so much fun testing each design, as evident in the squeals of delight! I think we have some young engineers amongst us.

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