Year 11

Dr Tessa Opie

Students and staff welcomed Dr Tessa Opie, Founder and Director of ‘In your skin’, to Redlands this week. Tessa is a renowned and well-respected relationships and sexuality education expert, advocating for healthy and consenting relationships, with a sex-positive, evidence-based and harm reduction focus. She presented to Yrs 11 and 12 last Monday, on key topics such as sexual health, impact of pornography on sexual values, consent and sexual communication, and navigating respectful relationships. For more info please see here. Jess Howard and I also attended a full day workshop this week to further build our knowledge and understanding in this area, in order to best support Yr 11. 

Year 6 Transition Session, report by Jemma Davies and Alex Gibbs

Last Monday morning the current group of Yr 6 students from the Junior School, along with many of their parents, visited the Senior Campus for a short Q&A session and an introductory parent tour around the school, to ease the transition of moving from the Junior School to the Secondary School next year. Together with three Yr 7 students, we sat on a panel and answered questions from both the students and the parents whilst also sharing personal experiences about our transition into the Secondary School and our current learning journey. Additionally, Mr Webber made a short introduction, followed by Ms Van de Peer and Mr Guha. They collectively gave a presentation on the introduction to Yr 7, covering a range of topics including the structure of Core and Tutor classes, subject choices and life outside academic learning. The mix of students in the panel allowed both an older and younger perspective to be shared surrounding the transition, which additionally provided insight to the audience about some of the inter-year relationships between Secondary School students, such as the Peer Support Program. Following on from this, a group of Yr 11 students took the attending parents on a brief tour of the school, with focus on some of our key learning spaces, including the Learning Hub and the Roseby Building. Parents visited a variety of classrooms with different subjects and year groups where they were able to experience how learning differs throughout the year levels and the different branches of subjects offered throughout each year level, including Science, Design and Technology and Languages. Overall, this experience was a good way to start off the transition into Yr 7 and create connections with the junior years. 

Platinum Girls Luncheon 2021 by Sam Virtue

Several other students and I were given the opportunity to help the Redlands Platinum Girls Luncheon 2021. We were all able to spend some time getting to know the women who attended Redlands over 50 years ago. I was able to talk to some amazing ladies about their widely different experiences at high school. Many of them shared their experiences in the L block (Languages building) of their morning prayers and commented on how it hasn’t changed since they attended. I met a wonderful lady who graduated in 1946, and she shared her experience of high school and how widely different the community differs from the present community. The ladies all shared amazing wisdom and offered a primary insight into the history of Redlands. This experience was shared by other students in my Year Group, and we were all able to tell each other what we learnt from these ladies and how widely different everyone is. I am very grateful to have had this opportunity to meet these lovely women.

Tennis Report by Joel Keith

Last weekend the Representative Tennis teams played our second games of the ISA draw. Compared to our first match up against Oakhill, in which our best Tennis wasn’t played, St Pius wasn’t as much of a challenge. It was good to win our first games of the season and as we often say “the comeback is greater than the setback.” That being said, at Tennis we always try to learn and reflect on games and experiences. We have always incorporated this mentality into our training and games and through this, great improvement has been found. Many of us haven’t played together before as doubles partners and are still getting used to playing with each other. It made me proud how quickly we were able to adapt and learn each other’s style of play. However, what I personally found most exciting was the development of many players during the summer months, these people reaching higher teams than before, showing how their hard work paid off. Playing Tennis, now more than ever, plays a massive role in how I deal with situations as a person. Tennis being a mentally straining sport (often fuelled by unnecessary anger and stress!) has allowed me to be able to take a step back, calm myself down and consider the big picture. This is where the learning and reflecting mentality helps me: after taking a step back I can analyse what is going well and what isn’t. Tennis being such an enjoyable sport takes the pressure away from my study and gives me a chance to catch up with mates and exercise. I will continue to play Tennis in my final two years of school and really look forward to what the competition and comradery has in store.

Artworks by Yr 11 HSC students

Yr 11 HSC Visual Arts students have been very busy producing some amazing pieces of artwork as seen in these photos.

Have a great week!

Ms Rebecca Mountain
Yr 11 Advisor
rmountain@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9908 6462