From the Principal
A warm welcome to all families to Term 3 following the mid-year vacation and a special welcome to the new families who are joining our community from the UK, USA, Hong Kong and Singapore and from other local schools.
The vacation period saw the running of the 21st Redlands Cup at Thredbo and I sincerely thank all those staff and parents, led by Snowsports Coordinator Mr Bruce Campbell, for all their hard work in ensuring the very successful organisation of this event, which attracted around 500 competitors from NSW schools, and even a few from interstate.
Congratulations to our Snowsports team of 135 skiers and snowboarders for their excellent results at both the Redlands Cup and NSW Interschools. At the Redlands Cup our team was awarded 22 podium places – 6 individual and 16 team – achieving 3 Gold, 10 Silver and 9 Bronze medals. I especially congratulate the following Gold medal winners:
Billy Thomas – Div 3 Boys Alpine
Div 1 Boys Snowboard B team
Div 3 Boys Snowboard team
There was further success at the Sydney Interschools at Perisher, held immediately after the Redlands Cup. Our Secondary team took out the trifecta, placing 1st in Secondary Coed Overall, Secondary Coed Skiing and Secondary Coed Snowboard, and our Primary team placed 1st in Primary Coed Overall and Primary Coed Skiing. In total, our team achieved 42 podium places – 17 individual and 25 team – with 10 Gold, 19 Silver and 13 Bronze medals. Special congratulations to the individual Gold medal winners:
Daisy Thomas – Div 4 Girls Skier X and Moguls
George Murphy – Div 2 Boys Moguls
Kate Stanbridge – Div 2 Girls Snowboard X
This year our skiers have excelled in the Moguls team events, with Div 1 Girls, Div 3 Boys, Div 4 Girls and Div 4 Boys all taking out Gold, along with the Div 2 Girls Snowboard and Snowboard Cross teams. A total of 44 teams have qualified to compete in the NSW Interschools at Thredbo in August.
23 Year 11 students undertook a Service Learning trip to Tanzania during the vacation period and had a wonderful experience. During their trip they refurbished a Masai community school and installed a new water tank, reached the summit of Mt Meru after a three-day trek and experienced amazing African wildlife. I sincerely thank the three teachers who accompanied the students in this excellent Service Learning opportunity, Ms Coleman, Ms Shorter and Mr Ellis.
This term commenced last Monday for all our staff with a day of Professional Learning. A key focus of the day was the presentation of the next evolution of our Redlands Learning Platform which has now been further refined to include our focus on creating a culture of thinking. I shall say more about this in next week’s Note Day.
Dr Peter Lennox
Photo caption: The Secondary School Snowsports team crowned 1st in Secondary Coed Overall, Secondary Coed Skiing and Secondary Coed Snowboard at the Sydney Interschools last week.