Head of Preparatory School
PREP SCHOOL UPCOMING EVENTS
Book Week
Book Week was celebrated in many ways across the Prep School this week. Mrs Roberts is to be congratulated on making the week fun and all about the love of reading! As everyone knows, I love a good dress up so it has been lovely to see so many of our Prep students decide to dress up in book characters this week if they were able to. A highlight for many was listening to Mr Webber and other staff read books to them. Here are some highlights from some of classes:
Ms Wilson 2Y – Inspiring, creative and exciting are the words used to describe the buzz within the 2Yellow class during our discussions of Books this week. We love sharing our love of reading and our personal connections to characters and themes.
Ms Angus 1B – We thought of the happiness books bring into our lives and the children each shared their favourite books during our morning roll call. The students have had endless opportunities to read and to be read to by people they know at school and from famous authors around the world.
Ms Gordon KR – Book Week provided a springboard for a rich discussion about how important literature is for children. The children relished in the opportunity to bring in their favourite books and shared why they enjoyed them with the class…I hope they maintain their passion for reading well into the future’.
Ms Finlayson KB – The children said “that building a cubby house was so much fun and we loved reading inside our reading nook”.
Miss Nicholls – KW – It is not often we stop to think about how Australian authors and illustrators have influenced our lives, but Book Week provides an opportunity to do just that. The students were eager to share just how much their favourite stories have taught, inspired, intrigued and humoured them – so much so that we decided to be authors and illustrators ourselves so we could share this magic with others.
Mr Price- 1W – Book Week 2021 will be one that One White students never forget. Despite the challenges, the students have been highly engaged in the Book Week activities and it has been an absolute pleasure seeing their favourite places to read, home-made bookmarks, and also being able to listen to every student in the class read so confidently. Sharing our favourite books and authors on Zoom has been one of many highlights this week. Keep reading, Year One!
K-2 Mathematics Parent Information Session
A big thank you to Mrs Stacey Smith, Dean of Teaching and Learning for presenting an informative and very helpful session on Tuesday night. Stacey unpacked how the new NSW Maths Syllabus will differ from the current content by 2023. She also shared Number Talks and tips and tricks for Remote Learning. A key message of the evening was that number sense and mathematical reasoning are key skills in building the foundations for strong early maths learning, so adapting these skills to authentic situations helps embed them. The presentation can be found on our Pulse page and Stacey is always available on ssmith@redlands.nsw.edu if you would like to have further conversations around K-2 Maths or any Key Learning Area that is taught at Redlands.
Wellbeing Wednesday
Wednesday 1 September
Next Wednesday will be a variation to routine day where our Prep students will be able to participate in wellbeing live sessions with many of our specialist staff. The day will begin with the teachers taking the role as normal but after that, they will have the choice of joining sessions centred around movement with Music staff, art session with Madam Merlot, juggling with Coach Carter, scavenger hunt with the PE staff and even a live cupcake cooking session with our very own chef, Joel Squire! These sessions have been designed to be fun without anything needing to be posted form the children. In some of the activities, some equipment will be required so to ensure you have enough time to plan for this, a list of items will be sent out via Engage on Monday.
This day is to provide our students with some fun. Your child does not have to participate in every activity, nor do they need to be on Zooms all day. Once the timetable is posted, I would encourage you to sit with your child and work out which sessions they would like to attend.
It should be a fun day for everyone.
Parent Teacher Conversations
30 August to 10 September
K-2 Parent/Teacher Conversations will be taking place via Zoom, over a two week period from 30 August to 10 September. This will be an opportunity for you to meet for a 10-minute online conversation with your child’s teacher. Conversations will focus on student academic growth using both remote and face to face verbal examples as well as next steps for your child’s learning journey. Students emotional and social development will also be a focus of discussion. Booking details will be sent to all families next week.
Week 8 Request for On-Campus Learning for Children of Essential Workers
Parents who are essential workers can lodge a request for on campus learning support for the week of 30 August – 3 September. Booking requests close again at 8pm on Friday 27 August at 8pm to allow sufficient time for staffing to be organised based on the numbers.
https://forms.gle/VW2odXmiZaLGbkB48
Mrs Ainslie Breckenridge
Head of Preparatory School
abreckenridge@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9848