From The Principal
It has been impressive to note how the school community has approached the start of the school year, with students pleased to be back, catching up with friends and forming new relationships, teachers energised by new classes and welcoming new members of their teams, and parents rock solid in their support and seeking ways to connect during this period.
As previously communicated, to start the year we decided to inform parents whenever we there is a positive COVID case identified in a particular Year Group in the School. While these regular updates may at times give the impression that there are numerous cases, the reality is that we have been pleased by the very low number of cases in the community. We have also not seen a pattern of further transmission in any of our student cohorts, or spikes in any particular group. If this were to be the case, we would certainly inform parents and carers who may be impacted.
Thank you for your support with our COVID safe protocols, and implementing the regular Rapid Antigen Tests on Monday and Wednesday mornings. We have been informed that our updated supply will arrive today and these kits will be distributed to students at school this Friday.
We are very much looking forward to commencing our Summer Sport fixtures this week in both the ISA and IPSHA competitions. The general rule for spectators will be two people per student for outdoor fixtures and one per student for indoor fixtures and masks are compulsory for indoor venues. Masks are still strongly recommended for spectators outdoors. At times there may be alternative requirements at external venues, or other schools.
Redlands Lane on Senior Campus, which runs from Waters Rd to Military Rd, can now be utilised for Bus pick-up and drop-off for the Secondary School. From this afternoon a number of our Sport buses will be utilising this lane and in due course further information will be forthcoming regarding other student buses. This will greatly improve student access to the campus and provide a much more streamlined pick up and drop off process for Sport and other external activities. As our three Redlands Bus services (Pittwater, Inner West, Eastern Suburbs) are used by both Junior and Secondary students, there will be no change to their current drop-off and pick-up locations. While we did utilise Redlands Lane for the pick-up of the RAT kits, it will not be used as a parent drop-off or pick-up zone, which will remain in the current allocated space on Waters Rd.
We are also delighted that the Staff carpark underneath the Fahl Garden opened this week, which will take over 60 cars from the local streets. The carpark requires a swipe a card for entry and is only accessible by staff. Visitor parking on Senior Campus will remain outside the Lone Oak building on Military Rd.
Mr Stephen Webber
Photo Caption: What a delight it was to welcome back all students to Redlands for their first day of classes after the summer holidays.