Year 11

Yr 11 Harbour Cruise – An unforgettable evening!

Yr 11 had a spectacular, memorable and unforgettable evening at the Year 11 Harbour Cruise last Friday night. Every student looked absolutely dashing in their gowns and suits and embraced coming together as a cohort for the first time in two years for a social event. From the staff’s observations, every single student enjoyed the evening, particularly when it came to the dancing! The Harbour Cruise emphasised the importance of social connections, particularly as Yr 11 embark on their senior studies where students will need that social outlet for a break from their senior studies.

Below are some reflections by students who attended the Harbour Cruise to give their insights from a very special evening:

There was a feeling of camaraderie when we all came together as a Year Group for the Harbour Cruise. I believe the most prominent feeling for the night of our formal was the camaraderie, as all of us decided to put aside our social groups and purely decided to have a good time dancing without judgement and without shame. The thing that solidified the Harbour Bruise is how the teachers got into the party spirit and decided to join in with the dancing making this Redlands event one of the most fun and memorable events I’ve ever been to. (Tobias Bowgerald)

“The Year 11 formal was so much fun! Dancing on the dance floor all night long with my friends to Taylor Swift and ABBA. It was great to have a social event with the whole year involved and so nice to connect as a Year Group. Thanks so much to all those who did all the hard work behind the scenes, it was such a privilege for us all, especially in such difficult times and already can’t wait for the Year 12 one!” (Freya Gait)

Congratulations to the following Harbour Cruise award recipients who were selected by the Year 11 cohort:

Life of the Party: Allegra Brown
Most likely to become famous: Seb Tang
Most likely to become famous – Tik Tok Edition: Jess Marshall
Most likely to win an Olympic Medal: Emilie Bessell
Biggest party animal: Hugo McKay
Most likely to win a Nobel Peace Prize: Dan Close
Most likely to become a millionaire but donate all their money to charity: Lucy Horton
Most likely to Save the planet: Sophia Lark
Most likely to cheer you up: Sensei Okawa
Most approachable: Sam Chubb
Best bromance: Keian Murphy & Corey Twining
Best Hair: Lily Hobbs
Best dressed: Jess Gross, Tobias Bowgerald and Oli Stevens
Most sparkly outfit: Taylor Riddell

Prue Salter Reflection

This week Dr Prue Salter from Enhanced Learning Educational Services (www.enhanced-learning.net) ran a study skills session with Yr 11. The session focused on helping students identify changes and improvements they could make to their approach to their studies in order to maximise their results in their final years of school. The main areas covered with Yr 11 were working effectively in the evenings and dealing with distractions, managing time efficiently, planning for assessments, making brain-friendly study notes on a regular basis and using a wide variety of active study techniques to suit individual learning preferences. Parents are encouraged to review the handout from the session with students and discuss the main areas identified where changes need to be made. Parents can also find extra study skills tips on the following website: http://studyskillstoptipsparents.com/. All secondary students and parents at our school also have access to a great study skills website to help students develop their skills. Go to www.studyskillshandbook.com.au and enter the username: redlands and the password: 68results. There are lots of useful handouts on the THINGS TO PRINT page on this site and students can work through the units where they need additional help.

Some of the ‘to do’s’ for Yr 11 after the Study Skills Workshop are that:

It’s important for every student in Yr 11 to discuss with their parents any ideas that resonated with them or anything they would like to try to further maximise their results or be more efficient. Talking it through helps to embed a student’s understanding and will allow parents to feel what the student is going through.
Students will need to start thinking about what they are like in the classroom in each subject, who they sit next to, and what they need to change to be more efficient and effective in class.
Yr 11 will need to examine the space where they work at home and how they file and manage all of the books and papers for school. They are asked to do anything they can to improve their study space and their organisational system.
Yr 11 need to be organised and have a good look at the folders and files on their computer and see what they need to change to make it easier to find things later. Year 11 should also think about their back-up system and what they would do if they lost their computer – i.e. can the student still access their files?
If a student doesn’t have a Term Planner set up for at least this term with due dates for assessments on it, get that sorted ASAP. Might be a good idea to map out the whole year.
Yr 11 students are asked to think critically about what they do when they are given an assessment task notification, what sort of planning they do, how quickly they start, can they use any of the planning ideas from the session to modify their approach to assessments?
How effectively are the students working at home? What are their main distractions and what are they going to try to manage these? Do any of the apps suggested appeal to them?
Yr 11 students are asked to share their study notes to a teacher, parent, friend and discuss how they might make the notes more ‘brain-friendly’ so they are easier to learn when they get closer to exam time.
Next time Yr 11 has a written exam, they have been asked to look over the study techniques and see which ones they could add in – remember students are trying to increase the range of techniques they use so there are more paths in the brain to access and retrieve the information when needed.
Finally, Yr 11 are asked to pat themselves on the back for all the things they ARE already doing! The aim is to keep just making little adjustments and improvements to help them manage the last years of school with the least amount of stress and the best results they personally can achieve.

Student Achievement

ISA Swimming

Congratulations to Loch Wilding who achieved the following first places in the following events at the recent ISA Swimming Championships:

1st U17 Boys 50m Freestyle (25.71)
1st U17 Boys 50m Breaststroke (32.04)
1st U17 Boys 50m Butterfly (26.40)

Well done Loch!

Congratulations also to:

Isabella Havryk who finished 7th in the 50m Freestyle
Sam Chubb who finished in 6th place in the 50m Freestyle
Finn Woodward who finished in 7th place in the Div B 50m Freestyle and 9th in the 50m Butterfly
Marli Prado who finished in 5th place in the 50m Breastroke

Congratulations Emilie – Redlands 1sts Basketball Team win the ISA Grand final!

Congratulations to Emilie Bessell who was a part of the Redlands Division 1 Girls Basketball Team who won their grand final game against Barker over the weekend!

Redlands XC Training

Next Friday afternoon, XC training will begin at Primrose Oval from 3:45 – 5:00 pm. The training is open to all of Year 11 in the lead up to the Senior School XC Carnival in Week 10. Students can sign up via the following form.

Mr Nicholas Walker
Yr 11 Year Advisor
nwalker@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9909 3133