From the Deputy Principal, Mr Sean Corcoran
Recently, I was speaking to a colleague from another independent school in Sydney about our new iGrow platform. As some of our families are aware, iGrow is the name of our student data analytics platform which has been developed internally to holistically track and nurture the academic growth and wellbeing of every student from Preschool to Year 12. After being successfully trialled with targeted students in the Secondary School last year, it is now in the process of being further embedded throughout the Secondary School this year and will be more widely used for coaching conversations with students and “data digs” with teachers. Work is also being done to expand and establish iGrow in the Prep and Junior Schools over the next year.
When I told this colleague about iGrow, he remarked, “It must be great to have a school that is data-driven”. I quickly corrected him and responded, “No, Redlands is not data-driven. We are student-driven but data informed”. The distinction is essential as while we are excited to see Redlands further embrace data and feedback so we can better track, support and extend students to help them individually achieve their own personal bests, it is also important to know that we realise our students are so much more than just a number.
I have personally seen our student-driven school in full flight over the past week, whether it was the Kindergarten students excitedly touring their parents through their classrooms during their Open Morning on Monday; the Year 6 student leaders pitching some of their new sustainability initiatives at the Junior School Assembly on Tuesday; or the Year 12 student leaders presenting a powerful Secondary School assembly on diversity and inclusion earlier this week.
At the same time, this year we have also been using various forms of data and feedback to evaluate our current practices and help shape our strategic direction. A professional learning option for Secondary School teachers is to join colleagues as part of a Change Lab. Working in collaboration with professors from UTS, these Change Labs allow a group of teachers to use data from our iGrow platform to identify a specific area to target for student growth and then assess the effectiveness of their interventions over a two year period.
In Term 4 last year, students, staff and parents/carers had the opportunity to participate in our biennial whole school Association of Independent Schools Perspective Survey, giving feedback across the following five domains: School Environment; Teaching and Learning; Student Wellbeing; Leadership; and Community. We have been analysing this data to help us better understand what our community thinks is working well at the School and what could be done differently, and this feedback is informing our continuous improvement program, as well as our strategic planning. Pleasingly, we have seen an improvement in each of the five domains from when we conducted this survey two years prior, and we look forward to sharing further feedback from the survey with the community in the months ahead.
We also had informative feedback from our annual Year 12 Exit Survey at the end of last year, and later this semester students in Years 3-12 will take part in Australian Centre for Educational Research’s Social Emotional Well-Being Survey. This data will help us assess the overall wellbeing of students so that we can better target our pastoral programs and resources. So, while we are excited by the many different ways we are using data and feedback to inform our school-wide decisions and strategies, please know that we will always remain a student-driven school.
The COVID plan that has served the school community well over the last two years, and especially over the first six weeks of this term, continues to be reviewed and updated in direct response to the increasing number of cases in the wider community.
We have seen a corresponding increase in positive COVID-19 cases in some Year Groups at the end of last week and beginning of this week. As previously communicated, when we see an increase in cases in a specific cohort, we will notify the parents and carers accordingly so that they can more closely monitor for symptoms in students. However, we have also seen a decrease in positive COVID-19 cases over the past few days.
We are aware that a number of other schools in our area have significantly higher rates of positive COVID-19 cases in their communities, and as such we are pleased with the relatively low number of positive cases recorded at Redlands to date. While we are keen to be returning to more “normal” school activities and events, we will continue to take appropriate measures to do so in a safe way. This week another supply of Rapid Antigen Tests will be sent home with students across the School so they can continue to test and screen at home., as required.
Much like those in the wider community, our COVID-safe measures will continue to evolve and change if necessary as we increasingly learn to live with COVID-19 in our school community. If you have any further questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at feedback@redlands.nsw.edu.au.
Mr Sean Corcoran
Deputy Principal
Photo Caption: Some of our youngest budding ballerinas enjoying their ballet lesson at our Redlands Ballet and Dance Academy.