Head of Secondary School
Resilience has been demonstrated this week across the Secondary School. Despite approaching the end of term, and fatigue setting in at the end of a long, wet term, the students have demonstrated their typical ‘can-do’ approach to all things learning and community. After a week on Camp, Yr 7 have energetically re-entered the Senior Campus and their learning this week, finalising their Christian Studies assessment which involved the composition of a letter to Mr Webber outlining the School’s values underscored by stimulus passages from the Bible. Yr 11 were also feeling a little tired this week too, after their enjoyable Harbour Cruise on Friday evening. Dancing, speeches, awards and generally looking extremely gorgeous was the order of the night. It was wonderful to be able to share this experience with Yr 11 and see Mr Walker flexing his moves on the dance floor.
It was a privilege to attend both the camp and the Harbour Cruise, punctuated by the Basketball on Saturday morning at Barker. The Yr 7 Girls Basketball team won their match despite their fatigue and celebrated together by singing happy birthday to their coach Alex, very loudly at the conclusion of the match, demonstrating some surprisingly unrealised energy. Then I watched the nail-biting triumph which marked the final match of the Girls 1sts Basketball, expertly coached by Kate Seebohm, and a special ceremony which celebrated their success this season, and the presentation of certificates to students who have been selected to play in the ISA team. The three Redlands students who made the ISA team are: Emilie Bessell, Meera Coburn and Eva Osborn. After competing in the ISA competition, they will hopefully take out the CIS championship.
Despite an increase in COVID-19 cases across the Secondary School at the end of last week and at the beginning of this week after the weekend, since then, the numbers of positive cases and household contacts have declined again each day this week. Whilst students might tell you that ‘everyone is away’ this is not the case. Some students do have COVID or are at home isolating as a household contact. The overall percentage of students who fall into these categories is very low, and we appreciate the calm and supportive approach of parents to the temporary increase. But we also know that some students have been away from school this week for other reasons.
As I said to parents and carers who gathered for the Yr 7 Meet and Greet on Monday evening on the Fahl Garden, we are now ‘living with COVID’ and this means that, unfortunately, some members of our community will contract the virus and need to isolate. At Redlands, it is our goal to keep adapting and shifting so we can manage to live with the virus, and so that we can run the School as normally as possible. We want the students to engage in typical experiences and be connected to each other and the community – and it is through camps, Harbour Cruises, sporting competitions and arts events, that we do this. We will continue to run the school as normally as possible, whilst weighing up the benefits to student wellbeing, health and learning, with the risks. It is comforting to know that we do have fewer positive cases than many other schools. (You might have read the articles in the news this week.) To continue to protect themselves, students and staff are able to wear their mask at school – we know that masks are one of the most significant ways to minimise the spread of the virus. This week, we saw an increase in students voluntarily wearing masks at school and I was proud to see so many of our students taking responsibility and exercising their agency in the community in this way.
A further supply of RAT tests are being distributed to students tomorrow. Taking a test at home is preferable to taking one at school, and to avoid any heightened anxiety around COVID transmission, we strongly encourage you to RAT your children before they come to school if you are in any way concerned they might have the virus.
The coming weeks see the Yr 8 Camp at Yarrahappini and the rescheduled Yr 12 Camp at Katoomba and we are looking forward to these events as a community and so that these students can get away, spend time outdoors with each other and engage in the typical rites of passage that are so formative for students of their age.
Sport Success
A huge congratulations to 2022 Redlands Swimming Captain Erik Scott who competed over the weekend at the NSW State Open Swimming Championships. He dominated the 200m Backstroke and has now qualified to compete at the National Swimming Championships in Adelaide over Easter.
Further congratulations to the Redlands Swimming team on representing Redlands at the ISA Swimming Championships at SOPAC recently. It was a significant day for many of our students as they swum in multiple events throughout the day. Some notable highlights include:
- Erik Scott (Yr 12)
- 3rd Boys 18-19 50m Freestyle (25.87)
- 2nd Boys 18-19 100m Freestyle (56.88)
- 1st Boys 18-19 50m Backstroke (28.97)
- 3rd Boys 18-19 50m Butterfly (28.40)
- Loch Wilding (Yr 11)
- 1st U17 Boys 50m Freestyle (25.71)
- 1st U17 Boys 50m Breaststroke (32.04)
- 1st U17 Boys 50m Butterfly (26.40)
- Xander Halfen (Yr 10)
- 2nd Boys U15 50m Backstroke (30.63)
Also, recently the Rowing program travelled to Canberra for the double header regattas of ACT Head of the Lake and ACT Championships. The Junior students lead the way on water with some outstanding racing from all crews. The day started with an impressive third place in the Yr 8 Boys Single Scull for Kieran Newman. The Yr 9 Boys raced well with a strong second place in the A final for our 1st crew while the 2nd crew finished third in the B final. The Yr 9 Girls also represented well with the 1st crew finishing third in the A final while the 2nd crew had a convincing win in the C final.
The Yr 8 Boys crews rose up to the challenge with a strong win in the A final for the 1st crew and 2nd place in the D final for the 4th crew. It was our Yr 8 girls who dominated with some very impressive results such as the Girls 1st crew winning the A final while the 2nd crew finished in third place in the same final. The 3rd, 4th and 5th crews all finished in first, second and third place in the B final and the 6thcrew finishing second in the C final.
Our senior crews also achieved some significant results with the Girls 2nd crew finishing second in their division while the Boys 2nd crew won their division with the Boys 3rd crew in third place.
The combined results saw Redlands take out the School Girl Points Score for the ACT Head of the Lake.
The following day at the ACT Championships also saw some great results, with the Yr 9 boys 1st crew improving their position to win the Men’s Under 16 Coxed Quad and Angus McInnes also winning the Mens Under 15 Single Scull. The Yr 8 Girls also were very impressive with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the Yr 8 Single Scull to Isobel Campbell, Scarlett Cortes and Mila Osborn and another win for the Yr 8 Girls 1st crew in the Women’s Under 15 Coxed Quad.
Performing Arts
We are delighted that rehearsals and events are back up to full speed, with upcoming Term 1 events to include Jazz in the Garden, the Redlands Musical and Battle of the Bands. Personally, I am really looking forward to Jazz in the Garden this Saturday night and the Redlands Musical next week! Students and staff have been working supremely hard and are keen to perform for us so I do hope you take the time to purchase a ticket and come along to these wonderful Redlands events.
Ms Gemma Van de Peer
Head of Secondary School
gvandepeer@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9811