Year 9

2025 – Here we are, Year 9, Feeling Fine and Being Kind

Welcome back to Redlands for another exciting year. It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the cohort over these first couple of days as they put their minds and hearts into getting back into the school routine. There have been many smiles, high fives and hugs as peers excitedly reunited after their lengthy breaks.

The term started with a new initiative – the Day of Growth. Across Tuesday, students were interviewed by their Tutors or senior teachers within the School, seeking to draw out from students what they learned from their 2024 experiences and identifying where they feel they can grow. After looking through their iGrow trees, students were challenged to identify key goals for their future progress and tangible actions that will help them achieve their goals. It was an empowering experience, valuing student voice and perspective and giving them a positive, reflective start to their Year 9 journey. Conversation notes will be available for parents to see in iLearn later this term.

This year will be a bit of a different one for our cohort, with half our cohort journeying to our High Country Campus at the end of Week 2 and the other half making the journey next term. The 9-week Moonbah program is sure to provide an exceptional experience for students and we look forward to seeing each individual and the cohort as a whole grow through this experience. However, it will mean our Year Group is divided until Term 3 and this will require us really to value the next week we have together as a full cohort.

I spoke to students on Wednesday about making the most of our time together this week and then really embracing the opportunities this year will offer, particularly through connecting with those who are on the same Moonbah term program, even if they are not the people with whom students normally hang out. For those on the Stay at School (SAS) program, there will also be great opportunities to connect with new peers and engage in exciting learning opportunities. There will be a full briefing evening for the SAS program in Week 9 of term.

On Wednesday, I also spoke to the cohort about kindness. My message was simple: be kind to those around you and to yourself. Consider how your actions can foster a culture of kindness in our cohort and across Redlands. This was a message I had left students with at the end of Year 8 when I wrote a poem for the cohort entitled ‘Be the Kind who is Kind’. I read this poem to the cohort again on Wednesday and have copied it for you below.

‘Be the Kind who is Kind’ by Jimmy Tod-Hill

Welcome to our New Students and New Tutor:

This year we have a group of wonderful students joining our cohort. ‘Buddy’ students have helped to make students feel welcome at Redlands and I look forward to our new students building strong connections amongst their peers and finding the space to ‘let their light shine’ at Redlands. A warm welcome to our new students: Maddie, Tayla, Sean, Milo, Matthew, Henri, Lilliana, Julian, Sophie and Mateo.

We also welcome a new Tutor to our team, Mr Peter Fogale, who will be teaming up with Ms Christen Xue to support Dumolo Red. He is already excited to get to know students in his Tutor group and support them across the year. Our wonderful Year 9 Tutor team is pictured below.

Ms Moore: CB	Ms Laurel: CB	Ms Pittard: CY	Ms Xue: DB	Mr Fogale: DB
Ms Busch: DR	Ms Joo: MB	Ms Zhang: MG	Mr Owen: RR	Mr Holden: RW

Student Expectations – Devices, Uniform and Attendance:

This week, I also reiterated to students some key focuses for the year, including expectations around school behaviour and presentation.

• Redlands continues to be a smart device (watches and phones) free environment, during ALL Redlands activities. As soon as students arrive at school, phones should be placed in their lockers.
• Uniform standards have been placed on our iLearn Pastoral page for students to access. They are also listed on Pulse. Student uniforms have looked great this week and we encourage Year 9 to continue in that vein!
• At the end of last year, we really began ‘cracking down’ on student attendance. Each year, subject material becomes harder and so consistent attendance in lessons is crucial. Ms Wang and I will be following up with students who are late to lessons or are absent unexplained. If you know your child will be absent, please email Secondary School Absences on ssabsences@redlands.nsw.edu.au.

With each of the above expectations, we appreciate parent support in helping us to guide your child in holding themselves to account.

Student Success – Lauren Rolfe, Otis Gait and Aimee Kang

Congratulations to Lauren Rolfe and her NSW teammates who recently returned from Perth as U16 National Champions in softball! Lauren’s goals for the tournament were to make the starting line-up for the finals, be lead-off batter and play short stop, each of which she successfully managed to achieve. And all of this in 38-degree heat – a really massive achievement!

Congratulations also to Otis Gait who played in the U14 Indoor Hockey Nationals for NSW in January and was given the privileged responsibility of captaining his team. They won some games and lost some and Otis had a great tournament overall, really enjoying the experience. 

Finally, well done to Aimee Kang who, during the holidays, worked at the NYFA (New York Film Academy) for a directing camp with other young people aged 14-17.  The academy has a campus in New York and also Queensland, which is where Aimee travelled to complete the course. She had the opportunity to work with teen actors, who became great friends, alongside other directors and created films at Warner Brothers Movie World in the Gold Coast. Aimee highly recommends the experience to other students interested in movies / film because it gave her the opportunity to learn so many technical skills like tips in framing, lighting, camera-work and screenplay writing, whilst also being a space where she was able to make a wonderful collection of new friends.

Term 1 Key Dates and Upcoming Events:

• Swimming Carnival – Week 2: Tuesday 4 February
• Burn Bright – Week 2: Thursday 6 February
• Cocurricular Activities Fair – Week 2: Thursday 6 February
• Moonbah Term 1 Farewell Parent Breakfast – Week 2: Saturday 8 February
• Parent Webinar: Your Relationship with your Teen – Week 5: Tuesday 25 February
• NAPLAN – Week 7: Wednesday 12 – Friday 14 March
• Jazz in the Garden – Week 7: Friday 14 March
• Year 9 Stay at School Information Evening – Week 9: Monday 24 March
• Battle of the Bands – Week 11: Monday 7 April
• Term 1 Ends – Week 11: Friday 11 April

Mr Jimmy Tod-Hill
Year 9 Advisor
jtodhill@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9908 6462