Head of Secondary School
House Spirit Shines at the Senior Swimming Carnival
Week 2 has been an enjoyable and productive one on the Senior Campus. Tuesday’s Swimming Carnival was a wonderful day of House spirit, athletic ability and whole-hearted participation. A huge congratulations to our fabulous Year 12 House Captains for enthusiastically leading their Year 12 teams, bringing great joy to all students across Year 7 to 12. A huge congratulations to our many strong swimmers and to Dumolo, overall House winners on the day.
Academic Achievement and Academic Growth Assembly
On Wednesday we held our annual Academic Achievement and Growth Assembly. This Assembly recognises and celebrates students of the Class of 2024 who achieved outstanding academic results in their chosen pathway, HSC or IB, in relation to State and World comparisons. At this assembly, we also recognise and celebrate students of the Class of 2024 who experienced the most substantial growth in their learning, reflective of the School’s strategic pursuit to enable personal excellence for all students.
2024 graduates Sophia Rolon (IB) and Jacob Pamenter (HSC) spoke to staff, parents and Stage 6 students. Here are some of their messages:
“Getting through Year 12 would have been a lot more difficult if it wasn’t for the consistent level of care shown by my teachers, no matter what shape or form this care came in. What I found most useful in maximising my results actually had nothing to do with the type of study I was doing or how many hours I would study for at a time – instead, I found my success through the people that I surrounded myself with. It’s important to remember that you’re all in this together and there’s no limit on what each of you can achieve, so you may as well try your hardest.” (Jacob Pamenter)
“Year 11 and 12 are hard. Whether you do the IB, the HSC, “easy subjects,” or “hard subjects,” no one ever has, and no one ever will, find the whole thing easy. You’ll think you’re finally on top of things, only for it to get harder. But eventually, it does get better, it gets easier, you do start feeling more in control… The biggest thing that the IB taught me was to understand what things are worth and to attribute value accordingly. The word ‘prioritise’ became more than just a fancy word that sounded good in my goal-setting conversations.” (Sophia Rolon)
Personal Identity in a Complex World
Today we ran concurrent identity and development sessions for our Year 9 students. Our Year 9 girls engaged in a bespoke Spark session. Given there are so many influences on young women which makes their journey through adolescence sometimes tricky and conflicting, the girls unpacked various ways that young women can seek to respect themselves and others in their immediate worlds. Spark provides the tools which help young women build confidence, positively express themselves, understand their values, cultivate gratitude and perspective and build their capacity to be resilient.
Our Year 9 boys engaged in an Ignite session. The Ignite program focused on the often challenging journey to manhood and boys’ search for identity and meaning. Ignite is designed to challenge traditional concepts of manhood and to help young boys grow into men with strength, integrity and respect. The day explored three important values for growing into a man: strength, integrity and respect. The focus for both sets of students was on their personal development, self-concept and navigating real-life and online spaces.
This week the e-Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant published another powerful article: A way forward: Disrupting the darker forces impacting young men online
She says that ff we want to disrupt the swirling tide of harmful narratives online effectively being forced on young people, we need to do something different, something positive. And that includes giving young men healthy online role models about how to be a man – and lots of them. I found the e-safety commissioner’s recent article very helpful and have shared with the Redlands staff. It contains links to recent reports and provides helpful links for parents of young boys and men.
We are delighted to announce that Julie will lead the conversation at our inaugural “Voice Notes: Illuminating Events that Matter” International Women’s Day Breakfast on Monday 10 February. Please see the invitation to this event below.
Activities Fair
The Secondary School Activities Fair took place at lunchtime today. The Fahl Garden was abuzz with energy and commitment (and a little bit of sugar to fuel the sign-ups). I am looking forward to supporting Sophie Yu, Hiro Phillips and Jesse Forest run Public Speaking this year and was also keen to sign myself up for Big Sister Club. Our fabulous musicians wowed us with music throughout lunch and I’d like to extend my gratitude to the large number of Redlands teaching and operational staff who were supporting students to embrace all things cocurricular in 2025.
English Adaptive Groupings
Our new Adaptive Groupings for Mathematics and English in Year 7 -10 have commenced for 2025. Mr Conrad Del Villar’s informative message to students was captured in this video – we encourage parents to view this short film, so you understand how our new Adaptive groupings work in the Secondary School.
International Public Speaking Competition Re:Solved
Redlands students have achieved an outstanding milestone in the international public speaking competition Re:Solved, which challenges students aged 13-18 to engage in global debate.
The latest competition focused on the theme Democracy in 2024, with students delivering persuasive speeches to showcase their critical thinking and public speaking skills. Remarkably, four Redlands students have been named among the 32 global finalists – more than any other school worldwide. This is an extraordinary achievement, made even more impressive as it marks Redlands’ first year participating in the competition.
These students are:
- Andy Guan (Y10)
- Marcus Richardson (Y11)
- Elizabeth Whelan (Y11)
- Elenor Blankenstein (Y12)
Among the finalists, Marcus Richardson delivered an exceptional performance, placing 5th in the world overall.
The competition now moves into the Debating phase, where our students will compete in the second week of February. If successful, they will advance to the final round in Canada, with travel expenses fully covered by the competition organisers. The next debate motion they will tackle is: Make voting mandatory in national elections.
We also commend all participants who dedicated countless hours to preparing and delivering speeches in this challenging competition. Well done to Thomas Beatty (Yr 10), Jesse Forrest (Yr 12), Sophie Yu (Yr 12), Maria Smith (Yr 11), David Abineno (Yr 11), Jerry Sun (Yr 11), Hugo Steadman (Yr 9), Cameron Bye (Yr 11) and Aiden van Hulsen (Yr 12) for their hard work and commitment.
Contact Details in Pulse
A request to parents/carers whose contact details have changed over the past 12 months (eg. email, mobile phone): Could you please update these on Pulse by cob Monday 10 February, as we will be sending out Year Group Contact Lists next week and we would like to ensure these contain the most up-to-date contact details.
Moonbah Term 1
We are excited to be farewelling our Moonbah Term 1 students this Saturday. Term 1 Moonbah Parents are welcome to join us on the Fahl Garden for Breakfast after the students depart.
Twilight in the Garden
Our Twilight in the Garden event provides a wonderful opportunity for our new families to connect with our school community on the Fahl Garden on our Senior Campus. We are expecting this to be another sold out event for parents and carers, so please purchase your tickets early here.
International Women’s Day – March Forward Breakfast
Monday 10 March, 7am-9am
Redlands is pleased to announce the first event in our inaugural ‘Voice Notes: Illuminating Issues that Matter’ series. The series aims to spark conversation on issues impacting education and will span a range of topics across 2025.
We are starting the year by marking International Women’s Day with a breakfast event in conversation with Australia’s e Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant. An event not to be missed.
Please also save the date for future Voice Notes events throughout the year:
Term 2: Gen AI: Who’s Really in Control?
Thursday 8 May – evening event
Term 3: The Future of School: Seeing Around Corners
Thursday 7 August – breakfast event
Term 4: Navigating a Changing World
Thursday 30 Oct – evening event
Musical
Tickets for Disney’s High School Musical will go on sale on Monday 10 February at 5.00pm. Tickets will be available through The Concourse, Chatswood website.
Year 7 Parent Webinar Taking Place Next Monday Evening
Redlands Secondary School After School Study Program
Ms Gemma Van de Peer
Head of Secondary School
gvandepeer@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9811