Head of Junior School
Vertical Student Connections Between Sections
One of the benefits of being a P-12 School are the opportunities for students of all ages to connect and interact with each other. This vertical integration comes in many shapes and forms: Secondary students welcoming younger ones on gate duty at the Junior Campus, buddy Year Groups between Junior and Prep, House connections at events like carnivals or through activities such as Performing Arts and Sport where students across age groups, and sometimes families, can come together over a shared passion or interest, to name but a few examples.
Having spent over 13 years at Redlands, one of the joys of my role and other longer-serving Junior School staff, is also seeing students leave us at Yr 6 and how they grow and flourish in the Secondary School environment.
Just this week, I enjoyed a combination of both of aspects as I spent time on Wednesday afternoon observing over 50 of our Secondary School students spend time after school with even more of our Junior School students as part of a Numeracy and Literacy support program that we have had now had in place for a few years. Ahead of these sessions, Junior School supervising teachers hold training classes for the older students and mentor them as they navigate their mentor leadership role.
Service in the School or local community is an important Secondary School opportunity and experience for our older students, many of whom relish the chance to return to the Junior School and assist younger students in this way. For our Junior School students, it was delightful to see their positive connections with older Redlands students and also their responsiveness to this aspect of mentoring that the School encourages.
For some of the Secondary students, there was also the lovely aspect of being in the very shoes of the Junior School students not that long ago and I enjoyed reflecting on that point with a number of them.
NAPLAN – Yrs 3 and 5
Next week sees students across Australia in Yrs 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy, or NAPLAN, as it is more commonly known. Our teachers have been preparing their students to ensure that they are appropriately prepared for these formal assessments and our starting point is always to ensure that the students not feel any undue pressure, that they are familiar with the format of the tests, and that we provide the conditions for them to do their very best, all that we can ever ask of them. This was a message I relayed to students in assembly and encourage similar messages at home.
Baby News
After finishing last Friday to commence maternity leave, PDHPE teacher, Ms Jacqui Longworth gave birth to a healthy boy, Charlie, on Monday this week. Jacqui and Charlie are doing well and we look forward to a visit from them later in the term.
Mother’s Day Breakfast
Tomorrow sees us host our annual Mother’s Day breakfast for Junior Campus mums. We hope to see many of you in for this special event which will be held in the Piazza area around the Canteen as per the flyer below.
Mother’s Day Classic
We have well over 100 people registered for the Redlands team for this Sunday’s Mother’s Day Classic fun run in The Domain. This has always been a wonderful family-oriented event with categories for serious runners through to fun runners of all ages. All proceeds from this event are donated to Breast Cancer Research.
Don’t forget to purchase your Redlands pink caps and pink Team Redlands tshirt from the Uniform Shop, with all profits going to the Mother’s Day Classic charity.
To register your interest in joining the Redlands team, please click here. Please note that you will need to complete the registration process, nearly all the way to the payment stage before you can select to join the Redlands team and the password is ‘Shine’.
Thank you again to the Redlands Parents and Friends Association who will again have a tent at the event as a meeting point.
Yr 6 Parents and Students
Secondary School Transition Session
Monday 13 May 8.45am
Redlands Hall, Senior Campus
Yr 4 Visual Arts
Yr 4 are working on a unit of work that coincides with the artist in residence program at Redlands. The inaugural RKMAiR artist Cameron Robbins, is an artist who makes artwork that responds to, and as a result of the immediate environment, which Yr 4 students have been investigating. During his residency, all of the Yr 4 students will get an opportunity to go to the Senior Campus and watch Cameron Robbins in action with our Visual Arts teacher, Ms Reinhold. During their time with Cameron Robbins, they will have an opportunity to talk to him and ask him about his work and practice. Yr 4 students will then explore kinaesthetic and action-based artworks in the classroom as part of this topic.
This is a wonderfully rich and exciting opportunity for Yr 4, which I know that they will appreciate and learn from.
Mr Ari Guha
Head of Junior School
aguha@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9953 6022