Head of Junior School

• Print

International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS)

At Redlands, the Junior School students sit these tests by choice. Assessments occur during class time within a supervised area of the Junior School. This year parents will directly access the UNSW Global website to order the assessments for their child and to pay online. All orders and payments need to be completed by 31 July. No orders or payments will be taken after this date.

Please access this service by typing unsw.global/parentpay into a browser and enter the code: faa6c9576b

UNSW Global is more than happy to assist with any questions. To access them via email or phone, please visit here.

For any further enquiries concerning the ICAS assessments please contact Leonie Atkins, Dean of Administration Junior Campus.

Gallery Walks

This week saw Gallery Walks in Yrs 5 and 6 which aim to provide wonderful opportunities for students to showcase their learning to peers and parents. It was exciting to see every classroom full of parents who were able to join us, and the students were visibly enthralled to be able to share their thinking and learning experiences with both peers and adults. My thanks are extended to teachers and students for their planning and time to organise these special events. Next semester, we will hold similar events for Yrs 3 and 4.

Redlands Snowsports

Over the break, many Redlands students and families will head down to the snow and I extend my best wishes to all of our Junior School students involved in a variety of events and competitions at the snow over the upcoming break. I look forward to getting updates from Mr Carter and hearing of your efforts and successes next term.

Junior Music Festival

Our annual Junior Music Festival takes place in Week 2 of next term at 4.30pm on Thursday 1 August. This is always one of the highlights of our school year with the involvement of each and every Junior School student. Our Cocurricular ensembles and Curriculum classes have been eagerly rehearsing and will perform a variety of repertoire that will explore music Through the Decades, learning about The Beatles, Disco Music, Australian Rock Music and Latin-Pop Music.

The event takes place on site in Robert Dunnet Hall with tickets now available via Trybooking. Please note that all Cocurricular rehearsals will be cancelled in the week of the Festival (Week 2) in order to facilitate preparation for the concert.

Cashless Canteen

The Junior Campus Canteen has been using the very popular online ordering platform, Flexischools, for 12 months. Recently, the Canteen acquired an Eftpos machine which will assist families if they would like to buy hot chocolates and breakfast in the morning. The overarching goal for the Canteen is for it to run completely cashless, in order to improve efficiencies and allow for better planning of requirements by having all menu items on the Flexischools platform. Beginning at the start of Term 4, all students who would like to purchase a snack or a Recess and Lunch order will be required to order this on Flexischools. An option for families with older Junior School students is to acquire a prepaid debit card giving them the opportunity to learn important budgeting skills. Spriggy is an example of one of these cards.

Semester 1 Reports

We are expecting Junior School student reports to be available to parents via the online parent portal Redlands Pulse in the early part of next week. An SMS message will be sent to notify you when they have been uploaded for you to access. Back copies of your son or daughter’s reports are also available via Redlands Pulse. To access the reports parents will need their Redlands Pulse username and password. Parents requiring assistance re username or password should email pulse@redlands.nsw.edu.au as soon as possible.

Do take some time over the break to read through it with your child and acknowledge and celebrate areas of growth and progress. As students return for Term 3, their class teachers will also spend time looking at aspects of goal-setting for the second semester, which they will share at the Three Way Conferences in Weeks 3 and 4.

Uniform Shop

The Uniform Shop will open during the school holidays on Monday 1 July, Thursday 18 July and Friday 19 July 8.00am–4.00pm. Appointments are essential and can booked online here.

Staff News Term 3

Miss Eliza Pierce will be working on our Jindabyne Campus in Term 3 and Mr James Duncan has been appointed to take her classes during this time. Mr Duncan comes to Redlands with significant Primary Years’ experience, teaching Sport and PDH in Australia and more recently in the United Kingdom.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Mr Ryan Hall (4H) who will be leaving Redlands at the end of this term. The students, parents and staff have appreciated his wonderful sense of humour, positivity and dedication towards his role as class teacher. We welcome Mr Matthew Morrison who will take up the teaching role in 4H. He brings an abundance of experience to this position, having taught in the Primary and Independent sectors for many years.

Spanish News

Redlands has once again performed extremely well in the Education Perfect NSW Language Championships 2019 that took place from 4-11 June. During the competition, Redlands students answered over half a million questions and spent a combined total of 792 hours working on their language skills. As a result of this hard work and combined effort, our school came first in the competition for Spanish out of 165 schools and 2^nd overall in the competition out of 295 schools.  The competition was open to both primary and secondary schools across the state. Individual students worked hard to earn achievement certificates based on the number of points they scored. 29 students achieved Credit awards with over 500 points, 21 students achieved Bronze certificates with over 1000 points, 8 students achieved Silver Certificates with over 2000 points.

The following students scored over 3000 points and received Gold Certificates:  Leonardo Vaccarezza, Roy Rivera, Jolon Chan, Fin Scott Brown, Joshua Colpani and Thomas Flynn. 

Lucas Law earned an Emerald Certificate with over 5000 points. 

Finally, 2 students achieved the highest possible Elite Award with scores over 10,000 points: Michael Havryk came 28^th in the state with 10001 points finishing 2^nd in the school and Krishna Gupta with 11341 points came 11^th in the state and 1^st in the school in the competition. 

Education Perfect also provided a Churros Party for the six highest scoring students in each Year Group. They also gave a $20 iTunes voucher to the following students for coming first in their year:  Yr 3: James Emmett; Yr 4 Lucas Law, Yr 5 Roy Rivera and Yr 6 Krishna Gupta.

Positive Behaviour 4 Learning Information Session

Last Thursday, Dean of Students Sam Kourakis led a session to further update families in regard to the Positive Behaviour Support for Learning approach that the School has been implementing on the Junior Campus this year. I received some thoughtful feedback from a parent, that I wanted to share with you.

“Last week, I had the privilege of attending another exceptional Redlands presentation for Junior and Preparatory School parents, this time focused on Student Wellbeing. What I particularly love about these sessions, is that parents are provided with actionable ways they can support their children, that align with the language used by teachers, and the overall Teaching and Learning culture embedded at Redlands. Insights and information on relevant resources, such as the OECD Learning Compass, which outlines a Vision of Future Education, and SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) model were also shared. If you haven’t come across these yet, I encourage you to refer to Sam’s presentation on Redlands Pulse as they are very relevant to our children in their rapidly changing world. As a parent, it’s always wonderful to see what the students are doing themselves, and this session offered an opportunity for that too. A great video, put together by SRC students on how they are helping drive a safe and respectful environment in the playground, was both entertaining and impressive. A final parent reminder was to really listen to one’s children when they have a problem, rather than jumping in straight away to solve it. Sam gave some easy, but impactful, ways to do this, such as, guiding a child with ‘what happened next’ style questions to help them find their own resolution, and then to pick up on that strength and reinforce the positive outcome. Sometimes a child’s problems are a way to build connection with parents and allow us to just ‘be’ together – not everything is a teachable moment.”

Term 3/4 Departure Notice

As we are approaching the mid-point of the year, this is a reminder that those families who are planning on leaving the School at the end of Term 4 are required to give notice to the Principal via an email to registrar@redlands.nsw.edu.au by Saturday 27 July.

As per our Conditions of Enrolment emailed to all families in December last year with the 2018 Schedule of Fees, there will be fees in lieu payable for any notices of departure received after this date.

Happy Holidays

As we approach the mid-year break, I encourage families to take time for rest and relaxation. As is also the case for our staff, these times away from Redlands are very important for all of us as they then allow us to be at our very best when we are here. Rest, in whatever sense, is different for all of us and I hope that the mid-year break allows you to relax and recharge.

To those of you travelling near or far, I wish you safe travels and we look forward to welcoming all students back to school on Tuesday 23 July.  Please note that the Junior School Office will reopen on Monday 22 July.

Mrs Audrey Fellowes on behalf of

Mr Ari Guha
Head of Junior School
aguha@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9953 6022