Head of Secondary School

Sports Expectations

The Winter Sports season burst into full swing over the weekend with a full round of fixtures across our Winter Sports. I was at Macquarie University on Saturday attending the Girls’ Football and Boys’ Rugby matches. While there were some strong results on the fields, it was also wonderful to see so many teachers, students and parents attending these matches and supporting the players. In fact, a longer serving member of the Secondary School faculty noted to me that it was some of the best overall attendance he has seen at a Saturday Sports fixture.

With the Winter Sports season commencing, it is a good opportunity to remind our community of the expectations in regards to spectators at Sports matches. While overall the behaviour and spirit on display from our spectators was exemplary, I am a firm believer in the motto I often share with students, that we are “too good not to be better”.

Some of these expectations include:

Students who are not competing in Sport on the day are expected to wear their Winter uniform if they are attending Sports matches in support of their peers. Students who are playing a sport on the day may wear their Sports uniform if they are supporting other matches.
Spectators are to remain behind the barriers of playing fields at all times and are not to interfere with the matches being played. (For example, please remain behind the fence at Campbell Field and the roped off areas on other fields, such as Gwilliam Field.)
As per the ISA Code of Conduct, spectators should barrack in a supportive and positive manner and not to unsettle or denigrate opponents; never express disapproval of an umpire’s or referee’s decision; and are discouraged from actively coaching on the sidelines. (The full ISA Code of Conduct can be found on the ISA website.)
As per the published Conditions of Entry to Macquarie University Fields, if your dog is in the precinct it must be on leash, it is prohibited on or around the playing fields during the course of an organised competition and you must clean up after it.

Again, let me once again applaud the wonderful atmosphere on display Saturday and I look forward seeing this type of support continue for all of our co-curricular activities in the weeks and months ahead.

Yr 12 Half-Yearly Examinations

Over the past two weeks our Yr 12 students have been sitting their Half-Yearly HSC and IB Examinations off-site at the North Sydney Leagues Club. I have been out at Norths on various occasions over this fortnight and have been impressed by the behaviour, attitude and maturity of our Yr 12 students. It has also been encouraging to hear the students have a reflective, conscientious and forward thinking approach towards these assessments. We encourage all of our students to have this type of growth mindset as they approach their assessments this term as it will only benefit their learning over the course of their schooling.

NAPLAN

Next week our Yr 7 and 9 students will be sitting the NAPLAN tests. More detailed communication around the NAPLAN tests has been sent to parents of these Year Groups. However, please note that to ensure there is no disruption to these tests due to noise from building works on the Senior Campus, we have recently decided to move these NAPLAN tests to Dunnet Hall on the Junior Campus. Further information will be sent out to parents and students in Yrs 7 and 9 in the coming days.

There has been a lot of press recently around NAPLAN and earlier this year it was announced that these tests would no longer be linked to minimum standards in literacy and numeracy for the HSC. While we believe the NAPLAN tests are a useful diagnostic measurement of literacy and numeracy skills for individual students, we do not see them as a definitive summative judgement on the academic ability of individual students. We encourage students to try their best on these tests so the data allows us to have a targeted approach to student skill development moving forward. However, we do not want students to feel unduly stressed and remind parents that these results will not contribute to school reports.

Study in the USA Information Evening

On Monday evening, we had close to 500 students and parents from across Sydney and NSW attend the Study in the USA Evening at Redlands. This is the fourth year Redlands has hosted this event with representatives from over 30 American universities in attendance. I would like to thank Ms Salier for her organisation of the Study in the USA Evening as it is fitting for Redlands to play a leading role for this event due to the large number of our graduates who attend universities internationally, in particular in the United States.

Mr Sean Corcoran
Head of Secondary School
scorcoran@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9870