Head of Secondary School

Head of Secondary School

Effort Assembly

On Tuesday our School Assembly focused on effort and the importance of students trying their best across all of their pursuits. Yr 12 Prefects Alexander Coney and Maya Auld shared some of their personal reflections about the importance of effort while our Principal, Mr Webber, also shared some of his reflections with the aim to “debunk some of the myths” surrounding ability versus effort. We also awarded our first Approaches to Learning awards, recognising students across Yrs 8-12 who showed significant improvement in their Effort Tracking scores over Semester 2 2019.

I spoke to the students about the “Iceberg Illusion” which Ms Shaw has previously shown. Many times, we often recognise and reward the successes at the tip of the iceberg, that everyone can see. However, in doing so, it might seem that we are not recognising or acknowledging everything that occurs below the surface – the persistence, the sacrifices, the failures, the dedication, the effort – that have led to these successes. The data continues to tell us that there is a strong correlation between positive effort (a below the surface attribute) and strong results which can be seen above the surface. We look forward to finding further opportunities throughout the year to acknowledge students for their effort.

Secondary Swimming Carnival

Last Thursday the Secondary School had a very successful House Swimming Carnival at SOPAC. There were many outstanding individual results on the day with School records being broken by Erik Scott (Yr 10) in the Boys Champion of Champions 50m freestyle and Olivia Donoghue (Yr 11) breaking five School records in the Girls Senior 200m Individual Medley, Girls Senior 100m Freestyle, Girls U17 50m Backstroke, Girls 50m Butterfly and Girls Champion of Champions 50m Freestyle. Congratulations to the following Age Division Champions:

  • Junior Girls: Chloe Jennings
  • Junior Boys: Rafferty Heard
  • Intermediate Girls: Elizabeth Holtheuer
  • Intermediate Boys: Erik Scott
  • Senior Girls: Olivia Donoghue
  • Senior Boys: Kirill Shatilov

Congratulations also to Roseby House who took out the House Swimming Shield for the second year in a row. A full report on the Swimming results can be found in the Sports section of Note Day.

Most pleasing was the positive House spirit on display throughout the day. Participation was once again up on previous years and it was great to see so many students competing for their Houses and just “having a go”. There was wonderful leadership displayed by our Yr 12 students supporting competitors in their Houses from across the age groups. In a new addition, the Yr 12 race pitted all eight Tutor groups against one another. It was great to see so many Yr 12 students involved and congratulations to Yr 12 Dumolo Red Tutor group for their victory and winning a free lunch on Monday. And finally, a special congratulations to the staff who competed in the Staff v Yr 12 student relay, turning the tables on last year’s narrow defeat and coming out victorious – despite some dubious starts by the Yr 12 competitors!

Clean Up Australia Day

As in previous years, we hope the Redlands community will pitch in to help keep our local area looking beautiful this Clean Up Australia Day, on Sunday 1 March. We will be helping out with the event at Balmoral Beach, and would love to see Redlands families there at 10.00am this Sunday. The meeting point is the Rotunda. Please wear enclosed shoes, gloves and bring sunscreen, water and some garbage bags. Students should wear Redlands Sports uniform. We ask that students are accompanied by an adult, as although there will be teachers present, this is a community organised event. We hope to see many of you there.

Sports Update

We have had many successes in our summer sports season thus far and a large number of Girls Basketball, Boys Basketball and Girls Touch Football teams have made it to the ISA Semi Finals this Saturday. I wish these teams the best of luck in their respective matches. I also wish our Tennis competitors all the best in their NSTA Tennis matches and the rowers all the best in the Riverview Gold Cup this weekend.

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