Head of Secondary School

Remote Learning and Teaching

It was great to see many of you at our Parent Zoom meetings on Monday and Tuesday this week. We hope these webinars were useful for you to hear how we are approaching this move to a remote educational environment in the Secondary School. Recordings of these videos can be found on Redlands Pulse under the relevant Year Group and in each Year Advisor’s Note Day article this week. As stated in these meetings, we truly appreciate your feedback during this time as we continually review, assess and improve our approaches as we strive to deliver the best educational outcomes to our students. While we aimed to address as many of your questions as possible in the “chat room” of these webinars, if you have further questions or comments, we encourage you to continue to provide feedback through feedback@redlands.nsw.edu.au and to also regularly check the School’s COVID-19 Information Page for further updates.

As stated in these webinars, over the last few weeks we have undergone a transformation of how we are delivering our academic, Cocurricular and Pastoral programs in the Secondary School. And while remote learning will not be exactly the “same” as face to face learning, we are encouraged and excited to see how we are still able to deliver our high quality educational programs in new and, sometimes even, improved formats.

Some of the highlights I have observed over the past week are:

Teachers regularly getting in touch with me to share how a specific lesson or activity actually worked better when they transformed it into the remote learning environment using iLearn and/or Zoom.
How so many of our cocurricular activities, including Sports, Music, Drama and Dance, have quickly moved to online delivery so that students can continue to immerse themselves in these activities outside of the classroom – activities which bring them so much joy and fulfilment. (We are looking forward to trialling remote delivery of other clubs and activities, such as Debating, in the coming weeks.)
How we are finding different ways to provide pastoral care and support to our students during this time to keep them connected to school. (I would encourage students and parents to go to the recently published Counselling Space on iLearn which has a wealth of valuable resources.)
Students (and many teachers) getting in the spirit of International Day with their mufti day attire on Tuesday.
Personally, seeing how I can facilitate more timely and direct check-ins with students in my Yr 7 English class via individual or small group Zoom meetings and break out rooms.

As stated in the parent meetings earlier this week, we are continuing to review elements of our program such as the daily schedule, home learning, specific lesson delivery/structure, pastoral support programs and assessments, so that students get the most out of their remote learning. The Independent Learning Day on Wednesday was an example of how we are trialling different approaches based on staff, student and parent feedback, as well as research of other schools’ and school systems’ experiences and best practice, both in Australia and around the world. We encourage all students and parents to continue to provide further feedback in new surveys which will be sent around later in the week.

Below are some further reminders about how you can assist your son or daughter in this remote learning and teaching environment:

Use the tips from the Remote Learning Infographic which can be found on the Secondary School Page of Redlands Pulse to prepare and support students for remote learning.
Reinforce school and learning expectations at home with your child, in particular, our Responsible User Guidelines of technology. With greater usage of technology by students, it is more important now than ever that they are following these, and the School will take very seriously any breaches of these expectations. The Guidelines are:
- It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure the online space is a safe place to learn and connect.
- Students should not share their log in details, password or Zoom meeting ID with anyone.
- Students should not enter classes that are not assigned to them.
- If you have any concerns or questions about this, you can email your Tutor, Year Advisor, Dean of Students or iSupport.
- As you are spending more time online, you should re-familiarise yourself with the Redlands ICT Responsible User Guidelines that can be found on page 26 in the Student Planner.
- Any breaches of these rules are treated extremely seriously and the Dean of Students and Head of Secondary School will follow up with students and families of those involved.
- Students are also encouraged to stand up and stretch in between classes and have a break from your screen whenever possible.
If you have any concerns about how your child is coping with the move to this remote learning environment, we would ask you in the first instance to make contact with a specific teacher if the concern is in a specific subject, or the Tutor if the concern is more holistic.
While I know many parents have enjoyed having a greater insight into their child’s learning over the past few weeks, we would ask parents to ensure they are not directly involving themselves in academic lessons. Parents should not be present in these lessons as we want to ensure a safe learning space for all students.

As stated in our parent meetings, we are so proud of how the students are handling this move to remote learning and teaching; however, we also cannot wait to see them in person on the Campus in (what we hope will be) the not so distant future.

Cross Country Carnival

As stated last week, while the Secondary School Cross Country Carnival had to be cancelled today, we are still encouraging students to participate remotely in our virtual Inter-House Cross Country Carnival. Not only is it a great way to stay active and fit during this time of physical distancing, but students can also earn points for their House. I have signed up myself and it has been great to read the various posts and see people submitting their runs to the Redlands page. (I have been sharing feedback from my runs with my dog, Leo, with the group!) Further information can be found on the Sport iLearn page and on Redlands Pulse.

Yr 11 Parent Teacher Night

Yesterday evening we held our regularly scheduled Yr 11 Parent/Teacher Night remotely via Zoom video conferences. We appreciate this was another significant change to our usual practice of parent/teacher meetings; however, we wanted to provide the opportunity for teachers, parents and students to engage in valuable conversations about student learning at this important juncture of Yr 11. We would encourage Yr 11 parents to send through any specific feedback on the evening via feedback@redlands.nsw.edu.au.

Staffing Update

As we come to the end of the term, I wanted to update our community on a few staffing changes. As many of you are aware, Ms Kristy Walker has commenced her maternity leave towards the end of this term, and we thank Ms Sahya Saheki for covering her classes during these past few weeks. We are pleased to welcome Ms Ashleigh Johnson to cover Ms Kristy Walker’s maternity leave for the remainder of the year. Ms Johnson has five years’ experience teaching Dance to Secondary School students in the NSW system.

In addition, after 13 years as a valued History teacher, Tutor and Year Advisor, Ms Emma Bergin will leave us at the end of this term to take up a position as Subject Coordinator of History at Queenwood commencing in Term 2. We wish Ms Bergin all the best as she moves into this new leadership position. We are pleased to announce that Mr Luke Cantrill will be returning to Redlands to fill Ms Bergin’s position from the beginning of Term 2. Mr Cantrill is a familiar face to many Redlands students as he taught History in the Secondary School covering a leave position last year. Mr Cantrill has also taught History at a number of other independent schools in Sydney.

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