From the Principal

New Music Centre Opening

Last night I was delighted to attend the official opening of the first phase of our Senior Campus redevelopment, along with our three Founding Trustees, current and past Board Directors, members of the Foundation Advisory Committee, RPFA Committee members, Friends of Music, parents, Music staff members and students. The building is now providing outstanding facilities for our Music program and in future, will provide a home for our Secondary School Office and Student Wellbeing team after the New Learning Hub has been completed.

The opening of the facility provided an opportunity to recognise four people who have contributed so much to our School community over the past 40 years by naming naming specific areas after them. It was wonderful to pay tribute to their contributions to the School as they unveiled their plaques last night.

The entire building has been named the John Roberts Centre after Mr John Roberts who served as a Director, Secretary and Treasurer of the Redlands Board from 1976 to 1997. John played a key role in guiding the School in the establishment of SCEGGS Redlands Limited, the expansion into coeducation, the introduction of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, the acquisition of the Cremorne Girls High School, now the Junior Campus, and the acquisition and development of High Country Campus. After John unveiled the plaque and cut the ribbon to declare the building officially open, the audience was in awe of the heartfelt speech of thanks from a gentleman who will shortly celebrate his 100th birthday.

The Edwards Auditorium has been named after Dr Kim and Mrs Jennifer Edwards. Dr Kim Edwards served as a Director of Redlands from 1997 to 2018 and was a member of the Physical Resources Group and Marketing Committee. Kim and Jennifer also played a leading role in the Redlands Parents and Friends Association during their association with the School, each serving terms as President.

Finally, the Brown Music Room has been named after Mr Kevin Brown, who served as a Director of Redlands from 2006 to 2017, was Deputy Chair of the Board from 2009 to 2017 and Chair of the Nominations and Marketing Committees.

I particularly enjoyed the musical items performed by students last night, especially the world premiere of the work Sonnets to Orpheus composed to celebrate the opening of the building by Redlander Jack Frerer, Class of 2013, who is currently studying Music at The Julliard School in New York. Although Jack was unable to attend the evening, we were delighted that his mother Vicki and his grandmother were on hand to hear the inaugural performance of his work. 

I wish to thank the Redlands Board for their support and guidance in developing this magnificent teaching and learning facility, the many people involved in its construction, including our architects, builders, project managers and Facilities team, Mr Darren Kuilenburg and the Music staff. I especially thank and pay tribute to all of the Redlands parents and other members of the Redlands community whose very generous donations have contributed to wonderful new Music facilities and associated equipment. 

Visual Arts Exhibition

Last night also saw the official opening of our annual Visual Arts Exhibition, a showcase of the major works from our HSC Visual Arts students as well as artworks from Year 3-11 students.  I was very impressed with the quality and diversity of artworks on display and enjoyed the very informative journey of how our students creative and artistic skills are developed throughout our Junior and Secondary School Visual Arts programs. 

Extra Curricular Achievements

Our Redlands students have been to the fore over the past week, achieving some wonderful successes on the stage and the sporting field. Firstly congratulations to our Senior Contemporary Dance Group which placed 2nd in the Grand Final of the Sydney Eisteddfod’s Secondary School Contemporary/ Classical Group event last Sunday, an exceptional achievement.   

On the Sporting field, four of our teams finished the Winter sports season as ISA Champions. I congratulate the Girls 1sts and 2nds Hockey teams, the Junior A Netball team and the Junior A Girls Football team for winning their ISA Grand Finals. Redlands was also crowned ISA Netball Champion School due to the combined results of our 1sts, Inter A and Junior A teams which finished 3rd, 2nd and 1st respectively in their competitions.

The Thredbo slopes saw some excellent results from our 80 strong Snowsports team who competed in the NSW Interschools. In total our team achieved 26 podium finishes, with 9 Gold, 7 Silver and 10 Bronze Medals.  Congratulations to the whole team and especially to our State Champions:

Team

  • Div 4 Girls Skier Cross
  • Div 4 Girls Moguls
  • Div 4 Boys Moguls
  • Div 1 Boys Slopestyle Ski

Individual

  • George Murphy, Div 2 Boys Moguls
  • Daisy Thomas, Div 4 Girls Moguls
  • Julius Keller, Div 4 Boys Moguls
  • Tasman Forest, Div 1 Boys Slopestyle Snowboard
  • Billy Thomas, Div 3 Boys Slopestyle ski

It was also excellent to see our Div 1 Boys team achieving Silver in Div 1 Boys Skier Cross and Bronze in Div 1 Alpine, as for nearly all of these students, it is their last year at Redlands.

I sincerely thank all of our Dance tutors and Sports coaches, Coordinator of Dance, Karen Martin, Head of Secondary School Sport Tom Kindred, and Coordinator of Snowsports, Bruce Campbell, for working with and motivating our students to achieve these excellent results. 

NAPLAN Results

On Tuesday 28 August ACARA released the NAPLAN 2018 Summary Information. This summary provides the preliminary results at the national, state and territory level for each school year tested (Years 3, 5, 7 and 9) and for all domains that were assessed.  A link to the summary can be found here.

Individual Student Reports are yet to be released. ACARA has advised that, “As NAPLAN is in a period of transition and this is the first year where students completed either a pen and paper test or an online test, extra attention is being given to reviewing the data and how the results compare between the paper and online testing.” 

We understand that NESA will contact schools to advise when results are expected to be released but at this stage the date remains unknown. We will keep you informed of any further updates. 

Dr Peter Lennox

Photo caption: Ms Sarah McGarry, Ms Penelope Roberts, Mr John Roberts, Ms Glenda McLoughlin, Chair of Redlands Board and Dr Peter Lennox at the official opening of the John Roberts Centre