From the Principal
On Tuesday we held International Day, and it is always one of my favourite days on the Redlands calendar as we recognise and celebrate the over 50 nationalities that comprise our student body. Diversity and inclusivity are two key tenets of our School’s Mission and International Day helps to further highlight these.
As an Irish-American, I appreciate the importance of cultural diversity and every year on International Day this is brought home for me, either walking under the dozens of different flags hanging above Liggins Quad on the Senior Campus or seeing the often colourful cultural attire of students on the Junior Campus.
At Redlands I believe we are both an international school for Australian students and an Australian school for international students and having a diversity of backgrounds, cultures and perspectives strengthens all of us.
Despite the far-reaching impacts of globalisation which can immediately bring the world into the palm of our hand, unfortunately, we are also increasingly retreating into our isolated bubbles of information and echo chambers of ideas where we can easily not hear nor see differences. International Day reminds us that it is important to keep hearing, seeing and valuing our differences.
This year I was not on campus for International Day as I was attending an educational conference. However, one of the sessions from my conference on Tuesday focused on the increasing importance of “cultural intelligence” in the workplace and the need for schools to prepare our future employees and industry leaders to understand, remain adaptable to and thrive in differing cultural environments.
With this in mind, while historically schools have focused on IQ – intelligence quotient, and more recently they have also focused on EQ – emotional quotient (emotional intelligence), a future focus should be on developing students’ CQ – cultural quotient (cultural intelligence) to best ensure students are truly life ready for this world.
International Day illustrates one example of how we are already developing our students’ “CQ” at Redlands.
Reflecting back on Term 1, it has been a great start to the year, with a vast array of events and activities which have allowed students to shine in so many different ways. One of my personal highlights was when a fellow principal who was visiting the School a few weeks ago remarked to me when walking around the Senior Campus, “it really seems like a happy school”. I was chuffed to hear this reflection as it aligns with my regular observations this term, as well.
Last Friday evening, we were delighted to welcome over 250 Alumni for the All Years Alumni Reunion to celebrate our 140 Year anniversary, along with the milestone reunions for the Classes of 1984, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019. As I said in my address: The heart and soul of Redlands remains the same…the culture that you helped to cultivate and grow continues to stay strong here today and this can be seen in this short video.
Thank you to the Redlanders Alumni Association President Natalie Davies, RL 1987, and Alumni and Community Coordinator Kim Flatman, RL 1991, for bringing our Alumni community together for this wonderful celebration. You can read more about the evening in the Foundation section of Note Day.
I hope all students have a wonderful break, and I look forward to seeing them return back to campus refreshed and ready for Term 2 on Tuesday 30 April.
Mr Sean Corcoran
Photo Caption: During International Day, we recognised and celebrated the 50+ nationalities that comprise our student body.