From the Principal
There was a palpable positive energy on the campus this week as all staff returned to school on Monday for our professional learning day and students returned on Tuesday for their first day of classes. I hope all parents, carers and students were able to enjoy nourishing family time over the holidays as we head into the second half of the school year.
Over the last week of these holidays, I was honoured to travel to Boston to attend Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education Achieving Excellence: Leadership Development for Principals course. The course was attended by 160 principals and educational leaders from around the world – 130 from the United States and 30 from other countries.
It was a wonderful week of learning, reflection, stimulation and connection with these educational leaders from around the world, and not surprisingly, we quickly realised that we share many of the same current joys and challenges at our wide variety of schools.
Pleasingly, much of the week was an affirmation of the approaches we are taking and the direction we are heading here at Redlands. Key throughlines from the course such as adopting an adaptive leadership stance; balancing a culture of high expectations with high support; in depth analysis of data to improve student learning; fostering community connectedness; strengthening family engagement and partnership; and the importance of building trust throughout the community have all been key areas of emphasis for us at Redlands over the past two years.
I have already shared some of my learnings with all staff at Monday’s professional learning day and with our Executive team at our beginning of term meeting, and I look forward to sharing further learnings with staff and parents in the weeks ahead.
I would like to acknowledge all of the staff, parents and in particular Friends of Snowsports whose efforts led to another successful Redlands Cup at Thredbo in the holidays. I would also like to the congratulate the many students who competed and achieved exceptional results. Over the break we also hosted tours of High Country Campus outside of Jindabyne so families could get an up close and personal look at this beautiful campus which is home to our Winter School and from next year our Year 9 Moonbah Program.
Finally, I am looking forward to attending the Secondary School Gala Arts on Friday evening – one of the annual highlights of the Redlands calendar where we showcase the diverse range of talents across our creative and performing arts community in a spirited House Competition format. Good luck to all performers and may the best House win!
Mr Sean Corcoran
Photo Caption: a big congratulations to all students, parents and staff who made the Redlands Cup competition in Thredbo such a big success.