From the Principal
Gala Arts is always one of my favourite events on the Redlands calendar. Since my first Gala Arts back in 2017, each year I am in awe of the amazing talent on display from our Secondary School students across the disciplines of vocal, instrumental, dance and theatre.
Having regularly attended Gala Arts, as well as the many other high calibre performing arts productions at Redlands over the past eight years, I am cognisant that I could start to take for granted the overall quality of the arts at Redlands. That’s why, after Friday’s production, I was pleased to be speaking to someone who has vast experience in the performing arts at schools and beyond who remarked to me, “You don’t see this at other schools”.
As I reflected further on why, year after year, I and countless others are blown away by the performances at Gala Arts and other productions, I boiled it down to something I have talked a lot about over the past few years: culture.
As I have previously shared, culture is precious and is developed over many years by the collective understanding of the standards, expectations and assumptions about the “way things are done around here”. I believe our incredibly strong Redlands culture is passed down by the students as younger students look up to the older students, see how they carry themselves and aim to emulate and build upon that standard.
This continuum was made clear to me on Friday night as I not only saw the way our younger performers were looking up to our older performers, but the way our older performers were looking up to the Gala Arts judges: Redlanders who are now excelling in their various fields of the performing arts post school. It was these alumni who our current Year 12 students were looking up to back when they were in Years 7 and 8.
One of these judges was Redlander, Stella Everett, who recently graduated from the prestigious Juilliard School in New York where she was a scholarship recipient and winner of the FENDI Vanguard Award, presented to one of the most promising talents graduating from Juilliard. While I know a number of our Year 12 students were in awe of her when she was performing at Redlands six years ago, she remarked to me that when she was in Years 7 and 8 she was looking up to those senior students who were gracing the stage back then.
After witnessing the performances at Gala Arts on Friday night, I am confident that this cultural cycle of support and excellence will continue long into the future.
“Away” by Michael Gow
I look forward to seeing more of Redlands’ talented performing artists in the Year 11 Co-Curricular performance of Away next week at the Zenith Theatre in Chatswood. Set in 1960’s Australia, Away is a powerful coming of age story that follows three families on summer holidays through journeys of independence, love, loss and reconciliation. This clever, funny and moving play is not to be missed with tickets still available for the three student performances.
Congratulations
I am pleased to announce that Year 12 student, Jack Keogh, has received a 2025 Tuckwell Scholarship at The Australian National University (ANU).
The Tuckwell Scholarship at ANU is one of the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship programs in Australia.
This year, there were over 1000 applications for Tuckwell Scholarships. Jack was one of 50 students invited to interview in Canberra earlier this month, with Jack being offered one of 25 Tuckwell Scholarship for 2025. Jack will join Redlander, Theo Mirlees-Black (Class of 2021), who was awarded a Tuckwell Scholarship for 2022. Congratulations, Jack!
Giving Day
On Wednesday 21 August we are excited to launch our major philanthropic campaign, Giving Day. Our Giving Day campaign supports the High Country Campus expansion and establishes another important means-tested scholarship in honour of Redlander Coralie Amos OAM.
Giving Day promises to be a fantastic day of celebration that will have a transformational impact for our students. I will personally be a part of the Giving Day team and look forward to connecting with members of our community on the day where we have 24 hours to reach our giving target of $400,000. Thanks to the incredible support of our matching gift donors, every donation on this day will be tripled, increasing the impact of everyone’s contributions significantly. For more information about our Giving Day and how you can get involved, please visit the Foundation section.
Mr Sean Corcoran
Photo Caption: congratulations to all students and staff who made Gala Arts such a resounding success!