From the Principal

It has been a significant week in the history of Redlands as our first group of Year 9 students have commenced their Term 1 residential Moonbah program at our beautiful High Country Campus just outside of Jindabyne.

Redlands has owned the High Country Campus since the early 1990s and our first Winter School (a Term 3 residential schooling and snowsports program) was held on the site in 1996. Since then, Winter School has continued to grow in popularity, and now more than half of the Year 10 cohort regularly apply to attend this signature and bespoke Redlands program.

For many years, Redlands has explored how we might open up the High Country Campus residential experience to more students and the current Moonbah program was a key initiative born out of our current strategic plan to achieve this end. Over the past few years, many people have put forth a tremendous amount of effort into the development of this program and it has been incredibly exciting (and a bit emotional) to see it come to fruition.

As the Moonbah North Star Statement articulates, “The Year 9 Moonbah Program, is underpinned by Redlands’ commitment to the development of each student’s personal growth. Living in community and on country at Redlands’ High Country Campus outside of Jindabyne, students connect, learn and lead to foster deep understanding and critical thinking via a rich and varied interdisciplinary curriculum. Through the 9-week program, students deepen independence, responsibility and are empowered to become the authors of their future selves.”

I have spent this week with the Moonbah staff and students at our High Country Campus and it has been a truly special experience to already see this North Star Statement coming to life.

When I arrived on Monday afternoon, I spent time with the Moonbah Echoes class during their initial reflective writing exercise and students said they appreciated the time and space to deeply reflect. Later that afternoon, Mr Ezekial, the Wellbeing Coordinator, led the first assembly and shared with the students one of my favourite sayings about how they will be “stepping out of their comfort zones” but will grow so much from the experience.

That afternoon, after a tour of the new student dorms led by Brodie and some of the boys, I joined in a game of football as goalkeeper on the somewhat damp HCC pitch and faced up against Ari’s team. Fortunately, I had Stella on my team who was excellent in defence and I even saved some stinging shots from Arav’s right boot. (A lowlight for me that evening was at dinner discovering that Jack was a Plymouth fan, and he wanted to rub it in that Plymouth had beaten my beloved Liverpool to knock them out of the FA Cup.)

The next morning students were up early for their physical activity and while many of the students were running or walking the mini cross country course around the campus, I led a morning basketball skills session for Freja and Emily. I also dropped into an online ballet class being run in Building 4, otherwise known as the “Rec Room”.

After breakfast, students attended their classes from a suite of interdisciplinary core units and electives. The four x 90 minute lessons allow students to navigate their own learning journey in a more personal and deeper way. I enjoyed hearing the various ideas coming out of the High Country Helpers lesson, a combined HSIE and Service Learning Unit, and Lachlan was already pitching his group’s idea of a legacy project of constructing a greenhouse on the High Country Campus. He was also badgering me about extra funding for his group’s project and I told him they would need to submit a proper business case for this project and that the CFO and I would review it.

I also joined an Environmental Learning class and we hiked to the dam on campus for our lesson. There each group set up a 10 x 10 metre area where we collected soil and water samples, recorded meteorological data and made detailed observations of flora and fauna. Georgia, Emily, Lily and I were amazed at how much detail you start to notice in the land around you when you have the time and space to closely observe it. We also tried to identify the different varieties of eucalypt tress by their leaves and bark.

On Wednesday we had a full day Aboriginal Cultural Immersion led by the Wandana Aboriginal Education group. Staff and students began the day with a “Sweeping Ceremony” to welcome us to country and ochre face painting. We then learned about culture, reflected on our own journeys, painted our own journey stones and finally helped to paint our Moonbah and High Country Campus story in a shared artwork which will stay on site.

As I am sure you can tell from a taste of my three days at Moonbah, it is a truly special experience for our students.

However, their own words probably best sum up the first week of Moonbah.

“The learning is great. Having longer periods (90 minutes) allows us to go deeper into our learning and have more control over it because we can move at our own pace.”
“I love having more practical lessons and learning outdoors.”
“The food is awesome! I can’t wait for chicken parmi night tomorrow night!”
“The dorms are great. I have already made heaps of new friends.”
“The friendship groups are spread out more. I am mixing with new people and living with each other lets us get to know people better.”
“I was pretty nervous before we came down here. But I am loving it now.”
“The Rec Room in the afternoon is great. There is so much to do.”
“The morning wake-ups are tough, but I am getting used to it.”
“The staff are really nice.”
“Trivia night last night was a lot of fun.”
“I was pretty sad saying goodbye to my family and my puppy coming here. I had a little cry on the bus ride down. But now I don’t want Moonbah to end. I have a countdown and I am sad I only have 58 days left here!”

Thank you to the parents who have put their trust in us for this wonderful educational program for their children. I believe it will be an experience they will never forget.

Mr Sean Corcoran

Photo Caption: it was a remarkable first week of the Year 9 Moonbah program at our High Country Campus.