From the Principal

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Redlands Junior and Senior Piano Competitions

On Monday I had the joy of attending our annual Junior and Senior Piano Competitions in the Edwards Auditorium in the John Roberts Centre. It was the first time that the School’s splendid new Yamaha grand piano was played in a performance.

The adjudicator was the very distinguished Dr Kirill Monorosi, who has given recitals as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist in concert halls around the world, and he also teaches at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

The performers presented a wide range of music from Classical and Contemporary composers and treated the audience to a rich range of musical styles. All the contestants from Year 3 to Year 12 played from memory, which is an impressive feat in itself, especially with the extremely challenging items chosen by the Secondary students.

The hours of preparation and rehearsal required to perform these pieces and the demand and self-regulation involved in performing before a distinguished adjudicator and an audience is often not understood by those who are not musicians. It was a happy segue that Ms Carolyn Shaw chose to speak at the Secondary School Assembly about the fact that succeeding in doing one’s best and reaching high levels in most things in life are the outcome of commitment, self-reflection and hard work. Talent alone does not produce best results, even for the “gifted”. I could see the concentration on the face of every performer, each of whom was clearly “in the zone” as they performed.

Sixteen students from Junior School and eleven from the Secondary School entertained us and strove for their best and justly deserved to be presented with a certificate for their performance. Congratulations to the following prize-winners:

Junior Piano Competition

Year 3: 1^st Place – Ina Guan; Runner-Up – Chun Sun (Jason) Kung
Year 4: 1^st  Place – Zetong Shen; Runner-Up – Suvi Peng
Year 5: 1^st Place – Konnie Pan; Runner-Up – Toby Anderson
Year 6: 1^st Place – Leonardo Vaccarezza; Runner-Up – Lachlan Svensson

Overall Winner: Leonardo Vaccarezza

Senior Piano Competition

Years 7/8: 1^st Place – Ahnu Guan; Runner-Up – Jaida Gwilliam
Years 9/10: 1^st Place – Jessica Wei; Runner-Up – Lauren Zhang
Years 11/12: 1^st Place – Cara Eccleston; Runner-Up – Armen Shiraz-Dilanchian

Overall Winner: Cara Eccleston

It has also been a wonderful week of accomplishments in other cocurricular activities.

NSW da Vinci Decathlon Competition

This week eight of our top academic students from each of Years 7-10 represented Redlands at the da Vinci Decathlon held at Knox Grammar School, an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students across the state. Students compete in Year Group teams of eight across the following ten disciplines: Engineering, Mathematics, Code Breaking, Art and Poetry, Science, English, Ideation, Creative Producers, Cartography and General Knowledge.

Our students competed against 3,500 students from over 100 schools, working in teams to solve problems on this year’s theme of Landscapes, with no access to the internet. I am delighted that our teams achieved the following results:

• Year 7 team: 2^nd in Art and Poetry
• Year 8 team: 2^nd in Engineering
• Year 10 team: 2^nd in Cartography and 3rd in Art and Poetry.

This is one of the ways we extend and challenge our talented academic all-rounders. The students were invited to participate and committed to two training sessions a week from early this year. I sincerely thank our teachers who helped prepare the four teams, Ms Williamson, Ms Kilshaw and Mr Baker for working with the students in this endeavour.

I look forward to the results of our Junior School da Vinci Decathlon teams who are competing in their competition today.

ISA Cross Country Carnival

I wish to sincerely congratulate our Secondary School Cross Country team which excelled at yesterday’s ISA Carnival. The team of 90 girls and boys achieved the following exceptional results:

• 1^st in Coed point score
• 1^st in Girls Overall
• 1^st in Senior Girls
• 1^st in Junior Girls
• 2^nd in Senior Boys
• 3^rd in Boys Overall
• 4^th in Intermediate Girls
• 4^th in Junior Boys
• 8^th in Intermediate Boys

I extend my thanks to coaches Mr Nick Walker, Ms Eliza Peirce, Mr Zach Johnson (Class of 2018), to Sports Administrator Mr Cameron Ellis and to the Mosman Athletics Club for supporting the students in this fine achievement.

Senior Campus Master Plan Update

Further to the communications to parents via email and last week’s Note Day regarding the new head contractor for our Senior Campus development, I wish to provide an update regarding the schedule of works. Our contractors will be progressing through the planned works as efficiently as possible.

The subsequent stages of the Master Plan are currently being revisited by the Board and Executive, due to additional property acquisitions by the School over the past 12 months. We expect to be able to announce more specific future plans in early 2020. Further development will take into consideration the impact on School operations, finance available and the Council and State Government approvals process.

There will be more communication shared with our community more regularly over the coming months. We very much welcome any questions or comments you have about our Senior Campus redevelopment. If you have any, please feel free to get in touch with us on masterplan@redlands.nsw.edu.au.

Communications Survey

We are currently undertaking a review of the School’s communications with parents and are inviting all parents to share your views. We have teamed with research agency QAI Consulting to conduct a whole of School online survey focussing on the way the School communicates with parents about School activities concerning your child/ren and, more broadly, school activities and student achievements. There is also an opportunity to have your say about how School communications will be delivered in the future. This survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete and the results are completely anonymous.

To begin the survey, please click here. We would like to hear from as many parents as possible.

Dr Peter Lennox

Photo caption: A wonderful evening of outstanding piano playing at the Junior and Senior Piano Competitions was enjoyed by the audience and guest adjudicator.