From the Principal

I write to let all parents know of the very sad news that one of our Year 12 students died suddenly on Wednesday morning and was found deceased at her home. Jodie Ah Chong and her family have been members of the Redlands community since she commenced in our Junior School in Year 5, in 2011.  Since that time she developed into an engaged and much loved member of the student body. Jodie represented Australia in synchronized swimming and also the School in swimming carnivals. Her other great cocurricular interest has been music.

We will do everything we can to support the Ah Chong family in their time of intense grief. Our thoughts and prayers are with their immediate and extended family, friends of Jodie and the family and the entire Redlands Community, particularly our Year 12 students. Naturally it is too early to be able to provide more information at this early stage and we must respect the wishes of Jodie’s family. We shall provide more information as appropriate to students and parents when that is available.

Pastoral support is being provided to students who are particularly affected by this news. Redlands Hall is being used as a base for Year 12 and other students, supported by our School Counsellors and Chaplains.

We are also focused on helping to mitigate grief and resume normal routines, which are themselves an important part of the process when a tragic event occurs.

Grief is a perfectly natural response to the loss of a life when it is someone well-known within a family or community. The way in which individuals will show grief, the length for which it endures, and how others will offer support to those who grieve is also very varied. Please click here for more information.

Our broader goal is to keep things as settled as possible for our School community during this terribly sad time. The warmth, compassion, strength and support already evident in the Redlands community will go a long way to helping this.

Dr Peter Lennox

Main photo caption: Thank you to all the students, parents, staff and other members of the Redlands community for supporting Breast Cancer research at the Mother’s Day Classic Fun Run and Walk last Sunday.