From the Principal
By now parents and carers would have received the link to our Strategic Planning survey, which has also been sent to Year 7-12 students, staff, Directors, Members of SCECGS Redlands Ltd and alumni. The feedback that we will gain from our school community is essential as we progress through the development of next strategic plan and collectively look ahead to our future. Thank you to those who have completed the survey and I encourage everyone to take the time in their busy schedules to provide this most valuable feedback.
Educational research has shown that feedback from students on their experience of teaching and learning can be more valid than some other forms, such as peer or professional observation. Given that students are in the classroom for all lessons and that they are the ones learning, this is probably not surprising. This year, Head of Teaching and Learning, Matthew Bentley has led the introduction of a series of Student Voice surveys, which students in Years 5-12 are completing over the next two weeks. The information from these surveys will provide rich and valuable feedback to our teachers and form an important part of their professional growth plan process. The surveys also send an important message to our students that we value their opinion and feedback on their learning.
Over the next two weeks, staff are also taking time to visit each other’s classrooms during our ‘Go Open’ initiative in which staff actively invite colleagues to visit their lessons and share their professional practice. There is a strong collaborative culture amongst staff in the School which leads to broader conversations about different pedagogical approaches and a strong desire to learn from each other.
I appreciate that many of you would have been disappointed to receive my recent communication regarding further modifications we have been required to make to our cocurricular program. As you are aware, it is challenging to plan and program in such a changing landscape; however, the leadership team always thoroughly addresses the updated advice, considers the health and wellbeing of students, staff and the broader community and reviews our risk assessments accordingly. We are very conscious of the wellbeing of our students and the importance of physical activity, a key reason why we have continued with our sports training program, the running of fixtures that meet the updated requirements and the exploration of other possibilities for internal sport activities. We are also continuing to explore creative alternatives for our Year 12 end of year events.
Please continue to provide feedback or any questions through to feedback@redlands.nsw.edu.au as this has continued to assist us in our planning and communication.
Finally, one of the joys of my role is seeing the mentoring and role modelling of older students with younger students across the School. I thoroughly enjoyed attending last week’s Redlands House Seniors Sports Carnival and observing how much our students in Preschool enjoyed the guidance, encouragement and support of our Year 6 students. It was a special morning!
Mr Stephen Webber
Photo caption: Victorious in the Yr 7 House Debating competition, Dumolo debated against Cowper that “Parents should restrict the amount of time that students spend on technology outside of school hours”.
