From the Principal

From the Principal

Welcome back to Term 4, especially to all new students and their families. We trust that you receive a characteristically warm welcome from the Redlands community.

I imagine that you would have enjoyed the term break and hopefully had some time together as family. There was certainly still plenty of activity on campus, particularly with Year 12 study workshops, as the Class of 2020 prepare for their final examinations.

It is an interesting time, with the baton passing, as our current Year 11 students step up to lead the School. It was a pleasure to formally induct students into their roles as Captains of portfolios and activities this week and to celebrate with the Secondary School. In particular, I congratulate Piper Allen and Theo Mirrlees-Black on being selected as School Captains for 2021. The generous applause when their names were announced said a great deal about their standing in the School community.

The 2021 Captains are: 

School: Piper Allen and Theo Mirrlees-Black
Arts: Felix Abrahams and Maddison Hunt
Sports: Olivia Donoghue and Dillon Hayford
Service: Laura Sidoti and Harrison Winton
Environment: Max Currie and Julia Parker
Cowper House: Hunter Auld and Sofia Stuckmann
Dumolo House: Tom Huizenga and Lauren Wong
McDouall House: Anna-Luisa Feller and Daniel Thomas
Roseby House: Gabrielle Drage and George Dunne
Athletics: Jonah Koppers and Emma Mahon
Bands: Lucy McLaren
Basketball: Yola Reinecke and James Wells
Choirs: Bethany Richardson
Dance: Nina Casey-Brown
Debating: Ela Yohannan
Drama: Toby Griffiths
Duke of Edinburgh: Piper Allen
Football: Liam Dow and Gabrielle Drage
Hockey: Jasmine Chady
Netball: Olivia Donoghue
Peer Support: Joshua Colleran and Marie Kurzrock
Production: Gianni Watson
Rowing: Emily Barrelle and Alexander Holtheuer 
Rugby: Aidan Tyrrell
Sailing: Jameson Prescott
Small Ensembles: Alex Kim
Snowsports: George Murphy (Ski) and Lucy Roberts (Board)
Strings: Beatrix Blasco
Swimming: Olivia Donoghue
Tennis: Sebastian Dobson and Ela Yohannan
Theatre: Maddison Hunt
Touch Football: Sophia Hill
Visual Arts: Indiana Grace
Waterpolo: Thomas Kelly and Emily Pashley

On Thursday and Friday of this week we have two leadership days scheduled to support the Captains in their roles and I enjoyed having the opportunity to address the students as part of this program, being run by Burn Bright. A highlight was having current parent Sally Macdonald present to the students as a guest speaker. Sally shared pearls of leadership wisdom from her extensive experience in roles such as CEO of Big W and the Oroton Group, with warmth, humour and connection. We look forward to the entire Year 12 2021 cohort building on the leadership legacy of this year’s group.

I enjoyed the opportunity to meet some of the youngest new students for 2021 and parents at the Kindergarten Orientation day this week. It reminded me of the courage the students have to display at a young age to let go of mum’s or dad’s hand and bravely go into the unknown. I was so impressed by the leadership displayed by our Year 6 students in supporting them and the warmth of their welcome. They were incredibly creative in how they enabled the new students to feel comfortable and safe.

This term will no doubt pass quickly and whilst we will have to remain flexible and adaptive in our planning of key end-of-year events, I look forward to celebrating these milestones with the community this term.     

2022 Scholarships

I would like to advise that applications for our Year 7 2022 Scholarships Program (Academic, Merit, Music, Ballet) are now open to both current Redlands students and those at external schools.

Thanks to the very generous donations from parents, alumni and friends within the Redlands community, we are also able to offer a second means-tested Peter Lennox Scholarship for Year 7 2022. We were delighted to award the first Peter Lennox Scholarship to Phoebe Meers earlier this year and look forward to her joining our school in 2021. We are now looking forward to providing the opportunity of a Redlands education to another equally deserving student for Year 7 2022. 

For more details of our 2022 Scholarships program or to apply, please visit: https://www.redlands.nsw.edu.au/enrolments/scholarships-2/

Applications for all Scholarships close on Monday 8 February 2021.

Mr Stephen Webber

Photo caption: Congratulations to our Class of 2021 Captains who were formally inducted this week. Our 2021 School, Arts, Sport, Service and Environment Captains are pictured above.