Head of Junior School

Head of Junior School

Book Week 2021

What a joyous festival of literature it has been this week as our students and staff have enjoyed and appreciated a range of rich reading-focused experiences, opportunities and activities celebrating Book Week. It was wonderful to see the array of creative homemade costumes on our Zoom assemblies which added colour to our screens and I share a few here but please visit the Junior School Redlands Pulse page for many more.

At the start of the week, I joined students and staff in hearing from two highly engaging authors, Gregg Dreise and Allison (A.L.) Tait, who were as captivating as presenters via Zoom as I imagine they would be in person and I found myself laughing out loud listening to Gregg and really enjoyed Allison’s ‘Top 5 Tips’ for writing, which she shared with the students and I also share below for your information:

  1. Ideas are everywhere – all the things you do, see, hear and feel are all ideas for stories.
  2. Really get to know your characters. Create as much detail as possible in your characters’ personalities.
  3. Find out what your character wants? What is their goal? Without a goal for your character, you don’t have a story.
  4. The simplest words are often the best words to use.
  5. Edit your work – read for the storyline, read for sentence structure and read to proofread. Editing is one of the most important parts of the writing process.

Gregg Dreise is also an ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and some families will recall that we have supported this foundation each year during Book Week and I encourage students and families to consider a donation of any value in lieu of our gold coin donations that we would normally collect. Please click this link if you would like to contribute. Next Wednesday 1 September is Indigenous Literacy Day and Year Groups will also be involved in short, online learning opportunities to celebrate Indigenous stories, culture and language.

Today, Yr 3 enjoyed a story reading from former Redlands teacher turned children’s author, Martin Pryor. Martin was a well-respected and longstanding Secondary School teacher and has successfully now turned his hand to story writing and it was delightful to see his passion for writing shine though as he read his book to the students and answered questions.

I also thank the more than twenty staff who have recorded themselves reading stories for the students to enjoy every afternoon this week. I have enjoyed listening to these stories too and I have loved that the students have seen many of our specialist teachers reading a story which they might not ordinarily do.

Living Our School Values

I wanted to acknowledge and share a project that Grace (Yr 3), Alice (Yr 5) and Thomas (Yr 7) Flynn have been up to as a family doing this period of lockdown.

As I mentioned last week in highlighting students who had been volunteering in different ways, I am always so proud to hear how our students live our School Values in their lives and particularly when their thoughts and actions impact others in our school, local or wider community.

The Flynns have been preparing cards of support for the residents of the Bougainvillea Retirement Village, our Senior Campus neighbours on Waters Rd, during this difficult time of isolation for many of them.

The family will be dropping off 60 cards to Bougainvillea this Friday, which they are excitedly awaiting and in talking to them directly, Bougainvillea asked if any Redlands students might be interested in sending through drawings which they would happily display on the noticeboard at the village, which is sadly bare with no planned activities for the residents.

 So, if any of our budding artists would like to create a piece of artwork or a drawing of encouragement for the residents, please do send them directly to them at the address below:

Bougainvillea Retirement Village
7 Waters Road
Neutral Bay
NSW 2089

What if our students will be ahead when we return to on-campus schooling?

I shared this reflective article below with colleagues earlier this week and thought I would share it with families too, by way of looking at the current situation from a different perspective. Could it be that our children will be better off in the long run having experienced this time of lockdown? It prompted some good conversations for us as staff and also gave us cause to reflect upon what are the metrics of success in education? I hope this might stimulate a conversation in your home as it did in mine and I am always interested in parent reflections if you want to write back to me too. Personally, I think there’s a few gems in here.

Staffing

This Friday, we say farewell to our part-time Junior Campus counsellor, Ms Courtney Karpin. Ms Karpin is moving to a private practice and we wish her all the best in this next career path for her and express our gratitude for her work for our Redlands community. 

Mindfulness and Meditation Video 

Our Junior Campus counsellor, Mr Alessandro Digiacomo, has created another fantastic video for our students and families; this time on the topic of ‘Mindfulness and Meditation’ . Class teachers will share the three-minute video with classes and I encourage parents to also take a moment to watch the video here and we will place it on Redlands Pulse for access too.

Borrowing Books from the Arnold Library 

This week, we trialled Junior School students borrowing books from the Arnold Library again under Covid-safe protocols. The process has been very smooth and more importantly, very safe, so we will continue with this for the rest of the term. A reminder of the process is outlined below:

  1. Parents should email the Junior School library directly here with book requests/ genre.
  2. Our part-time library staff will process requests and package books up to be collected from the table outside the Junior School reception building.
  3. The library staff will confirm via return email the time and date only one parent/ child should come to collect their named book package.
  4. At collection, you must wear a mask and sanitise hands at the entry gate.
  5. Returning books will be via the book return drop box only which will be outside the school (again, please wear a mask and sanitise your hands at the gate). Any students currently with library books that they wish to return can do so in this way.

 All book collection times will be outside of arrival and departure times for students of essential workers.

Week 8 Request for On-Campus Learning for Children of Essential Workers

Parents who are essential workers can lodge a request for on campus learning support for the week of 30 August – 3 September. Booking requests close again at 8pm on Friday 3 September to allow sufficient time for staffing to be organised based on the numbers.

Please click for Week 8 request: Junior Campus booking 

Please be remined that any students’ attendance is dependent upon their health. Students must be kept at home if they show any signs of an elevated temperature or a cold. Any student who presents at school with even the mildest symptoms of COVID-19 will be sent home and not permitted to return before a negative COVID-19 test result and are symptom free. Students must also not attend if they have been identified by NSW Health as either a casual or close contact of a confirmed case.

Wellbeing Challenge 

Over the past couple of weeks, our Deans of Students Marita Jansons and Katie-Louise Clinton encouraged our staff to take an hour to focus on their own wellbeing. This was highly appreciated by all staff who eagerly embraced the challenge and shared their ways to keep their wellness in check. You can see them in action in their wellness activities in this Staff Wellbeing Video.

Mr Ari Guha
Head of Junior School 
aguha@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9953 6022