Head of Junior School

Redlands Spring Fair

What an event! Blessed in glorious summer sunshine, last Saturday’s biennial Spring Fair was a truly memorable community occasion for Redlands and it was such a joy to see so many of our students, parents, staff, alumni and members of our local community here enjoying all the fun of the fair.

Held every two years since 1899, the fair was once again organised by a dedicated group of parent volunteers, ably assisted by an army of other parents, staff, alumni and friends of Redlands, all of whom played important roles in ensuring that the Spring Fair was a resounding success.

The Spring Fair’s conveners, Trudy Waterfield and Jean Martin, did a phenomenal job in coordinating the whole event, which has been months in the planning. In turn, they were most ably supported by a dedicated Spring Fair committee team of Laura Briggs, Felicity Gates, Kristina Green, Maria Kinsela and Fiona Mears, as in turn, this committee were supported by many parents who assisted with coordinating various aspects of the Fair. 

From the School’s perspective, our Deputy Principal, Ms McGarry, was an integral part of the overall planning of the fair and I also pay particular recognition to the tireless work and efforts of our Facilities team; before, during and after the fair.                                             

In total, we are thrilled to announce that the fair raised over $60,000 which will be dedicated towards improving the outdoor facilities on both the Junior and Senior campuses for the benefit of all of our students.

The Kids Cancer Project  

Last Friday, our Junior Campus students joined forces and enjoyed a non-uniform day with ‘a touch of gold’ as we again supported the research work of The Kids’ Cancer Project, a charity that holds particular significance for our Redlands community. Together with sales of wristbands, handballs, badges and raffle tickets to win one of the two bears, our Campus raised a wonderful $1,951 for the organisation. As with so many of our initiatives to help others and particularly other children, this fundraiser was planned and organised by students and I thank Yr 4 students Stella Cunningham, Charlie Hoskin, Zoe Hicks and Chloe Hitchens for their compassion and leadership and for making a difference to the lives of others.

 

Digital Citizenship  

This week, we welcomed Brett Lee from Internet Safe Education to speak to Yrs 5 and 6 about both the importance of and how to stay safe on the Internet and be a responsible user of technology.

With 22 years’ experience in the Australian police, 16 of those as a detective, Brett’s real-life experience in this field, as well as time he spent in the US working with the FBI on aspects of internet security, safety and crime, certainly captured the students’ attention. I would encourage parents of Yrs 5 and 6 to have a conversation with your child to gauge the messages that they took away from the session, which we will continue to remind and reinforce here at school too, as necessary. Many of the messages about responsibility were also not just about technology and he reminded students that they had to take ownership of the choices they made online and I share some of his key takeaway points below for parents’ reference as well.

  • The Internet is public and permanent; once you post something, you cannot take it back
  • Think before you post. If someone can see what you post, they can also share it with others
  • Protect your personal information and make sure you use privacy settings correctly
  • People you meet on the Internet are strangers
  • If we feel upset online, get off the Internet and tell a trusted adult about it
  • Rules and responsibilities online are real and we have federal cyber bullying laws

The Arnold Library has purchased five copies of Mr Lee’s parent reference book, Screen Resolution, should parents wish to borrow a copy from our parent reference section.

Spanish News

In our assembly this week, Señora Colagiuri announced the wonderful results for Redlands Junior School in the Language Perfect NSW Championships.

Redlands Junior School came 3rd overall in this Statewide competition and 1st for Spanish. This is another incredible achievement and we are very proud of the efforts and accomplishments of our students to collectively achieve this result. 

Class 6R was the highest scoring class, winning a pizza party and the highest scoring students in each year (Yr 3 – Rowan Petersen; Yr 4 – Gabriela Diaz Caldwell; Yr 5 – Krishna Gupta; Yr 6 – Brandon Diaz Caldwell), each received a $30 iTunes voucher. We acknowledged all of our leading points scorers in our assembly and I thank Señora Colagiuri and the students for their enthusiastic approach to learning Spanish in the Junior School.        

Jump Rope for Heart

Thank you to everybody who has helped to fundraise for Jump Rope for Heart over this term. We have raised $40,000 which will help to raise awareness for the Heart Foundation. For every death from cancer in Australia, there are three deaths from Heart Disease and the rate is rising. Part of our hope is that our students also note the message to stay active, eat well and maintain a healthy lifestyle into adulthood. So many students from the Junior School have taken this message on board and throughout the term have been participating in a timed one minute skip off. Congratulations to our top four skippers: Sofia Thorne (237), Tobias Edmonds-Wilson (178), James Ashby (167) and Isaac Brooks (167). It has been wonderful to also see the parents of Redlands getting involved with the One Minute Skipping Challenge with parents turning up to school in trainers to have a go!

Next Wednesday is our ‘Jump Off Day’ where all students will be participating in various skipping rotation activities to celebrate the new skills they have learnt throughout the term.

Fruit Alert  

With the recent news of fruit contamination in some parts of Australia, particularly for strawberries, I make note for parents to be mindful of fruit that children bring in and where possible, cut up fruit beforehand. 

Cocurricular Clubs  

Please note that the Tuesday after school clubs that class teachers organise ends this week as we do not run these in the first or last week of terms. Our Wednesday Maths, English and Debating Clubs will resume in Week 2 of Term 4. 

Lost Property 

Our School Captains presented a great video in assembly about the students’ responsibility to take some ownership of the ‘beast’ that is student lost property. Classes and SRC leaders will also discuss ways in which they feel that this can be part of the students’ focus and not left for staff or parents to constantly pick up after them. Mrs Fairfax has again spent considerable time repatriating named lost property but I am perplexed that we still also have a lot of unnamed items of clothing, in particular. Over the holiday break, we will clear all of the unnamed belongings again so I have encouraged students, and also ask parents to help us, to claim their lost property before the end of term. 

Vacation Care Program

Please be reminded to book if you would like to use our Vacation Care in the upcoming holiday break. This can be done by visiting the Carebookings website and enter the booking code WF9JG.

RPFA AGM and Volunteer Thank You

Volunteering at Redlands is greatly appreciated and it is a vital component of the Culture of Giving at Redlands. We believe that every member of our community can contribute to the School, its development and growth by volunteering their time, supporting us through their gifts or making a financial donation. Please see the RPFA page in this Note Day for further details.

Uniform Shop

We have started receiving our Summer uniforms ready for Term 4. Now is a great time to check if your child has outgrown their Summer uniform and come and see us next week to beat the rush!

Our opening hours during the school holidays will be Tuesday 2 October 8am-1pm, Thursday 11 October 9am-3pm and Friday 12 October 9am-3pm. If you would like to make an appointment, click here.

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