Head of Junior School

Baby Zoe Isabelle Johnson

We were delighted to hear of the safe arrival of Zoe Isabelle Johnson, a first child for Yr 5 Coordinator, Mrs Mieke Johnson and her husband, Nick. Zoe was born last Friday weighing a healthy 3.5kg. Both Zoe and Mieke are doing very well and we look forward to a visit from them both towards the latter part of this term.

Yr 3 Camp

Our Yr 3 students and staff are currently on camp and I am looking forward to joining them for part of this adventure. I will share more reflections of this experience in next week’s Note Day. Please be reminded that the trip is scheduled to return to School this Friday at approximately 2.30pm on the Murdoch Street side of the Campus. If the time is significantly different we will SMS families.

Welcome Back Mrs Winrow

This week we were delighted to welcome back Mrs Shireen Winrow as our eLearning Coordinator on a part-time basis for now. Mrs Winrow has returned back earlier than planned from maternity leave to support us after her replacement’s departure and I know she is thrilled to be working with students and staff again.

Debating Semi Final

Our Yr 5 team narrowly lost a close Semi Final last Friday against Pymble Ladies College but we congratulate them on their efforts to get to the final stages of this Interschool competition.

Spanish News

The 2018 Language Perfect World Championships are on again and started at 4pm on 21 May. The Championships will last until 4pm on 31 May. During this time, students from all around the world will learn Spanish and other languages other than English, while earning points towards awards and maybe even prizes.  

All students in the Junior School are registered to participate. To compete, all the students need to do is answer Spanish language questions on Education Perfect. Points are awarded for all questions except self-marked questions. 

As an added incentive, a Churros Party will take place for some hard-working students in the Junior School. The top performing student in each class, along with the next six top-performing students from across the Junior School will be invited to attend the party. In addition, the top student in each Year Group will receive a $20 iTunes voucher.

I encourage all students to participate to improve their Spanish skills and have fun in this exciting and motivating competition. ¡Buena Suerte! Señora Colagiuri

Junior School Sport

Our Winter Sports season is in full flow and as many parents may be aware, part of my role involves supporting the many different sporting teams we have each weekend. Last weekend was no different but I did want to share a couple of notable observations. Firstly, after four days away on Camp, it was great to see our two Yr 4 Netball teams playing matches less than two hours after arriving back at School. Their energy and commitment are to be commended and both teams gave very creditable performances; one losing narrowly 6-5 and the other recording an emphatic 9-1 win, which was their first this season. Talk of ‘camp-like’ preparation each week was certainly being discussed by families and students on the sidelines after the game! Then on Saturday morning I enjoyed cheering our AFL and Rugby Sevens teams and apart from both team’s impressive performances, it was wonderful to see former Junior School students coaching the teams with great energy, enthusiasm and skill. We have a wonderful group of former students, now studying at university, who are part of our coaching teams in a range of sports and we support them with mentoring and coaching development too. As I watched these two coaches (but also others I have seen this term in Football and Netball too), I feel a genuine sense of pride in the young people that they have turned out to be alongside a joy that they wish to give back and remain connected to Redlands too.

You Can Sit with Me – Friday 1 June

Next Friday 1 June, the Junior Campus is encouraged to wear a ‘touch of yellow’ as part of the You Can Sit with Me inclusivity and kindness campaign, which our Junior School students were given more information about in our assembly. Redlands first took part in this event in 2016 when it was brought to our attention by the School Captain at the time, Ashani Gupta, so as a student-led initiative, it has been an important one for us to continue to recoginse.

Balmoral Burn

We were delighted to welcome Paul Francis OAM, the founder of the Humpty Dumpty Foundation to our assembly this week to share information about this Sunday’s Balmoral Burn fun run on Awaba Street, Mosman. Each year many students from Redlands take part in the Primary School Challenge race category so it was lovely to welcome Paul and Humpty to our assembly and also share their story about being a Children’s Charity supporting hospitals across Australia.

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