Head of Junior School

Monday Assembly

This has definitely been a term of ‘firsts’ for students, staff and families and my thoughts and prayers continue to be with everyone in our community and your extended families across the world.

Monday was a very exciting day with our first virtual assembly beamed live into every Junior School classroom, allowing us to be together as a Junior School via the platform of Zoom, which I will talk more about later.

A lot of the routines of a normal Junior School assembly continued with Ms McKenzie leading us in prayer and an excited student response to the update of House points. We were also delighted to have our Principal and Deputy Principal, Mr Webber and Ms McGarry, join the assembly from their respective offices and Mr Webber spoke to the students about the current situation and the need to stay connected and to support each other.

As I shared with the students, other than ‘snow days’ growing up in the UK when overnight snow would close our school, this was new and unchartered territory for me and all of the other teachers and I was able to empathise with how students might be feeling. I explained that our remote and online learning day had given us really helpful guidance although we really missed the students on campus; and we still do.

I know for my own children and many other students I spoke with on Monday, they are also sad to have to learn from home but we know that this short-term measure is for the greater good, as hard as that might be to fathom as a Junior School student.

Please do stay connected with us and each other and I would love to be sent any photos or short videos of your home learning set ups too via email, which I may then share in next week’s Note Day.

Remote and Online Teaching and Learning

Thank you to the many parents who provided insightful and constructive feedback on last Friday’s remote and online learning day, which has helped our teaching staff refine their planning this week. The day was timely given our move to off-campus learning and equally of great importance was the students’ feedback.

I have been so proud of our teachers’ unwavering dedication and commitment to their students’ learning in this online teaching platform. Their growth mindset and willingness to adapt and change is noteworthy. It is important that when we learn something new, or learn to do something in a different way, our ability to think critically increases, which is a positive outcome.

We have connected with schools across the globe regarding their experiences with remote teaching and learning and adapted these to what we feel is right for Redlands and our students at this point in time.

In discussing the student, parent and teacher feedback, in the coming fortnight until the end of term, our focus will be to enhance our connections with our students, both in terms of teaching and learning and student wellbeing.

Some of our Junior School classes have been providing pre-recorded morning video messages or have other morning ‘check in’ processes, which the students are enjoying.

Moving forward, from next Monday, our plan for the rest of the term for Junior School classes will see an introduction to Zoom for students to connect with their teachers and peers in a live conference learning space.

Further information about this process will be emailed to families tomorrow.

Thank you to all of the parents who have offered support and appreciation of our teachers’ efforts to support student learning. In our School’s aim to also look after staff and following consistent advice from the Government to encourage people to work from home if they can, we will now be supporting our teachers to work remotely from home too.

Student Wellbeing

As our young students become increasingly aware of the global situation and its impact on our day-to-day events, they may feel worried, anxious, uncertain or confused. We recognise that this is a challenging time for our students, staff and families and each class teacher spent time acknowledging this with their class before our campus closed on Monday. Students were encouraged to look after each other and stay connected and reminded that their friendships will remain even though there will be less actual face-to-face contact in the immediate future.

Our Dean of Students, Mrs Kourakis, has been working closely with class teachers to ensure that daily wellbeing practices are also built into the plans for each class, which will be reflected in their daily recommended schedules. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of our specialist Pastoral team, class teachers or me.

Staying Fit and Healthy at Home

In our virtual assembly, our Head of Junior School Sport, Mr Dunne, added comments of encouragement to the students to keep active as part of their everyday routine and with all of our teachers still in this week, the Sports Department have created some wonderful interactive videos and resources for students and families to help with a variety of activities under the newly-created Redlands HomeFit button located on Redlands Pulse. This page will be regularly updated with tips, hints, blogs, videos and routines and I encourage you to make some time to visit this page in the coming days and weeks to see if there is something that would suit you and your family.

Request to Borrow a School iPad for Yr 3 and Yr 4 students

Whilst we have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program in Yrs 5 and 6, we understand that not all of our students in Yrs 3 and 4 may have regular access to a device at home.

In a further measure to assist any families who are experiencing issues with their own devices at home or have limited technology resources, Redlands is offering the option to borrow a school iPad to students in Yr 3 and Yr 4 during this period of remote and online learning.

If you would like to request an iPad from our IT department, please follow the steps below:

Please read the terms and conditions of borrowing a Redlands iPad as you will be asked to sign this when you pick up the device.
To request a school iPad, please fill in this form before picking up the iPad.
Collect the iPad from the Junior School Reception at the following times:
Friday 27 March – 10.00am-12.00pm
Monday 30 March – 10.00am-12.00pm

In accordance with our current increased health and safety practices, we ask that only one person comes in to the School to collect the device and that they line up outside Reception until called in as we will only assist one parent at a time. Please note that this time is not a time for IT assistance and the usual method of communication via email to our iSupport team will enable this. Of course, if you are unwell, you should not enter the Campus at all.

The Sydney Academy of Chess Online Classes

For members of our Chess Club and indeed any other interested students, the Sydney Academy of Chess is offering online chess lessons in place of Friday afternoons in the Library.

Weekly lessons will be pre-recorded and available to view on the Vimeo website. There will be a password protected folder, which will contain all of the class videos, which can be viewed at your leisure. After the students have watched their lesson, they will be encouraged to practice their skills on our online playing platform, Chess Squad.

Your child’s Chess Squad login and password would be emailed to you when you enrol for the classes. Sydney Academy of Chess have a live platform they are organising for Term 2. To enrol, please pay online here and enter the code G7QTSVXIS1.

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