Head of Junior School

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Week 4 On-Campus Learning

“Happy was an understatement! The boys’ first words when I picked them up were ‘we don’t want to get in the car and for this day to end!!’ I think that says it all really…:-))”

This message from a Junior School parent this week made me smile and may resonate with many other families too. It has been a joy for us to welcome the majority of students back in this phased return over the week and aspects of the return have felt like the start of a new school year. Similar to the start of the -year, I have also noticed how much students have grown over the time away! This will continue next week as communicated with next Thursday and Friday seeing two Junior School Year Groups attend together as another incremental step towards the return of all students.

We have really appreciated the parent support of new drop-off and collection processes which has made for a smooth start and end of school day for everyone. The key reminder from me is that Junior School arrival is not before 8.15am and goes until 8.35am. Roll call is deliberately later and this window of time has been clearly planned to allow for Prep families to have dropped off before and allay congestion on Allister Street.

The School’s planning for on-campus learning Week 5 onwards will be communicated at the start of next week.

Thank You

On behalf of our staff, I express my gratitude for the scrumptious pastries delivered to the School on Tuesday for all staff to enjoy from the Redlands Parents and Friends Association on behalf of all parents. Our community has always been one that shows and values gratitude and support, and for parents to think of us as we return to On-Campus Learning spoke volumes and was immensely appreciated.

I Spanish News – Education Perfect Languages Championships

Redlands students are once again encouraged to join students from all around the world to learn languages, earning points towards awards (and maybe even prizes!) for yourself, while helping Redlands to shine on an international platform.

The EP Languages Championships are on again from 4.00pm on Thursday 14 May until 4.00pm on Thursday 21 May. 

All Junior School students are registered to participate. To compete, all students need to do is answer Spanish language questions on Education Perfect. Points are awarded for all questions except self-marked questions and dash. Further details of the competition can be found on the website or on the EP app.

Certificates will be awarded to students with 500+ points. Redlands Junior School Spanish students will also have the chance to win gift vouchers and other prizes in our own school-based challenge.

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

Chess

During Term 2, the Sydney Academy of Chess will still be offering Chess coaching services online for Redlands students with three components. How it works:

• Online live lessons – the students who have enrolled for Term 2 will meet the Chess coach in a virtual classroom using the Whereby meeting tool, where the coach will share the chess board on the screen and guide the group through a new topic each week, such as checkmate patterns, opening traps, strategies and endgame techniques.
• Pre-recorded video lessons – weekly lessons will also be pre-recorded and available to view on the Vimeo website in a private folder. These lessons can be viewed using an iPad, iPhone, laptop or desktop at the students’ leisure.
• Online playing server – after the students have watched their lesson, they will be encouraged to practise their skills here which is our online playing platform for games, puzzles and challenges. Each child’s Chess Squad login and password will be emailed to the parents, when they enrol for the classes.

There is a cost for this service of $77 for the term which can be made via this secure payment page. Please enter the code HXOGYD0P1E and then follow the prompts to complete the enrolment.

Sustainability

A key overarching strategic goal of the School is to continually improve our environmental sustainability and over the last break solar panels were installed across the roof of both the Peter Cornish Building and Robert Dunnet Hall. These were commissioned this week and we will seek to incorporate the various data that the solar panels will provide us into student learning, which will be an excellent real-world resource for us.

We are also pleased to have installed 15 new recycling bins around the Junior Campus from the beginning of this term. These bins will be for paper or co-mingled recycling and we encourage all members of our community to use them appropriately when onsite. We believe these new recycling bins will further help to reduce our environmental footprint as a School.

Uniform Shop – Online Ordering Only from Monday 18 May

Effective from this Monday 18 May, all Uniform orders will only be available Online through Flexischools for both parents and students via the following link: www.flexischools.com.au until further notice.

This is due to the significant increase in the number of parents and students visiting the Uniform Shop in recent days.

Please note that only if an incorrect size has been ordered online, exchanges can be made at the Uniform Shop.

Uniform Shop

Chaplains

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