Head of Junior School
COVID-19 Update
Further to Mr Webber’s letter to all families yesterday, we continue to review and follow this week’s updated health advice from the NSW Chief Health Officer and its flow-on implications for our programs and activities.
As noted in the letter, all Junior School interschool sporting fixtures have been cancelled for the remainder of Term 3 by the Independent Primary School Heads of Australia (IPSHA), under whose umbrella we play our representative sports fixtures. The only sport that will continue is our Friday night Netball competition which is organised by a local community sport association, Northern Suburbs Netball.
Below is a short summary of Junior School programs and activities and their current status:
|
Program or Activity |
Status |
|
Ballet and Dance |
ON |
|
Drama Classes |
ON |
|
Choirs |
OFF |
|
Rock Bands |
ON |
|
Guitar Ensemble |
ON |
|
Training Band |
ON (Percussion only) |
|
Concert Band |
ON (Percussion only) |
|
MIP (Yrs 4-5) |
ON (Strings and Percussion) |
|
Junior Strings |
ON |
|
Individual Music Tuition |
ON |
|
Tuesday Clubs |
ON |
|
Wednesday Sport |
ON (modified on site) |
|
Before School Sports Training |
OFF (apart from Netball) |
|
Gymnastics |
ON |
|
After School Football |
ON |
|
Junior School Assembly |
ON via Zoom |
|
Year Group Assembly |
ON (max 15 mins) |
|
Chapel |
ON via Zoom |
|
Debating |
ON via Zoom |
We will continue to review and adapt to updated advice and continue to provide as many opportunities as we are able to in this current climate.
An additional letter will be sent outlining all aspects of Junior School Sport before the end of this week and also placed on Redlands Pulse for your reference.
Student Health Matters
We are grateful for our community’s continued vigilance and support in ensuring any student with symptoms of COVID-19 remain at home and return once they have received a negative COVID test result. Connected to this, even if students return a negative COVID test result, they should stull remain at home if they still have any cold symptoms to avoid any risk of them passing on cold symptoms to others who then might have to go through the same process of time off school and COVID testing. Thank you for your support with this matter.
Canteen Update
There has been a lot of positive feedback on the updated Junior Canteen menu and I encourage families to visit the Canteen page on Redlands Pulse for this information.
From today, due to the overwhelming popularity of the new sushi range, orders through Flexischools for sushi should be made before 9.00pm on the day before.
Our Redlands Canteens also use as much recycled and environmentally-friendly products and packaging as possible and sourcing biodegradable, sugarcane and ecofriendly products to provide a cost effective, sustainable food packaging solution for the School.
And excitingly, one of their next projects is to use the Learning Hub rooftop garden on our Senior Campus to grow herbs and vegetables for the menu.
Virtual Open Morning
Our Open Morning for prospective families took a new virtual look this week as nearly 150 families enjoyed a series of short videos and live presentations with leaders from across the School. As many current families would have experienced first-hand, these open mornings allow families to get a wonderful feel and lens into our School and whilst the medium was different this time, the videos, in particular, still allowed them to get a strong sense of our School.
October Vacation Care
If you would like your child to attend the October Vacation Care program, please visit Redlands Pulse to preview the activity plans. The Flexischools website will be open from 12.00pm on Monday 7 September for bookings using the Prep and Junior Vacation Care icon.
If you have any Vacation Care or OOSH queries, please can contact Trinetta Newbond (OOSH Coordinator) on 0413 764 443.
Student Writing Success
We were thrilled to be notified that Caroline Brown (Yr 5) achieved the Runner-Up Award in the Yr 5/6 age category in this year’s Whitlam Institute’s What Matters Competition. Caroline shared her topical piece, COVID-19: A Child’s Voice, with the Junior School in a recent assembly, and I know parents will also enjoy this reflective piece of writing.
Visual Arts Success
Congratulations to Aimee Kang (Yr 4) whose recent submission in the illustration competition for JK Rowling’s soon-to-be-published book, The Ickabog, has been shortlisted from over 18,000 submissions around the world for this competition.
In addition, Aimee’s drawing of her friend was also shortlisted earlier in the year in the Young Archie competition, organised by the Art Gallery of NSW, another wonderful achievement.
Mr Ari Guha
Head of Junior School
aguha@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9953 6022