Head of Junior School

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Earlier this week, like many people across the world, I was saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Ken Robinson, an extraordinary educator and one of the world’s pre-eminent thinkers on creativity and innovation, whose TED Talk, Do Schools Kill Creativity? is registered as one of the most popular talks of all time, confirming that his influence spanned a far greater landscape than education alone.

In many ways, Sir Ken’s influence on people’s thinking around the world has had a profound effect and it is clear that his legacy will continue to have an influence in years to come. I have had the privilege of hearing Sir Ken present at a couple of conferences and in both talks, he articulated the significance of educating students to be divergent thinkers; thinking that is a more unstructured, free-flowing process and that generates a number of potential solutions to a problem, something that Sir Ken had seen lacking in education systems around the world.

A lot of Sir Ken’s rhetoric aligns with Redlands aim to nurture a learning environment where thinking is a way of being and that students recognise that the active process of learning is a consequence of thinking and the two are as much a collective enterprise as they are an individual endeavour. We also believe that the dispositions that we hope will stay with our students long after they leave us have to be nurtured and grown over time. These habits will, in many ways, be of far greater benefit to our students than merely the content that is covered in their learning. 

As highlighted by Mr Webber in his Note Day article last week, Redlands teachers from across all sections of our school have enjoyed the opportunity to develop from the story of learning in each other’s classrooms in our Go Open project. Of particular focus this time has been the learning environment for students, one of the eight cultural forces that exist in every learning space. From Harvard’s Project Zero research, these cultural forces: routines, opportunities, time, language, environment, modelling, expectations and interactions exist in every classroom and the challenge for teachers is to leverage these forces to maximise a culture of thinking in the classroom.

I have enjoyed being part of these classroom visits and have been impressed by how colleagues have helped each other see or notice something that they can’t see themselves through well-placed observations or a with a well-situated question to a colleague in need of advocacy and support. These types of practices help create a culture of thinking as we know that effective teaching takes more than good planning and design; it also requires attention to the culture of our classroom so that it supports students’ development as thinkers and learners capable of deep understanding.

Whilst continuing with our everyday schedules, the learning and rich discussions between our staff have been both invigorating and affirming and also reminded me of the quality of continuous learners that Redlands fosters amongst its staff.

As a fierce advocate of collaboration between teachers, Sir Ken firmly believed that in education, when great things have been achieved, there has always been collective effort from people with diverse expertise, something that our Go Open sessions have affirmed.

Junior School COVID Update of Activities

House Football Competition

I am looking forward to cheering on the girls and boys taking part in this Saturday’s inaugural House Football tournament which takes place this Saturday on campus instead of our usual representative sports program. I thank Mr Dunne for his creative solution to providing our girls and boys with the option of playing sport and building House spirit despite the cancellation of interschool sport, and it has been great to see the enthusiasm it has also generated amongst the students too.

Author and Redlander Visits

This week, acclaimed children’s author and Redlander, Lisa Nicol, came to visit and speak with Yrs 3 and 4. Amongst much excitement and interest, Lisa talked about her books, Vincent and the Grandest Hotel on Earth, Dr Boogaloo and the Girl Who Lost Her Laughter and her upcoming picture book, The Ballad of Dexi Lee.

Similar to tips from our Term 1 author-in-residence, Jack Heath, Lisa shared her use of keeping a notebook, using her imagination and working collaboratively with others, as important elements of nurturing her own creativity. The students read a number of Lisa’s books during both the period of online learning and in Library lessons so had lots of great questions for her. They were also excited to hear she had been a student at Redlands too and had enjoyed her time in Dumolo House!

Roseby House Captain

With our Roseby House Captain, Roy Rivera, returning to the US this week, I am delighted to announce our new Roseby House Captain is Joshua Colpani. Josh has been at Redlands since Preschool and it was lovely to see the sense of support for this appointment amongst his Yr 6 peers when it was announced this week. We wish him well as he takes up this student leadership role for the rest of the year.

Writing Success – Oscar Pearce 

Last night, Yr 6 student, Oscar Pearce, was announced as this year’s runner-up in the Poetry section in this year’s Mosman Youth Awards in Literature. With no poetry section for primary students, Oscar submitted a poem entitled Imprisonment in the competition for Yrs 7-9, which adds to this noteworthy achievement for him. Well done, Oscar!

Junior School Class Parent Group Meeting

Last Thursday evening saw our the termly meeting of our Junior School Class Parent Group via Zoom. The group was also delighted to welcome our Principal, Mr Webber, to the meeting where he was also able to the group and take any questions. 

A question I posed to the group which I have also shared with staff is how can we enable connections with families around all aspects of school life in these current times? Normally we have events such as gallery walks, special days such as Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day breakfasts, our Junior Music Festival always attracts a capacity crowd, and families have not been able to attend sport where there is often time for them to connect socially too. Even the everyday conversations at drop off and pick up are not happening in the same way at the moment.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I would be grateful to hear them via email.

Upcoming Charity Event

As mentioned in our assembly this week, we are looking forward to holding a joint fundraiser in September for both Bear Cottage (which was cancelled back in March as we moved to online learning) and The Kids’ Cancer Project; charities that we have had a strong affinity and connection with. Further details will be forthcoming as we look to support these two charities again this year.

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.

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