Head of Preparatory School

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October is National Mental Health Month

National Mental Health Month is an initiative of the Mental Health Foundation Australia (MHFA) to advocate for and raise awareness of Australian mental health. It is an important time where the Australian community comes together to raise awareness and promote better mental health for all. Today in the Prep School we acknowledged, raised awareness of and promoted better mental health for all by holding our Prep Wellbeing Day.

It was such a fun day as students and staff participated in dance offs, health hustles, healthy cooking and sport activities. Our staff too had time for themselves during the day.

To encourage our students to show compassion for the wellbeing of others, we have partnered with Bear Cottage, a charity strongly connected with Redlands. We hope to strengthen this connection by raising money through a variety of fun stalls and activities at lunch time. If you would like more info about Bear Cottage, click here.

A big thank you to all our families who have supported today’s Wellbeing Day. We will upload a photo gallery onto Pulse at the end of the day.

STEAM Fever at Loreto

STEAM fever was high as 20 of our Year 2 girls attended an interschool STEAM event at Loreto Kirribilli with Mrs Breckenridge and Ms Anagnostu, our eLearning Coordinator. The girls met their team mates for the first time on arrival and after some short getting to know each other games, they dived right in to tackling their challenge. They worked in mixed groups with students from other schools to design a 2D and 3D area of a city and then code their Dash robot to navigate around the city.  Each student took on the role of either:  project manager, videographer/photographer, designer, resource manager or reporter and it was amazing to watch the teamwork, creativity, communication and problem-solving in action to produce solutions in a short time.  

Our students summarised their experience with the key words of:  together, creative, teamwork and friendship.  Describing their highlights in their own words:  

My favourite part of the day was:

“meeting new people and getting to try new things” (Persia),

“challenging myself and finding that nothing was not too difficult in a team” (Olivia)

“building models and experience as a leader of a group” (Hollidai)

“teaching my team mates how to code with Dash robots” (Milli)

Lunchtime Wellbeing Activities

There is a buzz happening at lunchtimes this term with new clubs on offer and old clubs reimagined this term. Ms Cooper was very excited as she had 50 students show up to her French knitting club! Our chess players are out in force and Mrs Haines and Miss Saxby will dance and create later this week. A great start!

Important Campus Access Notice: Murdoch Street Gate

With a safety lens around the Murdoch Street access to the Junior Campus, the usage of the Murdoch Street pedestrian gate has been recently reviewed with the aim of ensuring greater student safety and campus security.

In response to this review, the following changes to usage of the Murdoch Street pedestrian gate are being trialled for the remainder of Term 4 from today:

A gate closer has been installed to ensure that the gate cannot be accidentally left open during the day and there is a sign in place advising our community that when the gate is closed, access to the Junior Campus is via the Junior School or Prep Receptions on Allister Street. A reminder too that all visitors must sign in at Junior or Prep Receptions when entering the campus for an extended period of time (not for drop off or collection).

Last Day of School Information

Please take note that the last day of term for Prep students is 6 December. Our Prep Celebration Day is on 6 December, 10am-11.30am. Parents are to take their children home at the conclusion to the event. There is no Redlands House extended care or K-2 OSH on this day.

Mrs Ainslie Breckenridge
Head of Preparatory School
abreckenridge@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9848