Head of Preparatory School
100 Days of Kindergarten!
A Message from Ms Georgina Knox
On Monday, our Kindergarten students reached a fantastic milestone: 100 days of Kindergarten! To mark this special occasion, we organised a day full of exciting and educational activities that had our young learners buzzing with enthusiasm.
The celebrations kicked off with the making of colourful crowns, each adorned with “100” to symbolise the number of days they’ve been in school. The children proudly wore their crowns throughout the day, beaming with the accomplishment of reaching this significant point in their learning journey.
One of the highlights was the sharing of collections of 100 items. From buttons to beads and LEGO pieces to stickers, the creativity was truly impressive. Each child had the opportunity to present their collection to the class, explaining how they gathered their items and counting them out aloud.
The celebration continued with building challenges centred around the number 100. The students worked in teams to construct towers, bridges, and other structures using 100 blocks or other building materials. This hands-on activity encouraged teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking, all while having loads of fun.
Our 100 Days of Kindergarten celebration was a memorable event that combined fun with learning, highlighting the incredible progress our students have made since the beginning of the school year. It was a joy to see their faces light up with pride and excitement and we look forward to many more milestones to come.
Thank you to all the families for your continued support and for helping make our 100-day celebration a huge success!
Redlands Olympic Week – Let the Games Begin!
Ms Jacqui Longworth
The Olympic Games are a grand celebration of sportsmanship and unity, where athletes from all over the world come together to compete in events that test their strength, speed, and skill. But more than just winning medals, the Olympics are about sharing joy, making new friends, and showing the world what it means to pursue your dreams with passion and determination.
This week we kicked off our Redlands Olympics with our very own Opening Ceremony. It was fantastic to see the smiling faces of all the students as they proudly marched and waved their class flag to the Olympic fanfare from the Brass Ensemble. The class flags with various Olympic themed designs can be seen in Reception.
Thank you to our French speaking hosts, Melissa Macedo and Finn Quigley who led our ceremony with many special guests. Felix Chadwick had the honour to raise the Australian flag as our singers Lenny Cronk, Miabella Caralis-Bear, Julian Hao, Araminta Whitelaw, Nathanial Zhao and Elaine Zhang and took to the stage. Jack Banham and Summer Mumm read the Athletes Oath, preparing our athletes for the fortnight ahead.
Shiv Rana and Amy Selvi held the Australian and French flags proudly alongside the Torch relay where we had footballers Tarik Blight, Riley Scanlon and Axel Loop pass the torch onto rugby players James Scott and Peter Ward. Lara Wong, Laskhmi Valanju, Millie Boase, Tessa Willis and Sophia Giannotti Tann demonstrated their superb gymnastics skills passing the torch to our sprinters Max Von Konigsmark and Sebastian Scott.
The Redlands Rhino and the French Phryges mascots led Artemis Watson and Antonios Panagakis who presented Mrs Breckenridge with the Olympic Flame.
A new addition to the Olympic events this year is Breaking. The students were lucky enough to have a break dancing demonstration and then take part in a breakdancing workshop, learning some cool new moves and putting it together for a grand celebration.
The Amazing Race took place on Tuesday with students travelling all over the world, getting stamps in their passports as they completed various challenges. The students worked out clues to get them to their new country where they completed maths, drama, sport, research, design, art, steam, French and music challenges. There were screams of delight as students worked together to figure out the clues and race to the finish line!
PE lessons this week have been Olympic themed with many sports on offer in a skills based session or team challenges. This week we have enjoyed
Paris tag, soccer, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, archery, javelin, discus, long jump, springing, long distance running, tennis, badminton, rowing, European handball, lacrosse, as well as a few events from the winter Olympics and Paralympics including team ski, skeleton, bobsled, seated volleyball and goal ball.
More events to come next week!
Lunchtimes have brought about some optional Chess Olympics this week, with Maths and Debating next week.
Prep Fun Run
Don’t forget that tomorrow we will be holding our very own Olympic Marathon (a Fun Run style event) where students will run a set course around the Junior Campus. Parents are very welcome to spectate and cheer on the students.
- Where: Junior Campus Oval Friday 2/8/24
- What to wear: New uniform or PE uniform
- What to bring: Hat and water bottle. Normal crunch and sip, recess, lunch. The canteen will be operating as usual.
- Timing: Normal school day drop offs and pick-ups. Regular afterschool activities will still occur.
- 11am-12pm = Year 2 (Walk the course, run in small groups)
- 12pm-1pm = Kindy and Year 1 (Walk the course, run in small groups)
- Students will be collected from their classroom, taken to the oval for their event, and then return to their classroom for their regular learning activities.
- Spectators: Parents and caregivers are welcome to watch from the side of the oval. A designated area will be marked out for you. Doors will be open from after 10.45am.
Jeans for Genes Day
Friday 2nd August
This year’s Jeans for Genes Day will be taking place tomorrow, Friday 2 August! This event is all about supporting medical research and raising funds for children and families living with genetic disorders.
As Friday 2nd August is our Olympic Prep Fun Run, students will not be able to wear denim to school but to support the cause, students are welcome to wear a touch of blue and bring in a gold coin donation.
Save the Date
2024 Book Week
Book Week is nearly here, and we are excited about the 2024 theme, Reading is Magic.
The purpose of Book Week is to foster a love of reading in children and to celebrate children’s literature. For that reason, we will celebrate in the Preparatory School by looking at two Australian picture books, The Concrete Garden by Bob Graham and an oldie, but goodie, The Magic Hat by Mem Fox.
There will be many activities happening in prep that week with the highlight being the Prep School Magic Hat Day on Tuesday 20th August.
Your child can come to school wearing a magic hat! They may wear just a hat, or the hat may be part of a whole outfit. Please talk to your child about who wears hats. It might be a book character. For example, a wizard or a goblin, but it might also be part of a person’s work clothes outfit. For example, a chef, fireman, magician, cowboy etc. Talk about the magic that their hat might possess. What can it do?
At our prep assembly on this day, children will showcase their hats and talk about their magical properties, or they could even talk about what their hat symbolises or what its’ purpose is.
Book Week is also a good reminder to parents, that no child is too old to be read to. Talk to your children about what they like reading, what you like reading and what you could read together, then come to the library and borrow a serial for Book Week or a book for each night before bed.
The Reading Is Magic theme for 2024 brings with it an air of wonderment, highlighting fantastical stories, spellbinding narratives, and the wizardry of words that can whisk us away from our daily realities to worlds unknown.
Please drop in to the Lucy Hill Library if you would like more information or to have a chat with Mrs Roberts about the events of the week. It is sure to be a lot of fun.
NAPLAN
The NAPLAN results are now available for parents in Years 3 and 5. We are pleased to share that Redlands’ scores are well above the national average in both literacy and numeracy. Especially impressive is the reading average for our Year 3 and Year 5 students, which is in the highest proficiency band. Parents will receive their child’s Individual Student Report (ISR) by post. If you have any questions regarding the results, please feel free to raise them directly with your child’s teacher.
What a great reflection of the prep school’s strong literacy and numeracy program.
Legacy Gift of Class of 2024
Mrs Ainslie Breckenridge
Head of Preparatory School
abreckenridge@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9848