Head of Preparatory School

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Jeans for Genes Day

Tomorrow we will have our Jeans for Genes Day in the Preparatory School. Students may wear mufti and should wear as much denim as they can – the 80’s look will be back! Students who are in mufti are required to make a gold coin donation. Sometimes it can be overwhelming with the amount of charities needing assistance and at times our lives can become so busy that we forget to empathise with others. Empathy is a very important life skill to teach our young learners, so I encourage you to discuss why we support the Children’s Medical Research. Click here to watch a video that explains genetics simply to young children. 

The statistics that every minute 12 children are born with a birth defect or incurable disease are heartbreaking. A simple gold coin is all it takes for our students to feel like they are not only thinking of others but making a tangible difference.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

A reminder that the Premier’s Reading Challenge needs to be finalised by Friday 28 August. Please ensure you have uploaded your child’s reading log to the website. If you have a query or need assistance, please contact the Lucy Hill Library staff.

Clubs

Prep School Clubs are off and running and we had a very successful first week back. All students enjoyed their activities. Thank you to families for being flexible in the new 3.45-4.00pm car line procedure after Clubs. Just a little reminder that if a teacher is unwell on Clubs day, you will be notified by Mrs Hunt to pick your child up in normal car line.

Calendar Update

As mentioned in last week’s Note Day, our Prep School parent/teacher interviews will now be in Weeks 7 and 8. An email will be sent to you shortly outlining the process and Zoom booking schedule. This term we will be using quite a flexible time frame which hopefully will make the interview sessions more accessible to our families.

Community Vodcasts

After listening to our Prep families, we heard the common message that you would like more information about certain skills and learning that occurs in the classroom to assist conversation at home. To this end, from next Thursday we will be posting a weekly Vodcast to our Redlands Pulse pages. The vodcasts will be a short video that will cover a certain skill, message or information that our classroom teachers would like to share. Vodcasts will be posted on Thursdays onto either all Redlands Pulse pages or specific Year Group pages. I will provide you with the link to the Redlands Pulse page each Note day for easy access.

Please remember these vodcasts are only a snippet of information for you, there is no expectation on families to be teaching this skill at home, that’s our job here at school!

AIS Spelling Professional Development

Next week our Junior Campus teaching staff will resume their Primary Spelling Professional Development sessions with Ms Jill Ryman from the AIS. The Primary Spelling has been developed by the Association of Independent Schools as a whole school professional initiative to support K-6 teachers to teach spelling effectively. The content of sessions is underpinned by empirical research about the acquisition of spelling skills. The research clearly articulates not only what the critical components of spelling instruction should include but how to go about providing the instruction in a systematic and explicit way.

Non-Government Schools Census

The Australian Government provides funding to Australian schools under the Australian Education Act 2013 (AE Act). As a result, Redlands is required to provide the Australian Government with certain information about the school, its staff, and student body to ensure the school’s funding is properly calculated and appropriately managed. This information is collected by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (the department) on behalf of the Australian Government. Further information for parents and carers can be found on Redlands Pulse.

Around the Prep This Week

Sadly, as we still can’t have parents on campus, I wanted to share some images from around the Prep Campus with you to hopefully help the connection between you and us!

Our Prep Art Gallery has started to be populated this week. This is a sharing space where classes can displaying their art works in all stages of completion. The idea is to not just show the best pieces but to use this space to share the process of art making and those that have improved their skills. This space will change every few weeks to other Key Learning Areas, so watch this space!

In our Prep Reception area we have a new display board. This area now houses a lovely display titled ‘I’m not dirty, I’m learning’. Full credit goes to Jacqui Lofgren for designing and creating this display space for us.

This week our Yr 2 chickens arrived. There are many excited students (and teachers) watching the fascinating process of chickens emerging from their shells. Such an incredible learning experience and we can’t wait to follow their development over the next few weeks. 

Every morning I have enjoyed watching our learners start their day out on the oval for a run and exercise. Research supports the idea of starting the school day with fresh air and exercise provides enormous benefit to the learning that follows. Bright red cheeks and happy smiles is a great start to the day.

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