Head of Preparatory School

Head of Preparatory School

Welcome to Redlands Courtney Evans

This week our new OOSH Coordinator began. Courtney comes to Redlands with ten year’s experience in the OOSH Catholic System and with a very extensive knowledge of policy and procedure under the ASEQUA framework (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority).  Courtney will lead the team through the OOSH registration process next year and in the meantime will spend time reviewing our OOSH facility. As a result of this review, we need to stop the process of taking students who have not been picked up at car line to OOSH. This process actually places our OOSH facility out of staff to student ratio and can jeopardise our registration with ASEQUA. Therefore, if you are late picking up your child in the afternoon, the class teacher will call you to ensure all is okay and will take them and wait with them in the Prep Reception area until you arrive.

Kindergarten Information Sessions

I have enjoyed meeting and having conversations with current TG and Redlands House Senior parents over the last two weeks. Next Tuesday I will be meeting our 2023, 2024 and 2025 Kindergarten families. This is a time for us to start making connections with future families and share information around where we are heading with Redlands Preparatory School. I strongly encourage you to pass on this information to any families who may be considering Redlands for Kindergarten.

Term 2 Wellbeing

As part of our Wellbeing program Term 2 we are working with the provider ySafe. In class Circle Time this week students will be discussing how we stay safe on the internet. Our focus will be to identify people and demonstrate protective behaviours and other actions that help keep themselves safe and healthy. At Redlands this is a whole school approach across P-6. Our main goals for this esafe program are:

  • Supporting an integrated approach to Digital safety and wellbeing
  • Embedding esafety into our daily teaching practice
  • Providing curriculum related lessons in Circle Time that are authentic and appropriate to each age and stage
  • K-2 students to attend ySafe workshops to support our students but also our teachers and parent community
  • K-2 students appreciating how the Internet connects people
  • Communicating with other people via the Internet
  • Recognise the ‘characters’ in online games often represent real world people

Mother’s Day Breakfast Friday 7 May, 7.45am

We invite all mothers and carers to a special Mother’s Day breakfast next week. To assist in our catering, could you please RSVP here now.  After the breakfast we invite you to Join us in our K-2 classrooms for fun together.

Belinda Oxley Scholarship Appeal

We value participation from all members of our community and are especially grateful for the creative contribution from our students. Belinda Oxley is remembered as a dedicated educator with a passion for visual arts and we are raising funds to honour her legacy and name one means-tested scholarship after her.

Creative Arts Cards

To celebrate Belinda’s legacy, we asked our Preparatory and Junior School students to enter a Creative Arts Competition which closed last Wednesday 21 April. Almost fifty artworks were received across age groups with great variety of images. Winners will be announced next week, stay tuned!

 We are delighted to support this cause which acknowledges Belinda’s legacy and were thrilled with how positive the response was from our students towards this wonderful cause.” 

The Redlands Arts Cards will be available to pre-order from 13 May and will be advertised in Note Day. All proceeds raised will contribute towards the Belinda Oxley Scholarship.

Thank you to all our young artists who participated in this initiative!

Redlands Arts Luncheon Auction

The online auction with some incredible prizes such as holiday houses, degustation vouchers, wellbeing experiences and many more to support the Belinda Oxley Scholarship Appeal, will be launched on Thursday 13 May and accessible to all members of our community. The Prizes include the following:

Degustation Dinner

Enjoy a degustation dinner at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron Cellar for six people including wines.  Conditions apply and valid for dining Monday to Friday only, lunch or dinner. Valued at $1520 and reserve set at $800.

Wombats and Dingos and Emus, oh my!

Last week Kindergarten got up close and personal with Australian wildlife at the Featherdale Wildlife Park, as part of our investigation into the Australian Bush. However, our learning journey did not begin at the park gates. It began weeks earlier as we developed a framework for successful self-management in this new and unfamiliar scenario. This involved thoughtful discussions as we collaborated to establish what behaviour expectations would look like for successful learning, organisation and relationships outside of the school gates. As part of this success criteria, Kindergarten developed and managed their own organisation with a take home checklist to address attire, sun safety, meals, water and rainy weather needs.

This active involvement in planning self-management strategies meant Kindergarten were confident in their ability to succeed. This was evident as they approached the excursion with energy and enthusiasm, apologies for the 3am wake up of some. We were introduced to Lauren, the wildlife educator, who described the characteristics of Paddy the koala, Clementine the snake, Quilt the blue-tongue lizard and Minty the joey, before letting us have a pat! We then followed our interests, exploring the park and spending time in spaces that sparked our curiosity.

Throughout the day, Kindergarten eagerly posed questions, observed closely, listened attentively and responded with wonderment and awe. This experiential learning not only developed our scientific skills and knowledge of the Australian bush, it also fostered dispositions such as curiosity and self-efficacy which are valuable for life-long success.

CHAPLAIN

This week’s article from our Chaplains Bronwyn Lihou and Fiona McKenzie can be accessed via the button above.

A reminder to mark in your diary on Thursday 13 May, 8.00-9.00pm, the Parent run prayer group, in the David Armstrong Room at St Peter’s Church (with parking located on Waters Rd). Please contact Sally Swan at swanlsally@gmail.com for further information.

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