Head of Preparatory School

PREP SCHOOL UPCOMING EVENTS

Olympics Fun Day

A sea of colour greeted us both online and on campus yesterday for the 2021 Junior Campus Olympic Day. Thanks to all our enthusiastic Prep students and staff who dressed up in a vast array of country colours and really embraced the spirit of the day. The unique cauldrons, torches, obstacle courses and videos showcased our future engineers, designers, and athletes at Redlands! Even though we were separated, the Redlands spirit demonstrated yesterday brought us together.

Parent Remote Learning Update Session

Thank you to all the families who attended the Parent Webinar on Tuesday evening. It was a positive session where we were able to connect and reassure you that Remote Learning for your child is progressing well and were able to re-set and update you all on clear zooming guidelines and expectations. The slides from the evening can be found on the Prep Pulse page here.

Remote Learning Parent Feedback Survey

We were immensely grateful to the 178 Junior Campus families who were able to send feedback through the parent survey sent last week. We have been reviewing the overwhelmingly positive responses across the range of questions and also exploring how we incorporate aspects of the feedback.

Jeans for Genes Day Friday 6 August

This Friday the Junior campus will be participating in the annual Jeans for Genes Day. Jeans for Genes Day is a nationwide fundraising initiative held in Australia each year. The charity’s mission is to support families and children with birth defects or incurable genetic diseases.

We encourage everyone to wear their favourite pair of jeans to school and if you would like to contribute to the Children’s Medical Research Institute, please click on the link found in the flyer.

Week 5 Request for On-Campus Learning for Children of Essential Workers

Parents who are essential workers can lodge a request for on campus learning support for the week of 9-13 August. Booking requests close again at 8pm on Friday 6 August at 8pm to allow sufficient time for staffing to be organised based on the numbers.

Please click here to lodge your request.

Resource Packs

It was lovely to see some friendly faces yesterday as Kindergarten and Year 1 families drove up Allister Street to collect resource packs for the next two weeks of learning. Any resource packs that were not collected can be found on the table out the front of the Junior School Reception.

Redlands Online Trivia Night

Parents will have also received information about the upcoming Redlands Family Trivia Night. Details are below and this fun-filled family occasion was a big hit with our Redlands community last year and with lots of terrific prizes up for grabs again this year. we expect another hotly contested event.

Redlands Family Trivia Night
Sunday 15 August
5.30pm
via Zoom
Register HERE to Go for Gold!

Lucy Hill Library Update

A message from Librarian, Mrs Victoria Roberts

During this extended time at home, reading to a child, or together as a family, has never been more critical to strengthen those family bonds and to help your children feel loved and secure. Spending time together with a book can be that safe escape that your children might need now, even if it’s just for a few minutes. You know your child best and you’ll know the best times for your child to read and what to read with them. Please remember also that reading at home should first and foremost be pleasurable, not a chore. You want your child to love reading and being read to and to come back to school still enthused to keep reading. Provide books that relate to their interests, books that you love and can enthuse about and books that spark joy.

It is ironic though, that at the time that we most need books, they may be hard to find, as the school library is not open, and the public libraries may have reduced their services. It is worth checking whether your local public library is offering deliveries, Borrowbox or click and collect. It might also be the time to invest in some favourite series, some audiobooks, or a family serial from an online bookshop. Failing this, revisit some old favourites in your children’s bookshelves. Rereading favourites allows your child to avoid suspense or surprises and it is like visiting old friends.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge has been extended for an extra two weeks and will finish 3 September. If you would like to finish and you are having trouble locating books, there are some things you could do! Go online to the PRC booklists at online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/booklist/home.html and then as you look at the lists you will notice books you have at home, but maybe haven’t read for a while. I have sent a message via Seesaw to families listing books that are on Story Box Library that you could add to your reading log.

You might be interested to know that research by Literacy Trust in the UK has found some interesting reading outcomes because of the COVID-19 lockdowns. View the research here.

Children are reading and enjoying reading more during lockdown.
Children have turned to adventure, comedy, fantasy, and real-life stories during lockdown and have found joy in discovering books they’d never read before.
Reading has also provided refuge in this difficult time, supporting children’s mental wellbeing, and enabling them to dream about the future.
While the gender gap in children’s reading has widened during lockdown, audiobooks may provide a route into reading for boys.

Parent Tips for Remote Learning: Checking in with Your Child

With your child engaged in remote school learning, they are likely to need your support and check-ins now more than ever, and often. Some simple ideas for parents to conduct check-ins during this time:

GOLDEN check-ins (an idea shared by Dr Arne Rubinstein) can work well for dinner timetable discussions. Make it part of your mealtime routine where each family member around the table shares their ‘GOLDEN’ thoughts, one at a time. Each person talks, and the rest just listen as we don’t correct our child or rescue them.

You can use a talking object (spoon, or kitchen item) where only the person holding the object can speak. This helps to create a safe space to allow children to share what’s going on for them. (At the same time, don’t forget that we want to keep a sense of normalcy and set aside ‘no-COVID talk time’ at the dinner table!) Chat about other things.

Discuss the ‘pits and peaks’ of your day. Acknowledge that we all have pits (low, challenging moments) and have peaks (highlights, achievements from the day). Share examples at mealtime. Learn from the pits and reflect on how you can turn them into a peak. A simple gratitude exercise for the whole family to participate in!

Dr Arne Rubinstein, medical doctor, and adolescent wellbeing expert described us as caterpillars who have entered a ‘cocoon’. Of course, the ending to the story is that we will emerge as strong butterflies. How we live in the cocoon will impact on this transformation. Accept and make the most of your time in this situation, and you may emerge as a beautiful butterfly. As parents, it’s what you help create for your child that will make a difference to how they progress during this time.

Alessandro Digiacomo, one of or Junior Campus counsellors has put together a helpful short video for our Prep students and families to help you discuss moving Zoom Gloom to Zoom Bloom!

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