Head of Secondary School

Head of Secondary School

On a Positive Note…

The weather is good. People are prioritising their daily walks and the opportunity to soak up the sun. It’s great to see Yr 12 students sitting in the sun on their Zoom lessons, or a palm tree (a real one) through the window of someone sitting at their desk in a Zoom meeting. In many ways, we are very lucky – there are very few cases in the LGAs in which we live, we have a tight-knit community on whom we can lean and find support, and we have opportunities to talk, share and be well. Yes, we are living in challenging times, and there is a sense of loss, of what could have been. This week, one of our Yr 12 students, Alex Holtheuer, reminded us during a Yr 12 Zoom catch up, that’s it’s also a time where we can experience of sense of opportunity. Given the shifting landscape for our most senior students, Alex’s perspective was particularly mature and positive. We can’t change what’s happening, but we do have autonomy over our emotional response to it. Our young people look to us to see how we are reflecting our distress and also how we are demonstrating tolerance. We can be a stabilising influence. We cannot change the situation, but, we can model an appropriate coping response and be a support at the same time. So, it seems, can our Yr 12 students. I continue to be impressed by the reflective and optimistic responses of the 2021 cohort and know this has been significantly shaped by how their parents have modelled and supported them through this time.

Last Friday’s Jeans for Genes Day was a wonderful success across the Redlands community. We raised over $8,000 for this important charity – in only one day! Congratulations to all involved because your input has made a significant impact on the lives of others.

Week 6

Whilst always a priority, wellbeing forms a large part of our agenda next week, for both students and staff.

We will begin the week with a Student Survey, designed to elicit their responses to the experience of Remote Learning. This data will enable us to engage in further adjustment to our Remote Learning program and also provide a pulse check for the student community.

On Wednesday, a Zoom-Free day for students and staff means they can learn/work at their own pace, in a more independent way. The Connections Check-Ins scheduled for Wednesday afternoon will also provide an opportunity for community building and further emphasise our focus on supporting the wellbeing of all; students, staff and families. We hope that if you are a parent of a student in Yr 7-11 you will take the time to spend 5-minutes with your child and their Tutor to check in and connect.

Our staff will also be engaging in some wellness time next week. On Monday afternoon, staff across the Redlands campuses will take some time out, during our scheduled meeting time which occurs after the school day has finished. Ms Katie-Louise Clinton and Ms Marita Jansons, our wonderful Deans of Students, have invited us to get out into the fresh air, take some exercise and then share this via a 5-second video. We look forward to sharing this with the students in the near future, as a way of modelling and supporting them to effectively cope with the restrictions posed by the lockdown.

And then on Friday afternoon next week, (a time we have observed students are most fatigued), we have incorporated some additional Zoom-Free Time for both students and staff. Students should ensure they have completed their learning activities for the week before they switch off, move outside and connect – this might be with a friend on a walk (socially distanced of course), with nature, or with themselves, through a mindfulness activity such as meditation.

The Week 6 Timetable can be found here.

Essential Worker?

If you are sending your child to school next week because you are an essential worker, please complete this registration survey to log their attendance.

Week 6 also brings with it the Trial Examinations for our Yr 12 students. Our IB students begin on Monday and our HSC students begin on Wednesday. The Trial Examinations last for around 11 days and this year, our Yr 12s sit these exams at home. At Redlands, we value the Trial examinations because they are a significant stepping stone to the Final HSC and IB Examinations.

Why are they so important?

  • They provide an examination experience similar to that of the HSC for Yr 12 students
  • The Trials are the same length as those in the HSC 
  • The Trials offer similar questions to those encountered in the HSC 
  • The Trials enable students to receive feedback – to identify where their strengths lie and the areas for further development
  • The period after the Trials gives students the opportunity to work alongside their teacher to develop further, to fill gaps in knowledge, to extend skills, to refine, to deepen their understanding and to further apply knowledge against other exam questions
  • Physically sitting the Trials provides students with the experience of assessing their own personal capacity – they identify how they manage under pressure, how they manage the reading time, how they manage with the noise of others around them and how they manage their time across a range of questions in one exam paper. They have an experience of how they respond to a question that really throws them, how they respond to an easy question (do they overwrite or underwrite?). All of these experiences give them data on themselves which they can consider and reflect upon after the exam, so that they can course-correct if need be, prior to the final HSC and IB Examinations.

We send our Yr 12 students the very best of wishes next week. They are well prepared and want to show us what they know and what they can do. We already know how amazing they are, how talented and skilled. We are confident they will find this experience a valuable one.

Three Messages from the Roseby Library 

Our Coordinator of Library, Bronwyn Curtis, and the Roseby Library staff offer the following support to students and families at this time:

  • Do not worry about overdue books – students can return them eventually when school resumes.
  • Meet SORA – our new method of digital borrowing! Students can download the free SORA app from the appstore. Follow the instructions!

Log In: Student Number
Password: sora

Students can then access the collection, choose a book and when they finish reading, the book is automatically returned to the online library – like magic!

Ms Gemma Van de Peer
Head of Secondary School
gvandepeer@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9811