Head of Secondary School

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International Women’s Day Breakfast

You are warmly invited to attend our inaugural International Women’s Day Breakfast on 11 March at 7.00am. Please purchase a ticket for yourself and your children, come along and enjoy hearing from two inspiring female leaders. All students across the Secondary School have been readying for this day via Student-led assemblies across the past three weeks. Groups of panels, made up of staff and students have explored what IWD means to them and shared powerful stories of women in their lives. INVEST IN WOMEN by joining us on this day!

Year 12 Students Learning Directly from Talented Alumni

Year 12 2023 students Briar Carter, Charlotte Morrison and Samantha Hely spoke to Year 12 HSC Students this week in Core. Their messages centred around effective note-taking managing the demands of examinations and how to breakdown English exam papers. They emphasised the importance of sharing notes and studying together, particularly when you’re struggling with a concept or a particular text. Students also learnt that there is no one way to make notes! There are lots of different ways and the important thing is to experiment and establish what works for them. Year 11 HSC will have a similar session in their Core lesson next week. As always, slides are shared to the HSC Core iLearn pages for students to access and review.

Summer Sport Season is Coming to a Close and We Celebrate so Many Achievements!

Our Rowing students have been kept busy all season and their hard work and effort has culminated in their participation in the season’s largest popular regattas over the past few weekends. The ACT Championships and the Head of the Lake Regatta over the weekend of 17 and 18 February and the NSW Boys Head of the River on Sunday 25 February. We wish our female rowers all the best for the NSW Girls Had of the River this Sunday 3 March. The following photos were superbly shot by our fabulous Year 10 photographer extraordinaire Scarlett Giddings.

Our Sailing students competed at the ACT Sailing Championships last weekend with 12 students competing –  Team A finishing 2^nd (Overall) and 1^st (Mixed/Co-Ed) with Team B finishing 11^th (Overall) and 6^th (Mixed/Co-Ed).

Year 8 student, Lauren Rolfe, was selected into the NSWCIS Softball Team.

Year 12 student Isaac Swann and Year 11 student Lauren Dover competed at the NSWCIS Tennis Championships on Tuesday this week also.

On Friday night, our Head of Sport, Mr Cameron Ellis attended the CIS Awards Ceremony. The dinner is a night dedicated to celebrating the 2023 CIS Sporting Season (both individual and teams). Redlands featured heavily throughout the night. A few sportspeople to feature are:

• Heidi de Saxe (Yr 10) – Awarded NSWCIS Blue Colours with Honours (AFL)
• Lachlan Price-Pontifex (Yr 10) – Awarded NSWCIS Blue Colours (AFL)
• Emilie Bessell (Redlander 2023) – Awarded NSWCIS Blue Colours (Basketball)

Lachlan Price-Pontifex (Yr 10) and Oscar Carlyon (Yr 10) were also part of the NSWCIS Secondary School Team of the Year which was awarded to the NSWCIS U15 Boys AFL Team.

Illuminate Scholars Program

The first week of our Illuminate Scholars Program has gone well. Our Independent Learning Coordinators Grace Bracks (Monday and Tuesday) and Lilli O’Driscoll (Wednesday and Thursday) have been getting to know our merry band of studiers, who have been preparing for Mathematics tests, English and History assessments and getting to grips with the IB TOK (Theory of Knowledge) Course.

Term Passes and Day Passes are available on the Illuminate Pulse Page.

Clean up Australia Day

On Sunday, Redlands students and families are encouraged to head to St Leonards Park to participate in Clean Up Australia Day. Redlands will be cleaning up the park from 9-11 and will be meeting at the Tunks Memorial Fountain. Please note – this is an unsupervised event.

Uniform Recycling takes place in Week 7

Textile Recyclers Australia (TRA) has been selected as our uniform recycling partner following a comprehensive review of available options in 2023. TRA will commence the collection of unwanted Redlands uniforms in Week 7 of Term 1, with each Year Group having a specific day to bring in their unwanted Redlands uniforms, listed on the poster above. Bin collections will be monitored, so please ensure only the requested Redlands items in the poster above are brought it, or they will be sent back home. Any non-Redlands branded uniforms can be taken to your local charity bin for reuse, or to H&M and Zara (who offer used clothing recycling).

Year 7 Wellbeing Support Session

Got a student in Year 7 or Year 8? This session is designed to support parents and carers with Stage 4 children. Book via the LINK below and join us in person on the night.

Book Here or click the image

Year 7 Parent Webinar: Learning in the Secondary School

Thank you to the parents who attended the Year 7 Parent Webinar yesterday evening. A video of the presentation can be accessed HERE.

Love Everyone – those who are easy to love and those who are different from us or hard to love

Year 9 students in Tutor Group 9O led Chapel this week. They looked at a letter John wrote to encourage us to hope and act in love.  Central to his message is the ideas that we should love one another, as this is how we reflect God’s love on earth. This is one of the two great commandments Jesus gave his followers. But who should we love? Well, the answer is everyone, both those like us and are easy to love, but also those who are different from us and are hard to love.

Year 9 student Felix Elwin led his peers in a reflective game designed to provoke understanding and empathy. It was a wonderful Chapel service, highlighting the strength of our School community and depth of spiritual understanding. Tom Beatty also delivered a talk to his peers which was a real ‘step beyond’ moment for him – he was very well received!

Here are some stills of the service led by students.

Online Safety – Parents, please be aware of the following, when checking your teenager’s phone

Know what the following emojis, emoticons and acronyms mean in the online space

Please find here an article written by the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) urging parents to understand the implied meanings in some Emojis and acronyms used online.

The article is really informative and offers helpful guidance to parents around having honest and open conversations their children. This could help prevent children falling victims to predators, many who pretend to be children or teens.

“That’s why having a healthy dialogue with your children is the best defence you can have.”

Please refer to our Digital Citizenship & Safety Page on Pulse.

Top tips for parents and carers

• Keep your child’s personal information including full name and age private;
• Ensure the background of photos or videos doesn’t give away your address or location;
• Don’t post your location or ‘check in’;
• Avoid posting photos in school uniform;
• Only share images of your children with people you know and trust;
• Don’t take photos of other people’s children – and if you do, don’t post them;
• For community accounts, consider having a closed group with approved members

and ensure you have strong privacy settings in place.

Recent examples of emoji use to be mindful of when checking your teenager’s phone

Emoji/slang	Context
	Commonly seen in chats between offenders and victims of financial sextortion. Example: “I am sending your images now and they will go viral”
	Seen by ACCCE in reports of online grooming. Example: “You will like this”
	Seen by the ACCCE in a range of reports, usually used in the intended context.
	Seen by ACCCE in reports of online grooming. Example: “Want to know what I’m doing?”

Glossary of emojis, emoticons and acronyms

Emojis and their potential meanings

	Porn (rhymes with corn), can be used to get around word restrictions on social media
	Bottom
	Feeling frisky or naughty
	Desiring someone sexually (often used in response to nudes)
	Nudes, which are often called “noods”
	Used when sending or receiving nudes
	Sexual activity
	Spiciness eg. inappropriate or risqué content
	Cuddles
	Drunkenness, sexual arousal, or a grimace

Note: This guide is meant to provide a broad overview because slang, acronyms, emojis and emoticons can have multiple meanings and be used in many different ways.

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