Head of Secondary School

Secondary School Update

I would like to thank the Redlands parent community for your continued support over this past week. While it has been a difficult time for us as we come to terms with the tragic death of Yr 12 student, Jodie Ah Chong, your messages of gratitude, as well as your care and concern for the staff, have been truly appreciated. Dr Lennox has written more extensively about yesterday’s moving funeral service in his Note Day piece. However, I would like to inform you that the student body has been remarkable in the way they have come together to support each other and get back into the healthy routines of schooling. Members of the Pastoral Care team, as well as some of our extended counselling team, have continued to speak to groups of students, large and small, as well as individual students to ensure that they are coping as best they can under the circumstances. We continue to encourage parents to speak to your sons and daughters about the events of the past week, listen to their thoughts and feelings and please contact a member of our Pastoral Care team (a Tutor, Year Advisor or Counsellor) if you feel that your son or daughter is struggling and needs any extra support at school. Further support for parents in identifying and addressing mental health issues with their children can be found on the headspace website.

We are also aware that the second season of the controversial show, 13 Reasons Why, is currently airing on Netflix. This show deals with the aftermath of a suicide and we realise that this content might be distressing for some of our students. Headspace have developed resources for students and parents about the show which can be found here.

Staffing Updates

We welcome Mrs Martina Blasco to the Maths Department this week, taking Mr Michael Cowan’s classes. Mrs Blasco is an experienced Maths teacher and is a familiar face to many in the Redlands community. We thank Ms Melissa Dreverman for taking these Maths classes over the first part of this term. We are also pleased to announce Mr Phillip Lenard’s appointment to the HSIE Department taking Mr Ted Scott’s classes. Mr Lenard is an experienced Economics, Business Studies, Geography and Commerce teacher and has been an HSC marker in Economics. Mr Lenard has taught previously at Central Coast Grammar, St Catherine’s School and The King’s School and we look forward to him joining the Redlands community on Monday 28 May. We are also pleased to announce that Mr Nick Walker has been appointed as the Assistant Year Advisor to Yr 9 commencing on 4 June, joining our Pastoral Care leadership team. Finally, we are pleased to confirm that Ms Renae Camino has been appointed as the Director of Coaching: Basketball. Previously the Head Coach of Basketball, we are pleased to have Ms Camino move into this expanded role after her success in the Head Coach role.

Yr 9 Market Day

Today the Yr 9 Commerce students put their learning into real world practice at the Market Day. Groups of students created different stalls to sell food and raise money for different causes. Many staff and students had the privilege of tasting their culinary treats and were regaled by their many and varied sales pitches.

Yr 10 Industry Day

On Friday 25 May, Yr 10 students will participate in our second Industry Visit Day. Students will be visiting one of seven different companies for the day to not only gain exposure to the physical workplace environment and the range of career opportunities available to them, but also to also hear from industry professionals about some of the skills employers are looking for both now and into the future. We hope that this day will help to further inform subject choices Yr 10 students will be making over the coming weeks which will help to shape their post school pathways.

Debating Update

The ISDA and Fed Cup Debating seasons are drawing to a close and I would like to congratulate all debaters for their commitment to Debating thus far this season. Special congratulations to the Fed Cup 8B team and the ISDA Yr 10 team who won their respective “Semi” and “Octo” debates last week. I wish the Fed Cup 8B and Yr 9 teams, as well as the ISDA Yr 10 team, all the best in their upcoming finals debates.

Mock Trial

Our inaugural Mock Trial remains undefeated, winning their third trial on Monday acting as the defence in a criminal case of ‘Persons unlawfully in possession of property’. Congratulations to Mackenzie Lofts, Perri Carmichael, Lindsay McNeil, Lachlan van der Pluijm, Chloe Woodward and Isabel Binnekamp for their continued success.

da Vinci Decathalon

Congratulations to a number of students from Yrs 7-11 who participated in the da Vinci Decathlon this week. The da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of students. Students compete in teams of eight across ten disciplines: engineering, mathematics and chess, code breaking, art and poetry, science, english, ideation, creative producers, cartography and general knowledge and the Redlands teams performed well across the two days of the competition.

Mr Sean Corcoran
Head of Secondary School
scorcoran@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9870