Head of Secondary School

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Return to Campus Arrangements Weeks 3 and 4

It was great to see many of you (remotely) in the Parent Webinars on Monday and Tuesday earlier this week. In these webinars, we further discussed the information outlined in the letter I sent home to parents and students last week which outlined our return to school arrangements in Weeks 3 and 4. If you still have any further questions from this letter, please send them through to feedback@redlands.nsw.edu.au so that we can follow up appropriately. The schedule for On-Campus Learning in Weeks 3 and 4 is below.

Updated Student Arrival Time Weeks 3 and 4

Please note that we have amended the time which the campus will be open for students in Weeks 3 and 4. Students may arrive now from 7.30am in Weeks 3 and 4. This earlier time will facilitate an earlier arrival for Yr 12 students who have before school classes, as well as those students who might arrive to school before 8.00am because of school buses or other transportation arrangements. In addition, this earlier time will also help to alleviate possible congestion between 8.00am-8.15am as students are arriving at school and having their medical checks. Temperature checking will now be open from 7.30am for students arriving on campus. Please note that the Library and outdoor courts will not be available for student use before school.    

Uniform Week 3

While students are expected to wear formal Winter uniform, we appreciate that families may not have had the opportunity to visit the Uniform Shop over the past few weeks. Therefore for Week 3, students are permitted to wear their PE uniform to school only if they have been unable to purchase Winter uniforms from the Uniform Shop.  

Details of the Uniform Shop opening hours next week for purchase of Winter uniforms and more can be found in the following link.

Uniform Shop article

Updated Sport and Cocurricular Arrangements Weeks 3 and 4

All activities currently being offered will continue to be offered remotely and students should not specifically arrive on campus just to take part in Sport or Arts activities.

Sport: A full list of remote activities can be found in the Sports section of Note Day or the Secondary School Sport iLearn page. Students can take part on campus in the available sport fitness sessions on Tuesday or Thursday afternoon in either the Lang Gym or Undercroft if they will already be on campus for a learning day. Alternatively, they can connect through Zoom at home or at another suitable time. Students in each winter representative sport have been emailed about how and where to complete these requirements as part of the representative sport commitments.

Arts (Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Arts): Unfortunately, we are not able to offer supervision before or after school for arts activities in Weeks 3 and 4. A student who is on campus for their learning day may not be able to participate in a scheduled remote activity, for instance, because they are travelling to or from school. In this situation, all sessions are recorded and will be made available for students to download and watch at a convenient time. They should let their tutor know if this is the case and they will be sent a link to the recorded session. Further details can be found on the COVID-19 page on Redlands Pulse.

Online Canteen Ordering

When students return to campus next week they will have the option of online Canteen ordering through Flexischools, enabling them to preorder their recess and lunch and pick it up from the canteen. Parents can create a Flexischools account for their family via this link https://www.flexischools.com.au/ and link a credit card and student number. More details regarding online Canteen ordering are available on Redlands Pulse.   

While online Canteen ordering will minimise student movement through the Canteen, it will still be open for real time purchases. However there will be a limited number of students allowed at the Canteen at any one time.

Cybersafety Parent Webinar: Tuesday 12 May 6pm

We are excited to welcome Brett Lee back to Redlands to present a parent webinar on the complex area of keeping young people safe online. Due to the current situation, we are all spending more time online and in front of screens. Therefore, we thought it would be helpful to move forward this previously scheduled Parent Cybersafety workshop from Semester 2 to next week. This webinar is designed to empower parents with the knowledge and strategies to support their sons and daughter to be as safe as possible when online. Brett Lee will outline the reasons why it is so important that we take an active role in supporting young people accessing online platforms and will discuss issues such as: how to control technology in the home; the importance of setting age appropriate rules and boundaries in the home; and the value of schools and families working together to educate and empower young people. 

The parent webinar will run for approximately 1 hour from 6.00–7.00pm. Those who register for this event will also be available to view a replay for 48 hours after the webinar. To register for the event, please click on the link here. The attendee clicks on the link which will take them to registration page; first name and email address are entered and then the Register button is selected. The attendee is now registered for the webinar and will receive a confirmation email that includes a link to the webinar. At the scheduled time the attendee clicks the link and will be taken to the webinar room where the webinar will commence at the listed time.

For further information on Brett Lee, please click here https://www.internetsafeeducation.com/about/.

Service Learning Opportunities

We are hoping many members of our school community will participate in the following two remote Service Learning opportunities this weekend. As of Thursday, we had the second highest school registration for the Mother’s Day Classic on Sunday – great to see! More information for both of the following events can be found on the Service and Social Engagement article in this week’s Note Day. 

Taldumande Camp-In for Kids

Taldumande Youth Services is an organisation based in North Sydney and the Northern Beaches which supports vulnerable and homeless children and their families from across the Sydney region. We are encouraging students to participate in a “Camp-In” on Friday 8 May to raise awareness and funds for young people and their families who are less fortunate.

Mother’s Day Classic

The Mother’s Day Classic is an annual fun run and/or walk which raises funds and awareness for breast cancer research. Every year many members of the Redlands community participate in this event. However, this year, we are asking members of the Redlands community to participate in the Mother’s Day Classic virtually through the Redlands MDC20 Team. 

National Careers Week (Term 2 Week 4)

We have looked to build on the success of the inaugural Redlands National Careers Week in 2019 in the 2020 version. Pleasingly, despite the various restrictions currently in place, we have been able to move all of the scheduled events to a remote environment in Week 4. We are excited to offer an array of activities and events aimed at getting students to think about post-school possibilities aligning with our vision of further developing their “life-readiness”. Some of the highlights are:

• A remote Careers focused assembly on Tuesday
• Guest speakers on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon from 4.30–5.30pm
• A Speed Networking session for students with over 20 Redlanders from around Australia and the world
• Another instalment of the Great Debate between teachers and students during lunch on Friday.

More information can be found on the Careers article of this Note Day. We encourage students to sign up for as many activities as possible.

On Campus Recycling

We are pleased to have installed 10 new recycling bins around the Senior Campus from the beginning of this term. These bins will be for paper or co-mingled recycling and we encourage all members of our community to use them appropriately when onsite. We believe these new recycling bins will further help to reduce our environmental footprint as a School.

Message from School Nurse

All students returning to campus with Medical Alerts (Anaphylaxis, Asthma, Diabetes, etc.) should bring their necessary emergency medications with them and check in with the School Nurse as necessary. Some medical kits were taken home in March and some EpiPens and/or medications left at school have expired in the interim.

Yrs 7 and 10 Vaccinations

Please note that the Yr 7 vaccinations which were scheduled for Wednesday 1 April have been postponed until Thursday 11 June. Accordingly, the Yr 10 vaccinations scheduled for Thursday 11 June have been rescheduled for Tuesday 1 September. More information about these vaccinations will be sent home to families in due course.

NAPLAN

Just a reminder that NAPLAN (which was scheduled for next week) has been cancelled for students in Yrs 7 and 9 in 2020. More information will be sent home about future testing arrangements once it has been made available.

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