Head of Secondary School

Return to Campus

It has been wonderful to see and hear students returning to the Campus this week. While we realise they are returning to a new normal and are having to make a number of adjustments to their routines, there has certainly been that first day of school buzz of excitement around the playground, corridors and classrooms. I would like to express my appreciation to all of the students for the mature and thoughtful manner in which they have returned to Campus as they have effectively followed the new rules and expectations which we have communicated in our Return to Campus Arrangements for this week. We will continue with these arrangements and our stated schedule for Week 4 and will communicate further arrangements for Week 5 next week. Just a reminder that we have opened the Campus for students from 7.30am and they may arrive between 7.30-8.15am for their temperature checking as they arrive to school.

Cybersafety Seminar

It was pleasing to see the large online parent turnout for the Cybersafety webinar presented by Brett Lee on Tuesday evening. Brett outlined the risks that young people face online and also shared some strategies that parents can put in place to support young people to use technology safely and constructively. In the webinar, Brett outlined the following points we can raise with students to help them remain safe online:

The internet is public and permanent
Protect personal details online
People you only know through the internet should be seen as strangers
We all have rules on the internet and computers
Talk to a trusted adult if you encounter an online problem or issue

In addition, he shared the following five principles parents can follow at home to help support students to use technology safely and appropriately:

Set clear rules and boundaries
Remember that you, as a parent, make the final decision
Use management controls
Stay up to date with your child’s usage
Communicate with your children regularly

Students in Yrs 7-10 will have many of these messages reinforced with them through either the Pastoral program or the PDHPE curriculum over the course of this year. We look forward to welcoming Brett back to Redlands later this year to give a similar presentation to the students.

Service Learning

It was great to see so many members of the Secondary School community (staff, students and parents) participate in our two remote service learning opportunities last weekend: Taldumande Camp-In for Kids and the Mother’s Day Classic. Thus far we have raised $3354 for Taldumande to support vulnerable and homeless children and their families from across the Sydney region. We also raised nearly $3000 in the Mother’s Day Classic which will go towards breast cancer research. Pleasingly, we also had the second largest number of participants in the Mother’s Day Classic for schools. Thank you to Ms Riley for her efforts in organising these events and to the many staff, students and parents who participated.

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 afternoons from 4.30 – 5.30pm
Tuesday: Janine Garner presents “It’s Who You Know: Why your network is key to your success and how to find the right people that will help YOU”.
Wednesday: Matt Church presents “Lead the future. How to thrive in the decade of disruption”.
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 here. We encourage students to sign up for as many activities as possible.

Study Skills

As mentioned in some of the Year Group sections of Note Day last week, there are a number of useful resources in the Study Skills Handbook which Dr Prue Salter has shared with schools. We encourage students and parents to look at these to assist with both On-Campus and Remote Learning. Some of her tips for successful remote learning are below.

Have clear distinctions between schoolwork time and your personal time. If you let those two worlds collide you will end up never really feeling like you can have time to yourself without feeling guilty. Then in the learning times you can make a more conscious effort to stay on track.
If you know you can’t stay focused in your bedroom, then do your learning in another part of the house where someone can check up on you. Working in an area of the house where you will be supervised can help you stay on track.
Take notes when you are listening to the teacher talk or make a mind map about what is being discussed in the lesson. If you are writing about what you are learning it will help you to be more focused.
Turn off all notifications and make sure your mobile is on silent (or preferably in another room). Don’t have other windows or applications open on your computer. Take away the temptation so you don’t send messages to other students or work on other tasks during a lesson when you are meant to be focused.
Every 20 minutes look away at something 20 feet (about 6 metres) away for 20 seconds to reduce eye strain. Stand up and stretch if you need to.

Debating

Congratulations to our debaters who participated in virtual debates against Knox last Friday. While certainly different, it was great to see so many of our debaters still able to participate in this event. We thank Ms Bryant for her efforts in organising these and we wish the debaters all the best over the next two weeks in further remote debates against Pymble Ladies’ College and Kambala.

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.

Uniform

We would ask families to support the school in ensuring students are in the proper Winter uniform as they return to campus. This includes following the School’s expectations in terms of hair, jewellery and blazers. A reminder that all students are expected to wear their blazers to and from school in Terms 2 and 3 on all days except Thursday (when students may wear PE uniform to and from School).

Uniform Shop – Online Ordering Only from Monday 18 May

Effective from this Monday 18 May, all Uniform orders will only be available Online through Flexischools for both parents and students via the following link: www.flexischools.com.au until further notice.

This is due to the significant increase in the number of parents and students visiting the Uniform Shop in recent days.

Please note that only if an incorrect size has been ordered online, exchanges can be made at the Uniform Shop.

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