Head of Secondary School
Winter Sports Internal Carnival
While I know there was much disappointment in our community with the cancellation of the last few weeks of the ISA Winter Sports season, it was wonderful to see the celebration of these winter sports and our community spirit during the internal fixtures on Saturday. While it was not the conclusion of the winter season we would have imagined at the beginning of the year, it was still a fitting culmination to a shortened and disrupted Winter Sports season.
On a chilly morning out at Macquarie University, I walked around to the many different sports on offer and some of the highlights for me were:
- The tension of the Yr 7 and 8 boys Football match which went to a penalty shootout with Italy (I believe) progressing to the final on the 7th penalty kick. (Seeing the celebration afterwards, it felt like Italy was progressing to an actual World Cup Final!)
- The healthy balance of competitiveness and fun during the mixed doubles matches at Tennis
- Our Yr 12 Rugby players passionately coaching and cheering on the Yr 7 and 8 Rugby boys in the 7s Rugby competition and then seeing some of those same Yr 7s return to coach our 1st XV players in their internal 7s Rugby fixtures
- The thoughtful speech given by our Captain of Hockey, Yasmin Gupta, to all of our Hockey players, reflecting on her many years playing Hockey for the School and what it all has meant for our Yr 12 students
- The coed Yr 7 and 8 AFL match, which highlighted the growth of many of these players in our inaugural season of AFL for the Secondary School
- The coed Football matches for our 1st and 2nd XI Football players played with camaraderie and fun.
Over the course of the day, I found myself saying on numerous occasions to fellow staff members, “This is so Redlands”, and I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of community where days like Saturday are “so Redlands”. Thank you to the Sports staff and all of the competitors who made a day like Saturday possible.
Yr 12 Music Showcase
I know many of us have missed the regular arts performances this year which are such an integral part of our School. So, it was wonderful to attend the Yr 12 Music Showcase on Monday evening and hear our HSC and IB Yr 12 Music students perform much of their repertoire. I felt privileged to be a part of the small audience and hear our musicians perform at such a high level, and I hope parents were able to also enjoy these exceptional performances remotely via Zoom. Thank you to Mr Kuilenberg and all of the Music teachers, staff and tutors for their support for our Music students this year and for their efforts in organising this performance.
Yr 12 HSC Visual Arts Exhibition
Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, we were unable to have the larger scale Yrs 3-12 Visual Arts Exhibition in Redlands Hall this year. However, pleasingly, we were able to scale down this event to still hold our Yr 12 HSC Visual Arts Exhibition this week. I was pleased to be able to attend the opening yesterday evening and enjoy these amazing works created by our senior students. Visual Arts Captain, Sunday Stephens, and fellow Yr 12 HSC Visual Arts student, Alex Kourakis, shared moving reflections on their experiences this year. What I enjoyed most was speaking to a number of the Yr 12 artists and hearing them passionately and movingly share their creative journeys which culminated in these amazing works. I hope parents were able to watch the opening remotely yesterday and will be able to see a virtual tour of the exhibition later this week. Thank you to Yr 12 HSC Visual Arts teachers, Mr Byrne and Mr Harpley, as well as the rest of the Visual Arts staff, for their support of our Yr 12 HSC Visual Arts students this year.
Musical Announcement
We are pleased to confirm that Grease will be the Redlands musical in 2021, provided the ongoing situation allows us to use our external venue, The Concourse. Students in the 2020 company will be offered a place next year, but unfortunately current Yr 12 students will not be able to participate as they will not be enrolled at the school in 2021. We realise this will be a tremendous disappointment for the Yr 12 students who committed so much to the musical earlier this year and were looking forward to performing in their final musical at the School. However, we are looking at ways to celebrate their involvement in the musical in other ways later this year. More information about the musical for 2021 can be found in the Drama section of Note Day.
Canteen Update
As stated last term, we have commenced online ordering in the Secondary School Canteen and we are strongly encouraging students to use this system for purchasing food in the Canteen. There is a much more extensive menu through the online ordering system and by using online ordering, students will ensure that their order is waiting for them at the beginning of Recess or Lunch and will not have to worry about availability of food items once they arrive to the Canteen. Students can pre-order items from the Canteen through Flexischools, and parents and carers can create a Flexischools account for their family via this link https://www.flexischools.com.au/ and link a credit card and student number to the account. More details regarding online Canteen ordering are available on Redlands Pulse.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Yr 8 student, Charli Waterland for recently being awarded first place in the Junior Prose Category of the Mosman Youth Awards in Literature. Well done, Charli!
Mr Sean Corcoran
Head of Secondary School
scorcoran@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9870