Year 11

This week sees us over half way through the term and the time has flown by, with many assessments in both the HSC and IB Programs. During Tutor time, the students have been focusing on learning about the differences between addiction and dependence and how this impacts our physical, emotional, social, financial and cognitive health. In addition, students have begun exploring their understanding of the components of sexuality, such as biological sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, in their exploration of diversity in our world. They have watched the Ted Talk ‘Fifty shades of Gay’ to help expand their knowledge of the LGBTQ+ community. Next week sees Paul Dillon visit Redlands to talk to Yr 11 students about alcohol and cannabis and what to do if something goes wrong. Parents are also invited to an evening session where Paul will be talking about vaping.

Junior Campus Open Morning, report by Billy Thomas

On Tuesday morning, Julia Saunders and I had the opportunity to give a speech at the Junior Campus Open Morning. We both spoke about our favourite things about Redlands, as opposed to our least favourite. I spoke about how Redlands has a warm, fun and diverse community, and covered things from teachers, to sport, to Winter School. For me, the best part about Redlands is that it is easy to enjoy learning. Learning within the classroom isn’t strenuous, like it is so often portrayed, but something that is fun, and something that I look forward to. Afterwards, some parents had questions for us about Winter School and the relationship between the IB and the HSC at Redlands. For example, there seemed to be some confusion about whether a student who did the HSC could apply to overseas universities and we let them know that they can. Many parents seemed to be quite excited about Redlands, and I look forward to seeing their children join the School. Overall, it was a valuable experience, and I am grateful for my chance to speak at the Junior School.

Hockey Sports Report, by Sophie McMillan

This weekend the first team and juniors took a trip up to the Central Coast to play our third game of the season. Despite a very rushed start, due to some bad traffic on the way up, the junior team played some excellent hockey and it was great to see the improvement and comradery on the field. I would like to say a big congratulations to the juniors who fought for a well-earned win. I found the way they played together very impressive and I am looking forward to seeing where the season takes them. The first team then played a tough game against Central Coast Grammar School. This season the first team gained lots of new players and I hadn’t played with many of them before so I was nervous entering the season, unsure on how I would adjust to the new team. However, over the course of the past few weeks I personally have gotten significantly closer with everyone on the team and I think I can say the same for the other members. As our team has grown closer there has been a noticeable improvement on the pitch and I think this was particularly evident in this week’s game, as we displayed strength and great tactics on the field. Despite losing 0-1 after a hard-fought match, I am so proud of the way the team played and it was incredible to see the way everyone’s confidence has grown over the span of only a few weeks. Even after some bad injuries, falls and some questionable umpire decisions, I never once saw the team’s perseverance and spirit fail and I think this is the mindset that will lead us to victory later in our future rounds this season. For myself, I am excited to play the rest of this hockey season and I think that while myself and the team still have a lot to learn, the improvement already this season has been exceptional, and I am looking forward to learning and growing together as a team as the season continues.

Have a great week!

Ms Rebecca Mountain
Yr 11 Advisor
rmountain@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9908 6462