Year 7

Rocking out in Assembly

It has been another busy week in Yr 7 with students working hard to keep pace with assessments and to plan ahead for the End of Year Examinations (starting in Week 3 of Term 4). So, what better way to start the week than with some rocking tunes played by one of our Yr 7 musicians, Andy Budden.

During our Year Assembly on Monday, Andy presented a solo performance of a musical piece he has been working on, Reggae Island. It was a confident and skilful performance, showcasing his passion for guitar and his joy in playing for others. Students offered him a well-deserved rapturous applause!

We were also able to publicly acknowledged the efforts of some of our students who have been involved in Oxford University Computing Challenge and Australian Maths Trust CAT competitions this year. It is great to see students extending themselves and testing their academic capacities by engaging in such external competitions. Well done!

We even had a bit of time at the end of Assembly to return to a small peer connection exercise we carried out at earlier in the year – asking questions to develop closeness. Students chatted to someone they do not always engage with, asking them questions like:

Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?
What would constitute a perfect day for you?
When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?

It was nice to see students socialising and connecting with people outside of their regular circle.

Yr 12 Buddies visit McDouall

Last Friday, our Year 12 buddies gathered again to support Yr 7, this time sharing their knowledge and experiences of service and examination feedback with McDouall.

The Yr 12s engaged the group with a fun Kahoot, exploring how to seek guidance and support in preparing for examinations, and how best to use assessment feedback to develop their confidence and skills in the future. As with our previous sessions, our buddies then divided Yr 7 into small groups to hear how Yr 7 were managing things and to offer their own advice and support. It was another valuable experience, offering a great connection between our Senior Students and Yr 7s, allowing them to learn from the valuable experience of their older Redlands peers.

The session also provided a timely reminder to Yr 7 that their End of Year Examinations are coming up in Week 3 of Term 4 and that they should be starting to prepare for these.

Student Leaders’ Assembly: Dancing into Good Behaviour

This week our student leaders conducted a more light-hearted, fun assembly, given Yr 7 a chance to have a bit of a laugh. After some amusing moments where the Arts Captains imitated the Sport Captains and the School Captains imitated the Service Captains, Yrs 7-9 were challenged to get involved in a moment of impromptu ‘Just Dance’. Bouncing about the Keisha’s Timber was a great way to unleash some energy prior to Period 3!

However, such fun was also tempered with some important messages to the group about behavioural expectations. It was clarified by our Dean of Students, Ms Jansons, that students actions in the Undercroft need to be more considered and safe. In particularly, Ms Jansons emphasised the importance of:

maintaining Redlands’ hands off policy. No one should be physically pushing or touching others.
using appropriate language, especially in active times like recess and lunch.
not running in this enclosed space.

I have also delivered my own similar messages to Yr 7, also emphasising the importance of keeping our spaces clean and tidy, and picking up our rubbish. The Undercroft is a great place for our Yr 7s to relax, eat food and socialise, and so it is important we all make sure to behave responsibly in that space.

House Debating – Cowper versus McDouall

Today Yr 7 continued the House Debating competition with another close battle, this time between Cowper and McDouall. The topic was “that passengers on flights within Australia should be allowed to take their pet with them in the cabin, if transported in an approved carrier.” Cowper were the Affirmative and McDouall the Negative.

The debaters were all supported by their peers in the Edwards Auditorium, and it was wonderful to see how engaged they were in the interesting arguments presented. At the end of the day, it was animal welfare that won the day! McDouall were successfully able to negate the proposition, suggesting that while there might be benefits to the owners, the welfare of the animals needed to be given priority here, and onboard with a mix of humans and animals, in cabin space not fit for their needs was not the ethically correct thing to do.

Well done team McDouall!

Now, we can look forward to an epic showdown of McDouall versus Roseby in the final next week.

Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m Olivia Law:

After her fantastic success in our school athletics carnival earlier this year (breaking a range of records!), Liv has continued to work hard on her running, recently competing in the Australian Cross-Country Championships at Stromlo Forest in the ACT. Liv ran in the U14 Girls 3k, coming 7^th out of 83 competitors, and running a swift time of 10:36s. That’s 3.32s per km – amazing! This is a big achievement for Liv and one of her strongest results at nationals. Well done!

Term 3 Key Dates and Upcoming Events:

Week 8: Police Liaison Officer (Tuesday, Period 1)
Week 9: ISA Athletics Carnival

Mr Jimmy Tod-Hill
Year 7 Advisor
jtodhill@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9908 6462