Year 7

Key Dates

School Photographs

The following photographs will be taken by Advanced Life on Wednesday 11 March on the Senior Campus. Students are required to wear blazers.

• Sibling photos in the Redlands Hall from 7.15-8.20am. Junior School siblings are welcome to have their photo taken on 11 March if they were unable to attend the Junior Campus sibling photo day last week.
• Yr 7 portrait photographs in the Redlands Hall from 10.30am.
• Cocurricular Dance and Debating during recess and lunch.

Order envelopes are available from the Secondary School Office and orders for photography packages can also be placed securely online at www.advancedlife.com.au using our School Order Code: NWL 4NR ETY. Portrait and group package orders are due by photography day. Should you have any queries concerning school photographs or online ordering, please direct them to enquiries@advancedlife.com.au.

Communication to Parents

May I ask that all parents re-read Mr Sean Corcoran’s Welcome Letter from the beginning of the year regarding ‘General Communication in the Secondary School’:

Clear lines of communication are central to developing the important triangular partnership between home, school and students, and Redlands prides itself in having open and supportive communication between School and home. While teachers may be available during the day to answer quick questions by phone, in many cases they will not be at their desks and it will be best to get a message to them by other means, specifically email. Any general enquiries can also be directed to Ms Vivienne Hoile (9968 9870) or Ms Susan Jones (9968 9811) through the Secondary School Office. Any urgent messages to be conveyed to staff or students during the school day should also be sent through the Secondary School Office. Most communication to staff will be via email and these can be sent with the standard email address format being the first name initial followed by the surname@redlands.nsw.edu.au, eg. scorcoran@redlands.nsw.edu.au.

In this era of instant communication, I would like clarify a few expectations around email communication:

• We do value open communication between school and home and staff endeavour to respond as quickly as possible to emails.
• However, teachers are not at their desks able to check emails for most of the day. Instead, they are out teaching, leading cocurricular activities, being Tutors, providing individual support for students, completing various duties, planning lessons, marking assignments or collaboratively sharing in a professional learning community with colleagues, just to name a few of their daily activities.
• Therefore, please do not expect an instant reply and assume the email will be read by the end of the day. Staff do seek to reply as soon as possible and will be sure to reply within 48 hours.
• More urgent matters that need a quicker reply should be sent through to the Secondary School Office.
• Emails should remain respectful and courteous. Sometimes the tone of an email is not always clear given the brevity of language so it can be misinterpreted by the reader.

If the intended communication is related to a more complex matter or more time is required, it is best to arrange a face-to-face meeting to discuss the matter at a mutually convenient time for all concerned.

Please note, staff are not expected to answer emails in the evening or on weekends. It is important that they have this time for planning, preparation and personal time.

For any academic queries, please contact the class teacher initially, followed by the Subject Coordinator if needed, and then they can further direct the enquiry as required. For any pastoral or wellbeing queries, please contact the Tutor first, followed by the Year Advisor or Assistant Year Advisor if needed, and then they can direct the enquiry as required. A full list of Tutors can be found under the Secondary School section of Pulse.

NSW School Vaccination Program

Each year NSW Health works in partnership with schools to offer the vaccines recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for adolescents as part of the school vaccination program.

In 2020 the following vaccines will be offered:

Parent information kits that include an information sheet, consent form and privacy statement will be sent home to parents/guardians at the end of Week 5. To consent to the vaccination of their child, parents/guardians are advised to:

• read all the information provided.
• complete the consent form, including signing their name next to the vaccine/s they would like their child to receive.
• return the completed consent form to their child’s Tutor before Friday 13 March.
• ensure that their child eats breakfast on the day of the school vaccination clinic.

Catch up vaccinations for absent Yr 7 students will be done on 11 June and 20 November. There is no need to go to the GP for these vaccines.

A Record of Vaccination card will be provided to each student vaccinated at each clinic. Parents/guardians should ensure that this record is kept for future reference and should not assume that their child has been vaccinated if they do not receive this Record of Vaccination. 

Congratulations

Congratulations to Charlee Kwintner who has excelled in the performing arts. Charlee started the year performing in Puccini’s opera, La Boheme at the Sydney Opera House for Opera Australia. One of the highlights of this experience for Charlee was sharing the stage with her singing teacher from school, Kylie Carter. Charlee then went on to perform in the Packmen Production of Les Misérables at the Riverside Theatre as Young Cosette. This is a phenomenal achievement for such a young performer, and we wish her every success as she continues in her theatrical endeavours.

Prue Salter Study Tips

Our school’s subscription details to www.studyskillshandbook.com.au are – Username: Redlands; Password: 68results

Top Tips for Memorising Notes

Many students find it really difficult to cope with the memorisation that can be needed for tests and exams. Of course, you can’t just rote learn and regurgitate, you need to be able to apply the skills of what you have learnt. However, there is also a certain amount of memorisation of content, formulas and definitions for example that will be necessary. So how can students make this process easier?

• Make your notes as brain-friendly as possible, point form, tables, diagrams and no big long sentences or paragraphs.
• Start the memorisation process of your notes early, don’t wait until just before the test or examination.
• Memorisation involves testing yourself over and over and over. So read a section, then see what you can say or write down without looking. Then go back and see what you got wrong or didn’t know. Put a pencil mark next to these bits.
• Now focus on the bits you didn’t know. Say them out loud, repeat them to yourself, write them down a few times.
• Then test yourself on those bits again and see if you remembered more this time.
• Do this over and over and over again. Then do it one more time again.
• Make flashcards or use a flashcard App on your phone to create flashcards on the parts you find hard to remember. Review these every day before the test.
• Make a list of the key concepts you find hard to learn and each night read through them just before you go to sleep and first thing when you wake up as these are powerful memory times.
• Do lots of practise questions without looking at your notes or the answers to see if you can a) remember and b) apply the information. Review the things you did not remember again. 
• Your job is to keep testing yourself in order to find out which bits have not stuck in your memory yet so you can review these until they do. 

Ms Lisa Vale
Yr 7 Advisor
9968 9837
lvale@redlands.nsw.edu.au