Year 8

Farewell Year 12

It is that time of Year again where we bid farewell to the wonderful student leaders in our school – not just those with official titles, but all our Yr 12 students who have played their own little part in making Redlands the school that it is today. It is often said that a school can rise no higher than its leaving class and it has been a privilege to see how our Class of 2024 have helped to foster a culture of kindness, compassion and ‘stepping beyond’ at Redlands. Our Yr 8 cohort still fondly remember those who supported them in Yr 7 Peer Support and wish the class of 2024 all the best in their endeavours as they prepare for their final examinations in the HSC and IB.

As part of our Yr 12 farewell celebrations, the school recently also held a fun filled lip-sync competition! In the beautiful sunshine and surrounds of the Fahl Garden, students performed classic hits and pop chart toppers, and so did the staff! The Executive, Yr 12 Year Advisors and even Mr Corcoran got up onto the stage to strut their stuff. Congratulations to the teachers who ended up winning the competition!

As a final gesture, on Wednesday of this week, students from Yrs 7-11 also formed a celebratory tunnel to bid farewell to Yr 12 one last time. There were some smiles and tears from the Yr 12 students as they embraced the joyous recognition offered by students from across the Secondary School.

Beyond Ourselves – Service in Action

This week we concluded our Tutor service program, and it has been wonderful to see how ideas of serving others have been embraced by students across the term. Whether it be helping the Library staff put genre labels on new books; assisting IT with preparing new laptops for staff collection; helping our Canteen team with composting food waste material; recycling cans across the School; cleaning up areas like the Undercroft and Fahl Garden; baking tasty treats for staff; helping to return lost property; producing knitted squares for joey pouches; or creating cards for the retirement home at Bougainvillea, our cohort have been hands on in supporting people across our local school community.

Thank you to all the students for their excellent work and thank you to all the Tutors and staff around the School who have supported them in engaging in meaningful service. We look forward to continuing to build a culture of service and gratitude in our Yr 8 students in the years ahead. No doubt, their lessons in working as a team and supporting others will be invaluable as they move out into shared living in the Moonbah program in Yr 9.

Below are some final photos of Dumolo Blue and McDouall Green’s efforts in knitting pouches for joeys and creating colourful cards for the residents of Bougainvillea.

Performing with a Smile even when ‘there are Daggers in Men’s Smiles’

Across the past few weeks, Yr 8 have been studying Shakespeare’s great tragedy, Macbeth. Written as a piece of propaganda to affirm the rightful rule of Shakespeare’s patron, King James I – and to warn against the dire consequences of regicide – it is a brutal play of blood, betrayal and crippling guilt. So, of course, Yr 8 are loving it!

This week, a variety of classes were performing scenes from Macbeth. 8G went so far as to bring in a huge number of baked goods to perform the Act 3 Scene 4 banquet scene, where Banquo’s ghost returns to plague Macbeth’s conscience. Meanwhile, 😯 took advantage of the sunshine to perform scenes from the play on the roof! It’s wonderful to see students embracing the bard and engaging with Shakespearean drama.

My Heart will go on – Science Experiments

Yr 8 continued to be drawn into the wonderful world of science exploration. Last Friday, they ventured into the weird and informative world of dissection, exploring the heart and lungs of a sheep. While a few students did not quite have the heart for such an experiment, others were fascinated by witnessing the internal workings of an animal. Some even took up the opportunity to blow up the lungs with their own breath – using a pump, of course!

Speakfest – an Adventure in Oratory

How convincing could you be discussing a randomly selected topic with only 2 minutes of preparation? Could you draw readers into the world of a work of fiction in a 9-minute interpretative reading? What about convincingly arguing a topic, paired with someone you have never met, and with only 45 minutes preparation? Or could you engage an audience totally through humour, persuasion and pizazz over 10 minutes? If you think this is a challenge ready for you to conquest, then perhaps Speakfest is for you!

This week, I was fortunate enough to accompany Paige Barnett, Aimee Kang, Fergus Kerr and Liv Law on a tour to Brisbane for the Australian Speakfest competition. We were also accompanied by Yr 11 students Eleanor Blankenstein, Jesse Forrest, Hiro Phillips and Sophie Yu, who competed in the Australian Individual and Debating Public Speaking Championships – the winners of which go on to represent Australia at the Worlds competition.

Across a couple of days of competition students needed to provide an interpretative reading of fiction, engage in parliamentary style debates, present impromptu 3–5-minute speeches (with only 2 minutes of preparation!) and offer a prepared persuasive speech or after-dinner speech. It is a nerve wracking and adrenaline inducing place to be, particularly as our Yr 8 students found themselves competing against Yr 9 and Yr 10 students. Nevertheless, their confidence and poise in engaging in each activity was wonderful to see and I have no doubt that the experience has emboldened them and further developed their oratory skills. The tour also gave students some fun downtime exploring Brisbane city’s sights, sounds and surrounds, and having a relaxed evening of barefoot bowls after the first two days of competition. I am sure we will see them back at the competition in the future!

In their own words, students said of the competition:

‘It was great to have lots of time to meet people from other schools and everyone was really nice. We made lots of friends from older years.’ (Liv)
‘It was an amazing learning experience – very formative and engaging and provocative. It definitely built my critical thinking skills and really opened my eyes to what was possible in public speaking.’ (Fergus)
‘It was even better than I expected. Everyone was really skilled, which was motivational.’ (Paige)
‘It was such a nice environment as everyone was always trying to help us and they were so supportive.’ (Aimee)

Congratulations to all the students for their efforts over the week, particularly to Fergus who came 3rd in the persuasive speech section, and Aimee who came 7th in debating and 15th overall – huge achievements given the age of everyone else at the tournament!

Many thanks to Ms Vyvian Kang who coordinated the tour and Ms Claudia Zaferis who, along with me, assisted in supervision.

Student Success – Yr 8 Debating:

Last Friday our Yr 8 Debaters attended Monte for the finals of the SDN Debating competition. The team were faced with negating the proposition that poverty can be used as a defence against crimes of acquisition. In a complicated and well-argued debate, our team were victorious! Congratulations to Paige Barnett, Eleanor Flatman, Vivienne Matthews and Gabby Thomas on their fantastic win!

Student Recognition – Alex Taylor

Congratulations to Alex Taylor for his recent amazing success in Football! Alex plays in the Football NSW Youth Premier League for Bulls FC Academy. This club is the youth development academy of A League Club Macarthur FC!. On Saturday, as team captain, Alex led his team in the grand final to win the Football NSW U14s Youth League 2 Championship by a convincing margin of 6-2. This is the second year in a row that the team has won the 2023 Championship. Alex has captained the team both years. The club has now gained promotion to Youth League 1 in 2025, which is the highest level of youth football in NSW, and Alex is excited for the increasing level of play and competition to come!

Term 3 Key Dates and Upcoming Events

End of Term 3 – Week 10: Thursday 26 September

Mr Jimmy Tod-Hill
Year 8 Advisor
jtodhill@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9908 6462