in this issue: @reddamreddamhouse.com.au/pdf/2018/high/highvol18issue29.pdf · in this issue:...

@Reddam IN THIS ISSUE:

Principals Letter

News from Costa Rica

Year 12 Valedictory

Year 11 Visual Arts

Plus much more...

Reddam House High School Newsletter Volume 18 Issue 29

Friday 12th October 2018

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome back to what will be a short but very busy

Term 4. Notable events from the last holiday include:

The wedding of Karen Stephenson to Mark Jeroncic.

Karen will now have a change of email to:

[email protected]

Congratulations to both Karen and Mark and we wish

you a life together filled with happiness.

Mr Kable and his team of ski fanatic teachers headed

off to Perisher accompanied by 28 enthusiastic stu-

dents. I have heard from all involved that the students

enjoyed themselves thoroughly and were great am-

bassadors for the school.

The Year 12 students have not really had a holi-

day as they prepare for their HSC examinations

which commence next Thursday. They have been

attending tutorials with their teachers, handing in

draft essays and past papers throughout this peri-

od. My thanks to the teachers involved for all their

extraordinary efforts in ensuring this cohort are

ready for the task ahead.

Congratulations to Year 10 students Isabella Nesci

and Sophia Masters, artists selected for The Cen-

tenarian Portrait Project by Teenagers.

An inclusive and unique initiative, The Centenarian Pro-

ject selects and matches 100 teen artists across Sydney

with some of the city‟s oldest residents to not only cre-

ate a portrait but to exchange stories across genera-

tions and forge special friendships. The artists met at the

residents‟ homes over several weeks to exchange sto-

ries that spanned a century.

The teens wrote a bio of their Centenarian and then will

gift the portrait to the subject and their family. Isabella

chose watercolours as her medium, while Sophia chose

acrylics.

The exhibition was launched to coincide with Interna-

tional Day of the Older Person (October 1) and has run

from September 29th - October 12th at The Studio in

Rosebery.

@REDDAM—The Reddam House High School Newsletter Volume 18, Issue 29 Friday 12th October 2018

mailto:[email protected]

During the holidays I received the results of the ICAS-

Mathematics assessment.

The incredible results include:

13 Distinction Certificates in Year 7, with Jaiden Chee,

Emma Silvestri, Max Craven and Izzy Macgill receiving

High Distinctions.

In Year 8 there were also 13 Distinctions with Jacqueline

Xie, Jack Lam-Po-Tang and Celeste Martin Bygrave re-

ceiving High Distinctions .

In Year 9 there were 17 Dis-

tinction Certificates with

Adrian Zhao, Cem Koza-

noglu, Brendan Vuong and

Stephan Luca receiving

High Distinctions.

In Year 10 Ronaldo Keng

received the highest score

in NSW/ACT and will receive

a UNSW Medal.

Congratulations to these

Mathematicians and espe-

cially Ronaldo on his top

score in the state.

David Lee participated and won one a silver medal for

his division in 2018 ACT Open Table Tennis Champion-

ships on 15 & 16 September. During the holidays David

participated in the Australian Junior Championships in

Townsville, where he has been selected to represent

NSW. To date David has claimed 10 titles so far this year

at state level competitions.

Also in the holidays Alisa Tyshchenko took part in the

New Zealand U20 Fencing Championships in Auckland

where she came third winning the bronze medal.

An update from Ms. Collier with regard to our attend-

ance at the Independent Schools Dance Festival. 17 of

our Junior Dance Company members travelled to Ina-

burra School in Bangor to join 12 other schools from the

independent sector in a day of dancing. Students

spent the day rehearsing and taking part in a Musical

Theatre workshop before performing in a highly enter-

taining showcase that evening.

Our gorgeous performers opened the show with their

Jazz routine 'The Phoenix' and also performed their

beautiful Contemporary piece 'Angel's Dream'. I could-

n't have been more proud of our students who con-

ducted themselves with professionalism, both back-

stage and on stage. Their performances were polished,

technically accurate and visually stunning, thanks to

many hours of rehearsal with the fabulous Ms Knight

and each of our dancers representing Reddam with

pride.

As always, a special congratulations must be given to

Ms Knight. Our students certainly stood out on stage

and this is due to her incredible passion and commit-

ment.”


Welcome back Aimee Leal who returns from maternity

leave. She will resume all her Visual Art and D&T classes.

We thank Sam Robinson who has taken these classes in

Aimee‟s absence. She will be helping with Laurellen

Symond‟s classes this term while she is away marking

HSC works.

News from one of our past students, Valentina Ivanov.

She had her debut at Junior US Open in September

and just missed out on getting into the main draw, los-

ing her last match 7/6 7/5. It was such a great experi-

ence for her to be part of this event in New York

around the best players in the world. She is currently at

the Youth Olympics representing New Zealand in Ar-

gentina. Congratulations Valentina.

I have great pleasure informing you that Avital Green-

berg and Raphael Masters have been nominated for

Encore for their Practical work examined 2 weeks ago.

The first Music Evening of this term was held on Thursday

evening. The new Year 12 Music students had their first

opportunity of getting their repertoire together.

A lovely diverse group of musicians whom we look for-

ward to hearing from throughout the year.

Have a great week ahead,

Dave Pitcairn


SPEECH BY JACK MARS FROM THE CLASS OF 2018

I‟ve been at Reddam since year five and I think over

the years I‟ve come to understand this school quite

well. What I‟ve realised during my time here, is that

Reddam House is just a name. We‟re a young school

and Reddam had all the potential to become like all of

the other private schools in the Eastern suburbs but

thankfully we represent something different.

There‟s a reason why people don‟t quite know what

Reddam represents, if we‟re academic or creative or if

we‟re non-denominational and that‟s because what

we represents isn‟t decided by our age or by our glori-

ous sandstone castle, ultimately, it‟s down to us, it‟s de-

cided by the students and teachers of Reddam House.

So what does Reddam represent? You‟d think that af-

ter three years of hearing Mr. Pitcairn‟s propaganda

speeches that I might have a clear answer. But all I can

say is that to me, Reddam is what every school, what

every teacher and every student should be.

We‟re a place where excellency is not required but

adequacy is not accepted. I‟ll even quote the school

song, „we challenge each other constantly.‟ Our co-

hort has people from Cranbrook, people from Rosebay

Public and people who have been at Reddam since

kindergarten. We have physics nerds and dancers, we

have artists and athletes, we have singers and actors,

we have those who love to party, and people who‟d

rather stay at home.

But at Reddam, none of that is really important. Fitting

in involves being genuine and being ambitious. These

are the unifying qualities of our year group and I‟ve got

to thank our teachers for simply letting us be normal

people during our time here. I believe that‟s what has

made us all into Reddam students - our ability to be

treated as young adults and not perfect little Reddam

robots.

Yet at the same time, our teachers expect and have

instilled in us a desire for a personal best and they have

always shown us that they are there to help, as long as

we are there to work. They have a unique, deranged

enthusiasm to stay and work through free periods and

lunchbreaks, or respond to desperate emails the night

before an exam. Thankyou to all of our teachers for

such a determination and dedication to our accom-

plishment.

Our success as a year group relies on a mutual under-

standing between student, teacher and parent that

progress is multi-faceted and is achieved by encourag-

ing us to be individuals of our own design, by accept-

ing that our triumph might only come after a period of

failure and by a respect for what we are aside from our

marks. So for that, I thank our parents for accepting the

Reddam way and supporting us alongside our teach-

ers.

While Reddam has never dictated to us, or moulded

us, it has left its mark on each and every one of us, as

we have left our mark on it. It has emphasised the im-

portance of respect, learning, friendship and good old

fashioned banter.

To the class of 2018, we are a group of people who will

inevitably end up in different places, perhaps on oppo-

site ends of the globe, with different jobs and different

lives.

But no matter how old we get, or wherever we are, we

will always be that amazing group of students, just

hanging out in North Bondi, showing up late to class,

occasionally from the beach or a cafe, yet studying

diligently and achieving extraordinary results as a co-

hort.

We‟ll always remember these days, when we were

Reddam students together. You bunch of legends, I‟m

glad I got to go to school with you all.


TO THE CLASS OF 2018

I speak to you today as a tribal elder. I will throw in a

historical reference or two as it may be expected. My

world was very different to yours, so perhaps me giving

you advice is like Gandhi writing a recipe book or a

fashion column for Vogue magazine.

Today you can go online and Google for answers, you

can Google for a partner, you can Google for a career

but you can‟t Google to find out what is in your heart

and what your dreams are.

Many of you are already committed to a dream and

want to work hard to achieve it at all costs and as your

Year Co coordinator, I should be telling you to follow

that dream but I wont because I am here to tell you

that whatever you think your dream is now, it will prob-

ably change and that‟s ok.

In 2013, many of you had a specific vision of what your

high school experience was going to be and who you

were going to become. I am sure today that your time

at high school was very different than what you imag-

ined but through the good and bad years, especially

the bad, the person you are now is someone you could

never have Imagined 6 years ago.

Germaine Greer said „the woman who views the world

at 50 the same as she did at 20 has wasted 30 years of

her life. You must continue to learn. Be open! Be inquisi-

tive!

Another wise woman, of whom there are so many, said

“if you are the smartest person in the room, then you

are in the wrong room!”

We have watched this past week, the gracious and

dignified way that you have gone about your last days

at school receiving your Trial HSC results back, muck up

week and today‟s assembly.

Regardless of your HSC results, and we are confident

that they will be spectacular, you have shown your-

selves to be winners.

So to the class of 2018, be kind and amazing things will

happen because one day you will understand that it is

much harder to be kind than to be clever.”

Good luck and Farewell.

Julie Vince

Year 12 Coordinator for the Class of 2018


WEEK 1 TERM 4 2018

ATTENTION YEAR 10:

Your completed work experience forms were due to Ms Jones by the end of Term 3. Please hand this to Ms Jones

as soon as possible as a matter of urgency.

ATTENTION STUDENTS INTERESTED IN STEM:

UTS is holding a STEM Day on either Wednesday 21 November 2018 or Tuesday 4 December 2018. If interested in

attending see Ms Jones.

ATTENTION FEMALE STUDENTS IN YEARS 10 & 11 INTERESTED IN SCIENCE:

UNSW is holding a Girls in Science Forum on Tuesday 13 November. If interested in attending see Ms Jones.

ATTENTION YEAR 11/12 STUDENTS INTERESTED IN STUDYING LAW:

UTS is holding a Law Discovery Day on Tuesday 27 November or Thursday 29 November 2018. If interested see Ms

Jones.


JAMIE GAVIN’S NEWS FROM COSTA RICA

All is well. Costa Rica is very beautiful and green. I‟ve

visited many of its natural features, such as volcano

Paos, which is an active volcano with one of the big-

gest craters in the world. We went surfing for a week-

end at the beach, Jacó, which is 2hrs away. All the

Costa Rican beaches have black sand which makes

the water a dark colour along with the sewage water

from all the rain... We've visited the zoo and museum

and celebrated their Independence Day to Spain on

the 13th of September. It was awesome to see how

different their culture is in celebrating the country as

they marched in the streets, danced in typical Costa

Rican dresses/outfits and Lot lanterns.

Their school is big an beautiful with lots of Costa Rican

trees and plants in it as well as soccor fields and a bas-

ketball court. All the kids there speak English as it‟s a

mandatory subject for them, so I‟ve had no problem

communicating to the other kids at school. I also ran

into some other international students visiting from

France and the South African Reddam to do an inter-

national mock UN debate.

I also have a cousin who I‟ve discovered over here

who I‟ve got to meet. Since I have family in Peru on my

mums side, my parents want to cut my trip in Costa Ri-

ca a few days short as my cousins and uncles/aunts

would love to see me while I'm on this side of the world.

My original flight makes a stop over in Peru so it‟s a sim-

ple change of date which Vivian‟s dad is helping with

since he is a pilot for the airline.

My Spanish has definitely improved and I‟ve learnt a lot

about Costa Rican culture and its beautiful natural fea-

tures.

Thanks for making this exchange happen, It‟s been a

really good experience I‟ll never forget!


YEAR 11 VISUAL ART


in this issue: @reddamreddamhouse.com.au/pdf/2018/high/highvol18issue29.pdf · in this issue:...

Documents