Reddam House

"My son has been at this school since the age of three and is now completing his HSC and I am writing this as a parent with a child who struggles to learn at school. The philosophy of the school is that they practice a growth mindset with a strong focus on creating a love of learning through connection with each and every teacher. The pedagogy is to ensure that the learning gap does not get too wide for often that is when you will find misbehaviour in the classroom. There is zero tolerance for this behaviour, honouring the fee-paying students who are there to learn. However this is not without empathy for the child with the learning gap who are quickly identified and teacher mentors (in High School) are chosen by the child to help guide them as they need that extra attention and support. So many times you hear that parents had no idea that there was a problem or they find out too late. Feed-back is the primary tool that is practised, which is also referred to as cycle tests, which enable each child and teacher to focus on what that child does not know, for that is where the additional learning needs to be and the students receive this ahead of exams. Cycle tests also provide valuable feed-back to the teachers of how effective they have been in teaching each topic allowing them the opportunity to review topics if a large proportion of the children have not answered that question correctly and point out to each student individually which areas they need to focus on either by topic or skill. Feed-back is further manifested by having the teachers available for tutorials every week in high school, which only has a value if the child knows that they need help (owning their learning), being able to ask for this (self-advocating) and then more importantly being able to receive feed-back. We all know that practice is important for any skill and cycle tests provide ample opportunity to fail. We love failure as that is when the learning takes place not only academically but the students also truly learn experientially how to to hone different study skills ahead of their final year of school, to determine which was the most effective. Feed-back is an important lifeskill that translates to leading a more effective EQ life, which has been a higher determinant for a more successful work career than IQ. The culture of the school is manifested through co-education that it is cool to be smart and to work hard (diminishing the tall poppy syndrome) and the kids just love being there despite the lack of facilities - and believe me there really is a huge lack here - without even a library, no sports facilities etc. The school receives no funding from the government and the focus is on finding exceptional teachers, which was the primary determining factor for success as outlined in the Gonski report in 2010. There is no school board - just a principal and is part of the Inspired Schools ( a global organisation) which allows for greater flexibility in quicker decisions to be made (good and bad). Opportunities to study at another Inspired School in another country are available and if you have a brilliant idea as did the Y10 students who took over the canteen to better serve the kids then you only have to convince one person. Despite no facilities it has not stopped the school from achieving academically or socially (just review Chanel Contos' sex assault petition 2021, to see that Reddam had an inconsequential mention) and was 5th in the state of NSW in 2022. The parent body consists largely of conscious parents, for they have actively reviewed and considered this school, as they personally did not attend the school and therefore did not send their kids to a school just because the parent / grand-parent attended the school. The school doesn't sweat the small stuff - like you have to wear winter uniform just because it is Term2, but has a multi-form uniform which allows girls to wear pants if they want to or boys to wear shorts all year. Highly recommend this school, for all of the above reasons."

"I experienced many awesome classmates and teachers here. But there are shortcomings, such as facilities and other issues arising from the small size."

"SHOUTOUT TO MR SIMIC - TMS 100 4 EVA"

"e agood"

"Yo don’t forget your uniform"