Inside Reddam House, the Sydney private school trying to break the mould

Inside Reddam House, the Sydney private school trying to break the mould It’s just after 8.30am on an August Friday morning outside Reddam House North Shore. A mother chats with a staff member about anxiety. Do students have a reason to be anxious? Friday at Reddam is cycle test day, where every pupil from year 3 upwards sits a 50-minute test on a range of subjects including English, mathematics and science. After 8.50am, in a classroom on the upper floors of the school’s North Sydney building, year 9 science students sit at separate desks in rows. Teacher Steve Centra has soothing background music playing. He appears to be reading from a script. Inhale for four counts, exhale for six counts, he says. There’s also a message for the students. Teacher Steve Centra tells students their performance does not define their worth. “This test measures your performance today,” he says. “It does not measure your worth. Your result doesn’t define your intelligence, does not define your potential, and certainly, it doesn’t define who you are.” In the 18 months since the North Sydney school opened, student numbers have grown from 498 to 875. Next year’s expected enrolment is 1100 students, with capacity of 1350 to be reached in 2028. The school’s first cohort of HSC students will start year 12 studies later this term. Reddam North Shore is part of the Inspired Education group, a for-profit company that runs 125 schools in 30 countries. Students sit the cycle tests every Friday. Some in the education sector are critical of high-stakes tests, which they regard as narrowing the focus of education and stressing students unnecessarily. At Reddam, cycle testing is the school’s main pillar. The school mantra could be: It’s cool to be clever. It’s cool to be kind. Kylie Chacon, head of primary, says tests go beyond academic benefits. “The main thing is that we’re teaching them to push themselves to be their personal best,” she says. Parents enrol their children because they like the amount of data the school uses, teachers say. Every teacher tutors before and after school to help underperforming students improve. Chacon says testing helps provide teachers with data so they can reflect on how they have taught the content. It is also an enrolment drawcard. “Parents are choosing our school for our systems, and especially the cycle test,” she says. Where other schools have sprawling campuses, Reddam North Shore is a converted Harry Seidler building, once a six-storey office block. There are specialised mathematics, science and English teachers in years 5 and 6. Melissa Coombes, head of K-6 mathematics, says students get a strong foundation before entering year 7, where the curriculum steps up to more challenging concepts such as algebra. Mathematics is “not everyone’s cup of tea” and a subject some primary teachers might shy away from, she says. Having taught at another independent school, for girls, she regards Reddam North Shore as having a distinct academic culture. “I think the difference here is that students are quite motivated,” she says. “They do get excited about tricky maths problems and new topics.” Students conduct a science experiment. Midmorning in a science laboratory, year 5 student Jordan Ma is keen to tell the Herald about a science experiment he’s poised to conduct. “Back in my old school, I didn’t really get to do any experiments. I only just sat in class and just listened.” Nearby, English teacher Sarah Burnham-King sits with a year 6 class in a public speaking lesson. A boy tells a story about the world’s ugliest fish, his arms by his side, steadily scanning classmates to make eye contact with everyone, and doing it without notes. Students then give him feedback on his performance, noting two things he did well. They also note one weakness he could improve, one boy says he could make better use of his hands while speaking. A student gets feedback from his peers and teacher Sarah Burnham-King.