Principal's Message

Commencement letters

As parents who are not new to Radford would be aware, we issue commencement letters at the start of every academic year. These letters include important information about the teacher/mentor allocated to your child and a range of other items needed for the upcoming school year.

In order to access these letters, parents must first check that their contact information is up to date.

Usually, about 90 per cent of our parents log into the system to check their contact information, and their child's medical details, then access the commencement letters. For some reason, fewer than half our parent population checked their contact information this year.

Given the importance of this information, we have made the decision to re-release this prompt. If you did not check your contact information and your child's medical details earlier in the year, we implore you to do so today.

Here is the Nexus news article about commencement letters from 16 January 2023.

Cricket T20 Champions

Last Monday afternoon/evening saw the J.A. Mackinnon Oval packed with spectators as the College community turned out in droves to support our First XI Cricket Team in the T20 Grand Final against Canberra Grammar.

In what was a rare grand final appearance in the history of Radford, we lost the toss and were sent in to bat. After losing our first wicket quickly, Jake Smith and Joshua McIntyre settled in, and the runs really started to flow, with Joshua eventually making 66 off 56 balls and Jake making a stunning 94 not out off 46 balls. The innings concluded with Radford making 191 runs to the loss of only two wickets.

Grammar came into their innings with great passion, throwing everything into the game and making a very quick compilation of runs. However, they continued to lose wickets and were eventually bowled out in the final over for 145 runs. Dylan Shillington, Sineth Herath, Jake Smith and Jordan Scholfield all took two wickets each.

This victory is a significant milestone for cricket at Radford, for which our Head of Cricket, Mr Wally Wright, should be very pleased. However, we still have one more hurdle to give our cricketers their most successful season ever. After defeating Canberra Grammar on Sunday in the 50 overs competition, our First XI will play Marist College in the grand final at a time yet to be determined. We wish our cricketers the very best of luck for this game, but if the way they played on Monday is any indication, they will be formidable opponents for Marist.

Ordination of Chaplain Andy

It was both an honour and a privilege to be in the congregation for the ordination of our Chaplain, Andy Fleming, last Saturday. The ceremony, which took place at St. Saviour’s Cathedral in Goulburn, was the culmination of many months of study and preparation by Andy for his ordination as a Deacon.

The service was attended by many clergy from across the Canberra and Goulburn Anglican Diocese, as well as family members, friends and colleagues of the six people who were being ordained. The Diocese’s Bishop, The Right Reverend Dr Mark Short preached and presided at the ceremony.

Andy was clearly very pleased to have a large contingent of Radford colleagues and his family present to share in his special occasion. We look forward to Reverend Andy continuing his great work into the future as one of our two Chaplains at Radford.

You can read Rev. Andy's reflection of his ordination here.

Acknowledging Tanya Stevenson

Last Monday, a ceremony was held in our Early Learning Centre (ELC) to recognise the work of former colleague, Tanya Stevenson. Tanya had an enormous impact on the Radford College ELC and Junior School over the six-and-a-half-years she was here from mid-2005 until the end of 2011. Tanya was first appointed as Founding Director of the ELC as preparations unfolded for its opening in 2006.

In 2006, as the doors of the ELC were fully opened, Tanya was very busy. She stablished the ELC curriculum framework based on the Reggio Emilia philosophy; she established links to the Middle (as it was then known) and Secondary School; she co-ordinated Professional Learning for staff to establish the vision statement, teaching and learning practices; and she established an ELC Parent Committee for fundraising and social events to build and strengthen the community.

In the centre’s second year in 2007 - and in what was the preparation year for the opening of the Mulford Junior School the following year - Tanya was appointed Founding Assistant Head and Primary Years Programme (PYP) Co-ordinator. This meant work was required to blend the Reggio Emilia philosophy of the ELC into the new Junior School International Baccalaureate (IB) PYP framework.

Over this period of time, Tanya led the application for the Junior School to become an accredited IB PYP school – something we are very proud of to this day. At the same time, the soon-to-be-opened Junior School was highly commended by the ACT Government registration panel.

Tanya also established Friends of Radford ELC (FORELC), which purchased much-needed pieces of play equipment and resources for the ELC and co-ordinated professional learning for newly-appointed Junior School staff, concentrated on inquiry-based learning and the PYP as a framework.

Previous Principal, Dr David Mulford, wrote this about Tanya: “Radford could not have secured a better inaugural Director. The Centre was an instant hit with parents and huge waiting lists quickly developed as word-of-mouth recommendations flowed. Tanya was a passionate educator. Good, productive, and enjoyable student-learning outcomes were always at the core of her way of operating. She proved to be such a highly respected educator. She read widely and researched in detail. She sought advice from others. She loved bouncing ideas around with students. She loved curriculum development and working with teachers; curriculums that had to deliver not only on content but also with the required learning outcomes, methodology to be used, and the need to meet the crucial underlying educational philosophies.”

The College’s Head of Teaching and Learning from 2003 until 2008, Ms Lynne Gutheridge, also said this of Tanya: “My memories of working with Tanya are very vivid. Over the span of my own teaching career, I had the honour of working with many fine educators and within this group, Tanya shone the brightest. Tanya was without doubt exceptional as a teacher, an educational leader and as a person. Her understanding of young people as learners and her love for them as individuals was obvious in everything she did. She was warm, intelligent, empathetic, loving, funny and extremely dedicated. I remember with pleasure Tanya’s absolute commitment to ensuring each child experienced beauty in each day by her choice of talented staff and well-conceived learning experiences, as well as her selection of wonderful furnishings, exquisite decorative items and stimulating teaching resources.”