Dear Parents and Caregivers,

What a beautiful celebration our Mothers’ Day Mass was! Thank you, Fr John Paul, our Foundation classes, and their teachers. It was lovely to come together celebrate and give thanks for the gift of mothers, grandmothers, aunties and other important people in our lives. Thank you to all who were able to join us for the Mass and morning tea. I hope you all enjoyed the gifts that were made so loving for you by your children during PPR and soaked up all the love and attention over the weekend.

I was delighted to showcase all Sacred Heart have to offer families during Open Day last week. I was also very proud of our Year 6 leaders who took the families on the school tours. They were great ambassadors for Sacred Heart and I received many compliments on their manners, confidence and pride in our school. Applications for parents wishing to enroll children in Foundation and other classes at Sacred Heart School for the 2024 school year are now open. If you were unable to attend our Open Day and would like to see all our school has to offer, please phone the school on 58241841 and arrange a suitable time or go to our website for further information. There will be a Learning Walk through Foundation rooms on Friday at 9am for anyone who would like to join us.

With spelling named as a key improvement area across the school, all staff participated in a Spelling Mastery professional learning day. Spelling Mastery provides structured lessons to effectively and efficiently teach spelling skills needed to become proficient readers and writers and all 1-6 classes will be participating in these lessons. F-2 staff are also completing several Little Learners Love Literacy online workshops, furthering their understanding around how sequential synthetic phonics can be taught.

Friday the 19th of May is Walk Safely to School Day and we are encouraging everyone who is able to participate to walk, or scoot even for a few blocks or to the bus stop This day aims to raise awareness of the health, road safety, transport and environmental benefits that regular walking (especially to and from school) can provide for the long term well-being of our children. Anyone who walks, rides or scoots to school next Friday can come and see me as they arrive and I’ll have a Walk to School Safely tattoo for them. As Year 3/4s will be on their Melbourne excursion they can walk to school tomorrow.

It has been a very busy time for excursions over the past week. Last Friday I went along with F-2 and thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful production of Mem Fox’s Possum Magic. To further enrich their biological science unit, Year 5/6 and Foundation have visited the Kyabram Fauna Park, 3/4s are going to Melbourne Museum and 1/2s are off to Melbourne Zoo. Next week 3-6 will take part in an insect/animal adaptation incursion with speakers from Landcare and Riverconnect. Year 5/6 will be participating in the Division Winter Sports on Friday, playing soccer, netball or T ball. Good luck everyone. Thank you to our staff who spend lots of time carefully organising these excursions, making sure they are a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone. Thank you also to the many parents who help out on these occasions. We are very lucky to have such supportive families offering to help. I hope your children are all coming home telling you lots about the exciting things they have been doing and learning about.

Congratulations to all the children who qualified for Division Cross Country last week. Once again, you represented your school and ran very well.

It was lovely to have a visit from TCC Kinder this week. The children enjoyed the little excursion and the opportunity to experience school. We look forward the welcoming GPPS later in the month.

SAC met last night and some of the items for discussion were our Uniform Policy, Mobile Phone Policy and School Improvement Plan, all of which are available on our school website.

Next week classes will acknowledge National Reconciliation Week [May 27th – June 3rd]. The theme for 2023 is “Be a Voice for Generations’, encouraging all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives – where we live, work and socialise.

On Sunday, May 28th our Sacramental children will receive the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Communion during 10:30 Mass. They have been preparing for this special occasion over the past few weeks and we welcome families and friends to join them on their memorable day. This is a special time for the children and their families and we ask for God’s blessing on them all.

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus continue to watch over our school community and bless us always.

Pauline Hindson

Principal

Student of the Week Awards

No Assembly Term 2 Weeks 2 & 3