Principal's Message

Good afternoon everyone!

It’s been a wonderful school term with lots of learning and fun activities for our students. I am immensely proud of the way our whole school community has adapted to the changes that we have implemented so far this year. You will notice in the coming weeks that our school will feature in the Shepparton Advisor specifically showcasing the refurbished classrooms. This has been a big success for our students who have enjoyed working in the new learning spaces and taking advantage of the options available to them in their learning time. The spaces have complemented the new programs within Magnify well. In particular, they allow opportunities for independent as well as small group learning in a manner where staff can purposefully assist all students.

Yesterday our Foundation students led the first of our Easter liturgies and it was a pleasure to witness the confidence and charisma of our foundation group! They were so comfortable presenting the liturgy to the rest of the school and this is a testament to the work that goes into supporting our students to ‘belong’ and ‘feel safe’ within our school community. They were also beautifully prepared by the foundation team! The liturgies will continue tomorrow and Friday and we welcome parents to join us from 9.10 – 9.20am for these student led services which provide excellent leadership opportunities for our students whilst also deepening our learning about the Lenten season. Most importantly these liturgies provide a prayerful focus for students and staff. Last Friday our whole school community enjoyed a day of activities focusing primarily on the work of Caritas. Our students learnt that young people in other countries needed to walk long distances with buckets of water each day in order to access water and their school. Each class had the opportunity to carry a bucket (with a helper) in order to have a sense of what this ‘feels like’ which assists our students to learn and have empathy for those we support through our Caritas fundraising during Lent.

In our last Advisory council meeting we spent some time looking at the upcoming events for our school year. Members are keen to support another colour run early in Term 4 and would like to see this event include more options for our students and their families to participate in and enjoy. I would welcome any parents who would be interested in forming a subcommittee to organise this event which we have scheduled for the end of week 2 in Term 4 (Friday October 17th). If you are keen to help organise this event, send me an email on cgoode@shtatura.catholic.edu.au I’d love to hear from you! The subcommittee would commence in term 2 and would meet four to five times between May and October to support the organisation of the event.

Next term newsletters will be produced three times in the term. These will occur in weeks 3, 6 and 9. We will continue to communicate important information to you through letters and PAM notifications. Social media will also be used to share information and photos of the wonderful things our students are doing at school. This decision was made at the beginning of the year in consultation with the Advisory Board. Information was shared with the Advisory Board in relation to the amount of downloads that newsletters had in comparison to social media views and follows. Please be assured that if you do not use social media, you will still be communicated with regarding aspects of your child’s program through the other channels of communication.

We have almost completed the recruitment process for the role of Administration Officer at our school. I hope to provide you with further information regarding the successful applicant in the coming days. We were overwhelmed by the amount of applications we received and feel that this confirms that our school is considered to be a lovely place to work!

I would encourage all of our families to attend the Easter liturgies. A program of the Easter liturgies for Sacred Heart Parish can be found here. We are fortunate to be able to enjoy some time in the season of Lent to refresh and renew and I sincerely hope that your family enjoys some of this time over the holiday and Easter period. Staff will return on Tuesday April 22 for a three day intensive professional learning program which focuses on educational research and the ‘science of learning’. This professional learning program will be presented to over 50 Sandhurst schools and will equip us to continue to implement the initiatives within Magnify.

Finally, I wish you all a very happy and safe Easter. We look forward to welcoming our families back on Monday April 28 after a refreshing three-week break. For our prayer today I’d like to recognise that there are many people at the moment who are suffering as a result of earthquakes. 

We recognise the importance of compassion to others as we pray:

Loving God, help us to find you once again. Our search for you asks us sometimes to be still, For You are all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness. You call us ‘fellow workers.’ May Lent renew our energy to serve your kingdom of justice and peace.

- Michael McGirr A

Blessings,

Carolyn Goode

Principal