Principal News 

TERM 1 - WEEK 1

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LOCK’EM IN

CAMPS 2024

*Updated Key Dates T1-T4 2024

BUCKLE UP, WE'RE IN FOR ANOTHER MONSTER YEAR OF FUN, LEARNING AND GROWTH AT SACRED HEART

*Disclaimer, it's a BIG one, coffee and bickie recommended

Dear Families and Friends,

We sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful and joyous break, feeling refreshed and ready for what is certain to be our best year to date. We are thrilled to share the exciting news that our $5.2M building program will finally get underway as we go to tender in early February. Coupled with our exceptional and highly sought-after teaching & learning practices and flourishing community for our families, this transformational program will undoubtedly be the icing on the cake, complementing these existing practices.

It is a genuine delight to welcome everyone back, and without missing a beat, witness our community swiftly transitioning back into routine. The first day, aside from Grandparents' Day, holds a special place in the school year – it's remains my second favorite day (Can I say that?). There was an undeniable air of excitement and energy as we greeted eager students, including many newcomers in 2024 (65), and their 'relieved' families at the gate after a typically longer break.

One of the highlights was witnessing the significant turnout of families, extended families, older siblings (past students), and many very proud grandparents—remarkably, some even travelled from overseas for the special occasion. It's fair to say we were overwhelmed by the numbers in the grounds for the opening gathering.

On that note, throughout the year, we encourage families to visit the classrooms and capture these precious moments where possible. Speaking from experience, 'you blink,' and the time goes by all too quickly, so please do your best to drop in and see the children in action.

Among the many highlights on Tuesday was having ‘all’ the students from Prep - 6 commence on the same day. This certainly added to the atmosphere as our 44 amazing Preps shared the experience with all students and perhaps even a proud older sibling. As one journey excitedly begins, this also signifies the 'home stretch' for our Yr.6s as their time at Sacred Heart is sadly coming to a close. That said, Miss McKay and Mr T have much instore for our seniors and they are certain to finish their journey at Sacred Heart on a high, notably starting with the annual Canberra camp, flying out in March! 

Once again, we sincerely thank our wonderful families for attending on the opening day. Importantly, we acknowledge your efforts in ensuring the children were ready, settled, and in full school uniform. Setting this standard on day one is a perfect way to start the year i.e. on the right foot. Please note that uniforms will be closely monitored throughout the year, as this important expectation and pride piece reflects and creates a strong sense of belonging to Sacred Heart – our identity and who we are.

A special call out goes to our School Captains (Paddy, Tilly, Rahni & Kit) for showcasing your uniform on the opening day – you looked fabulous! A gentle reminder: black sneakers are permitted; however, strictly no clearly identifiable branding (e.g., white Nike ticks). All branding must be black. Refer to the reminders section.

We again extend our congratulations to our team for superbly preparing for the return of our students, with many dedicating their time over the holiday period. This sense of preparedness has undoubtedly contributed to the calm and orderly tone observed during my visits to the classrooms throughout the week. It was most affirming to witness the students so focused on their academic program, even though we're only a couple of days into the new school year. As mentioned above, it's the best start I have ever seen, and many staff members noted that the classrooms were so settled you could have heard a pin drop. 

Referenced by a few parents already, with this remarkable level of composure, holding everything together—from emotions to intense cognitive focus—we can anticipate some very tired students in the coming weeks as we quickly transition and adjust to the rigors of a full program in the coming weeks. Watch this space! 

Straight 'out of the blocks', not surprisingly all classes have commenced rolling out their daily Structured Literacy and Numeracy program and even our full specialist program. For our new families, this schedule is standard practice across all classes as our teachers are expected to deliver a daily, non-negotiable 2hr Literacy and 1hr Numeracy Block (*unless on a full specialist day). In addition, our Yr.3-6 students have also commenced Spelling Mastery and have been issued with their Chromebooks in Yr.5&6. (Please make sure the ICT eForm on Operoo has been completed in the coming days as this is a condition of use for a device).

Welcome Circles

Coupled with prayer, part of our daily ritual at Sacred Heart is to start the the day with a Berry Street, Welcome Circle. It was wonderful to see this action across 'all' of classrooms from day 1. It’s always good to start the day with a circle; to check in and out, frame expectations for the day or session and nurture meaningful relationships within the class. The teachers work through the following prompts commencing with a greeting around the entire circle: Greeting, Values, Expectations, Announcements, Positive Primer and What Went Well. 

For those families who have had Miss Donnelly and Miss Proser as their child's teacher, it should come as no surprise they have a near perfect circle formation from day 1. 

CREATING A FLOW & RHYTHM

NEW SACRED HEART PLAY BOOK 

Since joining Sacred Heart, I have encouraged our staff to embrace and 'trust the process' as we collectively work towards creating an enhanced flow and rhythm to school life. Our focus areas encompass:

• prioritising wellbeing, 
• investing only in evidence-based teaching and learning practices, 
• upholding accountability to the curriculum, 
• ensuring coherence and consistency with our many parts in motion, 
• fostering a shared understanding & vision, and 
• concentrating on quality over quantity.

Even with an upcoming and exciting transformative building program, in 2024, our commitment remains steadfast in maximising every learning minute. This dedication is aimed at covering the breadth and depth of the curriculum, with a specific emphasis on 'best practices,' particularly in the key disciplines of literacy and numeracy. As we navigate through the year, our goal is to bring about a subtle yet noticeable shift in curriculum delivery and rigor by aligning and refining the structures and practices introduced in 2022-23.

A goal in 2024 is to introduce a 'new' Sacred Heart Play Book—a dynamic working document intended for staff, students, and families. This comprehensive resource will serve as a reference and anchor, bringing together and encapsulating the core beliefs, practices, and non-negotiable approaches that have been steadily implemented over the past two years at Sacred Heart.

During the opening staff day, led by Sarah Rafferty, we commenced a review of this play book. It includes non-negotiable and consistent practices that we expect all staff to adhere to at Sacred Heart. These practices are designed to ensure that all students have the opportunity to achieve academic, emotional, and spiritual enrichment while under our care.

Our staff is committed to:

1. Ensuring students are safe, have trust, respect, and feel valued.
2. Providing students with access to work where they can experience success.
3. Cultivating positive relationships at school with both staff and friends.

Our School Wide Pedagogy revolves around teacher-directed learning, explicit and direct instruction, and the strategic movement of students' knowledge from short-term to long-term memory. 

These principles are further supported by the 6 Givens For Every Learning Environment:

• Strong Relationships
• High Expectations
• Appealing Classroom Displays
• Effective, Immediate Feedback
• Positive Classroom Management
• Excellent Presentation e.g. bookwork

We are immensely proud of the collective 'buy-in' from our dedicated team and eagerly anticipate witnessing these practices and beliefs solidify in the coming months, and look forward to watching our newest staff members flourish and build upon these foundations as they embark on their journey at Sacred Heart.

With the unwavering support of Miss Rafferty (T&L Leader), Mrs. Stroud (Literacy), Mr. Blake (Maths & RE), and Mrs. Pennington (Learning Diversity), we are in excellent hands. They will continue to support, mentor and build the capacity of the staff, ultimately enhancing the academic outcomes and wellbeing of our students. We sincerely thank our T&L team for supporting the staff in preparing an extensive range of teaching resources and assessment packages required in these early weeks. Supporting their colleagues in this manner enables the teachers to focus their energies on their students. This has been so greatly appreciated by the classroom teachers. 

PREPS 2024

Miss Wood and Miss Maloney couldn't be happier, amazed at how settled and ready for school the children are. While both teachers invested a tremendous amount of effort in preparing for their students, credit must also be given to our families for their significant contributions before the first day. The transition conversations have indeed worked wonders, enabling the children to settle quickly and confidently into school life. Be very proud families, it's been a truly incredible start to their journey at Sacred Heart and this bodes so well for the years to follow. 

We do, however, ask families to closely monitor for fatigue, especially in these early weeks as the children adjust to 'school life.' There is undoubtedly a different tempo compared to preschool, so please don't hesitate to factor in some additional rest afternoons or days throughout the year. These breaks can be game-changers for both school and home.

School Captains & Student Leaders 2024 

Once again we congratulate all our Yr.6 leaders on being appointed into their respective roles for 2024. We simply could not have imagined a better start for our senior students. The bar has officially been raised - long may it continue. Please be sure to read Miss McKay's Senior School News page for more details on the leaders for this year. 

Love the new Yr.6 rugby jumpers distributed on Friday afternoon thanks to Tarn and Amanda, our champions from the Uniform Shop. Just for the record, we did ask the students to wash these at least 'once' this year. 

New Families 2024

We warmly welcome the following new families to the best community in town: 

Anderson, Akras, Bahramis, Bell, Bush, Calder, Cummins,  Chambers, Coates, Collins, Corrigan, Fourniotis, Fonti, Gleeson*, Gusman, Hong, Hughes, Jackson, Matthiesson, Marques, Meehan, Nicolin, Pocock, Reynolds, Robbie, Ronchi*, Shannon, Stynes, Suckling, Swayn, Tehan, Tickner & Williams

We dearly hope in the coming weeks you are able to connect to our various WhatsApp and community groups e.g. P&F, mum and dad social clubs. A special mention to our St. Joseph's Black Rock families and staff. In time, we trust this will feel like your extended family as you extend your connections. 

Staffing 2024 & News

This year, we warmly welcome the following new staff to our team. Despite being only a few days into their journey, they have already made an instant impact on the children, professional standards, and have further enhanced the way we do things at Sacred Heart. Complementing our team superbly, we believe we've struck gold with these exceptional educators. 

Welcome to: Mrs. Maddocks (Year 5), Miss Bull (Year 5), Mrs. McGrath (Year 3), Miss Bulte (Year 3), Miss Wood (Prep), Mrs. Gerussi-Lock (LSO), and Mrs. Bedford (LSO).

We extend a big and grateful shout-out to Karen in the front office for her fabulous work every day, providing valuable support to our families, students, and staff. While most schools of our size have two office administrators to manage the workload, Karen takes it all in stride and never skips a beat. 

We are also thrilled to announce that Miss Maloney has been granted residency, a process she has been working towards over the past two years. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Congratulations!

We wish Ms Tench every success as she will be participating in a 24hr tennis marathon at the Sandringham Club this Friday to raise money for Family Life. This charity is a specialist family services provider working with vulnerable children, families and communities.  At the core of their organisation is a vision to build capable communities, strong families and thriving children. This is an amazing commitment from our Sacred Heart superstar, Ms Tench. 

Please see our Teaching & Learning Team for 2024. See attachment. 

What's New in 2024

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) and Ochre Education have partnered with Teach Well to support teachers and schools to get the most from the new Ochre Education materials for F-2. Teaching for Impact in Mathematics (TIM) Series delivered by Teach Well works from a robust research and evidence base to support teachers and leaders to build more high-impact instruction into our classrooms and accelerate learning for all students.

Our F-2 teachers, Mathematics leader (Mr Blake) and T&L leader (Miss Rafferty), will be involved in a series of workshops and a self-reflection and video coaching cycle to collect and reflect on their teaching practices and student outcomes data. This is indeed an exciting opportunity to grow the capacity of staff over the coming months and ultimately benefit our students.  

In 2024, we have revised the following leadership roles:

• Mrs. Pennington, in addition to key administrative responsibilities as the DP, will predominantly focus on the crucial learning diversity portfolio. She will support families, staff, and ensure that students who may require specific academic and social and emotional adjustments are implemented, reviewed, adequately supported, and accounted for.
• Mr. Blake has additional time allocated this year to drive the faith formation of our students, staff, and community. He will also lead the key pillar of mathematics in P-6, including professional development, planning, assessment, and coaching of staff. This will include the rollout of the Maths Ochre resources for our teachers. 
• Mrs. Stroud will wear two significant hats this year, leading our literacy program and best evidence-based practices from P-6 (including professional development, planning, assessment, and coaching). She will also be responsible for intervention in P-2 as a practicing MSL Educational Specialist.
• Miss Rafferty will be out of the classroom full-time this year in the pivotal role overseeing all teaching and learning practices P-6. She will support staff both in and out of the classroom as a lead teacher, coaching, planning, assessing and running professional learning sessions. A key aspect of this role is curriculum development, entitlment and reinforcing our best practices P-6. Miss Rafferty will also oversee intervention support in the middle school also as a practicing MSL Specialist.

The greater distribution of these invaluable roles in 2024 has already been acknowledged by our staff, and we can expect to see another positive shift and a 'doubling down' on how we do things at Sacred Heart e.g. MSL, Heggerty, TWR, Spelling Mastery and number fluency.

Building Program 2024 Update

As mentioned in 2023, we are thrilled to announce that our $5.25 million refurbishment program is set to commence this year,  from Term 2 to the end of Term 4. While the finer details are yet to be confirmed, we have proposed a two-stage program to minimise costs, reduce the timeline, and ultimately ensure the best outcome for our students and community.

Throughout the entire program we are confident that we can accommodate and settle all students and classrooms within the current building envelope by utilising all available spaces, thereby avoiding the need for portable arrangements that could impact vital playground space. 

Starting from the beginning of the new school year, all grades, except for our Year 6s, have relocated to other classrooms for Term 1. This move is designed to assist with the transition of the program to Stage One works and minimize disruptions i.e. unnecessary moves. Our primary objective is to ensure that children are settled in designated learning spaces for extended periods before transitioning to another stage.

Please note that we have prioritized the Prep, Year 1, and Year 6 classes, ensuring that they do not have to relocate throughout the majority of this program. They will only need to move once, and that will be back into their newly refurbished learning spaces. 

SPREAD THE GOOD WORD - OPEN DAYS 2024

We strongly encourage our families to spread the positive news and share the wonderful experiences within our beautiful school community with their networks. Open Days are scheduled for Feb. 26th, March 4th and 12th. If families wish to arrange a tour outside of these sessions, kindly contact the office at 9598 9322, and we would be delighted to guide you through our amazing school. We also have a tour booking link on the school website. 

No need to book for these dates:

Open Day Schedule:

• Monday, Feb 26th, 9:30 am - 3:15pm
• Monday, March 4th, 9:30 am - 3:15pm
• Tuesday 12th March, 9:30am - 3:00pm

Little Hearts of Sandy Playgroup

Family and friends are most welcome to attend our Little Hearts Playgroup. Please note, there is no age limit on toddlers or pre-schoolers. We typically have about20 pre-schoolers (inc. 2025 & 2026 Preps) and toddlers and it has been fabulous to see lots of new faces at these sessions. We'd love to see you there! 

• 23rd Feb @ 10am
• 22nd March
• 19th April
• 31st May
• 21st June
• 26th July
• 30th August
• 18th October
• 22nd November
• 6th December

P&F NEWS

P & F would like to invite you to the first event of the new year.

Saturday February 10, 2024 

7pm onwards 

Sandringham Club, 92 Beach Road Sandringham 

Invitation has been sent out and is located on the P&F page in this newsletter

A Few Gentle Reminders

Uniform requirements:

• Sleeper earrings only
• No ankle bracelets 
• No make-up or nail polish
• Hair tied back using school coloured ties
• PE uniform on sport days only unless directed by the classroom teacher or admin.
• No hat, no play policy T.1 & T.4

Mobile phones are to be handed to the classroom teacher at the start of the day and these will be kept in safe storage until the close of the day.

Students 'must' not personally contact their parents throughout the day via smart devices. In all instances this must done via the office admin. 

School Drop Off from 8:30am. Playground not supervised prior to this time. 

Express pick-up bays are strictly a 'no-standing' area. 

LITTLE GEMS

Prep photographer Day 1

Great to see our much valued Buddy Program is underway with our Prep & Yr.5s gathering for some very special time on Friday. Please note, buddies will be allocated after the Yr. 5 students return from their camp. Early indications suggest this is going to be a treasured journey and relationship over the next two years.

This week, the students across all classrooms  were busily decorating their prayer cloths in readiness for opening year liturgy. These cloths will be the centre piece for our classes as they gather for their daily prayer time. 

Swifty Mania is sweeping through the playground as some students have been making friendship bracelets. Inspired by one her song lyrics, during the Taylor Swift 'Eras Tour' concert-goers make and then exchange bracelets as a gesture of friendship and hope. Needless to say, we have a couple a very passionate Swifties in our community who can't wait for her concert in Melbourne in the coming weeks. 

We had a very special visitor on Friday, creating a great deal of excitement with our students and staff. Miss Healey will be doing quite a bit of casual relief teaching this term before she heads off on her international travels. We just loved having her back to close out the week. 

And finally....

Routine is the key.

As we transition back to the new school year, we kindly ask families to try stick to consistent and predictable routines. Please avoid 'overloading' the children with too many extras before and after school, and on weekends. Our experience tells us that 'overscheduling' stretches the elastic band and it will invariably break.

And finally, I'm just a wee bit proud watching all our pieces and processes fall into place so quickly in 2024. It simply couldn't have been a better start for our students, staff and families. 

Here's to another fabulous year of growth and achievement as we strive to be the school of choice for our families and, ultimately, the best school in the bayside.

Simon Collis

Principal

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