Faith Life & Learning and Teaching News

Teaching & Learning

Sacred Heart Camps

Our 2025 camp program provide students with exciting opportunities for personal growth, teamwork, and outdoor adventure. 

Philosophy: The Sacred Heart Camp Program is structured around the ideal of independence, with students developing skills and building connections with each other and the environment over time.  Our camps are a means of using different resources to enhance and enrich student learning.

Below are the details on dates, locations, and activities for each year level. 

Homework Policy

Over the past year teachers at Sacred Heart have collaborated to review Homework and set clear guidelines in Sacred Heart's Homework Policy. Homework benefits students by: 

• providing an opportunity for students to be responsible for their learning
• complementing classroom learning
• practising and reviewing essential skills in English and Mathematics
• supporting parents to understand more about what their child is learning at school 

Homework is usually sent home in a weekly cycle. It is the students responsibility to bring their homework/dairy home and return the homework on the required days. Parents are encouraged to sign their child's diary as part of the school and home partnership to maintain consistent expectations for homework. If you have further questions about the homework routine the upcoming 'Parent Information Sessions' or 'Getting to Know You Conversations' provide parents with a great opportunity. Below is a screen shot from the Homework Policy showing guidelines for how much time your child should spend doing homework each night. 

See the full homework policy linked below.

Please note the importance of regular review and practice to support students with consolidating their learning. For example, a student would benefit from revising their 6x times tables for 5 mins every night, rather than doing 20 mins on one night and then not doing it again for another week.

If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to contact your classroom teachers or Learning and Teaching Leaders (Cath, Kim & Sue)

Regards

Kim Dalmau

Mathematics Leader

k.dalmau@shnewport.catholic.edu.au

English 

SPELLING Prep - Year 2

Students in Prep to Year 2 will continue using InitiaLit which focuses on a structured, systematic approach to teaching phonics. Spelling is explicitly taught with direct instruction and links between reading, writing and spelling are intertwined. By following this structured approach, spelling and reading are developed together, helping children make meaningful connections between spoken and written language.

InitiaLit follows a structured approach to spelling, closely aligned with the way children learn to read. Spelling is taught through:

Phonics-Based Instruction – Students learn to spell words by understanding the relationship between letters and sounds (phonics)

 Daily Explicit Teaching – Teachers introduce new spelling patterns and model how to break words into sounds.

Word Building Activities – Children practise blending (putting sounds together) and segmenting (breaking words apart) to spell words correctly. 

High-Frequency Words – Common words that don’t always follow regular spelling patterns are introduced and practised.

Hands-On Practice – Students engage in writing, word sorting, and interactive spelling games to reinforce their learning.

Cumulative Review – Spelling concepts are revisited and built upon throughout the year to strengthen retention.

Students may bring home words to practise throughout the year when appropriate. Your child's teacher will send home instructions explaining tasks when this happens. 

SPELLING Years 3-6 

Spelling Mastery Program:

This year we have invested in a new spelling program to improve spelling abilities at our school. Students in Years 3-6 will be learning to spell using Spelling Mastery which is a differentiated spelling program. The program uses an explicit, teacher-directed method of teaching called Direct Instruction. Spelling Mastery is an effective, research-proven spelling program that teaches students the strategies they need to become successful, life-long spellers. Students will participate in spelling lessons four times a week for approximately 20 minutes a session. They will each have a workbook to complete lesson tasks. 

Through Spelling Mastery, students learn to spell in three ways:

Spelling Mastery helps students to understand the relationship between sounds, word parts and spelling patterns and encourages them to become proficient writers. Through Spelling Mastery, students learn to spell in three ways: 

1. Students learn words using a phonemic approach. This sound-symbol method teaches students predictable spellings for different sounds. 

2. Students learn using a whole-word approach. This whole-word method teaches students common, irregularly-spelled words. For example, words like friend, answer and people, whose spellings can’t be figured out. 

3. Students learn rules about how to put different word parts together. These word parts are all called morphographs. Morphographs are the smallest units in words that have meaning, such as prefixes, base words and suffixes. Once they have learned to spell a few morphographs, students can mix them up to spell many words. They also learn the rules of putting morphographs together. Examples- ‘re’ as a morphograph has meaning. It means again - (repack, return, rerun).  ‘-est’ means the most - (lightest, happiest, friendliest).

How you can help your child:

Your child will be explicitly taught spelling strategies during lessons at school, so there is no necessity for them to learn spelling words as part of their homework. If you wish to encourage your child to do so however, the spelling lists for each level can be requested from your class teacher.

Sue Burke

English Leader

sburke@shnewport.catholic.edu.au