Principal's Message

Good afternoon all!

We are certainly in full swing with our learning program at Sacred Heart! It’s been wonderful joining in some of the learning activities which are occurring in our classrooms. Our leadership team have been working hard with our staff to support them with the implementation of our 2025 goals (as set out in the School Improvement Plan).

In particular our staff have been working toward the goal of embedding a low variance, knowledge rich curriculum where high levels of achievement are scaffolded and expected and the learning needs of all students are met. The implementation of the new learning programs through Magnify are helping us to achieve this goal. Students are learning through InitialLit, MultiLit and OCHRE. Similarly, The Source of Life program is providing religious education lessons which are consistent across the Sandhurst Diocese. Change can be difficult to adjust to, but our staff are working hard to ensure the new programs are being implemented in a way which supports our learners best. I would ask you to keep encouraging your children to ‘give their best’ as these programs have a very strong evidence base which tells us they work!

Already we are seeing successes and cause for celebration. Students in Year 5 and 6 who had not read a full novel before are reporting that they are really enjoying the novel ‘War Horse’ as it is read with them during classes. A key feature of the OCHRE curriculum is ‘setting the bar high’ for students ensuring that all students experience content which is challenging. Staff using InitialLit have stated that they are pleasantly surprised by the literacy learning they are seeing. As we continue this journey we will share more successes. Rest assured that we will continue to work on any challenges that come with change processes. In the coming weeks we will work toward a visual display in our foyer which will highlight how we are working toward our Annual Action Plan goals with visuals to show you what this is looking like.

Parent teacher conversations coming up in week 9 will provide all with a great opportunity to have rich conversations about this learning and we would love to see you there! Keep an eye out for the booking details which will be released shortly.

Our School Advisory Board met for the first time on Wednesday 19th February. We welcomed Julie Murrell to the role of Chairperson at this meeting. An item which parents provided feedback on was communication to parents. It was agreed that given that parents are interacting more with social media and utilising PAM that we would reduce the amount of newsletters per term to three (from five). Each week we will provide a condensed bulletin which details events for the following week to keep you informed. The reason for this is that downloads for newsletters have decreased however interactions with social media have increased dramatically. In each term a full newsletter will occur in weeks three, six and nine.

Earlier this week I (sadly) accepted Sally Dickinson’s resignation. Sally has been offered a position as a Public Health Officer with GV Health's Local Public Health Unit. Although Sally is sad to leave us, this opportunity is closely aligned with her degree qualification and her career aspirations. Sally has been a huge asset to Sacred Heart and although she will be missed, we wish her well in her future endeavours. Sally's final day will be March 26. We will commence the recruitment process shortly for this administrative role.

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday and our students enjoyed the opportunity to ‘feast’ on some beautifully cooked pancakes by our staff with some student helpers. I’d like to thank families who contributed pancake mixes and for those who contributed a gold coin donation. This forms the commencement of Caritas’ Project Compassion which continues throughout Lent. The tradition of cooking pancakes on Shrove Tuesday comes from the time when families would use up all their sweet and treat foods that they would then ‘fast’ from during the season of Lent. While fasting in a physical way is still the practice for many Catholics, the time of lent also encourages a time to reassess and make changes to how we live our lives. This was beautifully described by Pope Francis in 2021 when he delivered the following prayer at the beginning of the Lenten season.

Fast from hurting words … and say kind words,

Fast from sadness … and be filled with gratitude,

Fast from anger … and be filled with patience,

Fast from pessimism … and be filled with hope,

Fast from worries … and have trust in God,

Fast from complaints … and contemplate simplicity,

Fast from pressures … and be prayerful,

Fast from bitterness … and fill your hearts with joy,

Fast from selfishness … and be compassionate to others,

Fast from grudges … and be reconciled,

Fast from words … and be silent so you can listen!

Pope Francis 2021