Emotions ran high as I read and then delivered the letters that the Sacred Heart Community residents had written back to our students. The aim to ‘put a smile on their faces’ came through in the letters and I am so thankful to the students and families who participated in the first round of letter writing. Please read some of the letters below, I hope they make your hearts as happy as mine!

It is time to start writing the next round of letters. The students who received letters back are welcome to write back to the same resident if they choose. Everyone else is encouraged to address their letters, “Dear Pen Pal’. That way, Tamara, the manager at SHC, can gauge where the interest is and have residents opt in and out as they feel able. I will share some more letters next week. It was a real thrill to deliver these letters to our students and share their absolute joy at receiving a hand written letter.

Thank you to Brook S for picking up the letters for me and to all of the amazing SKiPPS parents that offered to help.

2024 Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee

18 enthusiastic students met with me yesterday and took part in the 2024 Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee. I want to congratulate each student as I believe they modelled our school value of curiosity as they challenged themselves to an ‘unknown’ task.

The Bee requires the students to listen to a word online and then they are given 25 seconds to type it on the screen. The range of words varies from regularly used words to less frequently used words and the difficulty increases as they go. At the end the students are given a score out of 30.

Given that the competition is against students from all over Australia, it will be a few weeks until we hear if anyone has progressed through to the next round. This involves getting a large amount of the words correct along with the speed at which they are entered.

Given that at SKiPPS, we are not completing all writing tasks on keyboards, I applaud the students for participating and having a go. I will keep you posted if I hear of any advancements with Round 2.

Book Recommendations

Neil Scott : Principal

What are you reading at the moment?

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Why did you choose that book?

I had it recommended to me through a podcast after it won the 2023 Booker Prize. I actually 'cheated' and enjoyed the audiobook version when I was out walking the dog over the recent school holidays.

What is the story about?

It tells the story of a very normal middle-class family in Dublin, Ireland as it is taken over by a totalitarian, oppressive government. The new Police State slowly extends its powers and has a huge and negative impact on the family. Without giving too much away, it soon becomes clear that the only way to survive is to get out of the country.

Some take aways...

Prophet Song had a huge effect on me as it was such a believable portrait of how external events that start small and seemingly minor can escalate and tear apart people's lives.

At a time when refugees and migrants are very much in the news for negative reasons and are blamed for many issues in sections of the media, the book allows you to understand how close we could all be to having to make desperate decisions and being in the same boat.

Did you enjoy the book?

Enjoy is probably not the right word but I would thoroughly recommend it.

Picture Story Book

The Concrete Garden by Bob Graham

Nominated for the 2024 CBCA Early Childhood Book of the Year

After a long Winter, children spilled out to their common play area. Amanda brought some chalk with her. On every inch of the concrete outside, the children drew pictures of everything they could think of, from flowers and snails to spaceships and queens.

Before long, a beautiful and exotic garden spread out across the concrete. Bob Graham is one of our favourite authors at SKiPPS and we use many of his texts as Mentor Texts. This book is a charming story about finding optimism and the nurturing power of community friendships in an urban setting.

Young Readers

Huda was Here by H Hayek

Nominated for the 2024 CBCA Book of the Year : Younger Readers

Huda has a bold plan to help her dad get a job – this plan lands her and her brother in all kinds of trouble. A delightful and hilarious story from a CBCA award-winning author, about a lion-hearted girl who just wants the best for her family.

Huda yawns loudly and stretches out her arms. Almost like she’s bored in science class and waiting for the bell to go for lunch. Except we’re not at school, we’re in police custody. Because of her stupid idea.

When her dad loses his job as a security officer and has to work interstate, Huda convinces her brother Akeal to sneak out at night to make mischief, hoping to force their dad’s bosses to hire him back.

How much are the children willing to risk for family unity – and what else might they uncover along the way?

A thoroughly entertaining story full of courage and enjoyment.

At last week’s assembly, I shared the exciting news that Freddy S & Ari J, both Year 1 students were both successful in winning prizes for their stories.

Freddy was a runner up for his story, My Cat Purrseus. Ari was Highly Commended with his story, The Two Not Magical Magicians and the One Very Magical Magician.

Please read and enjoy their stories below.

My Cat Purrseus

by Fredrik S

Some cats are brown. Some cats are white. Some cats are fluffy. My cat Purrseus is as black as night.

It was Saturday when we brought him home from the animal shelter. He was very scared and shy but he soon felt settled with his new family. We know this because he purrs a lot. We named him Purrseus after the brave Ancient Greek hero who beheaded Medusa.

My mum and sister went to the pet shop to buy him some food but he tries to eat my breakfast cereal instead.

They bought him a scratching post too so he doesn’t scratch the couch. Mum would be very upset if he scratched the couch.

Sometimes Purrseus sneezes. Dad sneezes too. I think they could be allergic to each other.

Purrseus loves a cuddle. He rubs his head into me and waits for a scratch under the chin. He is as soft as a silk.

We made him a cubby house using an old box and decorated it with string and toys for him to play with. He goes crazy playing fetch just like a dog.

Purrseus likes to chase his tail and run around playing with a toilet roll. He got his head stuck in an empty tissue box.

And he likes to play hide and seek.

He hides in the shoe cupboard.

He hides behind the filing cabinet.

He hides on top of the pinball machine.

He hides beside the couch.

He hides under the bed.

Purrseus is really hard to find.

On Sunday, my mum bought him a collar with a bell. He is not so good at hiding anymore!

I love my cat Purrseus. He can’t talk but I know he loves me. He is purrfect!

The Two Not Magical Magicians and the one very Magical Magician

by Ari Johnson

“I’m going to make this apple disappear.”

“Oh boy!”

“Ta da!”

“You didn’t make it disappear, you just ate it.”

“Oh oh, you figured out my trick.”

“You didn’t even eat the whole thing!”

“OK, watch this!” Flick flick. “Ta da!”

“That’s not magic, it’s just a lighter.”

“Oops. I thought I was magic.”

“You’re not a magician, you’re a fake magician. Plus that’s not even a magician hat. It’s a chef’s hat!”

“I AM the real magician. I am going to make the front axel on my bike disappear.” Bang crash.

“Ta da!”

“You didn’t make the front axel disappear. You just took it out and threw it over your shoulder. I can see it in the grass behind you.”

“What about another trick? My best one yet?”

“OK.”

“I am going to make my bike tyre pop with a wave of my hand.”

Pop!

“You didn’t make it pop, you just cut it open with a pocket knife! You need to go back to magician school. Good bye.”

“Actually, now it is my turn to show you two a trick. I am going to make you guys disappear. Now just close your eyes and count to five.”

One, two, three, four, five BOOM!

“Hey, where have you gone? We are all alone here, how did we get to this desert island? Oh yeah, I forgot about that magician who made us disappear.”

“I wish we weren’t magicians in the first place because otherwise we wouldn’t have met that magician who made us disappear.”

THE END

Book Week 2024

August 17-23

Teachers have been sharing the 2024 nominated books with their classes and students have started voting on their favourites from each category.

The categories we are voting on are;

Early Childhood
Picture Book
Non-Fiction
New Illustrator

Encourage your children to share their votes and favourite books with you. The display is up in the quadrangle. The colour dots that have been placed on the books are representing the year levels.

Foundation students are voting with Green dots,

Year 1/2 students are voting with Red dots,

Year 3/4 students are voting with Orange dots and the

Year 5/6 students are voting with Blue dots.

At an upcoming assembly, I will share the SKiPPS winning books for each category. All these books have been purchased for each level and will be shared amongst the classroom libraries. There has also been a copy purchased of each book for the school library.

Book Week Costume Parade

This year we will be getting our Book Week costumes on a little later.

On Friday 30th August we invite all of our students, staff (and parents) to dress up as a favourite book character. As an added challenge, you might like to interpret the 2024 Book Week theme of "Reading is Magic".

The parade will take place at the end of our Friday morning assembly and be led by our Year 6 Library Leadership Team.

If you have any questions about anything Literacy, please come and see me.

Jac Morphy

Literacy

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