Principal News 

Dear Families

What an action packed fortnight it has been across the school! It is wonderful to celebrate our events in the Sacred Heart way, with fantastic community support, enthusiasm and fun. 

2026 ART GLOW SHOW 

We congratulate Ms Gray for leading this truly amazing art show, it  was a roaring success! We are blessed to have Ms Gray on staff and thank her for her creativity  and leadership. This year it was a collaborative approach, supported by the choir.  We  were also able to experience Italian culture with our prayer in Italian and our Year One students dancing the Tarantella.  Ms Allen showcased our STEM program; utilising our tech resources, and Mr Jaynes with some senior students showed us how to play Gaga Ball. 

As is the Sacred Heart way everyone helped in so many ways. Thank you to our dedicated staff for their work behind the scenes and to our P & F for our delicious Sausage Sizzle, with a glow stick!  We thank Luisa, Lucas, Helen, Asha, Helen, Madeline, Julie, and Andy Whitten for organising the bread. As always we are so appreciative of Paul at Baker’s Delight Hampton and to Family Fresh Butchers, for our delicious sausages.  Walking into the STEM room felt like we had entered our own Dark MoFo. It was a delight to stand at the door and watch people’s reactions as they entered the space. There were displays throughout the school, highlighting the students’ artistic skills utilising various mediums across each year level. Miss Allen’s STEM makey makey’s and Lava lamps were a huge hit with the crowds, with many not wanting to go home. Each classroom had learning on display with the children’s books open for families to look through. We have so much learning to celebrate at Sacred Heart. We look forward to our 2028 Art Show with excitement and anticipation! 

Thank you to the new owners of an original Sacred Heart art piece!  Your generosity is much appreciated and goes directly towards our Adventure Playground. 

Prep - Magripilis family 

Year One - Shannon family 

Year Two - Chalk family 

Year Three - Kate R

Year 4 - Mark 

Year 5 - Amber 

Year 6 - McCoy family 

100 Days of Prep 

I was most surprised on Wednesday morning to see so many ‘old’ Sacred Heart Prep students hobbling through the school gate with many a walking frame and walking stick, and wondered where our young Prep children had gone. This day is always a highlight for the whole community. To see the confidence over the last 100 days of the newer members of our school family is nothing short of remarkable. Each of them is a valued member of Sacred Heart and loved for who they are. Our Prep team led by Miss Hanna Wood, Miss Zoe Porter, Ms Tiffany Levy and Mrs Louise Bohannon, supported by Lola, Oscar, Mary, Della, Sienna, Ashleigh and Kate gave our students and their families a day to remember. At the end of the Prep assembly many parents had happy tears and as they left the children to their 100 Days of Prep learning activities. It was great watching the Prep video at assembly this morning, and hearing about their special day. 

A few families asked me to share my words from the morning.  

What does 100 Days of Prep mean? 

100 days of learning, socialising, set backs, triumphs, happy children, tired children, sponges soaking it all in..

To our staff: Hanna, Zoe, Tiffany, Louise B, Mary B, Della, Sienna, Lola, Oscar, Ashleigh and Kate W, supported by the rest of the staff, we say a huge thank you!  

It really does take a village to raise a child and Sacred Heart is the best village going....

Parents - What does 100 days of Prep mean?

First child:

100 days of traversing the unknown, emotions of your own schooling experience as you support your own child beginning their journey.

 As parents we feel strong emotions, sometimes have less resilience on behalf of our children, but as a parent we need to set the example of having courage, facing our challenges, being kind and being forgiving. 

Of course the practicalities of 100 Days of Prep:

100 days of school lunches, preparing school uniforms and knowing when a sports uniform is required!  Reading the newsletter, navigating nForma, hearing reading at home, and making friends within our parish school community. It also means learning about our faith and continuing the journey wherever you are on that road. 

For some it means the first 100 Days with your oldest child. 

For some it is seeing Sacred Heart through the eyes of your second or third child, who is very different from your first. 

For some it is letting go as your youngest leaves the Day Care, Kinder, home nest and goes out into the world. 

Wherever you are please know that the Sacred Heart family is with you, you are all valued and cherished members of our family and may God bless each of you and your children. 

Finally we farewell Raf, Laura, Joseph, and Cecilia, as they head off to San Francisco.  Please know that you are always welcome to visit us and please stay in touch. 

Many visitors to the principal’s office celebrating learning and preparing for assembly, my favourite time! 

Roster for Gaga Ball and the Oval

The School Captains together with the Sports Leaders met with me to organise a roster for these two areas of the school, to allow more students to use them. These rosters were designed and shared at assembly last week. Our middle and junior students continue to learn the rules of Gaga Ball and how to take turns, follow the rules and go out graciously. This will be followed up with a Social Story at assembly for the whole school in the next few weeks. 

The oval will be shared to allow greater access for the children. 

I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that from 3:15pm - 3:45pm there are no balls used around the school, including the lower basketball courts and the oval. This allows families, toddlers and little ones  in prams to enter and leave the school grounds safely. Thank you for respecting this. 

Staff Update 

We welcome Maestra Paula who will teach Italian on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Maestra Mary will continue her Wednesday. Paula Incretolli is a highly experienced educator who has worn many teaching and leadership hats in her teaching experience.  We are thrilled she has joined our staff for this semester. 

400, 000 steps for Poppa - Jack’s story 

At assembly last week we had the pleasure of Josh interviewing his brother Jack, as we learnt about his fundraiser to support MND, as his grandfather battled with disease. We also discovered that Jack used to go to Sacred Heart and is currently in Year 10. Many of the O’Callaghan family are part of our Sacred Heart community and have been for many years. If you would like to learn more about Jack’s steps please click on this link. We congratulate Jack for his initiative and the awareness he has raised for MND. 

https://fightmnd.org.au/news/400000-steps-for-poppa-jacks-story/

We welcome some new Australian Citizens to Sacred Heart 

We congratulate Joshua of Year Three fame, and his family  for participating in a Citizenship Ceremony a few Wednesdays ago at the Brighton Town Hall. Joshua and his family had to go on stage, say their names and country of birth on a microphone in front of 150 people.  Joshua was too short to reach the microphone, but nonetheless said his name and country Namibia, clearly and loudly,  for that he received the loudest cheer! We congratulate them all. 

Major Fundraiser – Sacred Heart Winter Olympics this Saturday!

Get out your Après ski outfit or ugly sweater and join the P & F  this Saturday evening for our major fundraising event of the year; the Sacred Heart Winter Olympics. With a live auction, raffle tickets, grazing boxes and fun ‘Olympic sporting’ activities, this is a wonderful opportunity to bring our vibrant community together and have some fun, while raising valuable funds for our fabulous new Adventure Playground.

Installed earlier this year, the Adventure Playground replaced our previous loved-but-outdated playground and is already a huge hit with our students. The Adventure Playground completes our playground update alongside the recent additions of the Gaga Pit, Mud Kitchen, Water Pump, Four Square courts, and playground shade sails. We love seeing our students and local community use the playground to be active, build friendships, play together, learn great sportspersonship, and create our future sports leaders!

Our Sacred Heart pupils are thrilled with their new school play environment and are learning how to play safely and respectfully with all the new apparatus. An on-going program of social stories are being shared in our school assemblies and in our Respectful Relationships lessons to educate everyone on playground safety, participation and rules. 

We are so grateful to our incredible P& F for organising this event, and whose fundraising activity over the next two years will go towards remunerating the costs of our fantastic Adventure Playground. We also extend our gratitude to everyone in our school community for coming together to fundraise for the playground and making our school so special for present and future students. Please book your tickets, find that ugly sweater or apres ski outfit and join us for our Winter Olympics. It is going to be fantastic. We can't wait to see you there!

Dad’s day at the Caulfield races 

Recently several of our Sacred Heart Dads attended the  Dad’s Annual Races Day for 2026 held at Caulfield Race Day. There were about 30 Dad’s  in attendance and the day was a huge success. We thank James Kennedy for organising this fantastic day and everyone is looking forward to 2027! 

Blessing of the Adventure Playground 

Hot off the press. After discussions with Father Martin and the School Advisory Council, please keep Thursday 10th September 2:30-3:30pm free for the Blessing of the Adventure Playground. There will be more information regarding this in the next newsletter. 

Year Four Eucharist 

Our Sacred Heart parish and school community  pray for our Year Four students as they prepare for the Sacrament of Eucharist, on Thursday 6th August. 

Gold Gold Gold 

We congratulate Emily for her gold medal at the Commonwealth games Glasgow, for Artistic Gymnastics. We can’t wait for her to visit us at assembly on her return. Mr Homer is so proud of her and the hard work that has gone into this achievement. 

Congratulations to Cole, who recently competed in the K2 Junior Shredder competition at Mt Hotham. Over the weekend, he competed in his first moguls event, followed by a ramps and jumps competition, performing exceptionally well in both. We are so proud of the way he embraced these new challenges. As an added bonus, several sponsorship companies shared photos of Cole on their social media, recognising his efforts. 

We also congratulate another of our Year 5 students Annabelle, who is proudly representing Victoria this week as a member of the Victorian Schools Diving Team. This is a fantastic achievement and reflects her dedication, perseverance and commitment to her sport. We wish Annabelle every success in the competition and know she will represent both her team and Sacred Heart with pride. We look forward to hearing all about her experience when she returns.

Finally we congratulate Tatiane, Zac, Octavio and Antonella on the arrival of baby Gigi. We can't wait to meet her. 

Take care and wishing God's blessings and peace upon each of you. 

Mrs Cathy Ferrari