Principal News 

TERM 1

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SPREAD THE GOOD WORD

• OPEN DAY #1 - 6th March 
• OPEN DAY #2 -14th March
• OPEN DAY #3 - 20th March 

Dear Families and Friends,

Our community has certainly sprung back with great gusto in what can only be described as an extraordinary fortnight at Sacred Heart. 

Described as the best day ever, we simply had the most spectacular close to the school week last Friday with our much anticipated Colour Run, and to be honest, we could not have imagined a better day for our students, staff and families at Sacred Heart. In passing the grounds, you would have been forgiven in thinking we had gone early with our typical St Patrick’s Day celebrations, as a sea of green swept across Sacred Heart 'saturating' all in its pathway. This dominant green dye literally bathed ‘every’ pocket and crevice of our school buildings and grounds, and some 7 days on, the lingering traces serve as a beautiful reminder of this stunning event.  

Noted at assembly on Friday, Miss Maloney even thought this green messaging suggested there may be some Irish magic in the air, after the odd leprechaun (above) visited the community in recent days. It is of course the month of March.

Once again, we congratulate Pam Moore (P&F) and Mr Blake for their significant investment and outstanding coordination in making this event happen; starting preparations well before the new school year. We must also acknowledge the generous support of our, ‘at times,’ over-exuberant dye throwing and water pistol wielding parent volunteers (they perhaps had more fun than the children) for truly getting into the spirit of the day - you were incredible! 

From the colour run circuit, to an obstacle course, a water soaking station, a ‘green’ slime pool and sausage sizzle, this fabulous event will certainly be one for the ages.    

Despite some challenges removing the green traces (ears included) over the weekend, we are most grateful to our staff for putting themselves forward (great sports) to be slimed and in doing so making this a highlight for so many students.  

As the school hats finally return to their original colour (thanks to Karen for washing over 50), we sincerely apologise for the extra loads of washing and odd dashes of colour still gracing some hairlines this week. Just for the record, green dye will not be on the order next time. 

GREEN FOR GRATITUDE

We also thank our fantastic team of over 60 parent helpers who cooked 200+ sausages, tossed boxes of dye, scrubbed the hall floor and cleaned the grounds on Friday afternoon. Without this level of support, such an event would simply not be possible. A special mention to Matt Hodder for lending a helping hand on Saturday to clean the grounds in readiness for the students on Monday. Sadly the pressure washer was a casuality blowing up in the process. 

And finally, we are indebted to our families, passionate students and dedicated staff for actively embracing and so generously supporting this amazing initiative, resulting in the extraordinary atmosphere and fundraising that will ultimately benefit the children. We loved it! *Please note a small portion of the funds raised was retained for administrative fees in using an outsourced online portal. The ease of this platform and capacity to track and share this with extended families and friends was well worth it in my opinion. 

OUR COMMUNITY HAS BOUNCED BACK

Whilst Friday was very much about the children, Saturday evening was certainly about the parents and an opportunity to gather together and ‘perhaps’ let their hair down and kick start our year with a bang! The energy on the evening was palpable and clearly all were thrilled to be back in this capacity; united, celebrating and connecting after many years of interruptions to such events. The timing was perfect coming off the excitement of the Colour Run as much of the talk centred around how happy their children were at school. Not surprisingly, as the night progressed, this shifted to locking in the next date, such was the success of this event.   

Noted by all, it was wonderful to see so many new families attend this opening event, suggesting our future and flourishing community is in good successional hands. A special thanks to Jodee Begg and her team for bringing this fabulous event together. What a fitting finale in Jodee’s last year at Sacred Heart. 

An absolute must

Along with the 'MUST READ' various leadership news, please make sure you read the School Captains page this week. This is written through their eyes, and we are immensly proud of their contributions across all aspects of school life. They've been exceptional role models this year. 

LITERACY in ACTION P-6

Whilst we acknowledge it may be difficult for some families to visit the classrooms in the morning, we do encourage you to drop in and witness our Literacy Block in action. We have no doubt you will be blown away by seeing what everyone is talking about. 

Below are some of our juniors doing letter/sound matching, irregular words, Heggerty and  sound packs. 

The quality of our structured literacy approach has been the most rapid and phenomenal transformation in my experience over the years. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I drifted through various classrooms and watched in awe as all teachers delivered ‘on point’ a range of direct and explicit instructions. I simply could not be more proud of their investment in this approach and the profound shift in how we now operate at Sacred Heart. We are all on the same page and collectively driving best practice and change. 

NUMBERS MATTER

In keeping with our theme this year of 'upping' ante on the two academic pillars of Literacy and Numeracy, it is important that we highlight the great work we are also doing in the key discipline of maths.  

Mr Blake wears a ‘number’ of hats across our community and as our maths leader ensures this key curriculum pillar is delivered daily (1hr/day) and explicitly across all year levels. At Sacred Heart, we aim to equip students with the mathematical concepts, attitudes and strategies necessary for their school life and beyond. Sacred Heart students explore real world contexts and appreciate that Mathematics is an essential and relevant part of life. The areas covered are based on the following Maths Dimensions as identified in the Victorian Curriculum Maths Domain: Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability.

Our daily Mathematics lessons follow the ‘whole-part-whole’ strategy. This approach includes a warm up to promote mathematical vocabulary and develop fluency and reasoning through verbal discussions such as number talks, thinking routines etc. P-2 teachers use Daily Review Master Deck Google slides where students revise mental maths concepts together as a group. This is then followed by explicit teaching of concepts and understandings. Students then have opportunities to apply their knowledge to problem solving situations either individually or in collaborative groups. Throughout the workshop, students take part in focussed teaching groups, complete independent, partner or group work and are involved in roving conferences with their teacher. Each workshop session is concluded with an opportunity to reflect on learning and to share successful strategies.

Introduced this year, Years 3-6 complete mental maths in a New Wave Mental Maths Revision Book everyday for 10 minutes. This helps students revise concepts learned and touch upon new topics informally. Students in Year 4-6 are also given opportunities to work in maths ‘catch’ groups throughout the week. This essentially enables teachers to target groups (support, consolidate and extend) and focus on points of need. Please note, these are fluid groups and students can readily move through these during the term.

Technology continues to play a role in our Mathematics curriculum. iPads, Chromebooks and interactive screens are used as tools to support Mathematics learning. In particular, to cater for the varying needs of our students Years 1 to 6 we use the online program Essential Assessment. This invaluable application provides teachers with immediate (live) data on students to determine their point of need i.e. pre -assessment to determine where to next. 

Scheduled regularly throughout the term, teachers reflect on their practice, analyse and track data and undertake targeted professional development to enhance their practice and knowledge to better cater for all students. Led by Mr Blake, our Maths Team of Miss Healy, Miss McKay, Miss Donnelly and Mrs Tucker ensure all staff are supported in the delivery of best practice and these practices align with our school improvement plan. 

It was great to drop in on Mrs Tucker's class this week as they worked on orientation. The children were intently focused on flipping shapes seeing what the shape would then look like once flipped. Mrs Tucker is an outstanding maths teacher and her explicit instructions were exemplary. 

Another sneaky highlight this week was dropping in on Yr.5 and watching them do some coding with Mr Blake.  Coding is method of giving a computer instructions to perform a specific task. Learning to code is a great opportunity for students of all ages to develop their problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and I'm pleased to see this has become a regular part of the senior program - the students love it! 

CLUBS ARE BACK IN 2023

It is with much excitement for our students and great appreciation for our dedicated staff that we will be offering the following clubs again in 2023. The below staff have so generously given up their time, above and beyond their typical work schedule to offer these rich extra-curricular activities. We cannot thank them enough for providing these opportunities for our students, before school and during their break times. 

On Thursday we kicked off with Running Club at 7:50am, and what a brilliant start with over 50 students, staff and parents participating. We thank Mr Brown, Miss McKay and Ms Tench for 'again' giving up their time to support the children with this healthy and terrific start to their day. 

STAFF NEWS

Mr T has been a notable absentee this week as he prepared for his special wedding day. We sincerly wish Trent and Ashley much happiness as they start this exciting new chapter with a few well deserved weeks away on holiday. In his absence, we have been so blessed to have the wonderful Mrs Biffin back on staff supporting these students..

In recent weeks we have loved seeing Miss Levy in for the odd coverage day. We wish her and Ryan every success as they near closer to the birth of their first child in the coming weeks. 

LIFE LONG LEARNERS

Noted by a few families during the week were lights on in various rooms across the school, well into the evening. These rooms were occupied by staff doing online lectures and assignments for further studies. Modelling life-long learning, we congratulate and commend the following staff for their investment in these additional professional studies. 

• Sarah Rafferty - Masters in Educational Leadership
• Kate Stroud - Masters in Education - Language & Literacy
• Dara Blake - Masters in Education -Student Wellbeing
• Jayne McKay - Level 1 Coaching Crossfit for Kids

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

On Tuesday, all staff, led by Miss Rafferty (T&L Leader), continued their professional learning journey on the evidence-based practice, The Writing Revolution. This best practice has been steadily rolled out across the entire school and we look forward to seeing the growth of our students (and staff) in this key discipline over the coming months. 

What is the purpose of The Writing Revolution?

The Writing Revolution provides teachers with an evidence-based and proven instructional methodology, the Hochman Method. The methodology rests on explicit, carefully sequenced instruction, building from sentences to compositions. The aim of The Writing Revolution (TWR) is to help all students become proficient writers, readers, and critical thinkers. 

The session on Tuesday was superbly facilitated by Miss Rafferty and all staff are taking this learning straight into their classrooms to implement. In addition to improved student outcomes, this rigour has had such a positive impact on the way we do things at Sacred Heart and I’m most proud of our staff as they continue to grow their capacity as educators. 

 Maths Professional Development

Next week, staff will work with a leading maths consultant on extension and differentiation strategies in the classroom. The staff's receptiveness to the  fine tuning of their practices has been faultless

ASSEMBLY - HANDING OVER THE BATON (Red Box)

In recent weeks we have been mixing it up at our weekly assemblies and having different staff lead these gatherings. Since introducing this initiative, it would be fair to say I now feel a little redundant as the staff have 'taken the bull by the horns/microphone' and have shone beyond expectation. Coincidentally, it may also feel like a theme/pattern is forming as we have had 3 of our 4 Irish teachers (Mr Blake, Miss Rafferty & Miss Maloney) run the assembly in recent weeks. With the bar raising by the week, we have all been so incredibly impressed by these staff and their natural ability and manner to captivate and hold an audience (students, staff and families). What a blessing it has been to sit and enjoy watching these staff in 'the flow', thriving!

A beautiful feature of this new approach has been how each staff member has adapted and added their own unique and personal touch to this presentation. We've loved hearing about the school bunny Michael's adventures, Lenny the sausage dog, even spotlighting a class with an inpromtu song or jingle, and what is certain to be a long standing new addition, Secret Playground Spy. This is where teachers celebrate and share observations they have captured on the playground. Congratulations staff, you have risen again and not surpringly far exceeded my lofty expectations.  We all look forward to Ms Tench taking the microphone in the coming weeks. 

Look out Miss Prosser, it appears your junior school Irish colleagues have you firmly in their sights. Apparently the green slime is all part of the initiation process.

PANCAKE TUESDAY 

A very big thank you to our parent helpers who flipped, tossed and topped over 400 pancakes last week for Shrove Tuesday.  What an amazing effort! We truly value the time given and elbow grease used to ensure this ran smoothly. All funds raised this year will proudly be redirected to breast cancer research. Well done Sacred Heart community, continuing to make a difference by our actions.  A massive call out to Lisa McDonald for so generously donating the pancake mix for this special day and Mr Blake for his relentless energy and passion coordinating this event. 

Mission Statements & Mottos

Don't forget to drop by the admin entry and see the collection of all the class Mission Statements and Mottos. It's definitely worth a look. 

OPEN DAYS

• OPEN DAY #1 - 6th March 
• OPEN DAY #2 -14th March
• OPEN DAY #3 - 20th March 

We ask all families, our greatest advocates, to spread the good word and encourage prospective families to attend one of our upcoming open days. Should a friend or family member be unable to attend one of these sessions. Please note, we are always happy to offer tours outside of these dates. We are doing awesome things at Sacred Heart, and would dearly welcome your endorsements. 

We thank Karen for putting these special showbag treats together for our prospective families and our middle school for creating the unique art work to personalise each bag.

NAPLAN 15th - 22nd March

In the coming weeks, Yr.3 & 5 students will undertake the annual NAPLAN assessment, and we ask all families to please make themselves familiar with the following timetable to ensure their child is available and 'ready.'  We again thank Mr Blake for coordinating this program. 

NAPLAN INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

LOCK’EM IN - KEY DATES

• OPEN DAY #1 - 6th March - Spread the good word. 
• Staff Conference - School Closure 9th & 10th March
• OPEN DAY #2 -14th March
• St Patrick's Day Liturgy - 16th March
• School Athletics Carnival - 17th March
• OPEN DAY #3 - 20th March 
• Respectful Relationships Open Afternoon - 20th March
• Reconciliation - 23rd March
• P&F Family Movie Night - 25th March
• Yr.6 Canberra 27th -30th March
• Berry Street Staff PD - 3rd April 
• School Photos - 5th April

Please note we have more 2023 dates in the 'Key Dates' page and school website Google calendar. This is live and updated regularly.

LITTLE GEMS

It was pretty special to have these beautiful Preps drop by my office this week and showcase their reading. Clearly not shy of a photo, the girls asked if my special skeleton could also be in the photo. 

Who doesn't love a sticker, particularly when you're doing your best in class. 

Miss McKay Boot Camp

Although I do not have a photo as evidence, I was completely blown away by the workout Miss McKay was doing with her students this week. The students asked if I wanted to join them as Miss McKay was taking them through their paces with 'some kind' of planking excercise. My response was to the point, "No thanks, I don't want Miss McKay to break Mr Collis." 

In keeping with our fit staff theme, Mr Brown is steadily building up the kilometres with a marathon planned later in the year and Mr Blake turned up to Running Club on Friday after 4.5km swim. Time to dust of the sneakers! 

Just quietly, I'm backing in Mr Brown with this contest. 

How special is this to see our Yr.6s leading the P-2 choir? Love the impact Miss Roberston is having with her amazing music program.

Respectful Relationships

On Monday, Miss Rafferty will be filmed doing a Respectful Relationship lesson with her class. This will be used as a training  tool for other schools to showcase the value of these lessons and content material. We are thrilled to acknowledge Sacred Heart  is leading the way in the Bayside with this critical education and exemplary practice.  

And finally...

Once again, whilst my best intentions are to cut back on the content in the fortnightly newsletter, there is simply too much to celebrate and acknowledge.

We truly are doing  great things at Sacred Heart, and I cannot thank our students, staff and families enough for making Sacred Heart the place to be,

Simon Collis

Principal

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