WEEK 1 - TERM 3

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A Light Touch!

Dear Families and Friends,

For our opening newsletter for the term we have adopted a 'lighter' approach before building up to some exciting and fuller weeks to follow. How wonderful it was to see ‘most’ of our students and staff return on Monday, refreshed for what is typically a bigger and more productive semester ahead. Whilst we have certainly hit the ground running, sadly it looks as though another wave of illness is gently rolling through our community impacting staffing and student attendance across the school. We have welcomed your ongoing support in monitoring for signs and symptoms (Covid and Flu) and remain hopeful we can stem the tide and limit the impact across our community during these colder months.

Please note, we are also actively encouraging our families to collect Rapid Antigen Test kits (RATS) from the office to ensure we adhere to community expectations and guidelines. On that note, a special call out to Alice & Frankie from Year 5 for helping on the gate on Tuesday morning distributing kits to our most appreciative families at drop-off. Although this was an effective means to distribute kits, unfortunately we were unable to offer fries and coffee as requested by one family at the express zone. In light of this successful outcome, we will look to adopt this RAT distribution approach from time to time, so please keep an eye out for the boxes on the gate.

Term Overviews - Ready, set, action...

Many thanks to our dedicated staff (classroom & specialists) for preparing yet another set of informative videos for our families, highlighting the term ahead. This unique and creative presentation steps away from the conventional ‘hard copy’ pdf and we believe adds an important personal touch and opportunity to get to know our wonderful staff a little bit better. I once again congratulate the team for committing to this approach, and dare I say, opening themselves and their program up to the broader community in this platform. We welcome your feedback and trust you will truly value this investment in the coming days when they are distributed. Don't forget to view the specialist videos, they are simply brilliant! A sneaky peak below from Mrs Hyslop.

New Family

It has been delightful to welcome Morris into Yr.1/2RS this week. Coupled by the excitement of his new peers, we also sincerely thank Miss Rafferty for wrapping up our newest member to Sacred Heart. We are indebted to our families for spreading the great word and actively promoting the best school in the bayside. Word of mouth remains our strongest suit at Sacred Heart and continues to be an invaluable source for attracting new families to our amazing community!

School Tours

In recent weeks (even over the semester break) it has been terrific to take families around the school on tours. Either looking to join our Prep intake or enter at another year level, we have just loved this opportunity to showcase our school and share our story. Keep up the great work families as many families are citing your referrals #bestschoolinthebayside

Staffing News

Unassuming and always humble, we congratulate Mr Thiessens on successfully being awarded his ‘black belt’ in jiu jitsu over the semester break. The multi-talented and dedicated Mr T teaches PE and Yr. 5/6, plays guitar for the choir, is our residential IT expert and was our former performing arts teacher. We are super proud of his achievement, well done Mr T!

In adopting a ‘one wall at a time’ approach, we are so grateful to Ms Kehoe and Ms Healey (and a few little helpers) for their efforts across the senior school area in preparing some new semester topic displays. With great attention to detail, they have spent many hours (and a few too many laughs) investing in the classroom walls and corridor spaces. Clearly in their element, we have loved watching these spaces take shape in recent days. We hope our students and families can appreciate these during the upcoming parent/teacher interviews. #pinterestiscalling

It's always special dropping into the Wednesday morning Art Club and see the students and the best art teacher in action. Thanks Mrs Hyslop, this is such a beautiful way for our students to start their day.

On Friday, we finally got opportunity to farewell Mrs Fahey at assembly. We thank Yr.1/2RS & 3/4F for their lovely song and thank you book acknowledging Mrs Fahey's influence. All the best again with your next chapter Gemma.

New Child Safe Standards

On Thursday afternoon all staff gathered to review the new Child Safe Standards. From 1 July 2022, 11 new Victorian Child Safe Standards have replaced the seven previous Child Safe Standards (and principles) which had been in place since 2016. This was an opportunity to review each standard and affirm what current practices we have implemented and embedded at Sacred Heart - there are many.

Some examples are:

All staff mandatory reporting obligations and have been trained and refreshed on their mandatory reporting obligations: Protecting Children – Mandatory Reporting and Other Legal Obligations
Direct staff to PROTECT for guidance on:
- how to recognise indicators and risk factors of child harm, including harm caused by other children and young people
- the processes to follow if a concern is raised.
Implement the Rights & Respectful Relationship program.
Berry Street Training - Trauma Informed and best evidence-based practice
Create a welcoming environment at school so community members and families feel respected, included and safe to come onto school grounds.
Ask parents and carers about their children – this can be in formal settings like parent–teacher interviews, or during chance meetings at pick-up and drop-off.
Let students know they can safely raise concerns or report incidents that occurred at school and outside school.
Engage genuinely with students. Find out what matters to them, what they know and don’t know about safety, and what they need to be safe and feel safe all the time.
Maintain WWWC.
Volunteer parent training course.
Encourage students to raise concerns with a trusted adult if anything makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
Begin events and meetings with a Welcome to Country or an Acknowledgment of Country as a standing agenda item.
Implement the Child Safety Code of Conduct: All staff and carers at Sacred Heart are required to adhere to this Code of Conduct.
Make the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy and Child Safety Code of Conduct publicly available.

It was also opportunity to audit and reflect on what we could do even better at:

Provide age-appropriate and accessible information to students, such as information about United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
Create child-friendly versions of the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy and Child Safety Code of Conduct with student input, and make these versions publicly available.

Club Corner

We again thank the staff for offering up their precious time to run the various clubs throughout the week. As this is getting ‘Bigger than Ben Hur,’ we are starting to wonder if we'll have anyone left on the playground before school or at lunchtime.

Next week we introduce ‘Coding Club’ run by Miss Rafferty and Miss Healey during break time. Gosh our students are so fortunate to be afforded these rich opportunities each week.

Coding Club - Miss Rafferty & Miss Healey
Fitness and Stretching Club - Miss Mckay
Running Club - Mr Brown and Mr Blake
Art Club - Mrs Hyslop
Reading Club - Mrs Brown & Mrs Harper
Gardening Club - Mrs Collins
Talent Show - Miss Bryce

Parent Teacher Interviews - 20th & 21st July

Please note Karen has sent an email to all families this week regarding the scheduling of appointments for the Parent/Teacher interviews via our online platform, PTO. Whilst this is a 'first in' approach to making an appointment, if necessary, please reach out to your child's classroom teacher should you be struggling to make a suitable time. A reminder the link for bookings is: https://bookings.parentteacheronline.com.au/Logon2.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f%3fschool%3d96216&school=96216 - Click on 'Obtain PIN' and then follow instructions.

New SAC Members Required

We are seeking expressions of interest for two soon to be vacated positions on the School Advisory Council. Typically there is one-two meetings scheduled a term for approximately one hour. Applicants can email principal@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au

Little Gems

Once a again, a very special call out to Alice and Frankie for offering to help with the RAT distribution on Tuesday at drop-off. These random acts of kindness and gestures are such great attributes and rarely overlooked.

Many thanks also to Lucy, Harriet and Finn who have taken it upon themselves to clean the yard in recent days. Although the rubbish is not something we should be celebrating, it is fabulous to see the initiative and pride these students show for 'their' school.

A little bit of sand pit fun goes a 'long' way. Apologies for the pockets full of sand making their way home. Be assured the carpets in the classrooms have not missed out either and I'm sure you can see why. From little digs, big digs grow.

Mr Brown continues to weave his magic across the classrooms during his leadership time. This week he delivered more Respectful Relationships lessons in Yr. 3&4 and Preps. Whilst he loved the later, and said the students were brilliant, he believes he is perhaps best suited in the upper end of the school. Love your influence and work Mr Brown. We are confident these powerful messages/lessons are shaping great and respectful young minds.

Jasper, our very own paleontologist, shared his exceptional dinosaur slideshow presentation on Friday. I was completely blown away by his recall of facts and incredible pronunciation of their scientific names.

Micaela and Elodie from Yr.3 also dropped by on Friday morning to share their wonderful prayers. Staggered by their thoughtful intentions and use of language, Miss Levy thought this needed to be showcased beyond her classroom. Miss Healey and I could not believe the quality of their handwriting. Look out senior students, the bar has been raised.

New Calendar

Please note Karen has linked our school Google calendar to the school website. In addition to key dates in the newsletter, this live calendar platform reflects all key events in moving forward. We are updating this regularly.

Key Dates and Reminders

18th July - P&F
20th & 21st July - Parent Teacher Interviews
28th July - 3/4 Hoop Time
5th August - 5/6 Hoop Time
8th August - Maths Week
13th August - 3/4 Mass
19th August - School Closure - Respectful Relationships Staff Training
22nd August - Book Week
24th August - Book Parade
2nd September - Father's Day Assembly
3rd September - Dad's Footy Day

Camps 2023

Yr.3 Zoo Snooze (Overnight)
Yr.4 Camp Maldon - inclusive of Bike Ed (3 days) 6th - 8th Sept
Yr. 5 Philip Island (3 days) 3rd - 5th May
Yr.6 Canberra (5 days) 27th - 31st March

And finally...

So much for the light on newsletter.

I sense we're in for a truly amazing semester ahead,

Simon Collis

Principal

Instagram: @sacred_heart__sandringham

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