Dear Parents and Carers,

A letter was sent to all families via Compass on Friday afternoon with the news that Mrs Kath Baird has been appointed Principal at Sacred Heart commencing in 2022. Mrs Baird was introduced to the staff and students on Friday afternoon and she is very excited about starting in the role next year. Mrs Baird is currently the Transition leader at St Mary’s in Gunnedah, however she also has a range of experience in leading in primary schools, including experience as an Additional Needs Consultant at the Catholic Schools Office. As the end of the year draws nearer, we will ensure that there is a smooth transition of leadership and Mrs Baird will be visiting the school a number of times over the coming weeks to work with staff and meet students and families.

Over the past few weeks, the teachers have been finalising our 2021 assessment data and beginning the process of preparing the Semester Two reports. These reports will be made available on Compass to families at the beginning of Week 10. The data results have been most pleasing for our school this year. Our Annual Improvement Plan of improving reading comprehension has been a significant focus for the staff through the implementation of targeted interventions for all students. As a result, our 2021 PAT Reading assessment results have been outstanding, with the vast majority of our students demonstrating improvement when compared to the 2020 results. Furthermore, the PAT Maths assessments have shown significant growth school-wide. The implementation of the MaST program has resulted in a new approach to the teaching and learning of Mathematics, and our students have reaped the benefits of this new approach. These results, when coupled with our NAPLAN data from earlier in the year, show that the students at Sacred Heart have achieved outstanding academic results in 2021 and we are extremely proud of our students for their wonderful results.

Our focus will now shift to the development of the 2022 Annual Improvement Plan. Our excellent assessment results, together with the staff, student and parent survey results, will help guide our strategic planning for 2022. In many cases, the focus will be on continuing to embed and refine our practices in literacy and numeracy to ensure continued growth for all students. Staff will be working together to form the 2022 Improvement Plan over the coming weeks with the view to share this with families before the end of the school year.

Our 2021 Presentation Ceremony is scheduled to be held on Wednesday 8 December. At this stage, it is not possible for us to plan for parents to be onsite for these award presentations. With that in mind, it is likely that the ceremony will be held during school hours. We are hopeful of being able to provide parents with an opportunity to view the ceremony, either via live stream or by having the awards outside. More details will follow once we have some clarity.

A friendly reminder that Term 4 School Fees + any overdue fees are due by this Friday 19th November. As always, if you are having difficulty with payment, please contact either myself or Robyn in the Office.

Special mention to Saxon who celebrates his 9th birthday this Saturday. We hope you have a great day!

Have a great week!

Nick

Weekly Awards

Students Of The Week ~Week 6