Principal News 

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SPREAD THE GOOD WORD

• OPEN DAY #3 - 20th March 

AN IRISH BLESSING & OUR VERY OWN SACRED HEART POT OF GOLD 

Dear Families and Friends,

We are pleased to acknowledge our students benefited from the recent extended long-weekend. This was a timely breather, in particular for our juniors who are steadily building their learning stamina - sustained effort, perseverance and resilience.  At Sacred Heart, we purposefully aim to nurture stamina by building the muscles of learning, one repetition and one day at a time. 

In light of our tight and rigorous learning program, we are acutely aware of managing the cognitive demands (load) minute by minute. Over time, and with practise, the students are able to increase/extend their capacity to stay on task. We know all too well that when we don’t manage this load, the emotions can sometimes overflow. It is worth noting the wonderful work we do with the Berry Street Model specifically focuses on building stamina and explicitly teaching the children the skills to self-regulate (e.g. Brain Breaks, breathing exercises, mindfulness, Ready to Learn Plans) when the going gets tough i.e. learning load gets too much. 

This edition will perhaps be our lightest for the school year as we have had a somewhat unusual fortnight with the annual staff conference, long weekend, Open Days, NAPLAN and athletics day on Friday. It must be said though, I have been so impressed by the students and staff as they have adapted and hit the ground running ensuring every available ‘learning’ minute has been maximized over this period. 

Despite all these happenings above, it was most affirming to overhear Miss McKay still trying to squeeze in the Yr.3-6 Spelling Mastery program around this tight schedule. The value our team continues to place on maintaining the learning momentum and programs has been faultless. 

This week, we celebrated another successful Open Day, showcasing our amazing school to prospective families and highlighting what makes Sacred Heart such a special place. Led superbly by our impressive senior leaders, the students spoke passionately and proudly about their school, our programs, opportunities for new families and importantly highlighted their journey over the years. Authentic, genuine and confident, we are super proud of our Yr.6 students who continue to represent their school in such a positive manner. 

Many prospective families commented on the following:

• The exceptional student tour leaders. As I often say, they are our end product of many years of shaping in partnership with our families. We believe the interpersonal traits developed over their time at Sacred Heart will open up pathways in the years to follow. 
• There is a great word on the street. What we are doing with our teaching and learning practices is clearly filtering across all pockets of our broader community, such has been the numbers across these open days e.g. numerous kindergartens, learning centres and pre-school settings. 
• Our MSL and Structured Literacy approach is humming in 2023 and it has been extraordinary to see and hear this daily across all pockets of school. This is how we start our day and it's been fantastic to see our current families drop in and see this in action. 
• Spelling Mastery is taught 4 days a week and we look forward to reviewing this impact in the coming months. 
• Straight Classes. Keep up the good word families, we are on track for two Prep classes in 2024. 
• Prioritizing the key academic pillars: Literacy & Numeracy.
• The Respectful Relationships program definitely resonated with touring families. We will hopefully become a lighthouse school in 2023 and continue to lead the way in the Bayside. 
• Incredible basketball numbers. From Yr.1 - 6, these numbers have never been stronger with approximately 75% of our students participating in basketball. What a resurgence this sport has had in recent years. Let’s just say it has bounced back after Covid.
• The art work adorning the school is inspired by arguably the best Art Program and teacher in the State, Ms Hyslop’s. Please drop in and see this stretching the length of our walkways; it looks amazing! 

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY - Our pot of gold!

We extend our Sacred Heart blessings to the remarkable Miss Rafferty, Miss Maloney, Miss Donnelly and Mr Blake our Irish teachers on staff. We acknowledge the significance of this very important day, and the strong connections to their homeland and families abroad. Sacred Heart has become very much an extension of their family, and we again thank these exceptional staff members for enriching our community - we are so much better for their influence. 

On Thursday, we celebrated with a very special St Patrick's Day liturgy organised by Mr Blake. Albeit a bit earlier than the customary day due to our athletics carnival on Friday, this was a lovely opportunity to acknowledge St Patrick and our Irish contingency on staff. Thanks for sharing a little piece of your precious stories Mr Blake, Miss Rafferty and Miss Maloney. We are beginning to think these staff were born with a microphone in their hands, such is the ease in which they engage with our students during such gatherings. 

ATHLETICS DAY 2023

Bathed in a sea of House colours and sunshine, we had a glorious day on Friday for our annual sporting carnival coordinated superbly by Mr Brown. Supported by a record number of parents & grandparents and stunning weather, we could not have imagined a better outcome. This level of support and involvement affirms the value our families continue to place on our community. Who benefits the most? The children. Thank you! As affirmed in Mr Brown's closing address, the students were the stars of the day and we could not have been more proud of their efforts and manner throughout the day. They were faultless! 

We are pleased to acknowledge the decision to move the carnival to Friday and a warmer month was well received by all. In addition, this is less disruptive to the academic program largely delivered at the front end of the week and perhaps a little more family friendly. 

*Please note, more photos will follow. 

PSGs - Learning Diversity - It takes a village

Over the past few days Mrs Pennington has facilitated the termly PSGs for our families and teachers.   We are indebted to Mrs Pennington for the wonderful work and advocacy she does in this invaluable role, supporting families, students and staff. We also sincerely thank our dedicated staff for the significant work they do in devising and actioning various learning plans and goals for their students. Identified by many families, our staff go above and beyond for the students. 

STAFF CONFERENCE

Once again, we are grateful to our families for their understanding with the recent staff annual conference leading into the long weekend. This was an invaluable couple of days as we managed to cover off on the comprehensive agenda as a ‘whole staff.’ The overriding theme was a celebration of our professional growth over the past 12 months and the collective investment from the staff.  We are immensely proud of the gains and sharpened and purposeful focus with our teaching and learning practices at Sacred Heart over this period. Schools are a sum of many parts, and to achieve the BEST outcomes for our students, staff and families, our intent is to ensure we focus on those 'parts' that have the greatest impact.   I congratulate our leadership team for facilitating this wonderful professional learning opportunity capturing all members of our staff. 

STAFF FIRST AID

Congratulations to our staff as they updated their training in CPR, Anaphylaxis, Asthma and General First Aid at the recent staff conference. We are proud to say we received a 100% success rate with this ‘whole school’ approach to first aid training. 

CLUBS NEWS

Gardening Club

Facilitated by our dedicated and passionate Yr.4 teacher, Mrs Collins, our ‘budding’ student gardeners continue to work hard to plant seeds and maintain the garden beds around the grounds. Strawberries are now planted and we look forward to watching these flourish over the coming weeks.  We are most fortunate that our students can have experiences such as these, and we dearly thank Mrs Collins for sharing her love of gardening with our students. 

Choir Club was also off to an early start this week as Miss Robertson and her beautiful singers gathered on Wednesday morning, prior to school to fine tune before the St Patrick’s Day liturgy on Thursday. Miss Robertson has brought so much joy to Sacred Heart with her stunning program and range of music offerings; we just love her weekly lessons. 

Fitness Club continues to be well received by our senior students as Miss McKay takes the students through their paces each week. After watching the odd session, I’m more than happy to be a spectator. 

Running Club goes from strength to strength each week and again we have been overwhelmed by the parent volunteers and dedicated staff (Mr Brown, Miss McKay, Ms Tench & Mr Blake) for offering up their time week to promote this healthy and active way to start the day. 

CHALKFEST

How stunning to see our students brighten up the footpaths of Sandringham village for the annual Chalk Fest over the long-weekend. Once again, we extend our thanks to Ms Hyslop for actively supporting this terrific community event. 

HARMONY DAY

You are invited to enjoy us in an afternoon of Respectful Relationships on Monday 20 March. We will meet in our room anytime after 2:30pm. We understand that this is a busy time for parents, please join us if at all possible. 

RECONCILIATION

Another reminder that our celebration of Reconciliation will be held on Wednesday 22nd March at 10:15 - 11:15am. As previously outlined, your attendance is not compulsory. Please do not feel pressure if you can not join us, as we will ensure to take photos to share with you. We have arranged a party afterwards to celebrate this Sacrament and the completion of NALAN.

FINAL OPEN DAY 20th March 

We ask all families, our greatest advocates, to keep spreading the good word and encourage prospective families to attend our last official open day for 2023. Should a friend or family member be unable to attend this session, we are always happy to offer an alternate time. We are doing awesome things at Sacred Heart, and would dearly welcome your endorsements. The numbers at these sessions has been fabulous and reflective of your endorsements. 

NAPLAN 15th - 22nd March

Next week, Yr.3 & 5 students will continue with 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 #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

Whilst it was sadly not captured on camera, it was a precious moment to see Miss Maloney swamped by her beautiful Prep students at the finish line on Friday. Only in their early weeks of school life, it is absolutely priceless to see how quickly she has forged such positive relationships with her students. 

And finally...

Keep spreading the good word families, we are doing some pretty remarkable things at Sacred Heart,

Simon Collis

Principal

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