Message From Our 

Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Congratulations to all our children on participating with respect, resilience and responsibly as they did their best to bring home points for their house team at our school athletics.  It was with great joy that Frayne were presented with the trophy for the best marching team.  The winner of the PBIS Trophy, previously known as most discipled trophy, was McAuley, and the overall winning house was Geary.  Well done to all our children and families that came and shared in the day. Thank you, Rob Mathieson for judging our marching and to the many parents, grandparents and families who came along to support the children and make it an enjoyable day for everyone. A special thank you to Reilly Young for the time and preparation he spent ensuring everything on the day went smoothly. Next Tuesday the children in Years 3 – 6 will attend the interschool athletics at the Frank Howley Oval where we will compete against Tatura Primary School and Toolamba Primary School.

On Friday our children will participate in Caritas K’s.  Caritas K’s is an initiative of Project Compassion and aims to get our children to experience what it is like for many other children in ‘third world’ countries where the current reality is that to get water for cooking or washing, they need to walk up to 15 kilometres per day. Added to this is the water they collect is not sanitised and can be muddy and murky.  In participating in this activity, we will see how far we walked to get our bucket home and how much we were able to keep in the bucket.  Back in our classrooms, we will reflect quietly on how it felt to have to walk with the bucket of water and how those children in other countries actually do this to get the water they need to live.  We are encouraging students to bring a gold coin donation towards our last fundraising event for Project Compassion.

As the season of Lent draws to a close and we prepare for Holy Week and the Easter season, we reflect on the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Each unit has prepared a meaningful, prayerful reflection around these events. For Christians worldwide this is the most important event on the church’s calendar and the holiest of weeks when we recall and reflect on the events of the last week of Jesus’ life and the beautiful message of hope and new beginning that the Easter season brings. Easter Holy Week reflections will take place on Thursday 7th April at 9:15am in the quadrangle. As this is an outside event, we warmly welcome families to join us.

The Sacred Heart School Advisory Council meet on Tuesday March 22.  Our new Council Chair Kylee Dewis led our meeting as we discussed:

• Building Updates;
• Child Safe Standards; 
• CatholicCare Victoria; 
• ECSI – Enhancing Catholic School Identity; 
• SIMON Everywhere; and 
• Parent and Community Engagement 

As a council we spent some time discussing things we can do to bring families into our school as we move to a more Covid safe environment. 

Some suggestions included:

• Reading with kids – ‘reading in the quadrangle’
• Guest speakers
• Movie nights
• Visiting local industries
• Meeting with sporting clubs
• Bring back the FETE or equivalent – a spring fair?
• Productions – keep the 8th of September free as we go on show!
• Plus, many more ideas.

If you have some ideas, please let us know.  Even better if you would like to join us on the Advisory Council, we are looking for new members. Travis Worm announced his resignation for SHSAC. We would like to thank Travis for all he has contributed to our SAC over the past few years.

Early next term Year 3/4 children will head to Camp Kookaburra for an overnight stay and two very full days of activity.  This will be the first overnight school camp for some of these children and brings lots of excitement. School camps are an important part of the curriculum and enable learners to explore, extend and enrich their learning and their social skills development in a non-school setting. I’m grateful to the 3/4 teachers for the many hours of careful planning and organisation that has been happening to allow this camp to take place. 

Learning Conversations have been happening this week. This has been an opportunity for your child to celebrate their learning and discuss with you and their teacher their successes and challenges and set goals for further improvement. Thank you to families and teachers for   spending this valuable time together. 

Thank you so much for all the donations we received for the Easter raffle – we were overwhelmed by just how many donations we received. Please make sure all tickets are returned before next Wednesday when the raffles will be drawn. 

Our Year 3 and 5 took part in a practise online NAPLAN last Thursday March 24.  This was a good opportunity to experience the new online format, test the system and get ready for the NAPLAN assessments that will take place in Week 4 of Term 2.

On Monday we commissioned our new F.I.R.E. Carriers.  F.I.R.E Carriers, Friends Igniting Reconciliation Education, proactively work to promote aboriginal prospective in our community in the to raise awareness of the many issues our First Nations people may have face with the aim of making sure that we are always respectful and honour all people. The following is an extract from our F.I.R.E Carrier covenant:

We recognise the special place and culture of Aboriginal peoples within Australia. We acknowledge that Aboriginal peoples have been the caretakers of this Land for more than 60,000 years. We respect their spiritual connection to Mother Earth through the Dreaming.

True Reconciliation requires national and local solutions achieved through positive and purposeful partnerships not just for today but also for tomorrow. We work for Reconciliation, in partnership with those who believe that there can be an alternative to the present order.

Our vision for reconciliation is to be a place of learning and teaching that respects Aboriginal history and culture.  We will have strong and mutually beneficial relationships with Aboriginal people and communities in our area.  These relationships will provide opportunities for the sharing of knowledge and ideas, and the opportunity to listen and learn from Aboriginal Australians about the past, their current circumstances, and their vision for the future.  Sacred Heart School will be a place where Aboriginal culture is respected and celebrated through Acknowledging Country at every gathering, through proudly flying the Aboriginal flag and through various planned opportunities to learn more about the culture.

Congratulations to Tommee Dunham on being awarded the principal’s awards for Week Nine.  Tommee had demonstrated the PBIS pillar of being resilient as he continues to play down ball at his best, always having a smile on his face and his readiness to say hello and have a chat.  Thank you Tommee for being your best.

As we move to the end of what has been a successful and busy term, can I thank you all for your continued support in allowing us to ensure all within our community remained safe. There have been some challenges and interruptions to families as we follow the necessary guidelines but thank you for your understanding and willingness to work together. I sincerely thank our learners, parents and staff for navigating the challenges with such positivity.  It has been heartening to have some of our familiar events resume again and hopefully this may continue into Term 2.

A reminder that Friday, April 8th is the last day of Term 1 and classes will be dismissed at 2.30pm.  This will be a free dress day, or a ‘mufti’ day where we are all encourage to come dressed in bright Easter colors – Bunny Ears, Easter Bonnets (hats).  We will conduct our Easter PPR on that day when our children get to do an Easter Activity with their peers.  Assembly will be held at 12:40 – PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE OF TIME.

All classes will resume on Tuesday, April 26th following the Anzac Day holiday.

Wishing you all a very safe and holy Easter and a happy family time together during the school holidays.

Pauline Hindson & Dom Poppa

Principal & Assistant Principal