Principal's Message

Good afternoon all!

Over the past fortnight our Sacred Heart community has provided opportunities for our staff and students to reflect on the meaning of the season of Lent. We have spoken to our students about Almsgiving as being a significant focus during the season of Lent. Students have been learning about how Project Compassion contributes in a highly impactful way to the lives of many people. Our Social Justice group have already raised significant funds through the sale of zooper doopers and each classroom has a box for students to make individual contributions. Prayer time and liturgies during Lent focus on the season being a time for renewal and our students have participated in some really practical ways we can do this. Last weekend some of our families and staff took the opportunity to attend the Parish Mass and take part in readings, prayers of the faithful, special ministers and the offertory procession. It was lovely to see students and staff members attend the Mass and participate.

Our staff are continuing to attend various professional learning offered to us through Sandhurst’s Magnify plan. In line with our annual action plan, we are working toward the implementation of evidence-based literacy programs. Recently some of our staff attended MacqLit training sessions which will assist them to run intervention groups to support students in years 3-6 who would benefit from additional literacy support. Staff are also attending additional sessions to improve their knowledge of the InitialLit and MultiLit programs. We look forward to our parent teacher conversations next week where staff will be able to talk to you about how these programs are supporting your child’s learning journey.

Our School Advisory Board will meet again tomorrow evening. Our newly appointed chairperson Julie Murrell is happy to accept emails from parents who have questions, feedback or would like to know more information regarding the work of the Advisory Board. The school office is able to provide a contact email for Julie if you would like to contact her. Please contact Sally or Debbie at the office if you would like Julie’s contact email. This week we will focus on events for the school year, the rollout of Magnify – with respect to Literacy programs and the Orima Wellbeing Survey results from 2024.

Last week and this week our Year 3 and Year 5 students participated in Naplan. Our students did a wonderful job in completing these assessments online using their new devices! The Naplan results form the basis of planning for us as a school and it is important to keep in mind that these assessments provide a snapshot of your child’s performance at one point in time. Our new programs provide us with many opportunities to measure student achievement and learning growth. We look forward to being able to provide you with multiple data sets for your child.

Our Year 6 leaders are continuing to lead our younger students in very supportive ways. It has been wonderful to witness the leaders running multiple activities during our break times for the younger students. They do this with very little instruction from their teachers and it is great to see the relationships that are fostered as a result of these activities.

Further leadership was demonstrated by our 2024 SAS (Secret Agents Society) students who celebrated their graduation from the program on Monday evening. It was wonderful to see eight of our students demonstrate their learnt social skills with enthusiasm and confidence. It was also great that their parents were able to join in this celebration! This program forms part of our wellbeing program for students and is certainly an excellent opportunity for students to develop their social and emotional learning.

Last Sunday was the second Sunday in Lent. Our gospel reading from Luke focused on the Transfiguration of our Lord. Below formed part of the Responsorial Psalm:

We are sure we shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. 

Hope in the Lord, hold firm and take heart. Hope in the Lord!

Response: The Lord is our light and our salvation.

We are reminded here that even after the death of our Lord, his example of goodness lives on in all that we do. We pray that in this season of Lent we are reminded that our deeds reflect goodness and support those who most need our support.

Blessings,

Carolyn Goode

Principal