Principal News 

LOCK’EM IN Term 1 2025

KABOOM! WELCOME TO 2025 NEW SCHOOL YEAR

Dear Families and Friends,

Welcome to our first newsletter for 2025! We couldn't have asked for a better start to the school year. Every day, we've been blown away by the number of families filling the playground at drop-off and pick-up, reconnecting and building new relationships. What a fantastic first week and a bit at Sacred Heart! Most importantly, the children seem happy to be back and have settled beautifully into their new and temporary learning spaces. We couldn’t commend them more highly for their positive attitude and readiness for what promises to be our best year yet.

A key criteria to a high performing school: Order & Calm

As we've walked through the school, it's been wonderful to see a strong focus on consistent routines and expectations—setting a high standard from day one. A huge thank you to our staff and responsive students! This has been reflected in the collective tone and behaviour across the school— again the best I have seen for the start of a new school year.

PREPS 2025

A Special Shout-Out to Our Prep Team

A huge thank you to our Prep team for their incredible efforts in helping our youngest students settle into school life. While some children may take a little longer to separate from their families, we have been in awe of Miss Wood, Miss Maloney, Ms Levy, Mary, and Alicia’s calmness, professionalism, and teamwork—it’s been a fantastic effort!

Without taking anything away from previous Prep cohorts, both teachers have commented that they couldn’t have imagined a better start to the school year. Thank you, families, for trusting the process and supporting the morning drop-off routines. We have been amazed at how quickly the Preps have adapted, settling straight into their learning blocks and already working independently.

While both teachers put in tremendous effort to prepare for their students, much credit also goes to our families for their invaluable support leading up to the first day. The transition conversations have truly made a difference, helping the children feel confident and comfortable as they begin their school journey. Families, you should be incredibly proud—it has been a fantastic start to their time at Sacred Heart, setting a strong foundation for the years ahead.

A huge testament to this great start: both teachers have already introduced Heggerty and Sound Packs on Monday—an incredible achievement, especially so early in the school year!

Welcoming Mass

What a truly beautiful opening Mass on Friday, thoughtfully prepared by our new Religious Education Leader, Miss Maloney. Our students were exceptional, and Fr. Martin’s engagement with them and the broader community was simply outstanding—the best you’ll see. We just loved his gospel with the Preps, a picture story time. 

A standout moment was the presentation of the class prayer cloths, missions, and mottos— such a meaningful and memorable touch. And of course, a special mention to our students for their outstanding behaviour, especially our Preps, who were phenomenal, 5 days into school! 

Don't forget to check out Miss Maloney's page.

Year 6 Jumpers 2025

A huge thank you to Tarn from the uniform shop for organising and distributing the much-anticipated Year 6 rugby jumpers. These iconic jumpers are worn with such pride by our students every day. Word on the street is that one student was so excited, they even wore theirs to bed on the first night!

Apologies in advance, despite trying on a number of occasions to capture a 'whole' group photo, sadly some students have were absent.

We’re thrilled to acknowledge that every staff member has commented on how positively the Year 6 students have settled in and raised the bar in 2025. Their behaviour and leadership across all areas of the school have been exemplary—truly faultless. They’re kicking goals under the outstanding guidance of Miss Bulte and Miss Newey!

School Captains 2025

We are thrilled to announce our newly appointed School Captains for 2025, as nominated by their peers: Micaela Pacquola, Audrey Beven, Marlow Shannon, and Will Gleeson.Year 6 Leaders 2025

In addition, all other Year 6 students will be aligned with specific teams at the start of the new school year. These teams will take on important roles, leading various events and initiatives throughout the year.

All leaders were officially presented with their badges and received a special blessing at our Opening Mass in 2025. Congratulations to all on their well-deserved leadership roles — we look forward to seeing their positive contributions to our school community in their final year at Sacred Heart.

Building Update

Key Milestones:

• Completion of the stunning new staff professional learning space – February 3
• Demolition of the old library and office areas commenced – February 3
• Remaining three classroom refurbishment handover March 14 (ahead of schedule)
• Admin offices and STEM facilities set for completion by Easter weekend
• Builders scheduled to be off-site by Easter weekend

This week, our staff finally transitioned into the fabulous new staff room and professional learning space—what a transformation! A special thank you to Karen and Kate Stroud for their extra efforts in managing the move while keeping key administrative tasks running smoothly, including days coming into work over the holidays and weekends to assist with the building program and setting up. While this key room is currently being used for multiple purposes, please note that the new first aid room is now located next to the front office - a lovely and appropriate connection to the front office. 

We are pleased to share that the newly refurbished, multi-functional staff professional area has already been put to great use and has been overwhelmingly admired by staff, students, and families. This week alone, it has hosted two whole-staff professional learning sessions, a special 70th birthday celebration, a Prep information session, and the first P&F meeting for 2025. Needless to say, everyone has been blown away by this beautiful new space!

Looking ahead, there will be some significant changes in the coming weeks. As of Monday, the builders have taken over the corridor, the old library space, and both Kate's and my office. 😭 At this stage, we are still determining our new base, but we will do our best to remain accessible to our students, families and staff. When in doubt, please check with Karen as I'm now tagged. It was nice to have mine first visit from two Yr.6 students on Monday to proudly showcase their work - well done Eddie and Owen! 

For students, access to classrooms will now be through external doors from the playground (not via the corridor). Karen has also moved back to her beautiful new office, with access now through the left-hand side door of the main admin area (not the construction zone!).

We appreciate that this is yet another adjustment for all, but the good news is that this will be the final one before our much-anticipated building project is completed later this term. Demolition has begun on the new STEM space (this team does not 'mess' about), and prep work on the remaining three classrooms is now finished. Plastering, carpeting, joinery, and door installations will commence in the coming days.

A MUST READ

Staffing News 2025

We are delighted to officially welcome Lisa Evan, Theo Jaynes, Kate Newey, Kate Flynn, Zoe Porter, Ciara O'Meara, Orla Moloney, Alicia Smith, and Oscar Cowen to our team. We’ve struck gold! Their positive impact is already being felt, and we cannot wait to see them flourish in the weeks and months ahead.

Once again, we extend our sincere gratitude to our staff for their incredible work in preparing for their students. We are thrilled with our 2025 team and look forward to celebrating and acknowledging their positive impact in the months ahead.

Leadership Team

• Simon Collis - Principal
• Kate Stroud* - Deputy Principal T&L
• Sarah Rafferty* - Deputy Principal T&L
• Bronagh Maloney* - REL Leader
• Brigid Pennington* - Learning Diversity & Intervention Yr. 3-4
• Hanna Wood* - Wellbeing Leader
• Mak Bulte - Maths Leader
• Sophie Prosser - Junior Leader
• Sarah McGrath - Middle Leader
• Tilly Tench - Senior Leader

Classroom Teachers

• Bronagh Maloney - Prep M
• Hanna Wood - Prep W
• Sophie Prosser - Yr.1P
• Ciara O’Meara - Yr.1O
• Kate Flynn - Yr.2F
• Sarah McGrath - Yr.3M
• Jo Collins - Yr.4C
• Zoe Porter - Yr.4P
• Tilly Tench - Yr.5T
• Darcie Bull - Yr.5B
• Mak Bulte - Yr.6B
• Kate Newey - Yr.6N
• Lisa McKeon - Release Yr.1P & Yr.3M (Thurs)
• Tiffany Levy - Release Prep M & W (Thurs & Fri)
• Theo Jaynes - Release Yr.6B (Mon & Fri)
• Orla Moloney - Classroom Release (Mon - Fri)

Specialist Teachers

• Lisa Evans - Japanese (Tues - Thurs)
• Liz Hyslop - Art (Tues - Thurs)
• Theo Jaynes - PE (Tues - Thurs)
• Stephen Coutts - Music (Tues - Thurs)

Administration & LSOs

• Karen Matthiesson - Admin (Mon - Fri)
• Sharon Gerussi-Lock - LSO (Mon - Fri)
• Alicia Smith - LSO (Mon - Fri)
• Mary Bedford - LSO (Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri)
• Oscar Cowen - LSO (Tues - Fri)
• Jane Bertacco* - LSO (Mon - Thurs)
• Karin Hartnett* - LSO (Mon - Thurs)
• Louise Robertson - LSO (Mon - Wed)
• Lola Allen - LSO (Tues - Thurs)
• Cat Kranz - LSO (Mon - Wed)
• Caroline Mathias - LSO (Wed - Fri)
• Joshua Smedley - LSO (Tues-Thurs)
• Stacie Stewart - LSO (Mon, Thurs, Fri)
• Anne Starke - LSO (Mon & Wed)

*MSL Instructor

Staff contact details have been updated on our website.

Team Awesome!

To our Learning Support Officers (LSOs), who have hit the ground running, launching support programs and identifying areas of need, we are grateful for their proactive approach. The quality of our newest LSOs is outstanding, complementing our team perfectly, and thanks to a comprehensive handover in 2024-25, all LSOs have seamlessly started their 1:1 and small group targeted programs, although Spelling Mastery will commence in Week.

I have a new favourite on staff (LSO). While Oscar has had an instant impact on our students, he won me over on Friday trialling the new sports uniform. 

New Families 2025

We warmly welcome the following families:

Bekendam, Bennett, Bettle, Browne, Conway, Corbett, Devereaux, Douglas, Engelbrecht, Ferraz, Ferris, Finch, Friel, Fryer, Goss, Gutierrez, Harvey, Kennedy, Lansdown, Likukuma, Mracek, Northey, Oliver, , Olivier, O'Sullivan, Palanci, Pafadellis, Putt, Richards Smith, Tchebykin and Wood

P&F & School Advisory

Congratulations and thank you to the impressive Luisa Gelsumini, Nico Grau Molina, Samantha Tudor, Francesca Conquest, and all attending parents for an exceptional and purposeful first P&F meeting of the year.

Luisa, our new and impressive P&F president, outlined the mission, goals, and agenda for this key parent body. The P&F’s primary purpose is to raise funds that directly benefit our students and the Sacred Heart community while fostering a strong sense of connection among families. The team clearly outlined the key events planned for the year, including a mix of family gatherings, student-focused activities, and parent-specific events.

A special mention to Anthony McCabe for presenting an exciting calendar of gatherings for our dads’ group—I have a feeling they’re in for a fun and social year ahead!

We also extend our gratitude to Brendan Tudor for his outstanding coordination of the first working bee for 2025. With a clear and targeted ‘to-do’ list, a team of over 50 parents and children tackled an extensive maintenance schedule—what a success!

Finally, a big thank you to Sam Tudor, who continues to do a fantastic job managing our P&F finances. This is a significant undertaking, and we deeply appreciate the time and effort that all our P&F volunteers contribute.

A great start to what promises to be a fantastic year!

These fabulous, fancy and practical bins are courtesy of the generous P&F. 

3 for every classroom. 

P&F Team 2025

Executive Team

• President: Luisa Gulsimi
• Vice President: Nico Grau Molina
• Secretary: Francesca Conquest
• Treasurer: Sam Tudor

Class Representatives

• Prep: Sam Tudor
• Year 1P: Sam Marquez
• Year 1O: Ruth Bell
• Year 2F: Laura Fonti & Emily Harrington
• Year 3M: Sonia Hospodar
• Year 4P: Erin Rankin
• Year 4C: Andrea Whitten
• Year 5T: Karen Aldrich
• Year 5B: Mili San Miguel
• Year 6: Brooke Jamison

Additional Roles

• Uniform Shop: Tarn Rodrigues & Kate Shawcross
• Maintenance & Working Bees: Brendan Tudor
• Outreach Program: Cathy Beven
• Dad's Group: Anthony McCabe

Communication 

One Stop Shop

A reminder that we have now transitioned to a single communication platform. In 2025, nForma will serve as our one-stop shop for all communications.

For existing families, please ignore any requests from Operoo to update profiles, as this platform has been phased out and we can no longer access your child's profile. Audiri has also been discontinued.

New Parents: If not already done, please create an account using the link below. Be sure to use the email address provided on your child’s enrolment form, as nForma pulls data from our main database. Once your account is set up, log in and update your child’s profile, including medical and emergency contact details, via the web version.

All parents must log in to the web version of nForma to update details for their child/ren. (The app version will soon allow for this.)

Webversion: https://portal.nforma.com.au/login

Please notify the office of any changes to parent email addresses, as nForma uses these to grant access.

Thank you for your support and cooperation as we embark on another exciting year at Sacred Heart!

Our Deepest Condolences

Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with Virginia Simon and Cathy Beven (parents), who sadly lost a parent over the summer. Their presence will be missed greatly within our community.

LITTLE GEMS💎

KABOOM! What an awesome friday we had at Sacred Heart! Great to see the 'new' staff getting into the spirit of the day with a little dance session. 

Sounds like Mr. Jaynes and Mrs. Evans are already making a fantastic impression! It's always great when new specialist teachers hit the ground running and connect with students right away. #perfectstartperfectfit

Every time I check in with Mr. Jaynes, he insists the kids are absolutely fantastic (although I'm not surprised). Hopefully, it’s not just a honeymoon phase, and he’s genuinely struck gold with our amazing students. After watching his interactions and manner, I'm pretty confident it will stay that way! 🤞

A passionate fisherman, Col proudly shared his impressive catch from the summer holidays. I truly love and treasure these special moments when they’re shared with me! 

The collages above were created by our wonderful new Year 2 teacher, Miss Fynn. Already making a fantastic impression on both students and staff, we love these thoughtful touches that help create lasting memories. From day one, Miss Fynn’s professionalism and dedication have been truly first-class!

The 'new' sick bay has also become a part-time office space while we await our new offices. 

I think our Year 4P's are in for a few stunning surprises—their amazing teacher, Miss Porter, also holds an Honours degree in Fine Arts! How lucky are we?

It's Back in 2025

And finally...

I could not have imagined a better start to the school year. Congratulations, students, staff and families, we are in for one almighty year ahead.

A very proud principal,

Simon C 

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