Principal News 

TERM 4

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SWIMMING & CAMP DATES

Dear Families & Friends,

Get ready for an incredible closure to the school year. If the he past two weeks at Sacred Heart have been any indication, the excitement will only intensify as we wrap up the final term and prepare for the new school year.

It's crucial for families to stay informed about important events, communications, and dates, as we have a so much planned:

• Camps
• A sleepover
• A swimming program
• Numerous outings
• Special celebrations
• Orientation sessions
• Moving Up Day
• An extensive assessment schedule for all students in the coming weeks

Prep Information Evening 

The prep Information evening we held on Tuesday was truly outstanding. It was a joy to welcome our incoming families for our two Prep classes in 2024 and provide an in-depth view of our programs, practices, and readiness tips for our foundation students and their families.

Miss Maloney and Miss Wood* (*new to our team in 2024) were most impressive with their presentation, articulating our structured and explicit curriculum approaches, particularly in Literacy and Numeracy. Their presentation also allowed us to celebrate why our enrolments are thriving due to the exemplary and evidence-based practices in our classrooms. The impact of our reputation and positive word of mouth has been profound, with a remarkable number of enrolment papers already secured for 2025.

I extend my sincere gratitude to Miss Maloney and Miss Wood for their professionalism and exceptional presentation on Tuesday. I have full confidence that our youngest students will flourish and have the best possible start to their school life and journey at Sacred Heart. Special thanks also go to Tarn (and Rahni & Taj, our models) for assisting families with their uniform needs during the evening, and our P&F president, Ashlee, stressed the significance of parental involvement and acknowledged the valuable contributions from our dynamic parent community. It was an opportune moment to reaffirm the value we place on parent partnerships with our teaching staff and the school community. This partnership (investment) is arguably the most trusted and crucial throughout a child’s journey at Sacred Heart, and it undeniably holds the greatest influence over this 7-year period.

We eagerly await the commencement of our newest and most cherished students in 2024. In the meantime, we are looking forward to taking small and gentle steps through our orientation program in the coming weeks.

Prep Story Time

What a beautiful late afternoon our Preps had during the annual Prep Story Time program! This served as a gentle introduction to our 'camping' program. Students returned to school at 5:00 pm in their pajamas, accompanied by their teddies and pillows for an lovely session of story time, games, a movie, and dinner. 

We extend our thanks to Miss Maloney for creating a spectacular atmosphere, complete with fairy lights, soft furnishings, and even teepees for the students to explore. Additionally, we greatly appreciate Miss Prosser and Miss Donnelly for generously offering their time to support the children on this special and unique occasion. Our students are most fortunate to be offered these rich opportunities across their primary school journey. Next up the Yr.1 & 2 sleepover. Please note, only the Yr.2 students will be sleeping over night. 

YEAR 4 CAMP

We sincerely hope that the stunning array of photos does justice to the rich and exciting experiences our Year 4 students had during their three-day camp.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Ms. Tench, Mrs. Collins, Miss Maloney, Miss Donnelly, and Miss McKay for generously dedicating their time to support the students during this period. As all families can appreciate, this is a massive responsibility and a significant undertaking.

Congratulations and well done, students! Your exceptional behavior and active participation in the wide range of camp activities were truly fantastic, showing remarkable courage.

And there's more...

Literacy Collective

As previously mentioned in our newsletters, Sacred Heart established a Literacy Collective in collaboration with similar-minded schools earlier this year. This initiative serves as an opportunity to display best practices, exchange knowledge, and ultimately provide mutual support to enhance the outcomes for our students within our respective communities. We were delighted to host this collective last week, allowing our valued colleagues to visit our classrooms and witness best practices in action within this vital learning domain.

A special thank you goes to Miss Stroud for facilitating this invaluable opportunity, and to Miss Donnelly and Miss Proser once again showcasing their exemplary teaching. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

A message sent to Mrs Stroud from a neighbouring colleague: 

Thank you so much for having us all today. I love visiting your school!! 

Thank you as always for your advice and your wealth of knowledge. I love chatting to you and learning new things from every conversation! Please thank your fabulous teachers for letting us come into the amazing learning spaces. 

It was fabulous to visit the Prep class on Wednesday morning and witness the students engrossed in their TWR (The Writing Revolution) lesson. Mrs. Stroud engaged the children by asking, "Is this a sentence?" In unison, the children promptly responded, "No, it's a fragment." They understood that it lacked either a subject or a main verb, making it incomplete.

Remarkably our youngest students then identified and clearly articulated what made a sentence. They recognized what elements were needed to form a complete sentence, particularly the relationship between the subject and the verb. Not bad for our Preps! 

Number Fluency

Similar to the emphasis we place on developing reading fluency, we prioritize the same approach in numeracy. Every week, during their numeracy block, our P-2 students engage in the 'fluency five' exercise, focusing on repetitive practice of numbers and the four operations. As these skills become mastered and are stored in their long-term memory, they transform into automatic skills that students can readily draw upon.

For our Yr.3-6 students, we have implemented Rocket Maths, a supplementary fluency learning program. This program focuses on teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division by reinforcing math facts, which are the fundamental building blocks of math fluency. Additionally, students utilize the Westwood Number Facts Test (WNFT) to evaluate their fluency in mental math facts related to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. During this assessment, students aim to complete each column within one minute. The results are meticulously tracked throughout the year and provide a really valuable data set on this key skill. The outcomes we are witnessing across these fluency exercises affirm the effectiveness of this comprehensive, school-wide approach.

In alignment with our dedication to discipline and explicit instruction in mathematics, we express our gratitude to our committed teachers for their exceptional work in numeracy during this daily, non-negotiable learning block. A special acknowledgment goes to Mr. Blake for his leadership in implementing these effective practices and maintaining high expectations across our classrooms e.g. a daily one hour numeracy block. 

2024 Class Placements

In the coming weeks, we will look to invest a significant amount of time to settle on the classes for 2024, taking into account the social, emotional, behavioural and academic distribution of the children. Friendship groups are important, however our focus must be to ensure the best possible learning environment for all students. Teachers will begin asking students to name 5 friends they work well with for the following year. They will also be reminded to consider students from the other class in this process, with the aim being for each child to have at least 1 nominated friend. All ‘educational’ requests from parents must be put in writing to the Principal by no later than Tuesday 7th November. Classes for next year will be confirmed after the 'Moving Up' day late in Term 4. Please note single level classes e.g. Yr.1 & 2

Japanese News

I recieved this lovely message from our fabulous Japanese teacher, Mrs Bunn:

The Grade 3s have been learning to describe animals in sentences in Japanese lessons.

They are brilliant and I'm so proud of their efforts.

Hoop Time All Stars

Exciting news at Sacred Heart this week as our senior girls and boys All-Star teams have secured their spots in the State Championships. What an extraordinary effort! Good luck to our Yr.3&4 All Stars who have their regional competition in the coming weeks. 

Staffing News

No mean 'feet.' 

Congratulations to Miss Donnelly and Mr. Brown for their remarkable achievements in completing the recent half and full Melbourne Marathon, respectively. We are so proud of your accomplishments last Sunday.

P&F News

Clash of the Courts

SEX ED 4 SCHOOLS 

Parent Information Session and Student Sessions (Year 4-6)

Student Sessions:

We have enlisted Cath McCallig to facilitate the Sexuality and Protective Behaviour education program for students in Years 4-6, as it's an integral part of our curriculum. Cath has a wealth of experience, having previously worked at Sacred Heart and neighbouring schools, where she has effectively delivered this program to benefit both students and their families.

Cath McCallig is a trained teacher who spent several years teaching in Primary Schools before co-writing, producing, and performing a Theatre in Education show focusing on Self Esteem and Body Image, titled "Beauty is Your Duty."

In recent years, Cath has also been a Sexuality Educator in Primary Schools while working with Family Life Victoria (FLV). After FLV closed, Cath decided to venture out and establish her own Sexuality Education business, "Sex Ed 4 Schools."

Cath now offers her Protective Behaviors and Sexuality Education Programs to school communities. As a parent of four children, she wholeheartedly supports the vital role families play in the sexuality and safety education of children.

As part of our school program, students in Years 4-6 will attend sessions with their teacher during class, scheduled to take place over three weeks later this term. These classes are thoughtfully designed to ensure that sexuality education is a positive and respectful experience.

Parent Session:

We are also offering a Parent Information Evening for parents who are interested in gaining a better understanding of the Victorian Curriculum requirements related to Sexuality Education and how the program will be delivered in the classroom.

Little Hearts of Sandy Playgroup

Next Sessions:

• 27th October 10am
• 24th Nov. 10am
• 8th Dec. 10am

Family and friends are most welcome to attend. No age limit on toddlers or pre-schoolers. Last session we had over 20 pre-schoolers and toddlers and it has been fabulous to see lots of new faces at these sessions. 

Extra Curricula 

In addition to before school Fitness, Art and Gardening Club on offer this term, we are thrilled to now offer Karate (Tuesday) and Robotics (Wednesday - started last week) classes throughout the week. We are so pleased the positive numbers and expressions of interest for these respective new offerings at Sacred Heart.  The two new programs and options for our families have a tremendous hit. 

LITTLE GEMS

Gosh, it was pretty special to have Lilah and Chloe share their fluency skills at the assembly last week. We must not forget that these students are only in Year 1 and can read superbly with great expression and fluency. Miss Rafferty is doing incredible work with her students, and their growth has been phenomenal this year. During the Lilah and Chloe's reading, it was not surprising to see their previous year's teacher, Miss Maloney, moved to tears with joy. Our students have structured blocks to practice their fluency and clearly our students are benefitting from these daily routines. 

And not to be outdone, these Yr.1 superstars (Zara, Mary & Ella) visited my office on Friday morning to share their fluency. It was truly incredible. Witnessing these students flourish makes my job a privilege and so incredibly rewarding

The Year 5s have also been working on their maths, writing and research skills, and this week their proud teacher Mr Blake sent down a steady stream of his students (Amber, Paddy, Will & Abi) to showcase their great work. I'm thinking the smiles say it all. 

Congratulations to the superstars Benji and Harry for completing the 10km run at the Melbourne Marathon event. Running 4-minute kms at their age is an incredible achievement!

Take a look at the pride on the faces of our Year 2 students as they proudly showcase their writing from their recent TWR lesson earlier this week.

And finally....

What an extraordinary fortnight we have had at Scared Heart, the best school in the bayside,

Simon Collis

Principal

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