Principal News 

LOCK’EM IN

CAMPS 2024

IT'S ALSO BEEN A GOLDEN FORTNIGHT 

AT 

SACRED HEART🥇

Dear Families and Friends,

Despite the illness challenges recognised below within our community, I’m especially proud to visit the classrooms and see our students continuing to push forward with their learning programs. This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming another team of educators who came to observe our exceptional classroom practices. They spent much of the day here and were thoroughly impressed by our disciplined, structured, and explicit teaching methods. A big thank you, yet again, to our staff for being so accommodating and welcoming more teams into your learning spaces. Upon leaving, the visitors specifically highlighted the high level of focus, calm and orderly behaviour, and strong engagement our students displayed in response to their teachers’ instructions. In line with our recent Olympic theme, these are indeed the attributes of elite athletes, educators, and learners. I congratulate our staff and students who continue to excel and regularly stand on the podium during and well beyond these visits.

Amid recent media attention on educational standards and practices, leading experts are strongly endorsing the approaches we use at Sacred Heart as a strategy to counter some of the declining trends observed across our state. As we continue to sharpen our focus on specific areas of the curriculum, I'm pleased to acknowledge that our data sets are trending upwards due to this ongoing investment and rigor. While we believe we are ahead of the curve with the implementation of evidence-based practices, we recognise that achieving the desired long-term academic outcomes and sustained improvements requires time, persistent effort, and continuous refinement—a hallmark of a successful school.

Just as Olympic athletes need consistent training, routine, skill repetition, dedication, and hard work to achieve mastery and high performance, success in education requires the same commitment from both teachers and students. At Sacred Heart, we remain unwavering in our commitment to improvement and are dedicated to continually raising the bar in our teaching and learning. We understand the importance of 'showing up'—in the classroom, this means our teachers are fully present, aware, and engaged in making the most of every crucial teaching moment for their students.

And finally, we extend our thanks to our staff and Mrs. Stroud for taking the time to showcase and proudly share a snapshot of our journey of growth and improvement at Sacred Heart with visiting schools.

COMMUNITY ILLNESS 

Officially over the half-way hump for Term 3, and as we wrap up another wonderful fortnight at Sacred Heart, it’s hard to overlook the increasing number of sick students and staff in our community. Various viruses and respiratory issues have been sweeping through our classrooms, leading to a spike in absences and numerous calls for children to be picked up from school. This is a fitting reminder for everyone to remain vigilant during this challenging period. Please ensure that children stay home if they exhibit high temperatures or cold-like symptoms as to ensure this does not impact larger cohorts. 

We thank you for your support and understanding as we aim to stave off this spread. We sincerely hope the upcoming long weekend offers a much-needed break and an opportunity for our community to rest and recharge as we head into the second half of this particularly busy term.

SNEAKY PEAK IN YEAR 3

It was wonderful to visit both Year 3 classes this week and see the students so focused on their learning.

'What are you working on, Year 3?'

'We’re reading to learn.'

'Tell me more.'

'We’re reading about atoms in our science unit and have learned so much about matter, solids, liquids, and gases. We’ve even explored the periodic table!' 

'What's that?' I asked. 

Not surprisingly the students were even able to unpack the table referencing the many elements and why they were even numbered i.e. relevance of the associated numbers. This then sparked a 15-minute discussion as they eagerly shared their impressive, knowledge-rich learning & vocabulary from the texts they've been reading and analyzing each morning during their literacy block. I have to say, their depth of understanding truly amazed me. #bestpracticeinaction

On a side note, undeterred, 3M is thriving in their cozy temporary learning space while their classroom undergoes refurbishment.

AFL Southern  Division🏆

And while we may not have quite reached the pinnacle by progressing to the State finals, we couldn't be more proud of the achievements of our mixed AFL team. Congratulations to them for narrowly losing in the grand final after previously winning two highly competitive tournaments in recent weeks (Dendy & Beachside Champions 2024). With much to celebrate in 2024, and arguably our most successful year on the sporting front, we were runners-up at the Cross Country championships and regional champions with our Mixed and Girls AFL and soccer teams (with one more tournament still to come). We extend our thanks to our coaches, staff, and the many invested families for generously offering their time to support the students in these pursuits. Time to get back into the classrooms, students. 

🥇Olympics Gala Day🥇

What a glorious day we had celebrating the Olympics with a special gala day last Friday! Dressed in the spirit of the occasion, our students had a fantastic time rotating through a variety of activities prepared by our Year 6 students. From obstacle courses to creative "quieter" activities, the students worked in house color groups throughout the middle block. A big thank you to Mr. Brown and the staff for supporting the senior students with their preparation and running of the day.

A special shout-out to Ms. Tench, Miss Bull, Miss Wood, and Miss McKay for joining in on some impromptu fun at assembly. And great to see Miss Maloney is off to a flyer with the first of many instagram stunning reels to showcase and celebrate the great happenings at our school. 

STAFFING NEWS

Last Saturday, our staff sporting champ, Ms Tench won her AFLW premiership. Supported by a number of her colleagues, Ms Tench pleasingly kept the celebrations very low key (apparently too old now) and steered clear of the traditionally longer celebrations associated with such an achievement. Just a week shy of her 'due date' it was lovely to see Miss Rafferty make a surprise appearance. 

🔨Building Update🔨

This week's progress:

Footings for the new exit stairs to the classroom.

Battens for plaster erected.

Steel installed for new expanded doorways.

Footings dug for new front steps and ramp, however, sadly this aspect is temporarily delayed as they discovered a VERY old concrete water tank. As one student said, it looks like we now have a swimming pool Mr Collis. 

LITTLE GEMS

Rapidly running out of stickers and treats, it was wonderful to have these super Yr.3 scientists drop past my office to share their learning about atoms. 

Awesome work Luca & Tom! 

Thanks for sharing your impressive persuasive writing Isaac & Will. Our Yr.5's are doing some great things with their literacy. 

Somewhat isolated from the rest of the school in their niche learning space (transformed  art room), Miss Donnelly and Mrs. McKeon's Year 2 students are flourishing and remain completely undeterred by this temporary arrangement while their new room gets a makeover. A Fredo Frog treat is all it takes to remind them that they are not forgotten and that their impressive work is still acknowledged, even from a distance. Similarly, our Year 4 students, who are working out of the hall during Stage 1 of the building program, are making the most of their space. Mrs. Collins and Ms. Tench even suggested that this could be a long-term classroom as they have really adapted to this learning space!

Miss Donnelly's Year 2 class has certainly caught the writing bug, with many students eagerly crafting stories at home over the weekends. Mary, in particular, has shown remarkable dedication, having written a series of chapter books over the past few weeks. She recently shared her work with both her class and the leadership team, showcasing her talent as a budding author. Congratulations, Mary, on your wonderfully creative stories, outstanding vocabulary and clearly demonstrating all the key features of a narrative.

Lachie & Taj - These two boys were thrilled to share their recent Japanese work. The smiles say it all. 

This week, 'I' learnt all about Stative Verbs from our Yr.3 superstars. It is certainly something I do not recall learning over my school journey. 

As proud as punch, Audrey was keen to share her impressive book work presentation, a focus across our school this year, and I can see why.

Let's just say Sadie's persuasive writing was a bit of a hit as she tried to convince her family why they should get a new puppy. Sadie certainly won me over. 

And finally...

As the staff had a highly productive day onsite on Friday for our closure, updating their first aid skills and working on literacy planning, we couldn’t help but notice a dozen or so workers from our building site making the most of the vacated playground during their lunch break. They enjoyed playing football, soccer, and basketball, and Mr. T even offered to supervise to ensure things didn’t get out of hand.

Wishing everyone a restful and joyous long weekend, and hopefully an opportunity to shake off a few bugs and viruses lingering in our community.

A very proud principal and long suffering Blues supporter,

Simon C