Principal News 

TERM 3

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Dear Families & Friends,

It's safe to say that the past couple of weeks at Sacred Heart have been incredibly busy, and it appears that the pace is not letting up as we approach the term break and our eagerly awaited school production of Peter Pan. To put it lightly, we've actually kicked things into a higher gear, with our students maintaining their demanding academic schedules while also participating in daily rehearsals, Book Week activities, First Eucharist celebrations, Public Speaking, and even an Athletics Carnival. Apparently we don't do things in half measures at Sacred Heart. 

Unfortunately though, illness has continued to impact our community, and it's really taken a toll on our staff and students in recent weeks. Given the widespread shortages across the entire education sector, managing staffing has become a daily challenge for our team. We sincerely appreciate your understanding, and most importantly, we want to acknowledge and express our gratitude to our incredibly adaptable staff who have been onsite during these tricky times – they've truly been amazing! Let's sincerely hope this wave of ilness settles down in the coming weeks and we can all look forward to closing out our remarkable term on a high. 

Must Reads...

There is so much to celebrate across our school, and once again, we extend my sincere gratitude to our dedicated level leaders, Bronagh, Tilly, and Jayne, for their incredibly comprehensive news items. They are an absolute must-read!

First Eucharist

Congratulations once again to our students who received their First Eucharist last Thursday. It was such a beautiful celebration, and we extend our sincere thanks to Jo Collins and Tlly Tench for their exceptional work in preparing the children for this special occasion alongside our families.

With the church filled to capacity with families, we want to express our gratitude to Fr. Andrew for leading such a lovely service. It was certainly the most memorable one in my journey here.

We also want to extend our heartfelt thanks to Zena for generously offering her time to capture such beautiful photos of the students on Thursday before the Sacrament. These have since been shared with all families. 

Thanks again for making this event so memorable and special, as this was so generously reflected in the feedback from our families.

These little lights...

These precious little lights at Sacred Heart continue to make us all shine. On Friday, I was drawn from my office as I could literally hear the junior school practising in the church for their special mass on Saturday evening. 

Another Sneaky Literacy Snapshot

Literacy Collective  

Once again, I'm thrilled to share some exciting news about our Prep - Year 2 teaching team - Bronagh, Sarah, Louise, and Sophie.

Last Thursday, this dedicated team had the opportunity to showcase exemplary literacy practices (Structured Literacy, MSL & Heggerty) to neighboring schools. As principal, I'm immensely proud of their hard work and commitment to excellence in literacy education. This achievement reflects months of collective growth, knowledge sharing, and pedagogical refinement.

Kate Stroud and Sarah Rafferty's exceptional leadership has played a pivotal role in this success, not only benefiting our staff and students but also influencing other schools in the area positively.This accomplishment highlights the collaborative culture and commitment to continuous improvement at Sacred Heart, contributing to our positive enrolment trend over the past 12mths.

Congratulations to our teachers, and gratitude once again to Kate and Sarah for their outstanding leadership. We look forward to building on these high standards in the coming months.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about our literacy journey, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're excited to continue shaping the future of our students together.

Yr. 5 Public Speaking & Yr. 6 Debating 

It was such a delight to have Sophia and Summer visit my office to share their outstanding speeches for the public speaking finale. Mr. Brown was so impressed with their presentations that he sent these two superstars my way. Sophia, in particular, delivered a remarkable 2-minute speech on 'creativity' without ever needing to refer to her script. It was truly outstanding! Summer's speech also struck a chord, and I've included it below due to the exceptional quality and importance of her topic. A must read, and it's great to see this aligns with our Respectful Relationship program. 

Congratulations to our Yr.5&6 students for their outstanding efforts in our public speaking and debating classes run weekly this term. Their efforts and willingness to hone in on these skills and to challenge themselves has been outstanding, reflecting their growth over the past two months. 

Public speaking and debating are essential skills that will not only boost confidence but also equip them with the ability to articulate their thoughts effectively. We are also confident these skills will undoubtedly serve our students well as they progress through to secondary schools and prospective work opportunities.

Keep up the excellent work, and remember that your willingness to step up and courage to step outside your comfort zone will set you apart. Perhaps the most obvious example of these skills in action is watching our eager students present each week at assembly. They continue to shine! 

Book Week

Read, Inspire & Grow

Thanks Mrs Stroud and teachers for your enthusiastic promotion of Book Week within your classes in the past few weeks. Your efforts, ranging from daily shared reading sessions to book studies and the creative classroom doors, each themed around one of the award-winning books, have truly made it a fantastic celebration and a wonderful promotion of reading. Reading is a fundamental literacy skill and a primary focus for our students, and these initiatives continue to greatly support this targetted goal at Sacred Heart.

Thank you once again staff to fostering a love for reading among our students. We have loved watching your Book Week doors come to life.

What an incredible effort from everyone during our Book Parade on Wednesday! It was a truly special day for both our children and staff, as our community absolutely loves dressing up. Congratulations to our best-dressed winners from each year level, selected by our Library Captains. It was quite a challenging task for them because there were so many fantastic costumes to choose from.

Peter Pan Update

We had an absolutely amazing response when we opened our ticket sales last week. In the first 10 minutes alone, we sold 150 tickets. The enthusiasm from our families was so overwhelming; you'd think it was a concert by Taylor Swift! A big thank you goes out to Karen for setting up and efficiently managing this new, sleek ticketing system. In addition she has also created a fabulous booklet for the evening, and I have no doubt this will be a great keep-sake for our talented cast. 

Dendy Athletics Carnival

Could our athletics team have experienced a more spectacular winter's day? A few notable highlights. 

• Eden, Harry, Harrison & Liam broke the Dendy Athletics Carnival relay record.
• Harry also broke the 1500m record. What a great achievement!
• James B lost his shoe on the starting line but still managed to finish second in his race. 
• Johnny S was convinced that he could have had more ribbons to showcase if he hadn't been limited to just two events.

School Improvement Surveys 2023

At the end of the month, students, families and staff will be invited to participate in the Catholic Education Melbourne School Improvement Surveys (CEMSIS). Parents can complete the survey anytime over the three-week window between  Monday 28th August and Friday 15th September via an emailed link and password that will be sent out. The surveys can be completed on a range of mobile devices and different web browsers. 

Our community’s perspectives are critical to understanding how our school is performing – CEMSIS is a key data source for guiding the ongoing work to improve our school. All participation is invited, welcomed and 100% voluntary. The surveys are an inclusive way to guide the work we are already doing to improve our school. 

Refurbishment Update

Last Friday, we ticked another important box in our long-overdue refurbishment program, which is scheduled to begin in 2024. We have now formally submitted all the essential documentation for review and feasibility assessment for this $5.25 million program. While there are still a couple of additional steps to complete before we have builders on site, we are increasingly confident that the program will kick off early in 2024 with a swift turnaround.

We want to emphasize that one of our top priorities is to ensure minimal disruptions to the students' learning program throughout this process. As part of our submission to MACS, please find attached some concept drawings (please note that these are not final drawings e.g. finishings, colour scheme etc... yet to be determined).

Thank you for your continued support and patience as we work towards excitedly improving our facilities for the benefit of our students and the school community.

P&F News 

The Annual Sacred Heart Parish School vs. East Sandringham Primary School Dads' football match is scheduled for September 2nd, 2023. The game will take place at R.G. Chisholm Reserve in Sandringham, and the first bounce is set for 1:30 pm. This event has proven to be a tremendous success as a fundraiser for our schools and a fantastic community day out.

The festivities will kick off at 12:00 pm with various activities, including a Jumping Castle, Face Painting, a Fire Truck appearance, a Live Band, Half-Time activities, a BBQ, Ice Creams, and a Raffle featuring some remarkable prizes. Following the match, we encourage everyone to stick around and enjoy the AFL finals on the big screens in the club, with the BBQ continuing to sizzle!

We are reaching out to both school communities to inquire if they have any prizes they can generously donate to our raffle, contributing to our fundraising efforts. Last year, we managed to raise over $3,000, and this year, we aim to double that amount! While we've already received a variety of prizes from our major sponsors, the more, the merrier. If you have something you'd like to donate, please get in touch with Anthony McCabe at afmccabe@live.com.au. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Little Hearts of Sandy Playgroup

Next Sessions:

• 8th September 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. 

Little Gems

Our fabulous Yr.3&4 teaching team dressed as Where's Wally. This photo was captured during their planning time.

Some Precious Buddy Time

There is one thing for sure, our Preps and Yr.5s love their buddy time.

Tom and Angus, I really appreciate your work. The Year 6 students have been studying natural disasters, particularly earthquakes. Miss McKay was incredibly impressed, and as a result, she sent the boys to my office to present their fantastic reports.

Hallelujah, Ella & Claudia were amazing with their recent Music Corp presentation at assembly. 

LOCK’EM IN

SWIMMING & CAMP DATES

And finally....

I think we can all agree, we have so much to be proud of at our great school, Sacred Heart. Without doubt, our students, staff and families are the best in the bayside.

A final(ly) bound Blue,

Simon Collis

Principal

Unlike 'Gerald the Giraffe', this one can't and won't dance. When inflatables get together...

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