Sacred Heart Kew

Deputy Principal

2024 Term Dates

 

Term 1

Thurs 1 February (Students begin) – Thurs 28 March

 

Term 2

Mon 15 April – Fri 28 June

 

Term 3

Mon 15 July – Fri 20 September

 

Term 4

Mon 7 October - Tue 17 December

Assessment days to begin 2024 school year

As was the case last year, to help minimise interruptions to the beginning of the school year, all assessment of children will occur in 1 hour time slots (Year 1 - 6) or 30 minute time slots (Prep) on either Tuesday 30 January or Wednesday 31 January, before ALL children begin together on Thursday 1 February. Over these first two days, each child will come into school for their relevant assessment time slot, with a small group of other children from their class. Please note, that Prep children will be required to attend an additional 30 minute assessment time slot, on a Wednesday (Prep free day), early in Term One. 

 

During this time, children will meet their new classroom teacher and participate in the usual literacy/numeracy assessment that occurs at the start of each school year. Parents will be able to book their child(ren) in for a relevant time slot that is convenient for your family situation (via the usual School Interviews online booking site). This link will be provided to parents in the final week of the school year. 

 

The following assessments will form part of our planned assessment day(s). 

  • English Online Interview (EOI) - Prep and Year 1 students complete the English Online Interview assessment in Term 1 each year. The EOI is a one-to-one interview between a teacher and student and assesses students across the 3 modes of English in the Victorian Curriculum F-10 – Reading and Viewing, Writing and Speaking and Listening.
  • DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) - DIBELS is a set of procedures and measures for assessing literacy skills such as phonemic awareness, alphabetic knowledge, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. By giving students a number of quick tests, this will allow teachers to have data to identify students who need additional assistance and later monitor the effectiveness of intervention strategies. All Prep-6 students will complete this assessment.
  • BURT Word Test - This is a standardised reading test that is widely used to determine a child's reading skills. The test provides a list of 110 words, and a child attempts to read as many words as possible. The words increase in difficulty as you progress. All Year 2-6 students will complete this assessment.
  • TORCH (Tests of Reading Conprehension) - is a set of twelve reading tests designed to assist teachers of students from Year 3-6 in their assessment of students’ reading comrpehesnion skills. TORCH provides an estimate of a student’s level of reading comprehension achievement. That is, information about the stduent’s performance on the sets of comprehsenion tasks from the TORCH tests.
  • Reading Running Records - ​A Running Record is an assessment tool which provides an insight into a student’s reading as it is happening. A Running Record provides information on the following:

-a score of word reading accuracy

-an analysis of a reader's errors and self-corrections

-an analysis of the reading strategies used.

 

Using a series of established conventions, the teacher can quickly and accurately record what the reader says as they read a text or section of a text aloud. After the reading, the teacher completes an analysis. All Year 2-6 students will complete this assessment.

  • Essential Assesment - Students will be assigned individual assessment tasks and activities throughout the year that aim to support their mathematical knowledge and key understandings of concepts taught. Literacy and Reading activities are also accessed for teachers and students to work through systematically. All students in Year 1-6 will complete assessments in Literacy and Numeracy.

2024 School Closure Days

The following days and dates will be School Closure Days in 2024:

 

Term 1

Thursday 7 March

Friday 8 March

Monday 11 March (Labour Day Public Holiday)

 

Term 2

Thursday 25 April (ANZAC Day)

Friday 26 April (Time in lieu day for staff) *

Monday 10 June (King’s Birthday Public Holiday)

 

Term 3

None

 

Term 4

Monday 4 November (Time in lieu day for staff) *

Tuesday 5 November (Melbourne Cup Day Public Holiday)

Friday 6 December (Staff Planning for 2025 School Closure Day)

Children finish on Tuesday 17 December at 12.45pm

Wednesday 18 December (Time in lieu day for staff) *

 

* Time in Lieu (TIL)

 

The new Catholic Education Multi-Enterprise Agreement 2022 (the Agreement) introduces a formal time in lieu (TIL) process for teachers. The Agreement provides that a principal may require a teacher to undertake work and attend a school activity outside the normal hours of attendance (i.e., in excess of the 38 hours or normal hours for a part-time teacher) and when this occurs, it will attract TIL. 

 

Principals should prepare for the accrual and acquittal of TIL through their annual planning process. The timing of the acquittal of TIL is at the discretion of the principal, having regard to the operational needs of the school and causing the least disruption to the educational program of the school.

 

Principals may elect to acquit TIL through designating days during the year on which all staff and students are not required to attend school. For 2024, there are opportunities to acquit TIL for the whole school on the following days: 

 

Friday April 26 (day after ANZAC Day); 

Monday November 4 (day before Cup Day); 

early finishes on the last days of Terms 1, 2 and 3; 

end of Term 4 from Wednesday 18 December. 

 

Please note that no primary school students should be dismissed from schools prior to Tuesday 17 December 2024 – this is their earliest finish date.

2024 Private Music Tuition

 

LEARN A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AT SACRED HEART KEW

 

Come and join in the fun of learning to play Piano, Keyboard, Guitar, Drums or Violin here at Sacred Heart Kew.

 

In 2024, Creative Music for Schools will be extending their long running after school program to offer lessons during schools hours too. Small group classes or one-to-one lessons of up to 30 minutes give children an excellent grounding in music where they will learn to read music and play their chosen instrument. Creative Music will be our chosen external partner for our Instrumental Music Tuition program going forward. 

 

Tuition costs from $24.00 per lesson and enrolments for 2024 Year 2-6 students are now being accepted for limited places in Term 1, 2024.

 

To enrol your child/ren, contact Nicholas during Office hours on 98182333 or via email nicholas@creativemusic.com.au. Once enrolments are confirmed, timetabling will be arranged by Creative Music.

 

For more information about Creative Music, go to www.creativemusic.com.au

 

If you have any questions, please contact me via admin@shkew.catholic.edu.au

Year 6 Graduation

On Thursday 14 December, we will celebrate our graduating class of 2023 at the evening Graduation Ceremony. The evening will commence at 6.30pm in the MPR for staff, students and their parents/guardians. 

 

A reminder of the following:

  • Families leaving Sacred Heart at the end of 2023 will be farewelled by the community on Thursday 14 December at the conclusion of the 9.15am Mass in the Church.
  • The Year 6 End of Year Assembly will be on Friday 15 December at 11.15am in the MPR.

Christmas Carols & BBQ Picnic - Thursday 8 December 6pm - 8pm

Next Thursday 7 December, the annual Christmas Carols will take place in the Church at from 6pm. Each class will perform a Christmas Carol, with our Nativity Play weaved throughout the event. Everyone is ecnouraged to wear Christmas colours and accessories. There will be a BBQ picnic at the conclusion of the Carols in the schoolgrounds.  Thanks to our PA for providing the BBQ.

 

Due to the new Child Safety Standards, no alcohol is permitted to be consumed at school events whilst children are present. Thanks for your understanding with this.   

Christmas Giving Tree

As we prepare for the season of Advent and Christmas, we welcome the return of the SHS Giving Tree. Over the next three weeks, please consider donating a present for a child who might otherwise not receive a gift. All donations are gratefully collected and distributed by St Vinnies and their Fitzroy Mobile Conference. More information on the Mobile Conference can be found here

 

Please see the attached poster for information. The final day for donations is next Friday 8 December (end of Week 10).

 

Thank you in advance for your support. 

Lunch Orders

This week we were informed that Miss Peppercorn are no longer providing school lunches. Therefore, for the remainder of the year there will be no more lunch orders.

 

We are in the process of speaking to a couple of companies who may be able to assist us and as they work in conjunction with Flexi schools the changeover should be seamless.

We will be in touch when we have had more discussions and have locked something in for 2024.