Principal News
Dear Families
As I walk around the school I am constantly filled with pride and admiration with the learning opportunities available to each of our students. The warm and caring feeling is palpable as I visit our Prep classes, to waving to Miss O’Meara in Year One, to visiting our senior students, to chatting with our amazing Learning Support Officers throughout the school, and I could go on and on. Together with our families, we ensure that Sacred Heart continues to be a community of faith, purpose, and excellence, in all that we do.
I encourage you to read each page in our newsletter and learn about the many highlights in our Junior, Middle and Senior year levels. Learn about our beautiful prayer-filled First Eucharist with our Year 4s last week. To digress for a minute, it was my absolute pleasure to visit Year 4 on their Reflection Day, last Monday. I shared a photo of my first communion and told them the story of our Communion breakfast, which was very special. After mass we, as the first communicants processed into the hall and were seated on the stage, at a big long table. Each of us had our own little packet of Cocopops as part of breakfast, which was a very special treat in the olden days! I loved eating mine as my brothers and sisters enviously watched on! We felt like rock stars at that moment! Last Friday the Year 4 students wrote me a beautiful thank you for speaking with them and presented me with my very own large box of Cocopops! Together we laughed and laughed.
Please read on and learn about the return of our Student Representative Council. Each semester students will have the opportunity to put their name in the mix to be selected to represent their class and help us make Sacred Heart even better. In this way many of our students across the school will experience the responsibility and work that goes into being a leader, and develop listening skills to advocate for their peers. Each semester there will be new SRC members selected and they will work closely with our Student Wellbeing Leader Miss Maloney.
Last Friday, I joined the last group of Year 4 students as they visited Nagle Kindergarten. I love this time, as I have the opportunity to chat with the students as we walk down and back, and I get to see them play with the kinder students. To witness their care and respect for the young pre-schoolers speaks volumes as to who each of them is. They are true examples of Sacred Heart students giving to others and putting themselves second. I love watching them push the children in the swings ever so gently, doing small kick to kicks with the young footy fans and play hide and seek again and again.
Moving away from the young and towards the less young, last week our Year 5 students visited Fernhill. I hope to attend one of these sessions to see this in action. I believe our students are respectfully competitive in the Bingo games. Please read more about this in the Senior School News.
Year 5/6 Girls Beachside Soccer
Our 5/6 soccer girls represented Sacred Heart with great pride at the Beachside Soccer Carnival, finishing an impressive 3rd in our pool. They showed fantastic teamwork, determination and sportsmanship throughout the day and should be incredibly proud of their efforts. It was wonderful to see them support one another and represent our school in such a fantastic fashion.
Dendy Athletics Carnival
Our Dendy Athletics Team is now finalised and our students have been made aware of the events they will be competing in. The carnival will be held on Friday 28th August at Duncan McKinnon Athletics Track. A bus will transport our students to and from the carnival. If you are available to come along and help on the day, please let me know. Any support would be greatly appreciated and will help us ensure the day runs smoothly for our students. We wish our Athletics team all the best as they represent our school at the Dendy Athletics Carnival! We thank and acknowledge the leadership Mr Jaynes gives in his role, and the wonderful opportunities for our students.
Feast of the Assumption
Today our Social Justice Leaders; Grace, Taj and Laura led the whole school for our Feast of the Assumption Liturgy, which falls tomorrow, Saturday 15th August. This is a holy day of obligation and an important day within the liturgical calendar. All our students and staff have been learning about Mary this month and the choices she made in her life and her strong faith and trust in God.
Who says it's all about the children?
It was fantastic hearing all about the successful Saturday night that our grown ups had a week ago. We thank Luisa for her leadership and all that she does and brings to our community. Her enthusiasm is infectious.
Our winter fundraiser event this year was a hilarious night of fun! Dressing up in our Apre ski/Ugly Sweater theme, the parents of Sacred Heart embraced their inner child and found their competitive edge as we threw ourselves into a variety of games and challenges that included obstacle courses, bubble balls, play doh, ping pong balls and a double points team karaoke challenge. We were fortunate enough to have Dimitri Spanos from Buxton Glen Eira run our Live Auction and Raffle which made it very exciting on the night! A massive thank you to all involved, from Luisa.
Blessing of the Adventure Playground - Thursday 10th September
Please join us on Thursday 10th September at 2:45pm for the blessing of our playground. This will be followed by a Sausage Sizzle to celebrate and families will have the opportunity to buy some delicious treats, school lunch box items and desserts at the inaugural Bake Sale led by Laura of Year 3 and Year 5 fame. It promises to be a great Sacred Heart community afternoon. There will be a sausage for each child and toddler at no cost to celebrate our much loved playground, including the Adventure Playground and all the playground upgrades.
Open Mornings 2028 & 2029
Next Tuesday we warmly welcome our first Open Morning for prospective 2028 and 2029 families. The Leadership Team together with the Year 6 students will share Sacred Heart with these families and showcase our amazing school. Of course in our Sacred Heart way, it is business as usual as we share our exemplary explicit teaching model at Sacred Heart. Please let your friends know of the upcoming days:
Thursday 10th September
Wednesday 14th October
Tuesday 1st December
School Closure Day - Friday 21st August
Thank you for supporting our school closure day next Friday. Mrs Stroud and Ms Raffery are working closely with our presenter Marie Louise Leonardis, from the Flourishing Learners – Project Lead Education Strategy MACS, to build upon our Learning and Teaching knowledge at Sacred Heart. We look forward to continuing learning about Opportunities to Respond (OTRs) when working with our students. Kate and Sarah will also lead our staff with an analysis of our 2026 NAPLAN data. These days are so important in working together as a staff to give our students the best possible learning experiences, based upon contemporary evidence and research.
Science Week
Next week marks National Science Week in Australia, and Sacred Heart will be celebrating by providing opportunities at lunchtime for some additional science learning and activities. Sessions will be broken up into year groups to ensure all students have the opportunity to participate. Please see the poster for the days and activities listed!
As Friday is a pupil-free day, we are encouraging you to keep the ball rolling at home by running a Science Competition! Conduct a science experiment at home of your choosing, video yourself doing it, and explain why it works. Then, send your video to Miss Allen at lallen@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
Here are some ideas for you to draw inspiration (or copy) from:
https://www.scienceweek.net.au/diy-science/
Monday: Static Electricity (year 4-6)
Tuesday: Screening of the movie 'Meet The Robinsons' (prep - year 3)
Wednesday: What's in Your Head? - A real brain display! (year 4-6)
Thursday: Making Fizzy Sherbet (prep-year 3)
Friday: Science at Home
From Miss Allen
Celebrating learning at Sacred Heart
Our assembly hosts are going from strength to strength. STEM is a very popular specialist learning area with our students loving their coding this week.
Take care and wishing God's blessings and peace upon each of you.
Mrs Cathy Ferrari
