Principal News 

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CAMPS 2024

Dear Families and Friends,

Having taken my first leave in over 30 years, I cannot express how thrilled I am to be back and immersed in the Sacred Heart community—I have dearly missed everyone. I am equally grateful to our dedicated and hardworking team for doing such a wonderful job in my absence, particularly in flawlessly winding down Term 2 and setting up for the new term. Stepping away for two weeks and distancing myself geographically was made much easier knowing how well-positioned we are as a school and the capable hands we were in during this period.

The most notable reflection over the past few weeks (and particularly while away) has been affirming how many good people we have at Sacred Heart, either stepping up, stepping in, or ensuring our many pieces work in harmony. I am particularly proud of our responsive students and staff for their collective efforts to reinforcing an orderly and calm environment with solid, predictable, and consistent processes, routines, and structures over the past few years. They honestly have not skipped a beat!

These efforts have paid dividends, never been more apparent, and continue to shine across all aspects of the school. Despite the building program taking shape, now almost unnoticed by our students, everyone has seamlessly adapted to the new term and has not been deterred by temporary arrangements (e.g., shared learning spaces, tighter walkways, longer pathways to rooms, and reduced playground spaces). Building solid routines and hitting the ground running each day remains our mantra to maximize every minute in the tightly structured learning blocks, and to that end, we are excelling at Sacred Heart!

I once again congratulate our students for their exemplary manner and our fabulous leadership team and staff for setting the tone and standards during my leave. Additionally, a special thank you to Mrs. Pennington, Miss Rafferty, Mrs. Stroud, and Karen for managing the front office and key administrative duties during this period. These opportunities will never be taken for granted and will always be greatly appreciated to enable this opportunity away with my family. 

AFL Beachside Division🏆

Well done to everyone who supported our amazing football teams in recent weeks, including our coaches Mr. Brown and Ms. Tench, Jack and Byron from St. Bedes, and our parent spectators and volunteers. It was truly a wonderful team effort. We are proud to be adding yet more silverware/flags to our hypothetical trophy cabinet. Congratulations, Team Sacred Heart!

We wish our mixed AFL team every success as they now progress to the next stage and championships. This is no mean feat, as they have competed and will compete against several schools with a significantly larger pool of students for team selection, some with over 600 students. We are very proud of this team and their achievements over the past few weeks.

Winners Are Glaswegian Grinners

Soccer Beachside Champions 2024

After recently winning the Dendy Lightning Premiership, our superstar soccer players advanced to the Beachside Championships on Tuesday. Just like our AFL mixed team, our boys won the Beachside division and are excited to progress to the next tournament. We are thrilled with our sporting achievements this year, adding yet more silverware, albeit this time a felt pendant. We sincerely thank Paul Riddex for generously offering his time to coach our boys on the day, peppering the session with references to his beloved Celtic. Additionally, we extend our gratitude to Mr. Brown, Head of the Sacred Heart Institute of Sport, for his support and his behind-the-scenes coaching in a sport he is less familiar with. His motivation and enthusiasm are always appreciated, often providing the added edge for our students.

Recently, the Year 5 students competed in the Netball Victoria School State Qualifiers. They won three of their five games, narrowly losing by 2 goals to the top team and by 1 goal to the second-place team. This was our first time entering this competition, and from all accounts, our Year 5 students definitely held their own, playing one level above their age bracket. We look forward to seeing this fantastic team represent our school again next year in their age group.

Many thanks to Helen Lonsdale for her tremendous efforts in organizing and coaching on the day.

Prep 100 Days of School

What a beautiful milestone we celebrated this week: 100 Days of Prep! An outrageous number of family members attended the intimate assembly on Wednesday, which was a stunning reflection and testament to the hard work and dedication of our amazing Prep students and team. Ms. Maloney, Ms. Wood, and Mary (LSO) have been outstanding in their support, guidance, nurturing, and preparation leading up to this special milestone. They have truly laid an extraordinary foundation for the 2,500 school days to follow.

Not a minute wasted, we simply cannot thank them enough for the incredible work they do with their students in this pivotal first year of school. Their commitment and passion have been unwavering and instrumental in making this celebration possible and first 100 days such a success. I think we can all agree the growth of Preps, just six months into this journey, has been off the charts! How very proud we are of our most junior superstars. 

Importantly, we thank our families for their unwavering investment, influence, and partnerships from day one - long may continue. Clearly this has been reflected in the students' remarkable and flawless settling into school life. Don't blink families, this precious time flies! 

STAFFING NEWS

On Monday, Sarah Rafferty will commence her maternity leave🍼. An integral member of our leadership team, Sarah has done phenomenal work over the past two years, profoundly shaping our teaching and learning approaches and programs and driving best practices that impact staff development and ultimately student outcomes. The transformative influence and pace at which these practices have been embraced at Sacred Heart are the best I have seen over my time in education.

Sarah, along with Mrs. Stroud, has been instrumental in raising standards, achieving staff buy-in, driving change, and promoting high expectations. As a result, we are now proudly showcasing within our system (MACS) and a competitive educational landscape, recognized by external educators, leading to many visiting schools to observe our practices. This positive recognition is also reflected in the growing interest from prospective families, contributing to increased enrolments. While we recognize we are only partway through this journey of growth and transformation, over the past two years, we can celebrate our practices, structures, and processes have never been stronger or more consistent in our daily routines and pedagogy. Thank you, Sarah for your tremendous impact!

As Sarah takes her well-deserved leave, we know these improvements will stand the test of time and continue to flourish in her absence, ready for her return in late 2025. We wish Sarah and her partner every success and happiness as they prepare for this new chapter.

In the meantime, Kate Stroud will step into the key teaching and learning role while continuing her literacy responsibilities, ensuring we reinforce, remain improvement focused and enhance these practices at Sacred Heart. We simply could not be in better hands and certainly have the calibre of staff to support Kate in raising the bar even further over the next 12 months in Sarah's absence.

A nice spotlight🔦

Earlier this month, the impressive Miss Bulte was part of (and even facilitated) an expert panel on student dysregulated behaviour under the leadership of the TEP (Teacher Excellence Program) Alumni Network.  Dysregulated behaviour in educational settings is a pressing issue that impacts both students and educators. The panel delved into the complexities of disrupted and dysregulated behaviour and explored effective management strategies. The event was also streamed live to regional centres, providing access to educators across Victoria. 

We are so very proud to see the Miss Bulte working alongside these experts in such an important space advocating across our sectors and indeed implementing these best practices at Sacred Heart. Great work Miss Bulte!

Chin it!

Mini-whiteboards have become an invaluable tool for our teachers (best practice), as they both engage students and allow the teacher to check students’ understanding.  Mini-whiteboards enable a teacher to see all written or drawn responses simultaneously. Teachers can then ensure that every student is participating and is academically accountable. In the past 12 months since introducing mini- whiteboards in all grade levels these have been a useful addition to namely literacy and maths lessons that require students to demonstrate their thinking via a written or drawn response, that is not required to be permanently saved. They have been particularly useful during a daily review and the guided practice component of our explicit lesson e.g. MSL and Maths.

You will also note in Miss Prosser's class above, all teachers purposefully have the students reduce unnecessary distractions from the desktops. Again, this best practice ensures the focus is on the task at hand and the explicit instruction from the teacher. 

Parents & Friends

Many thanks to Louisa Gelsumini, Tarn Rodrigues, and their dedicated team of volunteers for organizing and setting up (and spotlessly cleaning the hall) the fabulous, fun, and highly successful Bogan Bingo night for our families. While some had 'little trouble' sourcing an outfit for the evening (as my daughters said, "just go to your wardrobe, Dad."), the effort others put in was superb. After witnessing some dance moves, it's times like these we say, "What happens at Bogan Bingo, best stays at Bogan Bingo." Congratulations to our families and the P&F for a truly memorable and wonderful evening celebrating your inner-bogan!

🔨Building Update🔨

While the builders have made pleasing progress in recent days, we've encountered some latent conditions typical of renovating older buildings with many layers added over the years. Specifically, we've had to engage with structural engineers to assist with design solutions and make variations to the initial plans = time extensions. Unfortunately, this will delay the likely handover of the admin area only.

Despite the tighter squeeze with office and planning spaces, we are managing really well and are not overly concerned by these temporary arrangements for our team. We are acutely aware of the bigger picture and can already envision what our new school environment will look like, even if we encounter a few hurdles along the way. Please note that while the drawings and building surveyors will need to be revised for the admin area only, we have sought assurances that greater energy and resources will then be redirected towards the classroom refurbishments - these timelines have not been altered. 

This week's progress:

• Propping and door extensions cut.
• Battens for plaster erected.
• Steel onsite.
• Concrete pour for steps.
• Trenching forfire hydrant.

LITTLE GEMS

Thanks for dropping by office Adelaide and Juliette to share your most impressive fluency script. Wow, you both read superbly and continue to flourish with this daily practice. 

Olympic Art

Across all grade levels, our creative Mrs. Hyslop has integrated an Olympics theme into her roaming art classes. Here is just a small sample from 1P. Despite the ongoing building program, Mrs. Hyslop also has managed to utilize every available space in the junior school corridor creating a mini gallery, as this area is part of the Stage 2 works and will not be refurbished until later in the year. The artwork throughout looks amazing!

And finally...

With so much good news to share over the past fortnight, and with this lengthy addition, I sincerely hope you've made it to this point in the newsletter.

I've never been more affirmed in recognising how well we are positioned as a thriving learning community. I can't wait to build on these successes and milestones in the weeks ahead at the best school in the bayside, Sacred Heart.

A very proud principal,

Simon C