Principal News 

Dear Families

Last Wednesday evening we welcomed our 2027 parents to Sacred Heart, where Hanna, Zoe, Kate and Sarah, led a highly informative and engaging evening in preparation for Prep at Sacred Heart and what orientation will look like across the next few weeks. We also acknowledge the work that Karen has done to support our new familis as they have enrolled, and with our morning tea yesterday.   Loads of fun was had with a highly competitive Kahoot at the end. I wanted to share part of my welcome with you, as I am always acutely aware of the privilege of my role and the trust that is placed in our school  to nurture each child. 

A warm welcome to our new families and not so new families, we have twenty seven siblings joining the 2027 Prep cohort and twenty three new families. We promise to look after our newer members of the Sacred Heart family. I always find this time of the year an emotional time filled with  preparing to transition; Kinder to Prep, Year Six to Year Seven, and Year 12 to the big wide world! 

It is a privilege to lead the Sacred Heart community, and the trust you have placed in us, is not taken for granted. Your child will be known, valued, challenged/high expectations and loved for who they are. 

They will have the opportunities for many experiences whilst at Sacred Heart.  Student Voice/Agency and  Leadership will be an integral part of their journey. 

Together with each of you as their first faith educators and educators we look forward to working in partnership to grow children to have a strong sense of social justice, where they sit within the world and how they can change the world. To do this they need to be able to read, write, have mathematical thinking and skills, know themselves, and feel optimistic about the future to make ‘our’ world a better place. Finally each day we give witness to each child being made in the image and likeness of God and loved by God, and loved by us. 

A very warm welcome!

Yesterday we were all excited to meet our 2027 Prep children and a wonderful morning ensued. Hanna and Zoe had many activity stations set up, the chicks in the corner were a highlight and the grown ups had a great morning tea in the staffroom. We congratulate and thank Hanna and Zoe for all that they bring to teaching Prep. Currently they are busy visiting and speaking with the kindergartens and early child care centres, to give each student the best start.  Our current Preps looked very grown up when they returned to their classroom! 

2027 School Closure Days & 2027 School Term Dates 

We are currently planning our 2027 calendar. Under the new Enterprise Bargaining Award, all Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools(MACS)  and government schools will have four additional closure days in 2027, bringing the total to eight.

We recognise the impact these mandated days may have on families. To minimise disruption, we have carefully scheduled them, wherever possible and practical, alongside long weekends, public holidays and existing school breaks, in consultation with our School Advisory Council. We have entered our proposed dates and are awaiting confirmation from MACS. The proposed dates will then be shared in the coming weeks to assist families with planning for 2027. We thank you in advance for your understanding and support.

Important Updates: Working with Children (WWC) Check Reforms

From 19 October 2026, new child safety reforms come into effect across Victoria. These changes introduce a new online management system called WWC Connect and a mandatory Child Safety Training module. This update applies broadly across our school community and includes any parent volunteers (including parent helpers, canteen volunteers, and school advisory council members).

If you do not have a WWC check, and are thinking about volunteering in our school community, whether it's as part of a fundraising event (parent helper), or excursion or in the classroom, now is a good time to apply, it is free for volunteers. If you have a current WWC check that expires within the next six months, you can also renew it now.

Existing valid checks remain current, with training required at your next renewal. 

1. WWC Connect: New Connection Timeframes

Schools are now required by law to connect with all workers and volunteers via the new WWC Connect online portal (accessed via Service Victoria).

• Volunteers (e.g., classroom helpers, excursion supervisors, advisory council members) must be connected to our school within 21 days of starting.
• Paid Employees & Contractors must be connected within 7 days of starting.
• Checking before you start: We must verify that your WWC Clearance is valid before you begin any child-related work.
• Privacy: Your contact details are securely shared with the Department of Government Services and the Social Services Regulator (SSR) to keep status records up to date.

2. Mandatory Online Child Safety Training

A new 30–45 minute online child safety module is now built into the WWC Check process through Service Victoria. This needs to be completed when you apply for a new WWC check or upon your next renewal.

3. Who Does This Cover?

These updates apply broadly across our school community, including:

• Paid staff (full-time, part-time, casual)
• Volunteers (including parent helpers, canteen volunteers, and school advisory council members)
• Contractors, sub-contractors, and student placements
• Drivers and religious workers

(Note: VIT-registered teachers are generally exempt from standard WWC Checks unless doing non-teaching child-related work).

What Do Volunteers Need to Do?

1. Check your expiry date: If your clearance is valid, no immediate action is needed until renewal time.
2. Applying or renewing soon? Budget an extra 30–45 minutes during your Service Victoria application to complete the new online training module.
3. Notify the office: Whenever you start, update your contact details, or stop volunteering with us, ensure the front office knows so we can update WWC Connect within the required timeframes.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to keeping our school community safe.

Working Bee 

We thank Brendan for leading our dedicated team of families at the working bee a fortnight ago. We are so appreciative of this work for the Sacred Heart Community. Please see his report below. 

It was a small but mighty attendance at the working bee. A special thanks to the Chalk, Ferrer, McKenzie, Gelsumini, Hodder and Tudor families for completing a huge amount of clean-up activities including:

◦ Whipper snipped inside fence behind hall

◦ Trees trimmed

◦ Bike area weeded

◦ Teachers car park weeded

◦ Filled four bins full of weeds, sticks and leaves

◦ New succulents planted

◦ Swept and blower cleaned throughout grounds

◦ Bin load of balls retrieved from roof and around grounds

◦ Tidied tan bark and sand in playground area

Other Action Items

• Front garden – Planting delayed. To be completed in Term 4 with mini working bee to be scheduled to assist weeding, planting and finalise.

Beachside Athletics 

A fortnight ago, a group of 22 of our students represented Sacred Heart at the Beachside Athletics Carnival, competing against students from schools across our districts. We're incredibly proud of the way our students represented our school, showing fantastic effort, determination and sportsmanship throughout the day. We had a number of students qualify for the Southern Metro Regional Athletics Carnival, which took place on Wednesday, 21 October, at Casey Athletics Centre. Ari (Triple Jump) and the 11 year old boys 4 x 100m relay broke the Beachside records for their respective events. We're so proud of their amazing achievements!

Based on the Beachside results sheet, these Sacred Heart students finished in the top two in their events:

• Isabelle - Girls 9-10, 800m and 1500m
• Edie - Girls 9-10, 80m hurdles
• Noah  - Boys 11 years, 200m and 1500m
• Tao - Boys 12-13, 200m
• Milo - Boys 12-13, 80m hurdles
• Ari  - Boys 11 years, long jump and triple jump
• Sacred Heart 11-year-old boys’ 4 x 100m relay team — first place, 56.75 seconds (Jake, Nate, Noah, and Ari)

Regionals 

Noah and Issy then went onto Regionals, which was amazing. We congratulate Isabelle for coming first in the 1500m and Noah for coming third in the same event. 

Dad’s Camp 

Unfortunately after our summer week of sunshine this weekend looks like being quite wet. Tom Bush has advised me that this weekend Dad’s camping trip has been positioned and he will let us know of the new date soon. We thank Tom for organsing this. 

A new arrival 

We congratulate Tavis and Ashleigh, Parker and Xavier on their new baby daughter and sister. We can’t wait to meet her, and according to Parker she doesn't cry much and is ok! 

Yr 6 Sleep Over 

I have been looking forward to this all year, as I have heard so much about it. At Assembly today our Year Six students outlined their preparation for this exciting St Vincent de Paul event. The stalls sound amazing, as does the sleep out.  We heard from Maurice from St Vincent de Paul, about the importance of this fundraiser and awareness campaign. We thank Miss Bronagh Maloney, Ms Kate Newey, Mr Luke Homer and Ms Tilly Tench for their work in supporting the students. We know the whole community will get behind them next Wednesday for the stalls and Thursday for the Sleep Out. Grace, one of our RE Captains sums it up perfectly below. 

Hi everyone, my name is Grace and I am here to talk about our upcoming St Vinnie’s stalls. 

Our stalls are super important because they raise money and awareness for homeless people. Homelessness is when a person does not have a safe, secure and suitable place to live. It doesn't just mean sleeping on the streets. People experiencing homelessness might be staying in a refuge, living temporarily with friends or family, sleeping in their car, or living in overcrowded or unsafe housing.

We believe that every person should have a safe place to sleep so we have committed to fundraising for St Vinnie’s Sandringham. We will also be participating in a Sleepout next Thursday to experience first hand what it is like to be a person sleeping rough.

There are 11 different stalls, but there are 3 types, there's food, product, and games. You will hear what is on offer in just a minute.

We ask everyone to bring the correct money by not bringing large notes.  Coins preferred, but $5 and $10 notes accepted.

Little Hearts

Last Friday, I had the absolute pleasure of joining the Little Hearts Play Group as Carol, one of our Learning Support Officers led a music class with our  Little Hearts children. I loved every second of it, and the Wheels on the Bus song stayed in my head all weekend! Carol, we thank you for sharing your passion and talents with us. The bubble machine at the end was also a great hit. Several of our Year Six students supported the session and were so caring and helpful with our younger community members. 

Story Time 

Please read the Junior section of the newsletter for our exciting Story Time last Wednesday. The Prep students and their teachers sang songs, shared stories and enjoyed a sausage in their  PJ’s! 

Yr 3 & Yr 4 Camp - Summit Camp 

Our Year Three’s arrived back safely yesterday and we welcomed our Year Four students back this afternoon. We look forward to hearing all about it in our next newsletter. 

Camps are such an important part of the school year and allow our students a range of activities, independence skills and resilience in experiencing and overcoming challenges and new activities and/or skills. We thank Ms Tilly Tench for organising the camps and to our dedicated staff; Ms Jane Dixon, Mrs Kate Stroud, Miss Mak Bulte, Miss Della Sholl and Mr Theo Jaynes for attending. We are blessed to have you supporting our children. Enjoy reading the Middle School News to find out more. 

Tuckshop started today

It was with excitement that the Tuck Shop started today. We look forward to working with Sally and her team. I heard the chips and nuggets were a huge hit! 

Yr 5 Aspire Higher Leadership 

Our Year Five students are preparing to lead our commuinity next year. This is an exciting opportunity to learn student agency,  leadership, what is involved when leading and how to do it. We look forward to learning alongside them. I encourage you to read the Senior School News section of the newsletter. 

Celebrating Learning and Leading  

Long Service Leave 

At the end of next week, I am taking some Long Service Leave to travel with my husbsand to catch up with one of our children in the UK. We are so excited, as it has been two years since we last saw him! I am disappiointed that I will miss a few weeks of our action packed Sacred Heart Term Four learning and activities, but  look forward to watching Instagram and a thorough debrief on my return, of all the highlights. Mrs Kate Stroud will be Acting Principal in my absence, supported by Ms Sarah Rafferty, the leadership team and our amazing staff.  I know I leave Sacred Heart in excellent hands. 

Upcoming Term 4 Dates 

Take care and wishing God's blessings and peace upon each of you. 

Mrs Cathy Ferrari