Weekes' Weekly News
Learning, growing and celebrating together...
Dear Sacred Heart Kew Families,
Smiles a plenty at this time of the year. I guess it really is time to embrace Christmas, even if there seems to be 1000 items on the ‘To Do’ list each day...
There is just something about Christmas that makes you feel good. Is it the Carols? Is it the decorations? Is it the food and Christmas treats? Let’s start with the Carols. These always bring a bit of positivity, goodwill and cheer around this time of the year.
Sacred Heart Christmas Carols
Wasn’t last night SPECTACULAR!? A big congratulations and well done to all the children for their singing at our Christmas Carols last night. Thank you to Mrs Mulhall, Mr Millane and Staff for organising the evening, along with the Nativity Play which was led by our Senior children. A big thank you to the staff who coordinated the performances and supported our children. Thank you to our wonderful community for taking part in our Carols this year. A very special thanks to Santa for popping in to say hello towards the end of the evening. Thanks also to our Parents’ Association (in particular our Year Two families) for their assistance on the night, decorating the Church, expert Face Painting, and the cooking of some delicious snags for us all to enjoy. The joy of Advent and the spirit of Christmas has well and truly begun.
Advent liturgies
I am sure a wise person once said, often, children teach us the best lessons in life, we just don’t always realise it at the time of the lesson. This has certainly been the case as we have listened to each of our Advent liturgies, over the last two weeks. Learning about the various characters from the Jesse Tree, their trials and tribulations, has been most educational. Learning from the stories of the past helps us to live in the present day. Our children have been superb in presenting each Advent liturgy and theme.
New Ninja Playground
Speaking of smiles, our new playground has brought many smiles to our school yard. A special thank you to our very generous Parents’ Association for funding this project, with funds raised throughout the last two years contributing to this fabulous addition to our school grounds.
School Hall Building Refurbishment
Now that this construction has taken place, it is time to get serious. As communicated to families in our school newsletter on Friday 13 September, we anticipated that come December, a Tender (Builder) would be awarded for our School Hall Building Refurbishment.
I am pleased to announce that in consultation with Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) and our Architect (Baldasso Cortese), we have now appointed a Builder to complete our School Hall Building Refurbishment. Documents and emails have been flying back and forth at all hours this week! It is hoped that demolition works will take place over the January school holiday period, with construction beginning late January, and practical completion of works, approximately, late September 2025 (rough estimate - hopefully earlier).
As was previously advised, the following items will be included as part of this refurbishment:
- All 6 (GPC) General Purpose Classrooms refurbished
- In between sliding doors and sliding entry doors (of above)
- 2 new internal ramps (ground floor) addressing floor height differences
- 1 new external accessible ramp (south end) including removal of disused external stairwell
- New level 1 external balcony and walkway
- New internal lift (north end)
- New internal stairs (north end)
We are also hopeful that we can have this beautiful building painted (externally), along with some other necessary external touches (within our Heritage Overlay).
We have planned accordingly and have begun moving out of the School Hall building, so that these works can take place. As indicated in September, every ‘nook and cranny’ will be used as we temporarily relocate things in 2025. It will be squishy at times, but all classes will be catered for, in classroom settings, with all our Admin/Junior Building, Senior Building, Visual Arts Room and Staffroom area, becoming student learning spaces, whilst building takes place. Our Specialist lessons will still take place, along with School Assemblies, Para-liturgies, OSHC program, Instrumental Music program and School Musical, later on in the year.
During your child’s transition morning (Monday 16 December), your child will visit their new classroom for 2025 and meet their new teacher and classmates for next year. This may be a temporary space, as mentioned above. Please be assured that all classroom spaces will continue to be engaging and vibrant learning environments, regardless of where they are positioned in the school.
We look forward to our last week and a bit, including our Swimming program, celebrating our Year Six children with their Graduation (also taking place on Monday 16 December) and our End of Year Mass on Tuesday 17 December (the last day of the 2024 school year for all children).
2024 NAPLAN Reporting of Results
Families may have recently seen the 2024 NAPLAN results reported through various media outlets. The 2024 NAPLAN results that have been reported relate to Year 5 results for Primary schools and Year 9 results for Secondary schools.
I am pleased to share with families that your child's school (Sacred Heart Kew) has once again ranked inside the TOP 100 schools in Victoria. In 2022 we also held a ranking inside the TOP 100 schools in Victoria. This year our ranking is 50 with a Year 5 average of 554. We are also the TOP ranked Catholic primary school in Victoria, based on these results, this particular ranking system and list of Victorian schools.
To determine how each school performed in 2024, the scores for all five test subjects for the student cohort (Yr 5 or Yr 9) were combined and the average found. Special schools, schools with fewer than 20 students enrolled, and schools that did not report any results for NAPLAN subjects were excluded from the analysis. The figures were independently compiled from the Federal Government's MySchool website. Data was not collected for Western Australia
As we all are as a school and staff, you should too be VERY proud of all our children, in particular our Year 5 cohort. As Principal, I also acknowledge, thank and congratulate all our staff members who continue to support our students with their academic achievements and their ongoing development in all areas. Our staff always go 'above and beyond', at every year level, and these Year 5 results are a 'team effort', reflecting many years of expert guidance, teaching and support, from the foundation years of primary school here at Sacred Heart Kew, built upon, layer by layer, at every grade level.
It is important to note, but not overly surprising to families, that as a school staff each year, we do analyse NAPLAN data, as well as all our other school assessment data to identify strengths and areas for improvement, across all learning areas and subjects. Our learning programs are tailored accordingly and cater for all students' academic capabilities and stages of learning.
Please see our Learning & Teaching page for an UPDATE on some of our Learning programs and strategies which align with the MACS 2030 Vision.
Wishing everyone a lovely weekend and last week and a little bit.
Kind Regards,
Ed Weekes
School Principal