Deputy Principal
Dear Parents and families,
Its been a fun filled fortnight with Day for Daniel, Year 4 camp, Prep orientation, a visit from the Melbourne Cup and a fond farewell to Mr Brown. It's pleasing to see the academic work is still going strong in between these extra curricular actvities. Spring is certainly in the air as the days have warmed up and Sacred Heart was certainly in spring mode with their fancy hats today.
WELCOME PREP 2025 & TRANSITION
This week we welcomed our newest members of Sacred Heart into our community at our first transition day. I have the benefit of welcoming our new prep students and families each year and then farwelling our Year 6 families and supporting their transition as they head off to secondary school. How privileged I am to book end the students primary years in this way. In my role I thoroughly enjoy working with families, teachers and students to support them with any additional needs throughout their schooling journey.
It is important to understand the process of transition – moving from one class to another, such as from year one to year two, or from primary to secondary school . This can have a significant impact on children. Rest assured a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to ensure students are allocated into the right class with the right teacher. Many hours go into transition and handover meetings as we care for the students in our school, like they are our own. A huge focus in on our kinder to prep and Yr 6 to Yr 7 transition. We work closely with Kinders and secondary schools to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible and we set students up for success.
At Sacred Heart our role is to support children and young people in these transitions. Many children are anxious or nervous about beginning in a new class or school. From our experience, we are able to identify what those concerns are and what can be done in school to help alleviate them.
Some tips for Transition-
- Become familiar with the new environment- our transition days are perfect for this
- Practise going to and from school
- Try on the new uniform and wear in the shoes so they are comfortable
- Ensure prep students can open and close their own lunchboxes, water bottles etc
- Discuss in a positve way the new and exciting programs at school
- If necessary, discuss with the teachers and leaders the needs of your child
FAREWELL MR BROWN
After working with Mr Brown for the past 5 years it is time to wish him a fond farewell from Sacred Heart. Not only in Physical Education lessons but in Wellbeing Mr Brown has always been kind and caring , looking out for all students so they feel happy and safe at school. Mr Brown introduced the Respectful Relationships program to our school and from this he is moving onto a diffferent role, sharing his knowledge across many schools. Mr Brown, we thank you for all the work you have done at Sacred Heart and for being a great collegue, listener and problem solver. We wish you all the very best for the future and hope you can stay in touch.
HAPPY WORLD TEACHERS DAY
Today is the day we take our hats off to all the educators in our schools, especially our incredible teachers at Sacred Heart. They work with incredible passion to be the best educators they can be, always willing to learn more, so the students can benefit.
Thankyou to the P & F for our delicious World Teaches Day lunch and the class reps for organising the generous gifts for our teachers, they have been very spoilt!
ARTWORK ACROSS THE SCHOOL
Even though our building program is in full swing Mrs Hyslop still manages to run an incredible art program. It was so lovely to see the Yr 1 and Yr 2 artwork brightening up our corridors.
PLAYGROUP
It was wonderful to welcome so many families to playgroup last week. The weather did not deter them and although the parents and children were a bit wet, we still had a wonderful time with Carol singing and we all enjoyed some storytime too. It was so exciting to have many of our new prep families join us who will be at school in 2025. Coming along to playgroup on a monthly basis certainly aclimatises students and families to Sacred Heart. Thanks to Carol our LSO for her enthusiastic music and singing and our Year 5 students for coming along and playing with the pre schoolers, and doing the Hokey Pokey. It such a special time to spend together. All pre schoolers and parents are welcome to join us next month on 22nd of November at 10am.
Year 6 Class of 2018 REUNION
It was such a delight to hear about a Sacred Heart Yr 6 reunion with the class of 2018. I taught this cohort in Yr 2 & Yr 4. Many of these students have remained friends and stayed in touch. This tradition started many years ago with Father Frank and it is lovely that it has continued. We wish all the Sacred Heart students who are now in Yr 12 all the very best for their upcoming exams and the future, whatever that may be. Good luck!
REMINDER ABOUT USING THE SCHOOL CROSSING
As student safety is paramount at Sacred Heart, please make a concerted effort touse our school crossing before and after school.The 2 minute zone is such a busy place before and after school and it frightens me watching families crossing in between and in front of cars. Please set an example to your children and cross at the crossing, even if it takes a couple of minutes longer.
SCHOOL HATS TERM 4
A reminder to all students to wear our school hats outside during playtimes and PE lessons. Please apply sunscreen before school and students can reapply it during the day if necessary.
A few highlights of my week- Year 3 girls doing Random acts of kindness with their special hand made bracelets, Kinley & Huxley together on wet day playtime and Grace and Zoe sharing their amazing poster from Day for Daniel!
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and enjoy the Spring sunshine,
Brigid Pennington