Principal's Message

Good afternoon all, 

Last week we had our second School Advisory Council meeting for the term.  At this meeting we discussed enrolments, marketing practices of the school and the development of a master plan which will assist us to plan for the future of our school.  Foundation enrolments will close this Friday and at this stage we are anticipating similar enrolment numbers to last year.  This is positive especially given that there are lower numbers of students in four-year-old kindergarten programs in Tatura this year as compared to last year. We have utilised marketing templates developed by Catholic Education Sandhurst Limited (CESL) for Catholic schools but we have also put forward our own brand marketing aspects of our school which make it unique.  We have highlighted (and will continue to boast) our before and after school care program, our wellbeing support programs (secret agents society, bike masters and workshop wonders) and our intervention programs, our calm and well-resourced classrooms.  These all compliment the Sandhurst Magnify initiative which is already seeing improvement in learning growth for many of our students. With regard to a master plan, we will be speaking with three architects in the coming weeks to determine a suitable candidate who can work with us to develop a vision for what Sacred Heart School will look like in the future.  This will be a very exciting project and we can’t wait to see what ideas are brought to the table for our school.  There will be more to come in this space later in the year. 

Yesterday all the educators at Sacred Heart attended a full day of professional learning with the organisation Knowledge Society.  Our school (and the 50 other Sandhurst schools) are implementing a classroom mastery program which is proven to promote quieter and calmer classrooms. The first part of the rollout for this program will involve establishing entry and exit routines (this is something that we already do well at Sacred Heart School) and a uniform cue to start for our students.  Whilst none of these are new to our school, you will notice that it will mean some things are refined.  One aspect of change for all our students will involve the use of a uniform entry routine at the commencement of each day.  All our students will line up outside their classrooms and enter quietly.  Whilst entry routines are used throughout the day, they have not been used commonly in the mornings.  We will explain to our students why we are doing this to assist them to adjust to the change.  We will also have a common cue to start. A cue to start is what is used to bring students to attention.  This is used already at Sacred Heart but each of the teachers tend to have their own cue to start.  The common cue to start will involve teachers counting down from 5 and as they approach1, they will say “and “to which the students will respond together “one.” It just means that it’s easier for our students as no matter which teacher they have – they will all have the same cue.  There will be other aspects of knowledge society which will be rolled out over the course of the year. 

School reports will be made available to parents at the beginning of week 11.  If you have questions regarding your child’s report, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s classroom teacher through email.  

Last Thursday some of our colour run committee met for the first time.  The following arrangements were made for the colour run. The event will occur from 5.00pm - 6.30pm on Friday 17th October. It will be an entrance fee of $10 per child with no other fundraising required to participate.  A BBQ dinner, popcorn, snow cones and drinks will be available for purchase on the evening. The pricing of food items will be similar to last year.   We will be doing a raffle which we would like to sell tickets for prior to the evening.  The raffle will be drawn on the evening of the colour run. We are calling for donations for this raffle.  If you are a business owner and you are prepared to donate a good or service we would love to hear from you!  Any funds raised from this event and the raffle will go towards the court refurbishment which we are currently getting quotations for. 

Next term our classroom teachers will be preparing their students for the concert on September 10. Our weekly assemblies will change to fortnightly assemblies so that every second week (when there is no assembly) there will be an hour allocated to rehearsals for each class.  There will still be student of the week awards presented, but there will be two for each class every fortnight.  This will be the same for the principal award. 

Next week we will be celebrating Founders Day on the 27th June.  This is also the day that Bishop Shane will visit our school.  As part of this day we will focus on the Mercy Sisters and their influence on our school life here at Sacred Heart Tatura.  Catherine McAuley (the founder of the Mercy sisters) was inspired by the Gospel  and lived this  out, through her daily works of Mercy.  The following was a strong source of inspiration for her work: 

Matthew 25:35 “For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;” 

Let us pray that we continue to be inspired by these works of Mercy and, though our work,  support the needs of others both in our own community and in our world. 

Amen 

Blessings, 

Carolyn Goode 

Principal 

FEE CONCESSION FOR HCC HOLDERS

Families with a Health Care Card and would like to receive the CESL Fee Concession are reminded they need to commit to paying $520/student throughout the year - preferably by school organised Direct Debit or by arrangement.  Please see Debbie in the office if you have any questions regarding this.