Principal's News
Dear Parents / Carers,
As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, at Sacred Heart our Mission is broader than academic and next Monday, May 30th we have a fantastic example. We have a very special guest visiting our school to mark RECONCILIATION WEEK, Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Bauman AM. (2021 Elder Australian of the Year winner).
For those of you who may not know Miriam-Rose I would invite you to follow this link. Miriam-Rose "Dadirri" She is, in my opinion, a National Treasure.
Our school is very fortunate to be able to welcome Dr Ungunmerr Bauman to Sacred Heart. Our Religious Education Leader, Julie Leonard, worked with Miriam-Rose in Daly River previously and has remained a close friend.
Many parents will recall that I was lucky enough to drag my caravan to Darwin and back via Perth last year on Long Service Leave. One of the absolute highlights was driving out to Daly River to meet Miriam-Rose, thanks to Julie’s introduction. I will never forget it.
And so, our students will now have this privilege next Monday. Miriam will address the children about Reconciliation before demonstrating her beautiful painting skills in smaller groups.
We will be offering the children a taste of Kangaroo stew at lunch time, however the kids should bring their lunch as normal.
Indigenous students from Monivae College in Hamilton, who come from Daly River, and are excited to catch up with Miriam will be joining us after lunch to perform music and dance for us.
This is a great opportunity to broaden the horizons for our students and we are looking forward to it very much.
Unfortunately we are unable to accommodate the number of parents who may like to attend Monday afternoon’s performance, as we will most likely be in the Multipurpose Room. However, if the weather is OK and we are able to shift the performance outdoors I will advise parents by text message on Monday morning.
CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK This week our school celebrates Catholic Education Week. The theme this year is “Share the Good News”. To mark the occasion this year our students will be attending Mass at St Mary’s Church from 10:00am tomorrow, Wednesday, May 25th. This is something we haven’t been able to do since 2019 so we are keen to go ahead.
We will be joined by the children from St Brendan’s and St. Mary’s.
Following Mass the children will be sharing Morning Tea at St Mary’s before heading off for activities with their friends from the other Cathlic schools.
Children in Foundation, Grades 1 & 2 will be doing their activities at St Mary’s School, Grades 3 & 4 students will be at the Botanical Gardens and our Grade 5 & 6 students will be at the Lake Oval.
Please note: Our Swimming Program tomorrow WILL BE GOING AHEAD, as normal.
Children will be bussed to Heather’s Pool for their lesson and then bussed back to St Mary’s or to Sacred Heart, depending upon what time their lesson is.
MASKS - Given the amount of Covid-19 and flu circulating in the community, all staff will be wearing masks at the Mass and I would be advising similar for children. Please note this is only my advice and is not a rule to be enforced.
Given the number of students, parents will not be able to attend tomorrow’s Mass.
My further advice is that if parents have concerns about this event where their child/ren might be particularly vulnerable to illness as they perhaps recover from a cold or other illness then they might take a “safety first” approach and give the child a “Sick day”.
A friendly reminder to parents/carers to please report any absence for your child/ren before 10:00am on the day of the absence. This can be done either via your PAM account or a phone call to the Front office (Ph: 52 315292). Thank you for your assistance.
ENROLMENTS 2023 Families who have someone to start Foundation in 2023 SHOULD have received an Enrolment Application Form. We would appreciate you returning these forms promptly as we are
planning for 2023.
RELATE Just a reminder that our SCHOOL WILL BE CLOSED THIS FRIDAY May 27th in order that staff participate in Professional Development for the “Relate” program as described in previous newsletters.
COVID-19
Screening requirements:
Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. This was previously 8 weeks.
Household contacts:
Students and staff who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are no longer required to quarantine. They can return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times within their 7-day period and wear face masks indoors if they are aged 8 and above unless they have a valid exemption.
If any household contact returns a positive RAT result during this period, they must isolate for 7 days and not attend school.
Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools:
Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
community groups who use premises outside the school’s normal operating hours.
RAT screening program extension reminder:
The supply of RATs will continue for the first 4 weeks of this term. The screening recommendations remain the same:
- mainstream schools – recommended to test at home twice a week