Principal News 

TERM 3

To subscribe to future Newsletters, please click here 

And just like that...

Dear Families & Friends,

It certainly is wonderful to see our students back to school and settled so remarkably well. Literally within the first 10 minutes on day one, the students and staff picked right up where they left off, not skipping a beat with their tight learning schedules and class rituals. Our students were completely immersed in their well-structured & disciplined Literacy program, engaging in Heggerty, Sound Packs, various writing tasks (TWR) and purposeful wellbeing activities such as welcoming circles. 

It would be fair to say, the start of the term exceeded my lofty expectations, as I couldn't have asked for a more flawless and seamless beginning. The foundational elements, structures, and consistent processes and practices that we have collectively worked hard to achieve at Sacred Heart in recent months were clearly evident on Monday, and I am immensely proud of our staff for their dedication and the students' exceptional responsiveness to these expectations. 

For example, our outstanding teachers in the Year 2 classrooms, Miss Prosser and Miss Donnelly were perfectly in sync while delivering their explicit literacy lessons. Despite being in separate classrooms, their transition to the next phase of their literacy block was exceptional and truly had to be seen to be believed at how precise (military precision) this was being delivered across their respective learning spaces. It was timed to the second as I moved between their classrooms. Just for the record, this is the case 5 days a week. 

We again celebrate this best practice,  as this consistent delivery (timing, rhythm, structure and same curriculum area and content) across our classrooms has been our aim in creating a high performing culture and predicatable learning environment for our students i.e. opitmum conditions for learning. It was wonderful to see all these key components come together on the very first day of Term 3 across our classrooms. 

Importantly, our students look rested, settled, focused and ready for what is certain to be another phenomenal term of learning ahead. Congratulations students and staff, your hard work is paying off and you have clearly set the tone and bar high and we look forward to building upon and consolidating (and celebrating) these great gains and habits throughout the term. 

A Sneaky Literacy & Numeracy Snapshot

While walking past Yr.1R on Tuesday, I was stopped in my tracks when I overheard Miss Rafferty engaging with her students about identifying 'subordinate conjunctions' from the passage displayed on the board. As I peeked into the classroom, I noted the students effortlessly identifying and providing examples like, before, after, when, and where. It's truly remarkable to see our 7-year-old students demonstrate such impressive knowledge.

Timetabled and spread across classrooms and all breakout spaces, our students splinter daily into their Spelling Mastery groups for these 25 minute sessions.  Using every available LSO & teacher, these groups can range from 6 - 24, depending on the point of need.  Once again, I commend our students for the manner in which they have embraced this program and mixed groupings without fuss. Assessed periodically, students have the opportunity to move across these groups as they consolidate their learning throughout the year. This fluid grouping is a similar structure/approach used in our senior classes during specific numeracy blocks. In addition, this year, our Yr. 3-6 classes have adopted a daily mental maths book to sharpen these invaluable skills, and this has been so well received in these classes. 

It is also fabulous to see across all our classrooms key rules displayed on the walls as a reference (anchor points) for our students. Another BIG focus this year has been morphology, which is the study of words, how they are formed and the relationship to other words. Above is a very small sample of some rules displayed across our classrooms focused on during the Literacy Block. Mr T may have missed his calling as he has gone a whole new level with his digitally enhanced posters in Yr.6T. Time for Etsy, Mr T. 

Maths Week

17th - 21st July

Next week, we place a spotlight on Maths with two competitions for our families and a series of fun activities run across the classrooms throughout the week. Coordinated by Mr Blake and supported by our Yr.6 leaders, Bella, Sam and Jasper, this will be a wonderful celebration of this key curriculum area.  Please refer to the Maths Week Competition page in the newsletter for more details. 

Morning Welcome Circles

At Sacred Heart, each day our classes start with a ‘morning welcome circle.’ Using this Berry Street inspired practice, it’s a brilliant way to start the day with a circle; to check in and out, frame expectations and values for the day or a session, and nurture meaningful relationships within the class. It can also be an opportunity to talk about topics like - what they are grateful for, what went well or how they could brighten their day if someone is feeling low or share stories of resilience etc... 

A Must Read & Listen To

I strongly encourage all families to read our Wellbeing News prepared by Mr Brown as this includes some invaluable considerations around screen time. I believe this is MUST for all families, particularly coming off the back of school holidays. In addition, should you enjoy the odd podcast, I cannot recommend more highly the latest cast from 'the imperfects,' Love Your Wonky Bricks.  This certainly resonated with my role and experiences as an educator and parent. 

Staffing News

Music 

Talking about a seamless transition, this week we warmly welcomed Mr Coutts as our new music teacher as Miss Robertson commenced her new role at a neighbouring secondary school this semester. It would be fair to say that we have been blown away and quietly blessed at how quickly Mr Coutts has adopted and taken over the wonderful music program and preparation for the Peter Pan production. Hearing the children singing on Tuesday and Wednesday was just stunning (only to be matched by Miss Roberston) and was reflective of the instant rapport Mr Coutts established with the students. We look forward to watching this program continue to flourish under his guidance.  In line with the new employment guidelines, Mr Coutts is also a long-suffering Blues supporter. I’m a great believer in the weight of numbers. We again sincerely thank Miss Robertson for setting Mr Coutts up so wonderfully for this transition and handover. 

Peter Pan Rehearsals are in full swing, and we acknowledge Mr Coutts, Miss Roberston, Mrs Pennington, Miss Rafferty & Mr T for offering up their daily breaktimes to run additional rehearsals for the students. 

We also welcome back  Mrs Bunn after her extended long-service leave and travels throughout Europe and the Greek Islands. No surprise Sensei Bunn had a reality check when arriving home to a wintery Melbourne over the weekend.  Thanks again Mrs Reed for covering Japanese during this period of leave. 

Year 3 Arrangements

As noted last term, we are thrilled to have Mrs Capron join the Yr.3 team this semester in light of Mrs Tucker’s slight reduction in hours. This arrangement will now see two stand alone Yr.3 classes across the entire week. We remain indebted to Miss Healey and Mrs Mathias (LSO) for covering the combined classes at various stages throughout the week with our previous arrangements. 

Long-Service Leave

Mr Blake will be taking some well-deserved long-service leave this term to visit his family in Ireland.  Whilst he will be missed over this extended period, we appreciate the importance of family, in particular for our Irish members on staff who typically spend extended periods away from their immediate family. We wish Mr Blake safe and joyous travels in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we are so pleased to acknowledge Mr Brown will step in and work across these entire weeks in Yr.5, and Mr Harrison will cover his PE classes during this time. This is a great outcome ensuring a seamless handover as Mr Brown currently shares this class with Mr Blake. 

We also welcome back Mrs Stroud and Mrs Roberston from their leave next week. 

Important Prep News

We are excited to announce that on Thursday, July 27th (Week 3), we will be celebrating 100 days of Prep with a special day. To make this occasion even more memorable, our Preps will be dressing up as 100-year-olds! Get ready families, we know how much you love a dress up! Attached is a QR code to some pictures from our last year's celebration. More details about the event in the coming days. Let's just say, Miss Maloney is more excited than the children. 

Public Speaking & Debating Course 

Our Yr.5 & 6 students have commenced their annual public speaking and debating course that will be run over the next 8 weeks. This is such a powerful program aiming to build the confidence and capacity of students to speak publicly. The growth of our students over this period is most impressive. 

New Families

This term, we warmly welcome the following new families into our community: Hospodar (x2), Keleher, Nicholls, Budin, Calder, Pigott (x 2) and Shannon (x2). We look forward to watching these new students flourish in their new setting, and thank our staff in particular for being so welcoming and supportive during this transition period. We are beyond thrilled to acknowledge we have had 23 new students commence this year at Sacred Heart across Prep-Yr.5. We cannot underestimate the correlation between these numbers and our increased focus on ‘best’ teaching & learning practices, wellbeing approaches and exceptional community. Watching our students and families connect with these new members of our community in the playground has been such a blessing. 

Parent & Friends

Coordinated by Ashlee and Lisa, we dearly thank a number of our dedicated P&F mums for generously offering up time this week to tidy, organise and declutter years of P&F resources from various storage areas across the school. We are most grateful for these efforts and acknowledge the considerable time our P&F representatives have volunteered over many years for the benefit of the school community, namely the students.  Thanks again mums, these newly refreshed storage spaces look amazing! 

We also continue to extend our gratitude to Amanda and Tarn in the uniform shop. These two phenomenal volunteers give so generously of their time each week for our families, and have more recently opened up outside these hours to support our new families. They always go above and beyond for our families. 

Fete Update

We are hopeful of locking in the 1st March, 2024 for a twilight Fete (5pm-9pm) in the coming days. Many thanks to Adele W and Ashlee D for working behind the scenes to get this fabulous community event off the ground. More information to follow. 

Little Hearts of Sandy Playgroup

Next Sessions:

• 28th July 10am
• 18th August 10am
• 8th September 10am

Family and friends are most welcome to attend. No age limit on toddlers or pre-schoolers.  Typically we have over 20 children attend these initmate and friendly sessions

Little Gems

Love this crew from Yr.4C who visited my office to proudly showcase their definitions of erosion for their topic, Our Blue Planet. Grace, Daniel and Nate were preparing a glossary for their reports and were pretty chuffed to know they would be making the newsletter. In no particular order, I think we have some new leaders in the clubhouse for 'proudest smiles.' 

Congratulations to our aspiring author, Eve for her incredible book prepared during the holidays. I was truly captivated by the narrative, and your expressive delivery while reading it aloud, coupled with your remarkable artwork, left me in awe.

How impressive are these three Yr.1 students? They were bursting with pride to showcase their stunning writing efforts, although I did say I thought the handwriting must be Miss Rafferty, such was the quality. We are indeed seeing a Writing Revolution (TWR) in our classrooms. Well done Lucy, Emily and Elle. 

In Yr.5, Mr Brown has a daily literacy challenge where he gives the students 5 words and they must try to put into sentences or a paragraph. Check out Sam's efforts, it's extraordinary! It should come as no surprise, one of his super strengths is vocabulary.

An 'oort' cloud is the matter with energy so astronomical that it creates a star that no units of weight measurement can comprehend the mass. 

Capturing these pictures of 4T immersed in their reading was just priceless. 

Year 3 students have written beautiful letters for their parents for the upcoming parent/teacher interviews. The children identified their growth, what they are most proud of and what they still need to focus on this semester. One student proudly noted how hard they have been working in class and closed by saying, "I think I need a break now because I've worked so hard."  

Spot the birthday students

A picture of concentration

Precious Friday Buddy Time

LOCK’EM IN

And finally....

What an incredible end to the week, mirroring the impressive beginning of our term. As mentioned during the assembly this morning, the students' behavior was absolutely flawless and undeniably the best I have seen since I joined Sacred Heart. While their manner at such gatherings is typically outstanding, today surpassed all expectations. Congratulations to the students, and I want to emphasize once again how immensely proud I am of each and every one of you for your exceptional approach to this new term.

Go the Blues,

Simon Collis

Principal

School Information Package, please click here