Principal News 

WEEK 1 - TERM 2

To subscribe to future Newsletters, please click here

Dear Families and Friends,

We sincerely hope our precious mother’s (and significant women) had a beautiful day last Sunday and were spoiled accordingly. Witnessing on the gate, or through various playground interactions, school functions and exchanges, it’s clear to see the profound impact our mothers have across our Sacred Heart community. We thank you for your continued investment, unconditional love and support that you provide in so many ways for the children and in large, our school community. 

The Gift That Keeps Giving

It's been a particularly trying time for our families and staff as a tsunami of illness sweeps through our community in recent weeks. With some classes reduced to single digits, this certainly has been the largest number of absences recorded in my 30+ years of education. We remain indebted to our responsive team in minimizing the impact on the delivery of the teaching and learning program during this challenging period, noting this has also swept through our staff. The adaptability, flexibility and understanding (e.g. offering up planning time or covering duties) of our staff continues to be held in the highest regard by leadership in 2022. 

In addition, we sincerely thank our families for contacting the office and monitoring for signs and symptoms and sensibly keeping children at home until these subside. Let’s hope we have seen the worst of this wave and can look forward to seeing all children and staff returning next week for an uninterrupted run home to the half-year. In the meantime, please take care and rest up over the weekend - we all need it! 

WELLBEING SPRINTS

This week, the leadership team met with level teams to discuss student wellbeing across their classes. This most affirming process again highlighted ‘how well’ the staff know their students.  These invaluable termly opportunities provide the ideal forum for teams to collectively review students across their cohorts and raise certain matters in a broader setting. Whilst we have many channels to discuss academic progress, such sessions are designed specifically to share the social and emotional wellbeing of students in teams with the leadership. Sometimes just sharing reassures or leads to a collective solution or pathway for support or a desired outcome. Congratulations staff, your priority on student wellbeing and meeting these social and emotional needs is exceptional. 

Respectful Relationship Program

Introduced, and driven by Mr Brown (Wellbeing Leader), the leadership and teaching staff are thrilled to be the beacon in the Bayside area as a hopeful, soon to be, lighthouse school for the outstanding Respectful Relationship program across our sector. This week, acknowledged by representatives from the Department of Education & MACS, Sacred Heart is proudly ahead of the game with a dedicated Wellbeing Leader supporting all staff weekly with the delivery and prioritisation of this program. 

Developing young people who respect each other’s fundamental rights is central to our aims at Sacred Heart. Alongside the soon to be introduced Berry Street Model (training all staff), the Respectful Relationships program, is specifically designed to help form appropriate interpersonal behaviours and respectful attitudes among the student cohort.  

All of us, from parents to school teachers and leaders, to system and sector leaders, must work together to do all we can to address and prevent future harm to any young person. At Sacred Heart, we recognise parents as the first educators of their children, and in partnership we aim to better understand what motivates, condones or permits abusive behaviours and support education programs in this crucial area of student safety. Critically, we must empower the young people in our care and the Respectful Relationship program provides the perfect platform to deliver these outcomes. We look forward to working alongside our families as we continue to enhance a culture of respect. 

Message from Simon Brown: On Tuesday, the staff did a brilliant Personal Development session facilitated by Paul Zappa from the Education Department, Respectful Relationship sector. Paul has vast experience in this space in setting up programs to prevent family violence and promoting gender equality. As a school we are really proud of the work we are currently doing in this space and with the support of Paul we are looking to become a lighthouse school that inspires other communities to get on board with this important work.

Respectful Relationships promote respect and gender equality, and help students learn how to build healthy relationships. It prepares students to face challenges by developing problem-solving skills and building resilience and confidence.

Our goal is to enhance our culture of respect and gender equality, and embed practices and policies to drive meaningful change. 

MSL and the Literacy Approach 

at 

Sacred Heart

Led by evidence-based research, this year, we have successfully introduced MSL and emphasized a structured literacy approach (highly explicit and systematic teaching of all important components of literacy) at Sacred Heart. With all staff on board, we have been thrilled to see the impact this has already had across the school in such a short period of time. The 'daily' feedback from our staff, students and families affirms we are making great gains and we have some exciting times ahead. The learning curve is steep, but the rewards are greater. 

We again thank Mrs Stroud and Mrs Pennington for driving this professional learning and our dedicated staff for delivering these evidenced based approaches in 2022. 

This article was taken from The Australian this week and reaffirms the direction we have taken at Sacred Heart in 2022. 

SOME BIG AND EXCITING NEWS ON THE WAY

In fear of sounding like the current election campaign, we certainly have a big agenda to implement in the coming months and roll out in 2023. Alongside the straightening of classes next year, below are  just some of the exciting changes and initiatives to be introduced in 2022 & 2023. 

Chromebook Program

Please note we will be phasing out the 1:1 iPad program next year. Students will no longer be required to purchase a device upon Prep entry and a sensible plan will be provided regarding the upkeep and maintenance of the current iPads across the school. 

In 2023, chromebooks will be introduced across the senior aspect of the school along with a nominal IT levy to cover the costs of this program. A key feature of this strategy will see all chromebook devices remaining at school i.e. not taken home. 

This device direction better aligns and enables the effective use and access to a Google platform (G.A.F.E) endorsed by MACS and implemented across all schools within the network (primary and secondary). In addition, we believe this program better supports (prepares) the transition to a laptop program currently in all secondary settings.  We look forward to this exciting next phase at Sacred Heart, and in the coming weeks we will settle a plan with an IT provider and school business manager to ensure the best outcome for our students and families.  We thank our families for their feedback in welcoming this approach. 

Canberra, Here We Come

We are pleased to confirm our Yr.6 students will be heading to Canberra in March, 2023. This outstanding educational and camping experience will be such a great addition and highlight for our students in their final year at Sacred Heart.

Coupled with outdoor activities, this is arguably the most valuable educational experience capturing much of the Civics & Citizenship curriculum for our students. We look forward to sharing more information in the coming months and providing suitable time for families to budget for this week-long camp. 

2023 Swimming Program Yr.1-6 

At this stage, we have scheduled this 8 day swimming program (8 x 45min/session) for Week 2 & 3, Term 4. Please note a State Grant will be re-distributed across the grade levels (1-6) to offset some of the costs of this program. This program will be facilitated through the new Danny Frawley Centre. We thank Mr Thiessens for introducing and coordinating this program in  2023. 

SACRED HEART KIDS DISCO

We encourage all families to purchase their tickets for the not to be missed, Sacred Heart Kids Disco. 

Dust of those dance shoes and get ready for one of the most anticipated nights of the school year… The Sacred Heart Kids Disco, now locked in for Friday 3 June 2022!

Date & time: There will be two, 1 hour long disco sessions held in the School Hall: 6pm & 7pm 

Please don’t be late!

Cost & payment: The cost per child is $10 and tickets can be purchased through CDF https://shsandringham.cdfpay.org.au/MonitorOnline/app/#!/login. 

GRANDPARENTS 

& 

SPECIAL FRIENDS' DAY 

10th JUNE

With open arms, we cannot wait to warmly welcome our grandparents and special friends of the Sacred Heart community back into our school and classrooms in the coming weeks. 

P&F UPDATE

Once again, we extend our sincerest gratitude to our dynamic P&F for their most generous support in promoting our amazing community. In meeting with the team this week, I was again invigorated by their energy and enthusiasm in actively promoting our community, raising funds and investment in their wonderful school. These collective efforts ultimately benefit our students, staff and families, and we look forward to supporting their many initiatives in the coming months.

More recently we thank the P&F for coordinating the fabulous Mother’s Day stall, a success on so many levels.  Tomorrow, we wish our mum’s a gorgeous and well-deserved day out for their annual luncheon. No doubt this will be something quite special, so be sure to enjoy the sleep-in on Sunday morning.

This term, P&F funds will be directed towards classroom furnishing across our junior and senior aspects of the school, to begin with.  The P&F are excited to have some targeted projects this year and these will be visually represented in the admin foyer in the coming weeks - watch this space i.e. what we are targeting and how we are tracking with these fundraising goals/outcomes. 

NAPLAN

Nationally, all Yr.3 & 5 completed their NAPLAN this week. We congratulate all students for their calm and measured manner in navigating this assessment schedule. We must also acknowledge ‘the heightened external profile’ of this assessment program and thank our supportive families and staff for encouraging the children and gently tempering some unnecessary pressures. We also express our appreciation to Ms Collins, Mr Blake and Miss McKay for their coordination of this 'online' program. This required a considerable amount of time and energy. 

NAPLAN results add value to teacher assessment and reporting by showing how their students’ achievement compares to a wider group of students across the state and Australia.

It is important to remember that the results reflect each student’s performance at a single point in time only. It is a snapshot of one form of assessment and must be coupled with the many forms of assessment undertaken by the school to more accurately determine performance. 

Teachers in all schools assess their students’ learning in literacy and numeracy on a regular basis. NAPLAN testing complements, but does not replace the information that teachers gather. In time, we look forward to reviewing this data set and sharing with our community.

CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

On Friday, we proudly sent a team of no less 90 cross country runners away to compete in the annual zone carnival.  We think they had a pretty good at Bald Hill and thank Mrs Fahey for the stunning photos, capturing the day so beautifully. 

This is an almighty undertaken, and we again thank our staff and Mr T for his coordination of this program. It's worth noting Mr T impressively organised the entire carnival for the Dendy Association. 

Little Gems

It was lovely to drop in on Yr.1&2 and see the fabulous work they were doing with their shared reading text, Who Sank the Boat.

We had book reviews, oral presentations and even science perfectly integrated into their literacy block. Sadly though, Miss Prosser's class quickly discovered, plasticine does not float so well. As you can see it didn't dampen their spirits. 

Great to see pasta art (science experiment) is back and stood the test of time in Yr.1&2.

Staff Table Tennis Championships

Thanks Mrs Fahey for providing some lunchtime fun for the staff on Thursday, introducing table tennis to the staff room. No surprises Ms Tench became the self-proclaimed champion on day 1 of the staff championships. A wonderful teacher and talented tennis player, Ms Tench also plays football in the Victorian Amateurs Association.  What an all-rounder!

Let's just say a quiet reminder was required when the bell went at the close of break. 

Just a very small sample of the stunning student art work adorning our walkways from Mrs Hyslop's weekly classes. We are blessed to have the best art program and teacher going around. 

Not surprisingly these amazing ANZAC art pieces created by Yr.1&2 also caught my eye. 

And not to be outdone by the 1&2 teachers, Mrs Reed also manages to integrate some creative art opportunities into her Japanese program. 

If you happen to be floating through the school, be sure to drop into Mrs Reed's beautiful Japanese room, you'll be blown away. 

Archie, aka 'Eddie' Matthews recreating possibly the best goal witnessed in a playground earlier in the week. Thanks for being such great sports Archie and Spencer. The students agree we should now install cameras in the playground to capture these special moments. 

Thanks for dropping into the office of Friday 1/2BH and sharing your great measurement learning. I'm pleased to say the principal has the longest pointer finger. I love these visits. 

Key Dates and Reminders for Term 2

• Full Winter uniform 
• 20th May - Confirmation
• 3rd June- Kids Disco
• 10th June - Grandparent's Day and Special Assembly
• 13th June - Queen's Birthday
• 20th June - School Closure - Whole Staff Berry Street Training 
• 24th June - End of Term and Feast of Sacred Heart

And finally...

How lovely it has been to see our parent helpers back in the classrooms - long may it continue. Families, you are always welcome to visit and assist in the classrooms throughout the week, so please don't hesitate to ask your child's teacher if you have some spare time to drop in.

Stay well and have a restful weekend,

Simon Collis

Principal