Principal's News

Dear Parents / Carers,

As hard as it is to believe our students will finish Term 2 this Thursday, June 23rd. I’m sure we are all grateful to have completed (almost) a semester of face to face learning after the past 2 years of pandemic driven shutdowns and remote learning.

As I wrote in last week’s newsletter the children have done an amazing job, and as I walk around the school with families considering Sacred Heart as the school for their family we see room after room of industrious, engaged students working happily with whoever their teachers happen to be that day.

I would like to thank especially our amazing Deputy Principal, Jane Daffy, who every day this term has put together the amazing jigsaw puzzle, that is the staffing arrangements for our 20 classrooms, with thoughtful creativity, a great deal of forward planning and always a smile on her face. 

STAFFING NEWS Speaking of staffing our school, our school will grow by 1 class group for 2023. This is the fulfilment of our Masterplan projection from 2010 that this school would grow to have 21 classes, 3 at each of the seven grade levels. Our total student population won't grow by very much in 2023 but we will need 1 extra class teacher to be responsible for this class.

I am delighted to announce that we have appointed Tom Rieniets as this new teacher for 2023. Tom is a former student of Sacred Heart and has completed a “traineeship” here after completing Year 12 at Trinity. Tom has been studying to be a Primary School teacher and has been working as a Learning Support Officer in the school for some time. He is already an asset to the school and we congratulate him on this exciting stage in his career.

END OF TERM ARRANGEMENTS This Thursday will not only be the last day of term but will coincide with our celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

Therefore the whole school will be going to 10:00am Mass at St Mary’s Church on Thursday the 23rd. Parents and friends may attend it if they'd like. This is traditionally the “Poor Man’s Mass” where we are asked to donate non-perishable foodstuffs, blankets, doonas and toiletries to St Vincent de Paul for distribution to the needy in our community. My thanks to the many families who have already left a donation of goods at the front office of our school. IF you are in a position to send any of these items to school as a donation please do so and we will ensure St Vincent de Paul receives them.

Since Thursday will be the children’s last day of the term, they will receive a hot dog and a drink.  School will finish at 3:15pm 

Staff will be completing the second day of compulsory training for our ReLate program on Friday the 24th. 

COVID-19

The school will continue to send R.A.Tests home for the remainder of this term. The latest advice is that tests need only be administered if the patient has symptoms. When students and staff have tested positive for COVID-19, they must go into  7days of isolation. Family contacts, i.e. those that live in the same house as the infected individual must continue to test themselves 5 times within this 7 day period. If they remain negative they attend school but must wear a mask. 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.