Principal News 

WEEK 1 - TERM 2

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Dear Families and Friends,

Despite this ongoing wave of sickness rolling through our classrooms, we've still managed to celebrate another fabulous week of learning at Sacred Heart.  We remain in awe of our resilient students and staff as they have adapted faultlessly to the fluctuating numbers and staff shortages to ensure a full, and uninterrupted academic program has been delivered.  

CONFIRMATION

Congratulations Yr. 6 on receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation last Friday. Celebrated by Bishop Tony & Fr. Dean, this was such a beautiful evening for our students, families and school community. We are certainly blessed to be able to gather in large numbers and celebrate these significant and special occasions within our faith community in recent months. 

We sincerely thank our staff (Mr Blake, Miss Healey, Miss McKay, Mr Brown, Mr Thiessens & Mrs Biffin) for supporting, guiding and preparing the students so well and making this such a special evening for all. Affirmed by Bishop Tony, our students were superbly prepared.  

Many thanks to Zena Jasniach for generously offering up her professional photography skills at such short notice on Friday evening to take a series of memorable shots for our children and families. 

BIG WRITE MODERATION

It was wonderful to visit all the classrooms this week as the students across the entire school focused on a ‘Big Write’ session. All students had to plan and prepare a sample of writing on a set topic to be moderated by all staff on Tuesday. 

Moderation is a ‘quality assurance process’ undertaken by staff that ensures appropriate standards. This process ensures that marks or grades (for reports) are awarded appropriately and consistently across the school. Mrs Pennington provided samples that reflected the appropriate curriculum standards and staff used curriculum checklists and teacher judgements to review our students' writing. Please note, students were moderated against the curriculum and not Sacred Heart benchmarks. This valuable process is essentially a form of feedback to staff to help them align their marking standards with those of other staff. 

‘One of the most powerful research based strategies for linking assessment to improved instructional practice is teacher moderation. This process involves educators in a collaborative discussion of student work based on predetermined assessment criteria.’ 

Year 1/2 Science and Literacy

Our Yr.1&2 students were at it again this week integrating their Science unit on chemical changes into their Literacy with some procedure writing. It's fabulous to see our staff smartly and purposefully cross link the curriculum to ensure learning time is optimized. This 'two birds with one stone...' approach provides an invaluable opportunity to address our dense curriculum i.e. enables staff to cover off on all curriculum entitlements. Well done 1/2s, I loved how engaged you are with your learning. A combination of hands-on and written is sometimes the perfect balance for our learners. 

LITERACY BEST-PRACTICE IN ACTION

How affirming it was to drop in on the junior classrooms on Thursday morning and see all the teachers simultaneously and explicitly teaching letter blends (MSL and best practice). Well done Team P-2, I'm super proud of your collective efforts and investment in this consistent and structured approach to literacy. 

Below is a small snapshot from a couple of our junior classrooms. 

SACRED HEART KIDS DISCO

Dust of those dancing 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.   This will close at midnight on Sunday evening.

GRANDPARENTS 

& 

SPECIAL FRIENDS' DAY

10th JUNE

9am - ASSEMBLY 

9:45am - CLASSROOM VISITS

10:15am - MORNING TEA 

With open arms, we cannot wait to warmly welcome our grandparents and special friends of the Sacred Heart community back into our school for the assembly, classrooms visits and morning tea on Friday 10th June. 

CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

We congratulate the following students who have qualified for the Beachside Cross Country on Tuesday 31st May. 

• Spencer Buck
• Tilly Monaghan
• Harry Hopgood
• Liam Pert
• Eden Moloney
• Milly Surkitt
• Jesse Byers
• Bella Monaghan

A terrific achievement as each age group had over 100 students competing across 8 schools within the network. It is worth noting, while some students did not qualify for the next competition, many students ran personal best times on the day - what more could we ask? A special mention to Harry H for winning his age group in the Dendy Division. What a super achievement! Once again, we sincerely thank Mr Thiessens for organizing the entire carnival for our network. 

Staffing News

This week the staff put on a lovely morning tea to acknowledge Melissa Drummond's retirement and time at Sacred Heart.

Over a period of nearly 20 years, Mrs Drummond was an accomplished piano,  music and part-time classroom teacher.  We sincerely thank Melissa for her service and dedication to the Sacred Heart community and wish her much happiness as she embraces this next chapter on her journey. 

Little Gems

Scared Heart Gallery

And the Sacred Heart Gallery of spectacular student art pieces just keeps growing. Families are always welcome to visit and view this beautiful work adorning the walkways. 

Precious Gems

One thing is for certain, if you ever need a boost, just visit our stunning Preps. 

Great to see more big numbers for the weekly Running Club on Friday morning. Thanks again Mr Brown and our parent volunteers running each week with the students. No better way to kick start your Friday.

Key Dates and Reminders for Term 2

• Full Winter uniform 
• 3rd June- Kids Disco
• 10th June - Grandparent's Day and Special Assembly
• 13th June - Queen's Birthday
• 17th June - AFL Lightning Premiership  
• 19th June - Sandy Saints Fun Day
• 20th June - School Closure - Whole Staff Berry Street Training 
• 24th June - End of Term, Reports Home and Feast of Sacred Heart
• 10th July  - Working Bee t.b.c
• 11th July - Term 3 

And finally...

Take care and please rest up families as we look to turn the tide on the number of students, staff and families impacted by illness. Please ensure you keep your child at home should they present with cold-like signs and symptoms. 

A special call out to Adam H and Xavier D'A in Yr.6 who have presented at assembly 'unscripted' on occasions throughout the year. Another polished performance from these impressive students on Friday. 

Simon Collis

Principal