Principal's News

Dear Parents / Carers

This week we are celebrating Catholic Education Week, and especially this year we celebrate 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia. And while I wasn’t there at the first one, contrary to one cheeky student last week, I have been associated with Catholic Education since 1970 - uninterrupted!

Yesterday some of our Student Leaders joined myself and Ms Leonard on a bus to Ballarat. Leaders and staff from St Brendan’s, St Mary’s and Trinity College accompanied us as we attended Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral with children from all over the Diocese. It was a beautiful Mass in an amazing building and they shouted for morning tea afterwards! It is nice, sometimes for us to realise that we are a part of something bigger than just Sacred Heart or just Colac.

The coloured ribbons streaming from the fence surrounding the Cathedral are a painful reminder that awful crimes were committed and covered up by Catholic Education and the Church, particularly during the second half of the last century. Certainly the Bishop’s sermon addressed this shameful past.

As we celebrate our schools and the communities we continue to be, as we look to the future and strive to continue to build a better Australia with these amazing students, it is important to acknowledge these despicable crimes and recommit ourselves to vigilance and justice for everyone in our community, and particularly the most vulnerable who need our protection and help.

CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK 

We have a few special events planned for later in the week to mark the celebration. Please see our Religious Education Leader’s report for details, however I will mention the Dress Up day on Thursday - old time clothes is the theme, please don’t stress, old clothes the kids might wear out on the farm will be fine. We are excited to report that one of our “old boys”, James Thwaites and the Mixx fm crew will be at school on Thursday to cover the festivities.

Don’t forget Friday will be our first HOT DOG DAY since 2019!!! Parents have already paid for these hot dogs on their school fees.

Money raised from the hot dogs is used to offset the cost of our Grade 6 camp to Canberra in 4th term. THERE WILL BE NO CANTEEN ON FRIDAY AS RESULT OF THE ABOVE.

ASSESSMENT CONVERSATIONS

Assessment Conversations are a very important part of the way in which we report to parents on their children’s progress at school. These meetings involve parents, teacher and student for the initial part of the conversation, before the student leaves and the adults have the opportunity to speak together without the child’s input.

Our teachers will give parents a brief written report at the end of this meeting, however it is the Conversation where most of the reporting will be done.

The Assessment conversations will commence on Tuesday, June 15th and will conclude on Tuesday June 22nd.

Parents are asked to schedule interviews with their child/ren’s teacher(s) via PAM. Bookings will open NEXT Tuesday, June 1st from 3:30pm.

DIGITAL TATTOO

 Our school is excited to be partnering with the Barwon Adolescent Taskforce to present some important education sessions for students (Grade 3 - 6), their teachers and their parents concerning the opportunities and dangers that exist online for our kids.

Details about this program are included with today’s newsletter in our 'Welfare' section. 

I commend the “Grown up session” to every parent and carer in the school, no matter the age of your child. It will be held on June 7th. Parents should register their interest in attending via their PAM account. Limited child minding will be provided in the school library where parents would like to come but have no alternative for looking after the kids during this important session.

PLAY GROUP 

Our Playgroup has recommenced after COVID. A small but growing number of parents with pre-school children have begun meeting from 11:00am till 1:00pm on Wednesdays in our Multipurpose Room. If this is of interest to you, please come along.

SCHOOL BANKING

Sacred Heart will no longer be offering a “School Banking” service. Families should make their own arrangements for establishing bank accounts for their children and establishing saving habits.