Principal's News
Dear Parents and Carers,
Following yesterday’s Colac Herald article, many of you may be aware of our school’s ‘outstanding results’ in the NAPLAN tests of 2022. According to the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority who post the results on the My School website “ACARA has identified high performing schools using NAPLAN results data relative to socio-educational advantage, based on the percentage of “green cells” in the last 3 years (2019-2022) indicating that students at the selected schools have been performing significantly above all other students nationally with similar socio-educational advantage.”
(p.s. if you do click on the link above you will need to search for Sacred Heart Elliminyt)
This is welcome recognition of the efforts of our students and staff from this National Education authority. Ours was one of only two schools to be singled out like this from the Ballarat Diocese that includes all Catholic Primary schools from Mildura to Portland, through Warrnambool to Colac and then north to include Ballarat and back up to Swan Hill on the river.
The recognition comes after our school is compared with “Similar schools” that is, those that have a similar “Socio-Educational Advantage” - based on the educational background of the parents in our community and their income- (Australian census). It is also based on the percentage of students that come from a “Language Background Other Than English”.
In terms of our “raw scores” the students that completed last year’s NAPLAN tests scored remarkably similar scores to those of previous years. This, after the disruptions caused by Covid-19 was quite remarkable anyway, and actually says a lot about the resilience of our students and the work done by parents and grandparents to support our kids during remote schooling as well.
We will continue to work hard at Sacred Heart to ensure ALL of our students have the opportunity to achieve the academic results of which they are capable.
However, can I share a story from last Thursday’s Swimming Sports that I am even more proud of?
One of our fantastic mums, who is new to our school community, stood with six others all day handing out numbered tickets to each competitor as they finished each race. When I walked past her she stopped me to tell me that she had been involved in a lot of swimming carnivals over the years in different parts of Victoria and she couldn’t get over the number of children who clearly found swimming difficult but who nonetheless jumped in for race after race to do their best to get to the other end of the pool.
I responded that, that is all we ask of any of our children in all pursuits at school, that they do their best.
When a second of these hard working mums, (also new to our school) told me that every single child had said “Thank you” after being handed a ticket by her, I was walking on air.
When you reflect on these matters, a very basic truth occurs: that having the gifts to achieve highly, even in the academic sphere is all very well, but without hardwork, drive, teamwork and the decency to treat your colleagues/clients/customers with good grace and respect it won't take you very far.
Ask the football or netball coach, the teacher or boss, “Who would you prefer the naturally gifted who may not have these other attributes or the hard worker, prepared to work for their team and help others to achieve their personal best as well?”
All of the human beings that work and study here will continue to stumble and make mistakes but it is nice to reflect sometimes on some of the things that are going OK too.
SCHOOL COUNCIL Our school council meets twice per term and is seeking some new members. Five of our current members are leaving the council at our A.G.M. to be held in March. They are: Leanne Klahsen, Rachel Amos, Ian Seuren, Zoe Barren and Simone Hay. All of these members have served 2 consecutive terms of two years, in other words four years in total and so we are looking for parents who may be interested in joining School Council.
The School Advisory Council provides a forum for discussion and discernment, where the
parent/guardian voice and perspective are available to inform and support the decisions made by the Principal for the good of school.
SAC Terms of Reference D.O.B.C.E.L.
A nomination form for school council is included in today's newsletter. It must be seconded by another parent from our school community and returned to the School Office by Wednesday March 8th.
PARENT/TEACHER INTERVIEWS P/T Interviews are being conducted this week. Parents and Carers should book these interviews using PAM. These interviews are being conducted primarily in the Multipurpose Room and are an opportunity for parents to meet their child’s teacher and for both parties to form a productive and supportive partnership in the very best interests of each and every student.
ASH WEDNESDAY Grade 4 to 6 children attended Mass at St Mary’s last Wednesday, while Foundation to Grade 3 children participated in a liturgy marking the start of Lent that was led by our teachers here at school. Both celebrations were very successful and their children’s behaviour and reverence during the ceremonies was, as always, first class.
SCHOOL CLOSURE Could all parents please note that our school will be closed on Thursday March 2nd. Our staff will be undertaking professional development in accordance with recommendations from last year’s School Review.