ISSUE 32: 27th October, 2023

Principal / Executive Leadership Team

Dear Parents, Carers, Staff, Students and Friends,

Welcome to our Week Four Newsletter.

All Saints & All Souls comprise the two-day celebration of the Communion of Saints – those who are with God in heaven and those who are on their way to heaven. On the Solemnity of All Saints, November 1st, the Church celebrates those Christians who achieved spiritual maturity. It is a day to venerate all the holy men and women who have been canonised by the Church. A day later, on the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day), the Church remembers and prays for the faithful departed: our brothers and sisters who have died marked with the sign of faith.

2024 Planning

Information has been shared with families this week regarding Classroom Structure, Transition & Class Placement for the 2024 school year.  Please read the attached note which outlines all details of these processes.  This note was also sent home with families as a hard copy.  For parents who are wanting to complete the Class Placement Survey - please pick this up from the front office and return by Monday, 13th November.  

If you know your family are moving next year, could you please advise the office as soon as possible (if you have not already done so) to aid with planning for classes for next year. Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated.

2024 Sacred Heart Employment Opportunities

We are currently advertising a range of Learning Support Officer, Classroom Teacher and Leadership positions.  Full position description, selection criteria and application details please go to:

https://www.shmildura.catholic.edu.au/employment/ 

If you or someone you know might be interested in applying for any of these positions, please share the information with them. Although our main focus is to fill these roles from within Sacred Heart, we are also open to the idea of finding an exceptional candidate externally, someone who has the necessary skills, education, and experience to fulfil the job requirements.

Evacuation Drill - Monday 30th October

All classes and staff will be taking part in an Evacuation Drill on Monday, 30th October.  In this drill, students and staff will practise an Off Site Evacuation.  Everyone will evacuate the school and walk to Henderson Park.  Please be aware that this drill will be happening at approximately 10.25am.

Year 6 Swim & Survive 

Well done to our Year Six students who have done a great job participating in the Swim & Survive Program this week.  Classes have completed five sessions and have been working towards gaining accreditation for the Victorian Water Safety Certificate.

Year Five Ballarat Camp

Congratulations to all of our Year Five students on their participation and excellent behaviour in Ballarat.  Everyone has had an amazing time exploring the goldfields and learning about Ballarat’s history.  Thank you to the supervising staff Mrs Johnson, Mrs Rowles, Mrs Kotsiakos, Mr Barbary, Miss Connellan, Mrs Driscoll, Mr Fabich & Mr Gibson for their planning, organisation and coordination of the camp.  

 Schools Sports Victoria (SSV) Events

Our Girls Tennis team (Thursday) & Girls Softball team (Friday) ventured to Swan Hill this week to compete in the Region Finals.  Our Tennis players were very competitive in all games and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of competing at this level.  Our Softball girls played five innings against Swan Hill Primary School and finished on a draw.  Therefore, another innings was played which Sacred Heart won to finish as the Region Champions!  Big thanks to Mr Burford and Mrs Scott for attending with the girls on both Thursday & Friday.

Mission Month 

Once again thank you to everyone for supporting this year's Mission Month.  It has been a wonderful effort by everyone in our school community.  Our families have shown amazing generosity.  Thanks to all Staff for organising events, activities & icy poles over the last four weeks.  Our fundraising efforts will conclude with the whole school Colour Run on Friday, 3rd November.

Matilda the Musical - Thursday 2nd November

Year Six students will be attending Matilda the Musical on Thursday.  The musical is being performed by St Joseph’s College students and will be held from 12.15 to 2.15pm.  Students will be bussed to and from the SJC Mercy Campus.  Mrs Campbell, Mrs Zaxos & Mrs Priestley will be the supervising teachers for this offsite activity.

Colour Run - Friday 3rd November

Our school Colour Run will be held on Friday, 3rd November. We have decided to hold this event starting at 1.45pm and continuing into our assembly time until 3.10pm. This will allow for parents to come along to watch and support their children in the event. All students are to wear their sports shorts and a white shirt on the day. A towel or change of clothes is encouraged as students will get wet and colourful. 

Fundraising for this event is via the Colour Run website: australianfundraising.com.au If your child wishes to participate in the event but has done no fundraising we ask they bring $5 on the day as a donation. All monies raised will be added to our total for the Mission Month fundraiser for Peru.

Prep Transition - Friday 3rd November

The second Prep Transition is being held this Friday from 9am to 11.45am.  2024 Preps will work with Mrs O’Callaghan & Mrs Collins in the Prep classrooms.  Current Preps will work with Mrs Deacon & Mrs Coffey in the Library.  

Division T20 Cricket

SSV Division T20 Cricket is being held on Friday for Year 3/4 & Year 5/6 competitions.  We wish our teams all the best at this event which is being held at the Aerodrome Ovals. 

2024 Fee Commitment Forms

Thank you to the families who have returned their 2024 Fee Commitment Form (blue).  There are quite a few families who have not done so.  It is very important that these be returned as soon as possible.  Your Cooperation in this matter is very appreciated.  If not returned by Tuesday, Mary will follow up with a phone call.

God Bless!

Mr Mark Gibson

Religious Education

2023 Sacramental Dates

Congratulations to the many Year Four students who received the Sacrament of First Eucharist last weekend.  All were wonderful celebrations.  Thank you to families and staff who were present at these masses and to those who helped students to prepare for this Sacrament.  Thanks to father John for leading each mass. 

Reconciliation - Year Two & Above

Preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation continues for Year Two students who have registered.  This Sacrament will be held on - Wednesday 22nd November 2023 7pm SH Church.

Learning and Teaching News

Paired Fluency

Staff have participated in Structured Literacy online professional learning this week with a focus on Paired Fluency.
Fluency is the ability to read text accurately, quickly and with expression.

Accuracy - The ability to correctly decode the words.
Rate - The ability to read at an appropriate speed.
Prosody - The ability to read with appropriate intonation, stress and rhythm.

Paired Fluency is a research - based fluency strategy that benefits all readers. It involves students reading aloud to each other in pairs. It is also an opportunity for students to give peer feedback as well as students self assess. The paired fluency process is differentiated for students as different texts can be used such as: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, lists, decodable texts, graphemes or letters and they must be high-accuracy texts.

Prep Unit News

And the AMAZING learning continues in Prep! This week we have been working hard learning how to represent teen numbers, listened to the Gospel story from Matthew about Jesus’ birth and have been writing the beginning, middle and end of stories

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A massive congratulations to Cooinda on presenting your very first assembly today! Everyone spoke very well and danced spectacularly! It was great to see so many mums, dads and grandparents coming along to enjoy our assembly!

Drum roll please….. congratulations to the lolly jar winners. Cooinda, Jessica Nguyen and Wahroonga, Oscar Coleman.

Primary School Nursing Program - all School Nursing Program forms should have been returned to school. If you have not returned your form please do so on Monday.

Some reminders for the beginning of term:

• Continue practising the letter sounds with your child at home. 
• 2 small lunch boxes: 1 for recess snacks and the other for lunch… this is so that they fit into our fridge containers.
• Students need to be at school on time each day (beginning of school is 8.38am). This allows them to settle into the morning routines and avoids disruption to learning. If you are arriving later than this time you need to come through the office and sign in.
• Learn all the tricky words at the back of the reading diary.
  

Show and tell reminder for Term 4 week 5 = an interesting rock or stone.

Junior Unit News

It was a sweet week in the Junior Unit with the announcement of the lolly jar winners.
Congratulations to the lucky winners and it is worth noting that both Levi P and Levi Z won the lolly jar guess when they were in Prep!

Barramunga: Levi Poulton

Nangare: Levi Zara

Bundaleer: Olivia Petrie

Karinya: Rueben Farnsworth

The Junior Unit Students have raised a significant amount of money for the missions in Yanaoca through their CRAZY HAIR and LOLLY JAR efforts. Thank you families for your continued generosity.

Next week we conclude our Mission Month with our COLOUR FUN RUN. It will take place on Friday 3rd November with students required to wear a white t-shirt and bring a full change of clothes along with a towel, in a plastic bag. (The Colour Run will occur in the afternoon and therefore a change of clothing is recommended to ensure that your way of transport home is comfortable for everyone).

In the coming week, we would appreciate parental assistance with collating a number of our books into themes. If you are able to assist on Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd November from 2:10 to 3:10, please contact your child/ren’s teacher

Middle Unit News

Sport Uniform Change of Days

Please note that due to a timetabling change, students’ Sport Uniform days have changed to the following:

Minga - Monday & Friday

Eumeralla - Thursday & Friday

Mootwingee - Monday & Friday

Yongana - Thursday & Friday

Amaroo - Tuesday & Friday

Senior Unit News

Mission Activity 

Senior Unit will be having a Movie Day on Monday 30th October. It will be $5 for a movie, popcorn, casual clothes this can be paid on CDF Pay, and the students can bring some extra coins to buy  snacks during intermission.  

Year 6 Swim & Survive

Today was the final day of the Swim and Survive program for our Year 6 students. They all participated well in this program and learned some valuable lifesaving skills.

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Prep photos 

Year 6 students who did not begin their primary schooling at Sacred Heart please provide a Prep photo emailed to lthompson@shmildura.catholic.edu.au at your earliest convenience.

Graduation Dinner Committee 

This committee will meet Thursday 9th November in the staffroom. If you would like to be a part of this please email   lthompson@shmildura.catholic.edu.au

Matilda  SJC

The Year 6 students will attend the SJC,  Matilda the Musical Jr. on Thursday 2nd November, at the Mercy Theatre between 12:30pm-1:50pm. We will leave school after lunch at around 12pm and return after the show concludes around 2:15pm. Please ensure consent has been completed on PAM

Year 5 Camp

Year 5 Students and staff have had a great time in Ballarat, we were even lucky enough to have a visit from Mrs Beer. 

Library News

This new book found its way into the Library Returns Box and doesn’t belong to SHPS.

If The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair by Enid Blyton is yours, please come and collect it from the library.

Scholastic Book Club Issue #7

We thank the parents and caregivers who placed their orders on this Issue of Book Club! The school will receive the books and items usually within two weeks. When they arrive at the SHPS library, the students will receive them from their classroom teacher/s. If you have questions or issues with Book Club, please do not hesitate to contact me rather than directly messaging Scholastic.

Looking ahead: End of Year Borrowing and Returning Dates

We seem to be flying through Term 4, and there are some important library dates to remember. 

The students’ last day of school is Friday, 15th of December, so please check the dates below that correspond to your current library day and borrowing/returning duties.

Monday Library Sessions for Classes: 

Myalla (Yr 5), Dourim (Yr 6), Narooma (Yr 6), Kyema (Yr 5), Waminda (Yr 5), Mootwingee (Yr 3), Amaroo (Yr 3), Yongana (Yr 3), Wahroonga (Prep) and Cooinda (Prep).

 The last borrowing and returning library session for Monday classes is on the 20th of November.

The last library session for Monday classes is on the 27th of November, and students will not be borrowing but must return all of their library books.

Friday Library Sessions for Classes:

Illawarra (Yr 6), Barramunga (Yr 2), Nangare (Yr 2), Eumeralla (Yr 4), Bundaleer (Yr 1), Karinya (Yr 1) and Minga (Yr 4).

 The last borrowing and returning library session for Friday classes is on the 17th of November.

The last library session for Friday classes is on the 24th of November, and students will not be borrowing but must return all of their library books.

Please note I rarely send overdue letters, as I converse with the students weekly. I appreciate the students, parents, caregivers and staff’s efforts when locating the students’ ‘missing’ library books—99% of the time, the books turn up! However, if a student has many overdue books after their last library session, a letter will be sent home. If this is the case, please don’t stress or worry, as a genuine effort to look for the book/s would be appreciated.

Thank you for being so cooperative, and I look forward to continuing helping the students enjoy their reading and book choices.

 Christmas is coming!

Even though library sessions will cease for the last two weeks of school, there is good news!

From the 1st of December, Christmas books will be available for staff and students to read and enjoy during class. Please find the Christmas display on the library’s big blue shelf.

Please get in touch with me anytime for all library enquiries and borrowing/returning history.

Ms Zema at azema@shmildura.catholic.edu.au

Student of the Week Awards

Cooinda - Evy Miller and Rani Munro                          Minga - Margot Miller

Wahroonga -  Lemmy Mortimer                                    Eumeralla - Kasey Waters

Bundaleer - Samuel Mobilio                                             Waminda - Year 5 Camp                                          

Karinya - Sophie Roberts                                                   Kyema - Year 5 Camp

Nangare - Sophie Ferguson                                              Myalla - Year 5 Camp

Barramunga - Evie Coleman                                             Illawarra - Spencer Hunt

Amaroo - Baylee Joyce                                                         Narooma - Ivy Richardson

Yongana - Lily Colbert                                                         Dourim - Amelia King

Mootwingee - Harlow Landkroon

Ray White Positive Behaviour Awards

Respectful - Roman Scullino

Respectful - Patty Notting

Respectful - Caiden Middleton