ISSUE 36: 24th November, 2023

Principal / Executive Leadership Team

Dear Parents, Carers, Staff, Students and Friends,

This Sunday marks the start of Advent as we begin preparing for the coming of Jesus.  The first week of Advent symbolises ‘hope’ and calls Christians to delve into their hearts and put their hope in Jesus.  Advent reminds us of the sacred meaning of Christmas and encourages us to be thankful during this special time.

Mrs Guthrie Retirement

Mrs Marion Guthrie is going on Long Service Leave for the remainder of this term.  Marion plans to retire at the end of the school year.  This has been a big decision for Marion as she still loves what she is doing in her role and would be happy to go on forever!  However, Marion has made the difficult decision to call time on what has been a remarkable career in education.  We plan to give Marion a fitting farewell at our End of Year & Graduation Mass on Thursday, 14th December.   

2024 Classroom Placements

Today, our plan was to notify families of the classroom teachers at Sacred Heart for 2024. However, delays in filling recently advertised positions have prompted us to postpone these announcements until next week. This delay aims to prevent the necessity of publicising changes to groupings following our initial announcement.

2024 Classes will be sent home with families on Friday, 1st December via an envelope with students name, 2024 teacher name & 2024 classroom name.  Our Whole School Transition will be held on Tuesday, 5th December.

Kiss & Go and School Crossing

Our school and community members have noticed this year that some families have been using the 'Kiss & Go' and 'School Crossing' incorrectly during morning and afternoon times. It's crucial for the safety of our students and parents during drop-off and pick-up that we all follow the expected rules. Please take note of the following rules, which are essential for everyone's safety and should be followed both in the morning and afternoon:

• Stay in your vehicle unless you need to assist younger students with their seat belts.
• Aim to keep your car in the Kiss & Go area for a maximum of two minutes to allow others to use the space too.
• Access the Kiss & Go only from Olive Grove, not 12th Street.
• Please refrain from dropping off students outside of cars in Olive Grove.
• Avoid performing U-turns within the Kiss & Go area.
• For your safety, use the school crossing if you need to cross 12th Street.
• If your child rides a bike, we kindly ask that they walk their bikes past the Kiss & Go area before riding.

We want to make sure everyone stays safe, so to help with this, our staff will be around the school crossing and Kiss & Go area regularly before and after school.

Thanks for helping us keep our school safe for everyone!

Sing Along on the Oval

On Wednesday 6th December from 5:15pm-7pm we will be having Sing Along on the Oval as part of our end of year celebrations.  From 5:15pm-6pm we invite families to have a picnic dinner on the oval and to mingle with other community members from the school community.  From 6pm each class will then lead a song (many learnt throughout Performings Arts in 2023) with a karaoke style video clip displayed on a cinema screen allowing everyone to sing along with the students.  The evening will finish with our choirs singing Christmas Carols.  This should be a great community event.

Year 5 St Joseph’s College Mercy Campus Visit

Our Year Five students will be visiting St Joseph’s College Mercy Campus on Tuesday, 28th November.  Students will be accompanied by their classroom teachers and will attend from 11.30am to the end of the day.

Staff Professional Learning (Pupil Free) - Thursday 30th November

Staff are taking part in the Fullness of Life for All PD on Thursday 30th November.  Fullness of Life for All is a Relationships and Sexuality Scope and Sequence which is a significant focus at Sacred Heart. The curriculum is taken from the Victorian Curriculum and RE Awakenings Curriculum. The day will offer opportunities to explore the Why? What? And How? Relationships and Sexuality Education take place in Primary Schools within the Diocese of Ballarat. The important aspects of Child Safe Standards and legislative requirements in relation to Relationships and Sexuality Education will also be covered in the Professional Learning. 

Fullness of Life For All has an Imprimatur from Bishop Paul Bird CSsR, The Bishop of Ballarat. This means that it has been granted permission for use in The Diocese of Ballarat. The scope and sequence also has a Nihil Obstat. A Nihil Obstat is an official declaration that the work contains nothing contrary to official Church teaching regarding Catholic Faith or Morals. Both the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur gives families, schools and the Church community confidence to know that what is being taught is grounded in Church teaching, in dialogue with the context of the modern world.

2024 Student Leadership

On Monday, 27th November all School Captain speeches and voting will be held at 9am.  On Friday, 1st December, House Captain speeches and voting will occur.  Good luck to all students! 

Important End of Year Dates

• Year 5 SJC Visit - Tuesday 28th November
• School Closure Day  - Thursday 30th November
• Whole School Transition (2024 Classes) - Tuesday 5th December
• Year Six SJC Transition Day (2024 Year 7) - Tuesday 5th December
• Singalong on the Oval (Student Performance) - Wednesday 6th December
• Year One Fun Day - Thursday 7th December
• Year Two Fun Day - Thursday 7th December
• Final School Assembly (Special Presentations & Student Leadership Announcement) - Friday 8th December
• Student Reports Released - Friday 8th December
• Middle Unit Fun Day - Friday 8th December
• Senior Unit Fun Day - Monday 11th December
• Year Six Government School Transition Day (Non SJC students) - Tuesday 12th December
• Graduation Dinner - Tuesday 12th December @ 6pm Willow & Ivie
• Prep Unit Fun Day - Wednesday 13th December
• End of Year/Graduation Mass - Thursday 14th December @ 11.30am
• Last Day Students School - Friday 15th December @ 3:10pm

Have a great week everyone and God Bless!

Mark Gibson

Religious Education

First Reconciliation

Congratulations to many of our Year Two students who celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesday night and thank you to parents for supporting your children throughout this program.

End of Year & Graduation Mass

Our End of Year & Graduation Mass will be held at the church on Thursday, 14th December beginning at 11.30am.  Parents and friends are invited to join us for this special celebration. 

Community News

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence

16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is a global campaign established by the United Nations to raise awareness and encourage communities to take action to end violence against women. The annual campaign begins on 25 November, the International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women, and ends on 10 December, which is International Human Rights Day.  As part of this campaign few free local webinars are being run next week that community members are invited to attend:

• Affirmative Consent with Chanel Contos | Humanitix - This is a great opportunity to  understand the concept of affirmative consent so that the message can be reinforced at home. 
• Take Action for Gender Equality and a Safer Mallee - This is a webinar opportunity that would be helpful to understand gender equality and how it relates to and creates a safer world for women and girls. The speaker is Shannon Harmer who is the Workplace Equality Lead at the Equality Institute.  

Administration Updates

A reminder that the pink "2024 Payment options, Calculation Sheet" was due back at school today. If you have any questions or have misplaced yours please contact the office.

Second Hand Uniform Shop

We do have our second hand uniform shop here at school as well, it is open most Fridays during assembly, however to ensure you dont miss it the best way to place an order is to jump on our website using the link below to pop an order in, Shayne will put it together for you if we have the sizes available and you will get a text message when it is ready to be collected from the office. 

Learning and Teaching News

Numeracy is more than numbers. For example, numeracy helps us to:

• understand and use numbers and other mathematical ideas in everyday life
• recognise and use shape
• work out the chance of something happening
• understand the data we see in the media.

Numeracy is necessary for everyday living. From daily activities like telling the time, cooking and setting the table to more difficult tasks such as understanding mobile phone plans, planning a trip, reading a map and understanding timetables.

As children and young people move through life stages the everyday numeracy demands become more complex.

Employers see numeracy as important in the workplace. Research shows that higher numeracy skills lead to higher levels of health and wellbeing and other benefits such as better decision making and financial independence.

If you would like to find out how you can incorporate everyday numeracy within your family life, please click the link below.

Prep Unit News

This week in Literacy we have had a focus in our learning on non-fiction texts. We have been reading, writing and borrowing non-fictions books from the library. The students have learnt so many facts about ‘frogs’ and written their own report about them.

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We will not be having show and tell for the remainder of the year due to the learning we need to catch up on and complete.

There will be no more borrowing from the library or of the Enhanced Comprehension books. Please return these books back to school as soon as possible.

Junior Unit News

Another week closer to Christmas and the excitement is building. Our students are a bubble of energy when discussing Advent in the lead up to Christmas. Next Sunday we light the first purple Advent Candle representing ‘Hope’- We Light This Candle- Hope by Andrew Chinn (Advent, 1st Sunday, Prophets' Candle- Hope) Students will continue to enhance their knowledge of Advent and the meaning behind the Advent wreath.

Borrowing finishes for our students this Friday which will allow students time to return all books to the school library. Daily reading will still be happening in our classrooms and nightly reading at home is highly encouraged. Please contact your child’s teacher if you require school library books to pursue as home reading. All school library books are required to be brought back ASAP please.

CONGRATULATIONS to our Year Two students who received the Sacrament Reconciliation for the first time on Wednesday night. We pray that the students continue to be blessed with Jesus’ love, mercy and forgiveness in their endeavour to grow to be the best possible people that God intended.

Our school End of Year concert will take place on Wednesday 6th December. It would be lovely to see as many Junior Unit students there as possible. Each class will be performing a special song they have been learning throughout the year. Everyone in the crowd has the opportunity to join in and sing along.

Middle Unit News

Middle Unit Fun Day

On Friday the 8th of December (Week 10) the Middle Unit will be celebrating the end of the year with our Fun Day. We will be participating in a visit to the Wallis Cinema to watch the movie ‘Trolls 3’ (PG) and then coming back to school for some fun water play on our school oval. 

We will be providing a snack of hot chips, if your child does not wish to have this please send along an alternative. We are still encouraging students to bring along their lunch for this day. Students are also permitted to bring along a water pistol to school for our water play on the oval. Water balloons won’t be permitted. Please ensure any items bought to school are clearly named. 

The students will need to come to school in their sports uniform with sneakers. Thongs are not permitted at school. Children can wear their bathers underneath their sports uniform. Please ensure your child has the following things in a backpack or swimming bag, and they are clearly labelled.

• Towel
• Rashie top
• Water bottle
• Hat
• A plastic bag to put wet clothes in
• Change of underwear 
• A pair of shoes that can get wet

The school will apply sunscreen for all children, however if your child is sensitive to sunscreen, please supply this yourself. 

Please respond on PAM with permission for this event ASAP. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher. We are looking forward to a wonderful day to celebrate 2023!

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relations - Positive Gender Relations

In Social Emotional Learning this term we have begun to cover the RRRR topic of Positive Gender Relations. Activities will assist students to:

• Identify different forms of gender based violence, including physical, verbal and psychological
• Examine the effects of gender-based violence on targets, witnesses and perpetrators
• Describe and demonstrate what respectful, gender inclusive behaviours look like in action informed by human rights
• Assess conflict situations to consider possible responses (safely end, intervene or withdraw)
• Describe and practise help-seeking skills and strategies that can be used when encountering uncomfortable or unsafe situations involving peers or adults.

Should you wish to access any extra information on these topics please follow the link:

Senior Unit News

Check out these wonderful free design artwork creations that some Year 5 students created over the last few weeks with Ms. Lowe!

Fun Day for the Senior Unit students will be on Monday 11th December. Further information will be sent to families next week. 

The Year 6 students have a note about Kris Kringle within their classrooms. There is a $5 limit for the gift. We are encouraging students to hand make a gift rather than something bought from a store. Gifts will be exchanged on the last day of school, Friday 15th December. 

A reminder for the last weeks of the year the expectations around uniform have not changed. Students need to be in correct uniform each day, this includes socks, footwear, jewellery and hair bands. 

All Year 6 will be required to be in full summer uniform on Thursday 14th December for the Graduation Ceremony and Mass.  The students will receive a commemorative gift at this ceremony. They will then have the opportunity to sign each others gift. There will be no signing of clothing on the last day of school.

Earlier in the year Dourim students were asked to take part in the Art Bus project. This was a chance to interview a local identity, in which the class asked past AFLW player Courtney Wakefield to join us.  Below is the link to the finished production and interview.

Library News

Christmas Joy:

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 activities. Please find the Christmas display on the big blue shelf.

Thank you, Imogen, for your creativity in using Blokus tiles to make this Christmas Tree. She created three designs during her Recess breaks and decided this was her favourite. 

Maybe Santa will pop some presents under the tree!

Book Returns: 

 Please, could all library books be returned by or on Monday the 27th of November. They can be returned any day of the week, not just when I’m at school, and placed in the Returns Minion. 

Teachers and students are already combing through the classrooms, i.e. tubs etc., and it would be great if households could go through rooms and vehicles for SHPS books. 

Early December—any students with books outstanding will be sent home with an overdues notice as a friendly reminder.

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

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

Remember to look for our logo! 

Student of the Week Awards

Cooinda -  Luca Cursaro                                      Minga - Calisto Maher

Wahroonga - Maya Sheehy                                Eumeralla - Matilda Sims

Bundaleer -  Sienna Dean                                   Waminda - Johnny Hollywood

Karinya -  Sophie Munro                                     Kyema - Thomas Colbert

Nangare -  Aileen Kaur                                         Myalla - Archer Pengelly

Barramunga -  Levi Poulton                               Illawarra - Edward McNamara

Amaroo - Dawson Boake                                      Narooma - Romeo Plany

Yongana -  Alexander Groves                             Dourim - Andreas Zervas

Mootwingee - Jason Deiesi

Ray White Positive Behaviour Awards

No Awards this week