ISSUE 19: 23rd July 2021

Principal / Executive Leadership Team

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students & Staff

A very special welcome to this week’s newsletter.  It has certainly been a very difficult time for many people in our community since finding out about the lockdown and COVID cases in Mildura.  Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement as we have all been dealing with this difficult time.  Mildura seems to have very much embraced advice given by authorities and we should be proud of our efforts. 

Thank you to all our families and students for the outstanding work over the first week of returning to remote learning at Sacred Heart.  Since returning to online learning on Wednesday we have learnt from our previous experiences and have made some modifications that seem to be working well.  The online platform being used by our Prep-Year Two classes seems to have been a great success. 

I would like to thank our staff for the incredible amount of work that has gone into our preparation and implementation of remote learning. Moving from the take home packs to the more online approach did at times provide challenges.  The teachers dedication is much appreciated by myself and I am sure the wider community.  Staff certainly prefer teaching our students face to face and this is a challenging time for them.

We greatly appreciate the work that parents are putting into supporting their children with remote schooling.  As parents if you are having difficulties with this process we are here to work with you in meeting and resolving these challenges. Please contact your child's teacher or myself.  

Thank you to parents who have informed us of your intention to attend on-site supervision for students.  This is available to students who have parents who are both essential workers or students that are deemed vulnerable.   Anyone whose situation changes and you are required to have your child/children  attend on-site supervision we ask that the phone the school or email office@shmildura.catholic.edu.au 

In the future, today’s children will look back on how their homes and schools felt during the Coronavirus outbreak. They are watching and learning from us on how to respond in times of great uncertainty. Let us guide them by showing resilience, understanding, kindness, compassion and calm. 

It is difficult at the moment to forward plan, however we hope that early next week we will have some direction on where we are heading and will be able to confirm if school events can go ahead.  Region Netball & Soccer and Year Six visits to St Joseph’s College were both planned for Thursday, 29th July.  Our school Athletics Carnival is planned to be held at the Aerodrome Ovals on Wednesday, 4th August (Week 4).  We will communicate any changes to staff and families when we know more.

Stay safe, stay well and take care of each other. We look forward to seeing you all soon, once this virus is contained and manageable.

God Bless!

Mark Gibson

Religious Education News

Nothing to report this week.

Ryan O'Callaghan (Religious Education Leader)

Learning Diversity & Wellbeing News

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) - Information for parents

Reasonable Adjustments -  Adjustments are made for each individual student. Schools/classroom teachers make adjustments every day to meet the various needs of their different students. Adjustments support student learning and are developed in consultation with the student or their parents, guardian or carer. Teachers make adjustments all the time. Some adjustments assist all students to learn, whether they have a disability or not. 

The link to this short video helps explain adjustments. Reasonable adjustments - NCCD Portal

The Disability Standards for Education 2005 (the Standards) explain how to decide on adjustments for students with disability, and how students and their parents/careers/teachers/specialists can be involved in decision-making. An adjustment is reasonable when it is the product of consultation and seeks to balance the interests of all parties. Reasonable adjustments apply to all types of learning, including excursions and camps. 

Learning & Teaching News

ATTENTION: PREP PARENTS

Our school, along with thousands of others across the country will take part in the fifth Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). 

The AEDC gives us a national picture of the development, health and wellbeing of children in their first year of full-time school. Since 2009, the census results have helped communities, schools and governments plan services and develop better policies to target support for children and families.

Children don’t miss any class time, and parents/carers don’t need to supply schools with any new information for the census. The AEDC gives us data at a school and community level - it isn’t an assessment of individual children.

Some teachers have also noticed that completing the assessments made them more aware of the needs of individual children and the class as a whole and that the census results are useful in planning for transitions to Year 1 and developing class programs.

Participation in the AEDC is voluntary. Parents/carers don’t need to take any action unless they choose not to include their children in the census. If parents choose to opt-out please email lthompson@shmildura.catholic.edu.au a request that information is not to be collected on your child prior to Monday July 26th.

To find out more about the census and how communities are using the data to help children and families visit the AEDC website: www.aedc.gov.au or see the attached Parent Information Poster.

If you have any questions, you can contact Mr Mark Gibson or Mrs Loretta Thompson.

General News

Nothing to report.

Prep Unit News

Nothing to report.

Junior Unit News

We hope that you are all enjoying your time together and are keeping safe. We thank you for communication and positivity during this time of uncertainty. 
Parents please continue to check emails regularly and seek assistance from your child/ren’s classroom teacher should you require any support. 

Middle Unit News

Thank you and well done to children and families in the Middle Unit for their hard work, flexibility and understanding as we moved to Online Learning this week. Please do not hesitate to get into contact with your child’s teacher via the email addresses above if you require support in any way.

Senior Unit News

We congratulate all the Year 5 & 6 students (and their families) who are doing a wonderful job with their quick transition to Online Learning.  We are super proud of the effort you are putting in and we are looking forward to seeing you all back at school Wednesday.

Student Leadership Groups

Nothing to report.

Library News

As we continue with Lockdown 5.0, I remind parents that children can access a variety of online reading material in different ways, whether with Epic, Reading Eggs, PM Reading, or the online collection associated with our school Library, Sora. Please see the following link for instructions on how to access Sora. For other online reading, please contact your classroom teacher as each year level has different apps. 

Accessing eBooks with Sacred Heart Primary  School

Scholastic Book Club Issue #5

Even though we we are on lockdown, we will still be putting in an order for Issue #5 - this closes on Tuesday 27th July and the order will be placed Wednesday morning. Fingers crossed we will be back at school by the time the order arrives, but if not, contact will be made to parents to pick up orders from the office. Please remember that all orders do contribute to resources for our school. If there are ever any questions or queries regarding book club, please email me prior to contacting Scholastic customer support. 

Scholastic Book Club

Weekly Awards

Students of the Week 

These will be presented at a future assembly.

Ray White Awards

These will be presented at a future assembly.