ISSUE 23: 20th August 2021

Principal / Executive Leadership Team

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students & Staff

Holy One,
filling the universe.
We take to heart your words “Do not be afraid,”
and your promise “I will be with you always.”
We commit ourselves to take fresh courage in facing whatever comes in our lives.
May our prayers for courage light a candle of hope across the world. May this light empower us to commit ourselves to living with trust into our uncertain future.
Amen

It is hard to believe that we are at the end of Week Six!  As you will read below, there has been a lot happening around the school this week.  It is wonderful to see our students enjoying opportunities like camps, interschool sport & Science days to name a few.     

Our Year Three students have arrived back from Swan Hill this afternoon.  They are all exhausted after what has been a wonderful experience for them all.  A big thank you to Mrs Priestley, Mrs Rowles, Miss Price, Mr Gibson, Miss Madden and Mr Dashington for their organisation and coordination of the camp, and for their supervision and care of our students throughout the camp.  Most importantly, congratulations to all students for making it through their first 'real' camp experience.  Great effort by all! 

This week we celebrate Book Week with the theme of “Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds."  Thank you to Mrs Collins for her planning and organisation for Book Week.  This is a great opportunity to promote the importance of reading at school and at home, and to recognise the enjoyment that comes from reading a good book.  All students are encouraged to dress up on Friday as their favourite book character.  We look forward to seeing some great costumes!

The Junior Unit Social (JUS) is being held this Monday evening in the Stadium at school.  This year’s JUS will be held in a different format to previous years with each year level performing at different times over the course of the evening to ensure that we have a minimum number of people in attendance for each year level.  Year level times are as follows:

Year One - 5.00pm to 5.45pm 

Prep - 6.00pm to 6.45pm 

Year Two - 7.00pm to 7.45pm

Following each year’s time allocation for performances, there will be a 15 minute swapover time to allow for parents to leave the school grounds and to allow for the next group of parents to enter the school grounds ready for their start time.  It’s great that we are able to hold this event and we are sure that our students and parents will have a great night.

Please be aware of COVID restrictions and procedures that are in place to ensure that this event can be held safely and is an enjoyable occasion for all:

• All parents enter school grounds via the Twelfth St or Tamarisk Grove entrance. If entering Twelfth Street enter through the front gate, walk around the admin/office area via school oval side and make way to the stadium following footpaths between year 3 & 4 classrooms.
• Only a maximum of two people (not including students performing) can attend from each family e.g. a mum and a dad.
• All parents exit school grounds via the Olive Grove gate.
• All parents will be required to QR code on arrival and to wear a face mask.
• Parents will be required to be seated during this event, however will be given the opportunity to stand and join in with some dances from the allocated seating area. 
• After each session seats will be wiped with alcohol wipes.
• Before and after performances we ask that those in attendance follow 1.5 metre physical distancing requirements.

Well done to our Year 5/6 students who competed at Wednesday's Division Finals for football & hockey.  Our football teams both finished second overall and both of our hockey teams finished third.  All students represented the school really well showing great sportsmanship and effort throughout all games.  Thanks to Mr Burford, Mr Barbary, Mrs Beckwith and Miss Madden for their supervision, coaching, umpiring and organisation.

We wish our boys Soccer and girls Netball teams all the best at this Thursday’s Region Finals in Swan Hill.  Mrs Thompson, Mr Barbary & Mr O’Callaghan will attend with our teams.  Students will travel on the Sacred Heart school bus.  All details have been sent to parents via SIMON.    

Division Golf is being held this Friday at the Mildura Golf Club.  Cameron Beggs, Levi McClelland, James Clay & Evie Cleary have been selected to represent our school at this event.  We wish them all the best.  Mr Dashington will attend with our students.   

School Assemblies will resume this Friday, 27th August with the focus being on Athletics Presentations.  The following week, Barramunga will host the Assembly (Friday, 3rd September).  At this stage parents will be unable to attend, however assemblies will be recorded and added to our weekly newsletter and our Sacred Heart Facebook page.   

The classes of Minga & Mootwingee along with their teachers Mrs Johnson and Miss Price will attend this Tuesday’s Parish Mass at 9.30am.

We thank Mrs Lina Carrazza for the great work that she has done with us throughout this term.  Lina is completing the required hours for her Education Support accreditation and has been supporting various classes and students during this time. 

We were also lucky to catch up with Father Mick this week who is back in Mildura for a visit.  It was great for Mick to visit all classrooms and wish him all the best before he heads off to Peru in the near future.

Our Father’s Day Stall will be held on Friday 3rd September and students will be able to purchase an item from the stall for $5. Parents can make payment through CDF Pay (which has been set up) or some may choose to bring in cash. Children will come as a class to the stall and choose from a range of items that will be available. If you are free and would like to help we will require parent helpers on the stall between 8:30am & 11am, please contact the office and leave your contact details and the time you are available. All money raised is used to purchase resources for your children.

Today is Ephi Hove's (Kyema) last day at Sacred Heart before her family moves to Perth.  We thank Ephi and her family for their contribution to Sacred Heart over the last few years and we wish them all the best.

As we are beginning to plan for the 2022 school year - If there is any families that are planning to leave at the end of the year, can you please let the office know on 50231204 or email office@shmildura.catholic.edu.au

A quick reminder that all students will need to start wearing school hats at the beginning of Week Eight (Monday, 30th August).

God Bless!

Ryan O’Callaghan

Deputy Principal

Religious Education News

Sacramental News

Year Four First Eucharist 

For children who celebrated their Reconciliation earlier in the year.  A Parent Information Evening will be held on Wednesday 1st September at 7pm at the Sacred Heart Church. Parents need to be present to collect the Packs for their children. All registration forms need to be returned to the Parish Office by 4pm on Friday 27th August. First Eucharist weekend will occur on:

Saturday 23rd October 6pm 

Sunday 24th October 9am 

Sunday 24th October 5pm

For further information please contact the Sacred Heart Parish Office on 5021 2872 or email Sr Helen pastoral.mildura@ballarat.catholic.org.au

Confirmation 

Levi McClellend & Max Fleri will be celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation on Tuesday, 24th August.  We wish them all the best for this special occasion.

Ryan O'Callaghan (Religious Education Leader)

Learning Diversity & Wellbeing News

Program Support Group (PSG) Meetings are scheduled for Monday 30th, Tuesday 31st August and Monday 6th September. Parents and Caregivers will be notified over the next week of their child’s scheduled PSG meeting. Please note that meetings are scheduled around each class’ timetable which leaves little time for changes. Parents are expected to attend these meetings as student learning goals and adjustments are reviewed and it’s an opportunity for parents to collaborate with teachers and provide input into their child’s Individualised Learning Plan. 

Children’s Mental Health Services (Mallee Family Care) is now providing counselling services for children 13 years and under. Please see the flyers attached.

Learning & Teaching News

Nothing to report this week.

General News

Prep Unit News

This week your child has brought home their ‘Primary School Health Nurse Program’ envelope. This Program provides a free service to all Prep students attending Primary School in Victoria. Our school nurse is Denise Pragt and she will be visiting early in term four. Denise has a background in Midwifery and Child and Family Health and has 36 years of nursing experience. Denise provides:

• the opportunity for free hearing and vision screening and general development assessment.
• information and advice about healthy behaviours.
• a link for children and families to community based health and well-being services.
• providing parenting resources

If you would like your child to participate, please tick the YES consent box and sign on page 5.

Return the confidential questionnaire to the school in the sealed envelope provided. Denise will send results to your email address and call you if you wish, or call you if there is any need to refer your child to other health services. 

This week in Maths we have been learning our ‘friends of 10’ and ‘doubles’ facts. Friends of 10 are any 2 numbers that when added together equal 10, for example 2 + 8 = 10, 3 + 7 = 10. The prep students would like to teach their parents a friends of 10 card game they have been playing in class this week.

Maths

Next week Cooinda will be going to the library and doing their Show and Tell on Wednesday. All students will need to have their library books on Wednesday. 

Junior Unit News

We are thrilled to have a full week back at school and are eagerly looking forward to hosting our Junior Unit Social next week. Please ensure that you have read the Principal's section of this newsletter for all the information regarding this special night for our children. Please refer to the hard copy letter that was sent home earlier this week for additional details. 

With the Paralympics beginning next week, we continue to learn about the values, ethics and drive of these athletes. We begin to unpack the Paralympic values, defined by the International Paralympic Committee, which are; Determination, Equality, Inspiration and Courage, then relate these back to our daily lives. 

Thank you for covering students' workbooks and dairies. These need to be back at school as they are used daily for student learning. Should you have any difficulty contacting these items, please let your child/ren’s teacher know. 

Middle Unit News

Year 3’s have had a terrific time on our Swan Hill Camp! Children got to participate in activities such as watching a Blacksmith work, visiting the Pioneer School, learning how people did laundry during Pioneer days, taking photos at the Photo Parlour, watching the amazing sound and light show and many other things. We are all very tired from our busy two days but had an amazing time! All students should be very proud of their behaviour while on camp. 

Swan Hill Camp

On Monday, our Semester 2 Class Captains in the Middle Unit received their badges. Congratulations to Thomas Colbert (Mootwingee), Vincent Dichiera (Yongana), Mischa Byra (Amaroo), Remi McClelleland (Minga), Jackson Evans (Nangare) and Ivy Richardson (Eumeralla).

Senior Unit News

Science Immersion Days

Year 5 Report

On Monday and Tuesday, we had our Science Immersion days. We learnt about the Solar System. The planets in our solar system are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. There are so many interesting facts and information about the Solar System, most of it hasn’t been discovered yet. We have made posters about our rocky planets. There are also Gas Giants and Ice Giants. Over the two days we learnt so much about the Solar System.

Written by Isla Keyte 

For Term 3’s Science Immersion days the Year 5 students learnt about our solar system. We learnt about the planets, technology used in space, gas and ice giants and terrestrial planets. We studied two chosen planets, a terrestrial planet (rocky) and a gas or ice giant (Jovian planets). The Year Fives discovered rings, moons and orbital and rotational periods for the planets. We learnt that Venus is the hottest planet, not Mars. We also learnt that it would take 24 years to go to Jupiter. Cassini is a spacecraft that has been designed to explore Saturn and it made its way there on their own. We also learnt that scientists have only seen one side of Mercury and that Uranus has 13 thin rings around it. 

Written by Majorca Ficarra

In science this week we learned all about the solar system and it was really fun! The first activity was to order the planets from closest to the sun to the furthest then we wrote facts about the planets. The planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. We also had to write the five dwarf planets which are Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and MakeMake. The second lesson we wrote about the diameter of the planets. Jupiter was the biggest planet with a diameter of 142,984km. That's big! We also had to scale the distance of the planets. The third activity we did was that we had to research the orbital and rotation periods of the planets. One year on Mercury is 88 days and a year on Neptune is 60190 days. One day on Jupiter is ten hours and on Mercury one day is 1408 hours. The fourth lesson we learned was about Jovian planets which are the gas giants. The gas giants are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. I chose to write about Jupiter because it is my favourite planet. Then we put our chosen Jovian planet and another Jovian planet and compared them in a Venn Diagram. The last activity we did was making predictions about scientists exploring the planets then and now. We also learned about space probes which are the rovers that are sent into space to record data about the planets. The space probe Juno explored Jupiter and the space probe Cassini explored Saturn. My favourite part about the solar system was coming up with questions for us to find out. Some were the girl who named Pluto, the storm on Jupiter that's been going for centuries, and does it rain diamonds on Neptune. What surprised me was that it actually rains diamonds on all of the Jovian planets. 

Written by Nate Bresnehan

Year 6 Report

On Monday and Tuesday this week we had our two Science Immersion Days.  Our topic was The Effects of Natural Disasters.  We learnt about cyclones, tsunamis, volcanoes, droughts and earthquakes.  The last thing we had to do was a project to show our learning.  Our group created a model of a village that included a volcano.  We told the story of the Three Little Pigs who built their houses in this village.  In the end our volcano erupted and only one house was left standing. We all enjoyed the activities and learning about the effects of natural disasters.

Written by Mollie O’Callaghan, Isabel Alvey, Liana McClaer & Indy McInerney

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Student Leadership Groups

Soup Kitchen

Thank you to Moya Fangaloka, Maya De Rosa, Alice Siale and Alex Boord and their parents for helping the SHPS staff at the Soup Kitchen on Monday evening, your commitment to this community service is very much appreciated.  Our next rostered evening is on Monday 13th September. 

The SLT are very excited about having a work experience day very soon. Each member of the team will be allocated a staff member to shadow for the day so that they can get a taste of working life, in a primary school! Parents will be notified of their child’s role, with more information in the form of a note, next week. 

Library News

Next Friday, 27th August, we celebrate the Children’s Book Council Awards! We invite all children to dress up as a favourite book character, with the theme “Old Worlds, New World’s, other World’s”.  This theme pretty much covers any book - be as creative as you like!  Junior unit children could wear their costume from the Junior Unit Social if they wish. 

All units will have a chance to showcase their costumes, and will participate in class room book activities during the day. 

Scholastic Book club issue #6 is due on Wednesday 25th August. All orders are to be completed via LOOP and contribute to “scholastic dollars” which are used to purchase books and resources for the school. 

https://www.scholastic.com.au/book-club/book-club-parents/

Week 7 Library timetable

Monday -  Bundaleer, Myalla

Tuesday - Minga, Year 2, Year 6

Wednesday -Nangare, Mootwingee, Cooinda

Thursday - Illawarra, Wahroonga, Amaroo, Yongana, Eumeralla, Karinya

Friday - Barramunga

Weekly Awards

Students of the Week 

Congratulations to the following students on receiving a Student of the Week award.

Ray White Awards

There is no Ray White Awards this week.