ISSUE 16: 27th May, 2022
Principal / Executive Leadership Team
Dear Parents, Carers, Staff, Students and Friends,
Over this week the Diocese of Ballarat have celebrated Catholic Education Week, with a renewed focus on the powerful proclamation; “Share the Good News!” This statement, inspired by Mark 16:15; “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole of creation” invites us to reflect on how we individually interpret and spread the good news within our own communities.
Region Cross Country
We wish the following students all the best at this Tuesday’s Region Cross Country which is being held in St Arnaud - Thomas Colbert, Ethan Dalla Santa, Maya De Rosa, Henry Guthrie, Ivy Hards, Sofia Mazza, Remi McClelland, George Miller, Thomas O’Callaghan, Polly Ryan, Jesse Sinclair and Charlie Spratt.
School Sports Victoria Winter District Sport
We wish our Year 5/6 netball and soccer teams all the best at the Winter District Sport this Wednesday 1st June. Soccer is being held at the Aerodrome Ovals and netball at Sarah Oval. On Friday Football and Hockey is being held at Sarah Oval for football and the Sunraysia Hockey Centre for hockey.
Students will play games against St Paul’s, Trinity Lutheran and Henderson College if they have teams in those events.
Assembly - Mootwingee
Thank you to Mootwingee for hosting today's Assembly. There will be no Assembly next week.
Parish Mass - Eumeralla
We have Eumeralla participating in the Parish Mass at the church this Wednesday 1st June. This celebration will begin at 9.30am and parents are welcome to attend.
School Advisory Council
Our School Advisory Council (SAC) meeting will be held on Tuesday, 31st May at 5:15pm in the staffroom. An agenda has been sent home today for our SAC members.
School Sports Victoria State Trials
Congratulations to Thomas O’Callaghan (Football), Will Siale (Basketball) and Alice Siale (Basketball) who have progressed to the next stage of the State Trials for their respective sports. This will require travelling to Melbourne for the next stage of the selection process. Good luck!
Junior Unit Social
Well done to our Junior Unit on their outstanding performances at the Junior Unit Social last night. Students were brilliant with their dances and you explicitly see how much they were enjoying putting on the ‘show’, as were the parents. Well done to Ms Taylor with all the skills the students have learnt, supported by the Junior Unit Staff. Thank you also for staff and families who helped in the terrific community event.
2023 Prep Enrolment
Enrolment Meetings meetings continue this week. Last Tuesday we had 23 prospective students meet with Mrs O’Callaghan and their parents with Mr Gibson. These 40 minute meetings will continue with those that have handed in their ‘Application for Enrolment’ on Tuesday 30th May. If you haven’t handed in your application we encourage you to do so ASAP as we have passed the closing date for Applications.
Catholic Education Week Mass
Today was a fantastic day for Catholic Education Sunraysia. Our students were brilliant at the combined school’s Mass that included close to 1000 students from the six Sunraysia Catholic schools in Red Cliffs, Mildura, Robinvale and Merbein. A special mention to Mr O’Callaghan our Religious Education Leader (REL) and his fellow RELs, the many students who had active roles and also to Fr Matt and Fr Shaiju for the magnificent and memorable Mass celebration, highlighting our faith communities.
Have a great weekend everyone and God Bless!
Mark Gibson
COVID Update
The Victorian Government has announced some important changes to COVIDSafe measures for schools that will apply from the start of Term 2.
Face masks
From 11:59 pm Friday 22 April, face masks, while recommended, are not required in any school setting. This means students in grades 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks. Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask may do so, including those who are medically at risk.
Screening requirements
Students who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. This was previously 8 weeks.
Household contacts
Students who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are not required to quarantine. They may return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times during their 7-day period. They are required to notify the school that they are a household contact.
Students aged 8 years and above who are household contacts are required to wear face masks when indoors at school unless they have a valid exemption.
If a student household contact returns a positive RAT result, they must isolate for 7 days.
Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools
Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
RAT screening program reminder
The testing recommendations will remain the same this Term for students and staff with to test at home twice a week. RATs were sent home at the end of last term. Should you have not received yours or need additional RATs please contact our office.
Thank you for your ongoing support in keeping our school safe and open.
Religious Education
Sacrament of Confirmation
Preparation for this Sacrament is almost complete. Parents are reminded that completed lessons need to be handed in at the Parish Office by Monday 30th May (Books 4-5).
If books are not completed and submitted then the candidate will not be able to receive this Sacrament.
Confirmation Masses are being held at the following times next weekend:
- Friday 3rd June @ 6pm
- Saturday 4th June @ 9.30am
- Saturday 4th June @ 12pm
- Saturday 4th June @ 6pm
- Sunday 5th June @ 9am
- Sunday 5th June @ 12pm
- Sunday 5th June @ 5pm
2022 Sacramental Program Dates
Sacrament of Confirmation 2022 Year 3, 4 & 5 students
Celebration of Sacrament Friday 3rd June, Saturday 4th June & Sunday 5th June
Sacrament of First Communion (Eucharist) 2022 Year 4 students
Parents Information Night Wednesday 7th September 7pm Sacred Heart Church
Celebration of Sacrament Friday 21st Saturday 22nd Sunday 23rd October
Sacrament of Penance (Reconciliation) 2022 Year 2 students
Parents Information Night Wednesday 12th October 7pm Sacred Heart Church
Celebration of the Sacrament Wednesday 23rd November 7pm Sacred Heart Church
Learning and Teaching News
Program Support Group (PSG) Meetings will be held on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th June. Parents of students who have an Individualised Learning Program (ILP) will be notified of their scheduled PSG meeting day and time next week.
Formal PSG meetings will be held for students who are provided with adjustments to their program either most of the time (Substantial level of adjustment) or all of the time (Extensive level of adjustment) and any students whose teacher judges is in need of a meeting via the scheduled PSG process. Please access the link below if you would like more information regarding the PSG process.
Other students with an ILP will have their PSG meeting with the classroom teacher via the Parent/Teacher Interview. At this meeting, evidence of progress for Term 2 goals will be discussed and Term 3 goals will be discussed/set. If you do not receive an email next week from Mrs Deacon with a scheduled PSG meeting day/time, you will need to book a parent/teacher interview when bookings are made available.
If you have any questions, please contact Mrs Deacon at the school.
Handy Information for Parents
One of Australia's favourite parenting authors and educators Maggie Dent gives you tips and answers to your real-world parenting dilemmas - screen time, tantrums, building resilience, homework and more. Parental As Anything is a common sense, relatable, practical guide on raising kids of all ages today.
You can listen to Maggie’s insightful parental advice on a range of topics. There are videos on her website also. Follow the links below to listen -
eSaftey News - Webinars for parents and carers
eSafety website - The purpose of this website is to help safeguard all Australians from online harms and to promote safer, more positive online experiences. This is a fantastic platform for all Australians.
eSafety's free webinars provide parents and carers with the knowledge, skills and tools to support children to have safe, positive online experiences. The link below will take you to this year’s webinar schedule. One webinar that may be applicable to your own experience is the June Webinar: Online gaming (Suitable for parents and carers of young people aged 13 to 18 years old). To access the webinar schedule, please follow the link below.
Prep Unit News
WOW! WOW! WOW! What an amazing display of dancing last night. A big thank you to our prep parents for the effort you put into the students costumes and for dancing up a storm with them on the night. A massive WELL DONE to the students in Prep (and Year 1 and Year 2)... you all danced like super stars.
Next week we will begin Literacy helpers from 9.30-10am (it is an even week next week!)
We have been learning some tricky words in class over the last few weeks - i, a, the, is, my, was, to, you, they, that, said, are. Remember these words cannot be directly sounded out using the sounds we have learnt to date. Remind your child of the tricky part of the word e.g. is (the s, sounds like z in the tricky words ‘is’, ‘has’). You can be practising these ‘tricky words’ with your child in the back of their reading diary. The sounds we have learnt to date are: m, s, t, a, p, i, n, f, r, o, c, h, d, e, g. We have been working on writing the capital and lowercase letter for each of the sounds we have learnt.
Don’t forget to bring in a sock and craft supplies for Performing Arts. At the end of this term the students will be making a sock puppet to celebrate their learning in the puppets unit.
Beginning next week we will be doing our show and tell on a fortnightly rotation. A note will be sent home with your child on Monday.
Prep Unit Team Contact Details
- Unit Leader: Mrs Rebecca O'Callaghan
- Cooinda (Year Prep): Mrs Rebecca O'Callaghan
- Wahroonga (Year Prep): Miss Courtney Sheridan
Junior Unit News
WOW! What a week! Today’s Catholic Education Mass enabled our students to engage with children from other Catholic schools in the Sunraysia area and share the Good News together. Our Junior Unit students were incredibly reverent and demonstrated great respect during this celebration. This week we have worked on promoting Catholic Education Week throughout our school with these gorgeous posters.
Thursday night's Junior Unit Social was so enjoyable! Thank you students, parents and teachers for your energy, creativity, enthusiasm, time and organisation. Our students spoke passionately about this event on Friday morning with the highlight of teaching their parents/carers how to dance ‘The Nutbush’ and ‘Heel and Toe Polka’ setting off laughter and infectious smiles throughout the rooms. Your vision was suburb Ms ClareTaylor. Thank you!
The students all looked fabulous in their flannelette shirts, which we thank families endlessly for supplying. We have Mrs Avery to thank for donating her time to baking and creating the delicious pavlovas for this evening. Our sincere thanks to our Sacred Heart staff for your assistance in setting up, packing up and support to make this event so successful. Thank you Mr Callum Taylor for your filming skills. We are extremely grateful.
Thank you VERY much to the parents who have volunteered their time to help out in our classrooms during our Literacy block. We are just after a couple more in each room. If you are able to help out on a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday from 9:30-10:15 please see your child’s teacher. We will begin Literacy Helpers in Week 6 - Monday 30th May.
This week in Year One students we have been learning about measuring length and understanding capacity. We will enhance our knowledge on subtraction next week as we investigate vocabulary, hands on experiences and what subtraction looks like.
The Tricky words- mother, brother, father, sister, cousin and family will be revised as well as the long vowel sounds /ee/ /ea/ /ow/ /oa/ /ue/ ew/ /oo/ /_y/ /igh/ /ai/ /ay/. We dive deeper into our understanding of Australian Animals as we discover interesting facts about the Emu and Echidna.
The Year Two students begin their Show and Tell projects in week 6 and 7. The first topic for students to share is "What is in my paper bag?". Please encourage your child to come up with helpful hints for their classmates to guess their mystery object. We can not wait to see what your child shares with their class.
In Year Two we are also beginning a STEM challenge. This will require some materials to be brought in from home. If you have any recyclable boxes, bottles or handy DIY craft tools, can it please be brought to school to be used in your child's project.
Junior Unit Team Contact Details
Click on the teacher's name if you wish to email them.
- Unit Leader: Mrs Katrina Groves
- Karinya (Year 1): Mrs Katrina Groves (Monday-Thursday) & Mrs Amilea Pacher (Friday)
- Bundaleer (Year 1): Mrs Maree Irvin (Tuesday-Friday) & Mrs Amilea Pacher (Monday)
- Barramunga (Year 2): Miss Georgina Hewitt
- Waminda (Year 2): Mrs Chris Carmichael
- Kyema (Year 2): Mrs Kim Taylor
Middle Unit News
Nothing to report.
Middle Unit Team Contact Details
Click on the teacher's name if you wish to email them.
- Unit Leader: Miss Sophie Price
- Minga (Year 3): Mrs Cathryn Rowles
- Eumeralla (Year 3): Mrs Sarah Beckwith
- Amaroo (Year 4): Mrs Natalee Johnson
- Yongana (Year 4): Mr Corey Barbary
- Mootwingee (Year 4): Miss Sophie Price
Senior Unit News
St Joseph’s Visit
On wednesday, the Year 6’s went to the St Joseph's Mercy Campus for the day. At the start of the day we got put into groups with people from other schools who were also there for the orientation day. We got to experience different activities like Dance, Sport, Rock Climbing, Maths, Science, Italian, Food Tech and Human Powered Vehicles (hpv). We got to meet different teachers throughout the day. For snack we had a piece of hedgehog slice, a packet of chips and a juice box and for lunch we had a sausage in bread and another juice box. We had a really great day and we are looking forward to going to St Joseph’s next year.
Millie & Chloe C
On Wednesday, we went to the St Joseph’s Mercy Campus for a tour where we were put in groups with people from different schools. One of the activities we did was Science where first we made slime. Another activity we did was Art and we did a picture on space. I really liked all the activities and our Year 7 tour guides were good.
By Jack Floyd
My group did rock climbing. I got to the top of the rock climbing wall. Second, I went to the Italian classroom and made an Italian chatterbox. Then the bell went for recess, the food options were a slice, a packet of chips and fruit boxes. It was a really good day and I had lots of fun.
By Harper Fleming
Senior Unit Team Contact Details
Click on the teacher's name if you wish to email them.
- Unit Leader: Mrs Jo Campbell
- Myalla (Year 5): Mrs Kerryn Weaver (Monday-Wednesday) & Mrs Emma Kotsiakos (Wednesday-Friday)
- Illawarra (Year 5): Miss Belinda Zappia
- Narooma (Year 6): Mrs Jo Campbell
- Dourim (Year 6): Mrs Xana Priestley
Library
This week in the library we celebrated National Simultaneous Storytime - we read the SAME book with over 2 million children! Sacred Heart Students enjoyed the story, Family Tree, written by Josh Pyke and illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh. Children then decorated their own leaf to add to our display - it is certainly a wonderful, colourful addition to the library!
Scholastic Book Club Issue #4 will close on Thursday June 2nd. All orders are to be completed online by this date. Remember that all orders contribute to resources for our school!
Overdue books
There are a number of children who have overdue books, from either the school library or from the classroom (Prep -Yr 3). Overdue notices are sent home every few weeks - if you are ever unable to find a book, please email me on wcollins@shmildura.catholic.edu.au so I know that parents have assisted in looking for the book. Children may not be able to borrow until these books are returned.
Library Times
- Monday - Yr 6, Mootwingee, Yongana
- Tuesday - Yr 5, Barramunga, Kyema
- Wednesday - Eumeralla, Waminda
- Thursday - Preps, Bundaleer, Amaroo
- Friday - Minga, Karinya
Performing Arts
Just a reminder that our choirs will be performing on Friday 17th June at the Mildura Arts Centre starting at 9:30am. Times will be staggered throughout the day with the bus running from school to the Arts Centre. A note will be sent home closer to the date with more details.
Please continue to collect socks and craft supplies for our sock puppets. All grades will be making a sock puppet at the end of the term to celebrate our puppets unit.
Students of the Week and Ray White Awards
