ISSUE 6: March 3rd 2023

Principal / Executive Leadership Team

Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff & Students,

We were fortunate to have former Sacred Heart principals’ Tony Dalton & Chris Robarts working with us on Tuesday.  The focus of the day was reviewing our school’s Vision & Mission.  Tony worked with small groups of students and Chris worked with small groups of staff.  It was very pleasing to hear Tony comment that our students shared some amazing insights about our school and were very thoughtful and reflective in their responses.  Well done to those students who took part in these sessions.  Tony & Chris will be visiting again in the near future to continue this work. 

It’s hard to believe we are already into Week Seven! There have been so many positive things happening around our school.  I encourage everyone to continue this positivity throughout the second half of the term as we move closer to the special time of Easter.

School Closure (Pupil Free days) Change of Dates

Please note important information regarding Pupil Free days.  Thursday, 6th April will now be a Pupil Free Day for staff to undertake learning in Structured Literacy.  Monday, 24th April will now be the first day of Term Two and students will attend school as normal (originally this had been planned as a Pupil free day).

Thursday, 6th April - Pupil Free Day (Staff Professional Learning)

Monday, 24th April - First Day of Term Two (Students return as normal)

These dates have been amended on the SIMON Calendar.

The reasoning behind this change is to do with our school’s focus on Structured Literacy and changes to the level of professional learning that staff will be engaging in. Please see further information regarding Structured Literacy in the Learning & Teaching News.

We do apologise to families for any inconvenience with these changes.  Term One will now finish on Wednesday, 5th April at the normal time of 3.10pm given that Good Friday is on Friday, 7th April.

PSG Meetings

These meetings are being held from Tuesday to Thursday this week. Jacinda Deacon has communicated all information to families.  Parents are asked to wait at the school office on arrival.  See more information in Learning Diversity news.  

Evacuation Procedure

We held an Emergency Evacuation procedure on Monday.  I’m pleased to report that this drill went very smoothly and students, staff and visitors were able to carry out their responsibilities in a timely manner.  Everyone assembled on the oval and everyone was accounted for.  Well done!  

School Advisory Council (SAC) Meeting

Thanks to our SAC members for participating in Tuesday evening’s meeting.  Chris Robarts worked with the SAC on the school’s Vision & Mission which proved to be a very positive and insightful discussion.  The next SAC meeting will be held on Tuesday, 28th March.   

Prep Rest Day   

This Wednesday is the final Prep Rest Day for our new Prep students.  Students will attend full weeks in both Weeks 9 & 10, before a shorter week in Week 11.

Division Swimming

Congratulations to Alana Chatfield, Niamh Fush, Johnny Guthrie, Eve Johnston, Mercedes Leal-Kaiser, Hannah Marshall, Thomas Colbert, Jesse Sinclair, Nicholas Stewart & Will Whelan who all did a great job at Wednesday's Division Swimming. Results: Jesse Sinclair - 1st place backstroke & 1st place breaststroke, Mercedes Leal-Kaiser - 1st place Backstroke & 1st place Butterfly, Johnny Guthrie - 1st place Freestyle & 1st place Butterfly. 

Narooma & Illawarra Parish Mass

There is no Mass being held for classes this week. Narooma & Illawarra will attend Mass on Wednesday, 15th March.

Division Lawn Bowls 

We wish our boys & girls Lawn Bowls teams all the best at this Friday’s Division Lawn Bowls.  The following students are taking part: Anastacia Dini, Paige Jukes, Adelina Mazza, Caiden Middleton, Lachlan O’Brien, Logan Oguzkaya, Amara Payen, Assante Ribarits, Ivy Richardson, Xavier Robinson, Dakota Tiller & Andreas Zervas.  Students will be transported to and from this event via bus. Mr Burford will attend with our students.

Assembly

Illawarra will be hosting this Friday’s Assembly which will be held in the Stadium at 2.30pm. All welcome to attend.

School Uniform Reminders

Hair Styles, Jewellery, Nail Polish & Make-Up:

• The childrens’ hair is to be worn in a neat and tidy style appropriate for school.  Children with longer hair (below shoulders) or that can potentially cover their eyes are to wear it tied back or up in a ponytail, plait or some other suitable style. This includes both girls and boys. 
• Hair ribbons or scrunchies are to be of the predominant school colours of either pale or navy blue. Claw clips, large bows, coloured hair extensions are not to be worn.

• Jewellery is not considered part of the Sacred Heart dress code and generally is not to be worn with the school uniform; this includes bracelets, bangles, rings and anklets. The following exceptions apply:

1. If your child has pierced ears:

• Plain studs only (nothing that glitters or dangles)
• Only one stud per ear in the ear lobe

                 No other body piercing adornments are permitted

1. A religious medal may be worn on a chain round the neck. Care must be taken to ensure that      these are worn in such a way as to be safe when the children are playing.

• Nail polish and make-up are not permitted as part of the school uniform

Mobile Phones & Smart Watches

Students are not permitted to have Mobile Phones at school or to be wearing a Smartwatch that is able to make and receive calls/text messages.  If your child needs to use one of these devices before and after school they are permitted to hand it in at the front office at the beginning of the day and pick it up at the end of the day.  Watches that are permitted at school are those that can simply ‘tell the time’. Smartwatches can be a distraction for students in the classroom, therefore they are not permitted.

There have been a few questions this week about what is and isn’t acceptable in regards to School Uniform, Phones & Smartwatches. Thanks to those parents who have reached out.  Please note that Fit Bit watches are permitted to be worn at school.

SHPS Family Footy Tipping 2023

The footy season isn’t far away!  Our Family Footy Tipping competition is on again.  Join the fun!  See the note for all details.

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) Professional Learning

Our Staff have had a very positive day working with Mrs Anne Ruddell on SWPBS.  Staff have planned and created explicit teaching lessons for social behaviours, along with a focus on being proactive when responding to data and developing positive reinforcement systems for our school.  

Have a great weekend and enjoy the week ahead.

God Bless,

Ryan O’Callaghan

Religious Education

Sacrament of Confirmation

Year Three children received a Sacrament of Confirmation Registration form (blue) this week.  If you wish to register your child for this Sacrament please do so by Wednesday, 22nd March.  Hand this form in at the Parish office along with payment of $50.  You also need to provide a copy of your child's baptism certificate. The  Information session for this Sacrament is being held at the church on 22nd March at 7pm. Any questions, please contact the school or Parish office.

2023 Sacramental Dates

Confirmation

Parent Information Evening - Wednesday 22nd March 2023 @ 7pm SH Church 

Sacrament of Confirmation - Friday 26th to Sunday 28th May 2023

First Eucharist

Parent Information Evening - Wednesday 12th July 2023 @ 7pm SH Church 

Sacrament of First Eucharist - Friday 25th to Sunday 27th August 2023

Reconciliation

Parent Information Evening - Wednesday 11th October 2023 7pm SH Church 

Sacrament of Reconciliation - Wednesday 29th November 2023 7pm SH Church

Project Compassion

Families have received a Project Compassion this week.  Spanning across the six weeks of Lent each year, Project Compassion brings thousands of Australian schools, parishes and supporters together to raise funds for people living in some of the most vulnerable communities across the world.  Your generous support can help change lives today - and For All Future Generations.  We encourage families to support Project Compassion this year.  Boxes are due back to the school office on Thursday, 6th April.

Learning Diversity News

Program Support Group (PSG) Meetings will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 6th-8th March at school or via zoom if pre arranged. Parents of the students who require a PSG meeting were notified via email. Please contact the school or Mrs Deacon if you are unable to attend. A follow up phone call will be made to parents who have not confirmed their allocated day/time on Monday 6th March.

Wellbeing Dog- We have some very exciting news to share with the school community. Late last year our school submitted a request to the Mildura Rural City Council to acquire funding for a wellbeing dog and the training that goes with having a dog on school grounds via the Dogs Connect Program. Dogs Connect Website.  We were successful and have been given funding of approximately $15,000 which is amazing and very much appreciated. This money will be spent on a puppy - Cobberdog Official Home of the Australian Cobberdog and the training of an initial core group of staff and other interested staff at a later date. 

The puppy has not been born yet (but is on its way!) and will go through some initial training prior to coming into the school setting. We will keep you informed of the progress of our puppy via facebook and our school newsletter. 

Marcus and Julie Brown of PETstock Mildura have very generously committed to sponsoring our wellbeing dog which we are very appreciative of. Anything that is needed for the care and health of our dog will be supplied by PETstock.

Learning and Teaching News

Structured Literacy

In 2023, Sacred Heart will be taking the first steps towards a renewed, evidence-based approach to Literacy instruction through participation in the SunLit Project. We are entering this phase with optimism and a willingness to learn, work with each other and change our practice.

Structured Literacy emphasises highly explicit teaching of six key features: Phonology, Sound-symbol association, Syllables, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics.

Staff will receive professional learning and then together in their teams to make changes to their delivery of curriculum to best fit current practice. We believe that a Structured Literacy approach will improve outcomes for all students specifically in reading and writing. 

We look forward to beginning this learning journey with the support of Catholic Education Ballarat and leaders Emma Rutherford and Breeana Wade.

Prep Unit News

This week in Prep we have had lots of fun learning to blend and segment words that contain the SATPIN sounds. We’ve also been on a hunt for words around our school that begin with ‘s’. The video below gives a fantastic example of the way to help your child with the articulation of their sounds at home. We have also had great discussions about the different groups we belong to, for example our family, school community and other groups - sport/dance

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Next Wednesday is our last Prep rest day… then we will be at school every day of the week!

Here is a bit of information and some tips about developing comprehension at home with our ‘Enhanced Comprehension’ Books and why it is so important. Developing student’s oral language and comprehension skills through reading and talking about quality picture story books.

• When reading the story at home, sit your child close by or on your lap so you can both see the book. Place the question card by your side away from the child. 
• If your child has trouble answering the question, use the prompts available on the back of the card or simply tell them the answer and then repeat the question.  
• With practice your child’s skills will improve.
• For an extra challenge, ask your child to help you retell the story.

We would like this to be a positive learning experience, where children enjoy quality time with loved ones while developing their linguistic skills. This task is not designed to ‘test’ children. We don’t want your child to associate story reading with pressure, embarrassment and having the idea of having to get the answer right. Reading a story multiple times allows for a deeper level of comprehension and a greater uptake by children of new vocabulary.

Here is an example of how to fill in the home reading diary…

Reminders:

- School starts at 8:45am each day. If you are at school after 8:45am you will need to sign your child in at the office. 

- Each morning the students need to do their jobs before finding something to do. A new job to be added to their list is to bring in their Reading Diary each day and place it in the basket in their classroom (to be checked and signed by the teacher).

- The school library books and the ‘Enhanced Comprehension’ books are to be returned on Friday. 

- Your child’s library bag needs to be at school every day - kept in their school bag.

- Sports days are Tuesday and Wednesday - sports uniform is needed.

Junior Unit News

We kick started the week with an Evacuation drill which saw our students walking and behaving safely and responsibly. Well done superstars!

We farewelled Mrs Danielle Gunn on Thursday and thank her for the professionalism, dedication and care she has provided our students with. We are excitedly awaiting the birth of her second gorgeous child and wish her, Lewis and Bonnie endless happiness.

Next week, we welcome Mrs Kailla Coffey who will be enjoying the week with Nangare until Mrs Irvin returns.

With no school Friday, Students who would usually have Show and Tell on Friday are encouraged to bring theirs on Monday next week.

Year One children are strongly encouraged to take the time each week to practise reading and spelling their tricky words which are located on page 15 in their dairies. put, have, were, then, there, they some, where, should, would, could are words that we are working on spelling accurately.
This week we introduced conjunctions and revisited the digraphs /oo/ in book, /oo/ in moon and /ng/ in swing.

Year One students continue to work on commutative properties ( 3+2=5, 2+3=5, 5=3+2, 5=2+3) as well as learn more about calendar time, days of the week and months of the year. 

Year Two students continue to focus on spelling words with the phonemes:  ee/ea/e_e and igh/_y/i_e as well as reading and writing persuasive texts. In Numeracy, Students build on identify fact families (6+2=8, 2+6=8, 8-6=2, 8-2=6) as well as adding multiples of ten to two digit numbers.

Middle Unit News

Year 4 Camp - Wednesday 15th March - Friday 17th March

Our Year 4 Camp to the amazing Roses Gap is fast approaching. This week students brought home a note outlining the final arrangements for the camp which will be held in Week 8. This note was also forwarded to parents electronically. We ask you to carefully read this note and don’t hesitate to ask us any questions. 

We ask at this stage that you please email Sophie Price (sprice@shmildura.catholic.edu.au) if your child has any medications they will be bringing along on camp as well as advising if your child may experience travel sickness. 

Over the next couple of weeks classes will continue discussing camp and the arrangements so that students feel comfortable with this experience. We will go through social stories that have images of what the camp and facilities look like as well as having many opportunities for questions. If you or your child have concerns around camp please let us know so we can support all students to have a wonderful time away.

Reminders

• Students are reminded to bring in something sacred to them, or email an image of this to their classroom teacher as we will be doing Show and Tell with these items as part of our Religion learning this term. 
• We are having a big focus on correct uniform. Thank you to those students who have made the necessary changes to meet expectations. For further details of specific uniform expectations please refer to the Principal’s Report above. If you have any questions about this please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.

Senior Unit News

Congratulations to Alana Chatfield, Niamh Fush, Johnny Guthrie, Eve Johnston, Mercedes Leal-Kaiser, Hannah Marshall, Thomas Colbert, Jesse Sinclair, Nicholas Stewart & Will Whelan  for representing Sacred Heart at the Division Swimming this week. 

A uniform check was conducted on Monday, please ensure that you and your child have attended to adjustments that need to be made. Full details are in the Principal’s Report at the start of the newsletter. 

With the cooler mornings this week, it has been great to see the Year 6 students getting plenty of use out of their new rugby jumpers.

Illawarra will host assembly next week. We look forward to seeing you all there.  

REMINDERS

• ALL students MUST have a working set of headphones at school
• Students are expected to be reading for a minimum of 15 minutes per night. Other homework will be set for individuals if required by their teacher.

Student Leadership News

The Student Leadership Team met on Thursday morning to begin looking at the Child Safe Standards.  The Standards were reviewed last year and there are now 11 Child Safe Standards in place.  The SLT is aiming to put these standards into a ‘Child Friendly’ version so that all students in our school can understand what the standards mean.  We will be working on these over a few meetings.  We look forward to sharing them with everyone in the near future.  Our student leaders have made a great start to the year!  Our next meeting is on - Thursday, 16th March.

Library News

Book Swap:

A section in the library is reserved for parents and staff to "take a book and leave a book," a traditional book swap. There are a variety of books available. The library is open on Mondays and Fridays before and after school for parents to come and utilise the book swap.

Scholastic Book Club News:

The issue #1 orders were distributed to the students on Monday. SHPS wishes to thank everyone for their support; almost $60 was raised in rewards for the school library to purchase new books for students to enjoy.

Looking for my owner:

A student accidentally returned a non-SHPS book to the library.  

The book is Dork Diaries: Spectacular Superstar by Rachel Renee Russell. If this is yours, please see Ms Zema on Monday or Friday. Thank you.

Students of the Week

NO AWARDS THIS WEEK

Cooinda -          Wahroonga -     Bundaleer -               Karinya -          Nangare -           Barramunga -      Amaroo -            Yongana -     Mootwingee -          Minga -       Eumeralla -              Waminda -           Kyema -     Myalla -        Illawarra -        Narooma -    Dourim - 

Ray White Positive Behaviour Awards

NO AWARDS THIS WEEK

Respectful -

Responsible -

Safe - 

Admin News

Dont miss this years Easter colouring competition with Banjo's Mildura.

Each Child will get a free hot cross bun when they drop their picture into the store, and will go into the draw to win an easter prize pack for their age group.

*Hard Copies available at the School Office.