ISSUE 13: May 12th, 2023

Principal / Executive Leadership Team

Dear Parents, Carers, Staff, Students and Friends,

I am very much looking forward to my Enrichment Leave that commences on Monday. For the remainder of this term, Mr O’Callaghan will be Acting Principal and Mrs Deacon will fill the role of Deputy Principal.  I look forward to sharing some of my learning when I return to school next term.

Mothers’ Day

I wish all mums a very Happy Mothers’ Day for this coming Sunday and I hope the day is a special one for you. 

2024 Prep Enrolments Close Friday 26th May

We are currently taking enrolment applications for 2024 Prep Students. Enrolments will close on Friday 26th May 2023 at 4pm. We encourage existing families to apply now via the school website if you know your child will be attending Sacred Heart use the link below.

If you know of any new families who are looking at enroling we encourage you to share our enrolment processes that are outlined here.

Education Support Staff Day

Tuesday 16th May is Education Support Staff Day.  This is a day to recognise the great work that our Learning Support Officers, Administration, Cleaning, Canteen, Gardening & Maintenance Staff do in our school.   Their roles are valued and all contribute to creating a safe and supportive learning environment for our students.  Thank you to all of our Education Support Staff for your contribution to our team and the effort, care and dedication that you show on a daily basis.  We will have a morning tea on Tuesday amongst our staff to acknowledge this work.

Winter Uniform

With many days being much cooler we encourage children to dress appropriately for the weather conditions.  Dressing appropriately can help avoid illness amongst students. On cold days our winter uniform is most appropriate.  Tights should not be worn with summer uniform and the navy blue weather-proof jacket doesn’t replace a jumper. In classrooms these jackets cannot be worn so a jumper is still encouraged.

Parish Mass - Nangare & Barramunga

We have Nangare & Barramunga participating in the Parish Mass at the church this Wednesday 17th May.  Students will do some of the readings and jobs throughout the Mass.  This celebration will begin at 9.30am and parents are welcome to attend.

Mother’s Day Stall

A huge thank you to parents who volunteered to help out with the Mother’s Day Stall today and in particular to Courtney Henderson and Erin Hurley for coordinating the stall. I am sure mums will appreciate the presents students give them. 

Assembly 

Students in Myalla will host our next Assembly, which will be held in the Stadium at 2.30pm on Friday 19th May. 

Prep Breakfast

We wish our Prep students all the best for the Prep Breakfast which is being held at school on Friday, 19th May at 7am.  Mrs O’Callaghan and Mrs Collins have a fun morning planned for our Preps.   Students will need to be dropped off at school at 7am.  

Lockdown Drill

On Monday 15th May as part of our Work, Health & Safety requirements we will be having a ‘classroom lockdown’ practice drill. Your children may come home talking about it, and as we do, assure them there is nothing to be worried about, it is about learning to be safe in case of a storm, hail, etc .

Instrumental Music Lessons

Sacred Heart are very lucky to have Maddy Barbary available for Year 4-6 students to receive instrumental lessons at Sacred Heart during or after the school day.  Lessons can be offered in flute (classical), flute (folk), recorder, saxophone, clarinet or piano.  Maddy is in her final year of study at The University of Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music studying a Bachelor of Music.

Maddy will offer a $270 per term program for each student and I will offer a choice for individual lessons or group lessons that can be arranged with parent consultation. This allows for at least 8 lessons each term.  Time slots would be 25 minutes for individual lessons and 35 minutes for paired/group lessons.

If interested please contact Maddy directly on 0457 081 016 or email maddy.barbary20@gmail.com

Catholic Education Week 2023

Catholic Education Week 2023 is going to be celebrated from 21-26 May.  The Theme is, ‘Let the words you speak always be full of grace’  – Colossians 4:6. Grace is the gift of God’s presence in our lives. How we engage, speak and dialogue with others can bring God’s presence into being.  We will celebrate Mass again with our local schools at St Joseph's College Mercy Campus on the Friday of that week.

COVID 19

COVID 19 appears to be doing the rounds again.  A reminder that if your child tests positive and has symptoms you should keep them at home as long as symptoms persist. We do have a few testing kits left that are just in date that we are happy to provide to families. Please call in at the office if you require any testing kits.

Have a great weekend everyone and God Bless!

Mark Gibson

Religious Education

2023 Sacramental Dates

Confirmation

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

Learning and Teaching News

Catholic Education Week  21st-26th May. 

During Catholic Education Week (Week 5) we are opening our classrooms at various times throughout the week for parents to come along and see what children are learning. During these times parents can sit and observe or join in the lesson and ask questions about your child’s learning. The times provided also coincide with Specialist lessons for some classes. Have a discussion with your child about when might be a good time for you to visit so they can show their learning. You don’t need to stay the entire time and may need to split the time between multiple children! 

Monday 22nd May 2:10-3:00                                                                                            

Wednesday 24th May 9:00-9:45                                                                              

Thursday 25th - 11:30 -12:30 (11:30-11:40 is eating time- feel free to bring a snack and join your child for lunch before class begins).

Our school book fair will also take place during Catholic Education Week. A brochure will be sent home next Wednesday followed by children’s ‘Wishlists’ on Friday. After a hiatus of many years we’re excited to have the Scholastic Book Fair and Sacred Heart and invite you to visit with your children during the times below!                                                                                                                                     Shopping Times: 8:20am - 8:40 am and 3:00pm -3:40 pm each day

Learning Diversity News

Coco is growing bigger everyday and will be going in to the vet this afternoon to get another vaccination. We thank PetStock Mildura for their generosity in sponsoring Coco. She will attend her first session at Puppy Preschool tomorrow with her new collar, lead and name tag - all from PetStock. Coco will be visiting Mr Gibson’s house from the beginning of the school day until the end over the next few weeks, to have some social time with his labradoodle until she is able to come to school.

Please fill out the information sheet that was sent home with your child last Thursday and return it to school, so that we can gauge the students' experiences with dogs. An individulaised transition time will be allocated to the students who are feeling overwhelmed at the thought of having a dog at school.  It is very important to fill the form in and return to school if there is something that we need to note/address prior to Coco being introduced to the students and school community.

Prep Unit News

This week in Prep we have continued to learn lots about using our sounds to write sentences. We have also been learning about forces of push and pull to move and change the shape of objects. To complete this unit the students will be designing and making a toy car. Each student will need to bring in 4 milk or orange juice bottle tops.

Enjoy the photos of some of this week’s learning!

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Our Prep Breakfast is on  Friday 19th May. A note will come home on Monday 15th May with all the details!

Some reminders for the beginning of term:

• Please cover your child’s reading diary in clear contact.
• 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. 
• 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.
• Practise the sounds caterpillars and fluency chart each night to develop automaticity. Automatic recognition of letters/sounds is extremely important in reading and writing.
• Read and record ‘Enhanced Comprehension’ and ‘Reader’ in the reading diary each night.
• Library books are to be returned to school on Fridays.

• Sounds to continue practising with your child/ren at home: s, a, t, p, i, n, m, r, f, o, c, d, h, e

Junior Unit News

This week you have received a note about our Junior Unit Social explaining the significance of the celebration along with costume ideas. We are SUPER EXCITED to share this very special night with you. Should you have any further questions about this evening, please do not hesitate to speak with your child/ren’s classroom teacher.

Over the next week, Year One students are developing a deeper understanding of measurement, volume and capacity. Students will be hefting, using informal units to measure objects and comparing masses. 

Students have also been introduced to the words mother, brother, sister, father, cousin and family. Students have been working on reading and spelling these words during class times.

We wish all our magnificent Junior Unit Mothers and significant Motherly figures a tremendous Mother’s Day. May your day be all that you need it to be celebrating with those you love.

Middle Unit News

Our first full week back at school this term has been a busy one. Middle Unit students have been enjoying learning about cricket in our Unit Sport sessions this term.

Reminders: 

• Students should be reading each night for at least 10-15 minutes. Reading logs are required to be filled in and signed by a parent/ guardian. 
• As mornings are becoming much cooler it is a good idea for students to bring a jumper to school. 
• Students are encouraged to bring along brain food each day. Cut-up fruit and vegetables is ideal.
• Students should not be bringing items from home to school as it can be a distraction to learning and can be very easily lost. This included sticky lizards, toys and sport equipment. 
• Amaroo parents would have received an email from Mrs Beckwith regarding their assembly in week 8. Could you please reply or notify her if this wasn’t received.

Senior Unit News

A reminder that all children need a glass jar for our Religion topic of Gratitude. 

Year 6 students have started Literature Circles in their classrooms, a reminder that they need to be reading the allocated pages for their group and completing their role in preparation for the week ahead. 

Preparation for Year 6 camp, September 11th to 15th (last week of Term 3),  is underway. We will begin booking group activities in the next few weeks.  Notes will be sent out closer to the time, however, if you know your child will not be attending for some reason can you please let Mrs Thompson know via email as soon as possible. 

GRIP LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

By Ivy Kerr & Andreas Zervas

Last week, the Student Leadership Team attended the GRIP Leadership Conference. The day was about building our leadership skills through fun challenges and games. We had the opportunity to work with other student leaders from the Sunraysia district. A take away moment from the day was enhancing student voice in our school. As a leadership team we have come up with the idea of a suggestion box that will be in the Library for students of all ages to add to. 

We had a great day, full of fun and learning.

MATHS OLYMPIAD

By Thomas Simonetta 

Maths Olympiad is about some of the best mathematicians in Year 5 and 6 doing really difficult questions. We have 30 minutes to complete 5 questions. There are over 60,000 students across Australia and New Zealand that compete in all 4 Olympiads from May to September.

The Trip to the Eco Village

By Max Gaylard

At the start of the year, each class offered one student to join the SHEC (Sacred Heart Environmental Committee) team and to ‘give the environment a hand’. This year SHEC has many wonderful students that wanted to learn more about the environment, and we did that by going to the Eco Village.

The Eco Village is a place where you can hire garden beds, grow plants and learn about the environment. To start we were shown to the veggie garden. The garden definitely wasn’t at its best, but nonetheless we still picked as many strawberries as humanly possible, and then we went to the hired beds. These veggies were not for picking, as people paid to use them.

Library News

Library Books:

Students this week have shown how conscientious they are as book borrowers. Most keep their books diligently in their library bags and school tubs, and this technique eliminates an intense and panicked search the night before or the morning of their respective library sessions. It has been great to hear that parents, grandparents and caregivers are supportive and helping the children be responsible and respectful SHPS library users.   

In addition, the students have full borrowing power if they have no overdue books. If you feel that your child or a child you care for cannot find their book/s after a valiant effort, please don’t hesitate to notify me via email to discuss options. 

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

Scholastic Book Club News:

Orders for the Scholastic Book Club Issue #3 are now closed and finalised. Within a fortnight, orders are delivered to SHPS and given to students via their classroom teachers. 

Occasionally, some orders may be on backorder. If this is the case, students usually receive stickers with a note from Scholastic Australia. 

If you have questions or issues with Book Club, please don't hesitate to contact me rather than directly messaging Scholastic.

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

Sacred Heart Environmental Commitee SHEC

It is with great excitement that the SHEC students visited the Landfill Site and Eco Village today.  Our wonderful environmental ambassadors engaged in hands-on workshops run by Mildura Rural City Council Staff.  Students saw where household rubbish goes once it is collected and what happens to this waste.   They looked at ways to reduce the amount of rubbish that ends up in landfill and explored how we can increase recycling.  

Cross Country age group champions!

Congratulations to our age group champions from our 2023 School Cross Country who were recognised at assembly today!

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The Little Mermaid Jnr

On the weekend, Sophie Mobilio, Sebastian and Violet Manfield joined the cast of The Little Mermaid Jnr production at the Mildura Arts Centre. Sophie and Violet were Mersisters and Princesses and Sebastian was a fish and a chef. They had an absolute ball!

Students of the Week Awards

Congratulations and well done to the following students on receiving the students of the week this week!

Cooinda - Yohann Latoza                 Yongana - Austin Kerr

Wahroonga - Hendrix Taylor          Mootwingee - Harlow Landkroon

Bundaleer - Cooper Munro               Minga - Jacob Kotsiakos

Karinya - Nate Gray                             Eumeralla - Stella Willersdorf

Nangare - Lilian Pahek                      Waminda - Tyler Notting  

Barramunga - Emma Curran          Kyema - Penisimani Fangaloka

Amaroo - Hudson Rodi                      Myalla - Harry Marciano

Illawarra - Alana Chatfield               Narooma - Felicity Pike

Dourim - Jackson Avery

Ray White Positive Behaviour Awards

No Awards this week.