Sacred Heart Primary School Mildura eNewsletter

Principal / Executive Leadership Team

Dear Parents, Carers, Staff, Students and Friends,

Welcome to our Week Four Newsletter.

School Closure & Melbourne Cup Holiday

The school will be closed this Monday & Tuesday with Curriculum Development and the Melbourne Cup holiday. This is a great chance for everyone to have a mini-break and freshen up before the run home. Good luck if you are having a punt!

Victorian Labor Government State Election Promise for Sacred Heart

On Tuesday, (25/10) the Dan Andrews Labor Government released information that details a $717 million package to support low-fee independent and Catholic schools across the state of Victoria upon successful re-election.

Sacred Heart Primary School is among those listed under the upgrading category, in line with the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria initial list of priorities. This commitment would allow us to demolish significantly and rebuild contemporary Prep-2 classrooms.

As Principal, I welcome the focus placed on the value of non-government education to regional communities and all considered support during this time.

2023 Classroom Structure, Transition & Class Placement

Information was shared with all families this week regarding the number of classrooms for the 2023 school year, our processes for placing students into classes for 2023 and transition dates. Parents will have the opportunity to contribute to this process via the Class Placement Survey which can be picked up from the front office and needs to be returned in a sealed envelope by Friday, 11th November.

State Athletics

We wish Remi McClellend & Mia Hards all the best at next Wednesday’s SSV State Athletics in Melbourne. Remi is competing in High Jump & Triple Jump and Mia is competing in High Jump. Good luck girls!

Administration News

Just a reminder to parents who have not returned their Payment Plans for 2023 that were sent out this term. Please do so as a priority. If you have misplaced your plan, please get in touch with the office and we can re-issue it. Follow-up phone calls and SMS messages will be sent to those who have not returned their form.

Staffing

We are pleased to announce that Miss Hayley Moore has been appointed to a full time teaching position for the 2023 school year. Hayley has previously completed teaching rounds at Sacred Heart and has done some casual LSO work this year. In other staffing news, Miss Belinda Zappia has taken a year of Leave from her position at Sacred Heart for the 2023 school year to explore different opportunities in education. We wish Belinda all the best.

Student Mobile Phones

Any students who need to bring a mobile phone to school to use after school are asked to hand this in at the school office each morning and pick it up at the end of the day. Mobile phones should not be kept in school bags during school time.

School Advisory Council AGM

Thank you to the parents and staff who attended Tuesday’s Sacred Heart Annual General Meeting. We thank Sarah Ryan for her contribution to the SAC over the last two years. Sarah will be finishing up as a SAC member. Amanda King & Eric Ogukaya have also finished their term, however have been re-elected to continue for another term. The next SAC Meeting will be held on Tuesday, 29th November.

Welcome Back

We welcome Jobe & Niamh Fush back to Sacred Heart this week following travels around Australia. Jobe will join the Year Four classroom Amaroo and Niamh will join the Year Five classroom Illawarra.

Mission Month

Once again thank you to everyone for supporting this year's Mission Month. It has been a wonderful effort by everyone in our school community. Our families have shown amazing generosity. Thanks to all Staff for organising events, activities & icy poles over the last four weeks. The Student Leadership Team has one final fundraiser that they will be running at recess on Wednesday & Thursday this week. They will be selling homemade products for 50c each.

SSV Region Volleyball

We wish our Boys Volleyball team all the best at this Thursday's Region Volleyball which is being held in Sea Lake. The boys are playing against Lancefield and have the opportunity to qualify for the State Finals if they can get over the line. Mr Fabich & Mr O’Callaghan will attend with the boys.

Farewell

We wish Freya McClaer all the best as she is finishing at Sacred Heart. Thanks for the positive contribution you have made to our school Freya.

Parish Mass

Wahroonga & Year Six buddies will be attending this Wednesday’s Parish Mass beginning at 9.30am. Parents are welcome to attend.

Assembly

Thanks to the Student Leadership Team for hosting today’s Assembly. There will be no Assembly or awards this week.

God bless!

Mark Gibson

First Eucharist

Congratulations to all students who received the Sacrament of First Eucharist last weekend. All of the Masses were lovely celebrations. It was great to see so many family, friends & staff coming together to support our students.

All Souls Day

On Wednesday 2nd November, we celebrate All Souls Day. We remember all who are part of the Church – those who have died and are with God, and those of us still here on earth. Through Jesus’ death and Resurrection, we believe that we can be with God forever, and our faith brings us comfort when we are sad and filled with grief. The Feast of All Souls is a significant day in our Liturgical Calendar because it gives us an opportunity to remember and pray for all those who have died over the past year; those who have died because of the Covid-19 pandemic; those who have died in conflict or because of a natural disaster; those members of our own family and our circle of friends. We gather as one in holding all these people in our heart and prayers.

First Reconciliation

All students should now have their Reconciliation Information pack that outlines all of the requirements for this Sacrament. Please have a good read of this and feel free to contact Ryan O’Callaghan at school if you have any questions. Celebration of this Sacrament will be on Wednesday 23rd November at 7pm at the Sacred Heart Church.

Learning and Teaching News

Over the course of this term teachers have been learning about the Hochman Method, an explicit, evidenced based strategy, for teaching writing. The objective of this approach is to improve students' writing, comprehension, analytical thinking and content knowledge. There are six key sentence level strategies which teachers are beginning to explicitly teach in their classrooms.

Many of the children have learned to use basic conjunctions because, but and so to develop compound and complex sentences. It is crucial that children understand that each of these joining words has a specific function; because tells why, but provides contrasting information and so indicates cause and effect.

The Hochman Method is taught under the framework The Writing Revolution which will form the basis of our writing instruction in 2023.

Learning Diversity News

No news this week.

Prep Unit News

Fun, fun, fun! The Colour Slime run was absolutely A.M.A.Z.I.N.G and the students had the best time. What a fantastic way to end our MISSION month activities. A BIG thank you to all of our Prep parents for supporting our fundraising efforts. The students have learnt a lot about helping others who are less fortunate than ourselves. Drum roll please….. congratulations to the lolly jar winners. Cooinda, Sophie Roberts and Wahroonga, Brittany Henderson. Prep pyjama day was great. The students all looked fabulous in their pjs! Have a wonderful relaxing looooong weekend and we will see all the students back at school next Wednesday.

Sounds to continue practising with your child/ren at home: s, a, t, p, i, n, m, r, f, o, c, d, h, e, n, g, l, k, u, b, j, w, ck, ll, ff, ss, sh, ee, qu, z, ch, y, v, x, wh, th, oo (as in moon), oo (as in book), ng and ay.
Learn all the tricky words at the back of the reading diary.
Library day is Monday. ALL prep students need to return their library books each FRIDAY.
Show and tell reminder for this coming Thursday = odd week.

Next Wednesday at 9.30am Wahroonga and their buddies will be attending Parish Mass. Parents are more than welcome to attend Mass with their child.

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

Slippery, Slimey, Soaking and Stupendous FUN! Our SlimeFest Spectacular saw students and teachers involved in all kinds of challenges as the obstacle course not only put smiles on the students faces but also created an impressionable highlight of 2022. Today raised a substantial amount of money for Father Mick's Shared Table projects in Yanaoca, Peru. Without the generosity of families and the mission fundraising team, our students may not have had the opportunity to provide assistance or appreciate the lifestyles of those less fortunate. Thank you everyone for your valuable contributions over our Mission month.

We warmly welcome Mrs Jaimi Willersdorf to our Junior Unit Team, who will be continuing to work with the gorgeous Kyema children for the remainder of the year. We thank Elizabeth Rowe for her 20 day placement in Barramunga and wish her all the very best in her future endeavours. We hope to see you back at Sacred Heart in the future.

Congratulations to the lolly jar winners:

Kyema: Eva Reid

Waminda: Ollie McClellend

Barramunga: Abigail Gray

Bundaleer: Ruby Joyce

Karinya: Carter Bush

The Junior Unit Students have raised $454.40 through their CRAZY HAIR and LOLLY JAR efforts.

Wishing you all a magnificent SUPER LONG weekend and we cannot wait to see all our students back at school on Wednesday 2nd November.

Isolation Portal

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

Smart Watches

Just a reminder that our ICT Acceptable Use and Cyber Safety Agreement states that Smart Watches need to be set to School Mode during school times. If it is used during school times it will be confiscated, parents contacted and can be collected by parents at the end of the school day. We do urge parents to ensure that School Mode is set on these devices.

Homework

Being a short week next week Middle Unit students will not have a homework sheet next week but are encouraged to continue reading and filling in their diary.

Year 3 Isolation Portal

Year 4 Isolation Portal

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

Lucky Jar Fundraiser

Thank you for supporting our Senior Unit fundraising this week. The winners from each class are:

Illawarra: Archie Wilkes

Nangare: Noah Roberts

Myalla: Nicholas Cavallo

Dourim: Archie O’Brien

Narooma: Alby Woollard

Massive thank you to all our students and their families for generously supporting our Mission Month fundraising efforts. It is greatly appreciated.

Year 6 Swim & Survive

Today was the final day of the Swim and Survive program for our Year 6 students. They all participated well in this program and learned some valuable lifesaving skills.

Next Wednesday, Wahroonga and their Year 6 Buddies will be attending a Parish Mass at 9:30am. Parents are welcome to attend this Mass with their child.

Year 5 Isolation Portal

Year 6 Isolation Portal

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 Danielle Gunn (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

Scholastic Book Club Issue #7 orders have been handed out. Thanks to those who ordered - this also contributes to new resources for our school. We may have one more issue to come this year - this will be the perfect time to order books for Christmas! These can be marked as a ‘gift order’ and will be left at the office for parents to pick up.

Students in Prep, Year 5 and Year 6 are all working on making special books for their buddies. These will be shared towards the end of the term. Children in the Junior Unit have been working on writing Book Reviews that will be displayed in the library in the next few weeks and children in the Middle Unit have almost completed their Research projects. These will be shared with parents via Seesaw in the coming weeks.

Timetable: Please note - due to the two days of no school, some students will not be able to attend the library. If they do need to return/borrow, please remind them to visit the library before school or at lunch times on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

Monday - No school

Tuesday - Public Holiday

Wednesday - Bundaleer, Barramunga, Year 6, Mootwingee

Thursday - Yongana, Kyema, Myalla