I would like to say a big thank you to the staff, parents and students for their warm welcome to Sacred Heart Mosman and wish everyone a very happy 2023.  The students have been excited to reconnect with their friends and have shown great enthusiasm for learning.   To promote wellbeing, we focus on our core values of ‘Faith, Generosity and Courage’ and I have been pleased to see students living these values as we start the new school year.  A special thank you to our Year 6 leaders who are wonderful models and who will buddy with our Kindergarten students to ensure they have a positive start to school life.  May God’s love be with you all. 

Information Evenings - Week 3

An opportunity for all parents to meet the teacher and each other, to hear about the learning for the year.  The ‘Class Parent Newsletter’ will be sent home on Friday 10th so you can read through and then if you have any general questions about class routines or expectations, you can ask the teacher during the information evening, which is held in your child’s classroom. Should you have children in multiple classes and can’t attend the allocated time, the teachers will be happy to share their slides afterwards.   

Goal Setting Sessions -  Weeks 4-5

This ten minute session is an individual time between you and the class teacher to be held during Weeks 4 & 5.  The purpose of the session is for the teacher to have a conversation with you as to how your child has started the year and to set a goal for their learning.  Each class teacher will allocate session times and will advise when you can go onto Compass to choose and book your session. 

Pickup and Drop off

Our school is located within residential streets and we need to be good neighbours. We should all work together to make drop off and pick up safe for our students, as efficient as possible for our parents/carers and to cause the least amount of inconvenience to our neighbours.  For those parents who are new to our school and as a refresher for existing parents, please be aware of the folowing guidelines and courtesies around pickup and drop off:

- Before school

Our staff supervision starts at 8:10 am. Children should not enter the school gate before 8:10 am unless they are going to before school care.  Please do not drop your child before 8:10 am as they are not supervised.  

- Bardwell Gate

• Park only where there is a parking spot - do not park across driveways or double park.  This gate will open from 3pm for 15 minutes. The council regularly patrols. 

- Car gate 

• Parents and carers can only use the car gate to drop off and collect your child/ children if they are old enough to get themselves in and out of the car from the curb side.  They should be able to buckle and unbuckle their own seatbelt.
• Students should have their school bag on the floor or seat next to them and for safety reasons and to speed up drop off, should not have to access the car boot. 
• Please be patient and wait for your turn at the front of the line - do not double park or pull out from the curb before the car in front of you.
• If your child is not already waiting at car gate, you may be asked to circle the block again so that we can keep the line moving.

Attendance

Teachers mark rolls directly onto the Compass system each morning.  The roll is a legal document and any unexplained absences are a concern for your child’s attendance record.  Please ensure as a priority that you record your child’s absence directly in Compass.  If you are unable to access Compass for any reason, please phone, email or visit the office to let us know of the reason why your child is absent so that it can be recorded.  There is no need to provide a follow up note.  

Late arrivals (NEW!!)

Parents should enter the school to accompany their child if arriving after 8:50 am, as any students who enter without an adult are marked as an unexplained absence.  We ask parents to be diligent in accompanying their child to the office.  All late arrivals will be automatically entered onto the computer roll and no paper late notes will be issued.  

If you have any queries regarding using Compass, please feel free to come to the office and Mrs Imlach can assist you. 

Amadeus

Our Amadeus Program will return to Sacred Heart in 2023 with some of the tutors from last year and some tutors new to our school.  As part of the program, all students have a weekly one hour lesson with our Creative Arts teacher, Ms Conroy.  Students in Year 3 - 6 participate in the instrumental program which includes an hour of band or string ensemble and a half hour of tutoring for each student. 

Year 3

Year 3 will be new to the instrumental program so will be sized and allocated an instrument based on their preferences and amount of instruments and sizes the school has. 

Years 4-6

Students continue to play the instrument they were learning in 2022.  Students with a string instrument will be resized to ensure the best fit. 

During weeks two and three, there are no ensemble lessons however students attend a 30 minute tutorial for their instrument.  We hope that all instruments can be sent home by week four.

Homework 

Homework for 2023 will have an English and Mathematics focus which would mainly consist of reading nightly (see recommendations below), some word work and some number practise and consolidation. Some weeks our Religious Education ‘To Know Worship and Love’ texts will be sent home so that students may share what they have learnt in class.  Homework can be oral (reading, practicing sight words, learning number facts, praying) as well as written and may include life skills. 

English Homework might include:

• Reading - this is the most important homework activity. Reading might consist of your child reading to you as well as you reading to your child.  Reading a page of a story alternately is also beneficial as parents are wonderful models of ‘reading aloud’. 
• Learning sight words, spelling rules or grammar tasks
• Some comprehension tasks

Recommended maximum English homework time each night:

• ES1 (Kindergarten): 5 - 10 minutes
• Stage 1 (Year 1 & Year 2): 10 - 15 minutes
• Stage 2 (Year 3 & Year 4): 15 - 20 minutes
• Stage 3 (Year 5 & Year 6): 20 minutes

Mathematics homework might include:

• Counting 
• Learning addition and subtraction number facts 
• Learning multiplication and division facts 
• Revising concepts that have just been learnt 

Recommended maximum Mathematics homework each night:

• ES1 (Kindergarten): 5 - 10 minutes
• Stage 1 (Year 1 & Year 2): 10 - 15 minutes
• Stage 2 (Year 3 & Year 4): 15 - 20 minutes
• Stage 3 (Year 5 & Year 6): 20 minutes

We hope that this approach to homework will offer you the opportunity to balance school and home life whilst consolidating your child’s learning from school.  

Kind regards,

Jane Taylor

Assistant Principal