Dear Parents and carers,

As we come to the end of the week and the half way point of the term, I am excited by all we have achieved so far.  Kindergarten students have made the transition to ‘big school’ with the help of their parents, teachers and buddies; our Year 6 students have enthusiastically taken up their leadership roles and all students have settled into their new classroom, with a new teacher and some new friends.  Just as we read in the Creation story, even God needed to take a rest, so next week we are having our Family Wellbeing Week where we encourage all to have a little ‘rest’.  For students there is no homework, for teachers no staff meetings and for parents, a chance to catch up with others in a relaxed way at our P & F welcome night on Friday 10th March from 6:30 - 8:00 pm.  

Goal Setting Sessions 

I hope you found the goal setting sessions and time with your child’s teacher valuable. The teachers have commented on how enthusiastically the students have started the year and how they are focussed on achieving their goals.  Thank you to our teachers for the time they have given to this process over the past two weeks and to all our parents for working in collaboration with us. 

Catholic Schools Week

Week 8 is Catholic Schools week, a time where we celebrate excellence in teaching and learning and the impact of Catholic schools nationally.  Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School is one of the one hundred and fifty Sydney Catholic Schools with the mission ‘ To Know and Love Christ through Learning’.  To start this week on Monday 20 March, you are invited to attend our morning prayer at 8:40 am and then open classrooms between 9:15 - 10:00 am.  During this time you are welcome to have a look at the wonderful learning that takes place everyday by visiting your child’s classroom. We finish the week with our Open Day on Friday 24 March, for new families to come and see our beautiful school.  

NAPLAN

Students in Year 3 and Year 5 will participate in NAPLAN, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy, starting 15 March.  If your child is in Year 3 or Year 5, please install the 2023 NAPLAN Locked-down browser on their device.  They also need their own headphones to complete the tests as some of the questions require students to listen and then respond. Please ensure that ‘parent restrictions’ are off while at school during the testing time and this can impact the effectiveness of the NAP browser if on. 

The dates we will administer the tests are:

There is a short window frame in which students can complete a ‘catch up’ test if they are away on the set testing day.  

You can find further information about NAPLAN on the following link: https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/for-parents-carers

Dancefever Challenge 

I just wanted to clarify a couple of items regarding the Dancefever challenge. I have made amendments to the process you may have been used to in the past (including no bus) as we need to be aware that this is an optional outside of school event.  Our staff work for Sydney Catholic Schools and can not be given extra work to organise events for external providers.  Our teachers and staff voluntarily offer their own time to assist with supervision on the night during the event.  I’m sure you will understand that teachers do this where they can, because they are dedicated and value being part of the Sacred Heart Community.  Supporting our students and families in this way is very different from expecting teachers to be on supervision duty for another six hours after school.  We also need to be mindful of teacher workload.  Staff have their own family commitments and need to balance the number of outside of school events they attend throughout the year. 

The tickets for the challenge went on sale on Monday. Thank you to the families who have returned their slip to indicate their attendance. This is important as the students attending will have a few extra practices as the event date draws near.  

On the Challenge night 

• The challenge starts at 5:30pm and students need to be at the Quaycentre just before then, at approximately 5:15pm. 
• Teachers will arrive approximately 5:15pm and when our teachers arrive, Dancefever will open the children’s seating area and announce that children can move to our allocated area.  Usually parents sit behind this area so they have a good view of the children dancing or some may prefer to sit towards the side.
• Children should come already dressed. For ease of changing (as there is no access for children to change rooms), children should wear black under the clothes they wish to wear for their partner dances.  A black t-shirt and shorts or leggings would be easy to cover. The children are performing a whole school show dance with an ‘Adams Family, Time Warp theme’. 
• The venue does not allow for meals to be eaten so children should have something to eat before arriving and then bring a snack and drink bottle to have throughout the night. 
• At the end of the evening, all children move to the dancefloor with the teachers and we ask one parent / carer from each family to collect their child / children.  

Facebook Photos

Our school has a Facebook page as part of Sydney Catholic Schools.  The Facebook page is linked to our website and is used to promote our school and all of the wonderful learning, events and celebrations we have.  Sydney Catholic Schools also promote our Open Days and significant events for the system and Archdiocese.  The School page is public access and we would like to increase our school profile by posting more often.

We know some parents are happy for photos of their child / children to be posted while others prefer them not to be shown.  To assist us with knowing which photos we can upload, please give permission via the Compass event.   If you do not give permission then do not accept on the Compass event.  Only photos of students with permission will be uploaded.  We will check this on Compass before posting any photos.

Parking

I heard a disappointing story last Thursday about one of our families parking over the driveway of the nursing home across the road from our school (Wudgong St).  The complaint came from a lady who was trying to visit her very sick mother, and instead of being able to drive in, one of our parents had blocked the driveway and wouldn’t move the car forward, even when beeped.  When our student arrived and got in the car, the parent continued to stay in the spot, further delaying the lady from seeing her mother.  She was extremely upset that a parent from a Catholic school had not been more considerate.  Please be reminded that parking across a driveway is against road rules and is upsetting for members of the public. 

Amadeus

Thank you to the parents who have signed the ‘Amadeus Instrument Agreement’ on Compass.  If you have not yet signed, please do, so that your child can take their instrument home.  We encourage regular practice to help students remember what they have learnt in each lesson and be ready for the next step in their learning each week. 

Around the Classrooms

Year 4 Learning

Year 4 has been learning about God’s creation in Religion. We have been looking at environmental issues that are impacting the earth. Some examples of issues that we have been researching are pollution, Global Warming and deforestation. In small groups we have been researching these issues and how we as Christians can have a change of heart with how we can rectify these issues in the future.

We are presenting our findings this week to our class.

The students are continuing with an environmental focus in Art this term. They have created art pieces that reflect how pollution and other environmental issues damage our planet.                                                                                   

It’s great to see the thought and care that the students have put into their work.

 Well done to all of our Year 4 students!

Jane Taylor,

Assistant Principal